Posted on 11/18/2002 7:33:17 AM PST by 2banana
No atheists, no homosexuals, no merit for the Boy Scouts
By Larry Atkins
The Boy Scouts are at it again.
Last week, Darrell Lambert, an Eagle Scout in Washington state, was expelled by the Scouts because he failed to declare belief in a supreme being in accordance with Boy Scout policy. Lambert had earned 37 merit badges, worked more than 1,000 hours of community service, and helped lead a Boy Scout troop in his hometown.
The Boy Scouts of America serve a valuable purpose in shaping the lives of young people. But its continued policy of discriminating against atheists and homosexuals diminishes the organization's value and reputation. And it could - and should - cost it funding down the line.
On membership applications, Boy Scouts and adult leaders must say that they recognize a higher power, not necessarily religious. Lambert had disclosed his atheism to Scout leaders last year in his Eagle Scout application, but he still received the award. The current dispute arose last month, when Lambert got into an argument with a Scout leader at a Scout training seminar as to whether the Scouts should expel atheists.
As a private organization, the group can set its own membership criteria and exclude certain groups from membership. It does exclude gays and atheists. In 2000, the United States Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale confirmed that the BSA is a private organization that could exclude homosexuals pursuant to its First Amendment right of expressive association.
In response, many cities and towns withdrew public funds from Scout troops and barred them from using publicly owned spaces for their meetings. More than 300 school districts nationwide, including New York, Oakland, and San Francisco, dropped sponsorships of the Scouts and no longer provided Scout advisers and organizational help.
In response, Congress passed the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act, which mandated that local school authorities must grant access to the Scouts despite local policies banning discriminatory groups from meeting on school grounds. While schools must give access, however, they are not required to sponsor Scout activities.
Many angry Eagle Scouts, both gay and straight, sent their merit badges back to BSA headquarters to protest the Supreme Court decision. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg resigned from the BSA advisory board to protest the group's discrimination against gays.
Last month, protesters in Savannah, Ga., called for a repeal of the Scouts' anti-gay policy and called on the group to stop accepting United Way funds. Also, the faculty at Hamilton College in New York passed a motion encouraging the college to stop giving institutional support to the Utica United Way, which funds the local BSA chapter.
Exclusion of atheists and homosexuals has denied many kids and teenagers access to scouting programs. It also has led to the loss of many volunteers who would be terrific mentors, role models, and leaders of young people.
Meanwhile, this battle will continue on a local level. Religious leaders, community leaders, politicians, and the media must have the courage to take an unpopular stand and speak out against the Boy Scouts on this issue. Businesses and organizations that fund BSA, such as the United Way (which has an anti-discrimination policy) should stop contributing funds to the BSA as long as it keeps current discriminatory policies intact. Several United Way chapters across the country have done so already.
If the Boy Scouts had a policy excluding, say, African Americans, Jews, Muslims, or Hispanics, you could bet there'd be a huge outcry. Organizations representing these and other racial, religious and ethnic minorities should speak out loud and clear against the Boy Scouts.
Meanwhile, another good Scout leader is lost. Darrell Lambert, with an exemplary record of scouting and community service, reportedly doesn't smoke, drink alcohol, or take drugs. He has been a quartermaster and three-time senior patrol leader, an assistant scoutmaster, and a field leader in training as part of the Search and Rescue Program. Under current Boy Scout rules, a crack-smoking, al-Qaeda-supporting, wife-beating member of the Ku Klux Klan would be fine as a scoutmaster, but Lambert isn't.
The Boy Scouts achieves much good - but its policies of intolerance and discrimination deserve no merit badge.
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Larry Atkins (larryLTatkins@aol.com) is a lawyer and writer who lives in Philadelphia.
Muchas gracias.
But then again your idea of Duty to God and Morally Straight most likely belongs in the category of Moral Relativism. N'est [-ce]pas?
I didn't make my idea of "Duty to God" and "Morally Straight" public. I've only asserted that the BSA have every right to define theirs.
But, since you obviously want me to go there, my idea of "Duty to God" and "Morally Straight" is essentially the Golden Rule.
They've offended me to my very core...I'm a mom, and I still bake apple pie (from scratch)! I guess they figure they can do without my vote!
BTW, you're absolutely right. Mom and Apple Pie still count for something in flyover country. It's called common-sense values. You'd think the last election would have taught these people something. Instead, they insanely go about making the same mistakes. I hope they continue to, and lose election after election.
Wrong. Check your facts. James Dale was indeed a former Eagle Scout, but all Scouts leave at age 18. He was then acting as an Adult Assistant Scoutmaster (Scouter) at the time he "came out." The SC affirmed the right of the BSA to set membership policy for it's ADULT LEADERS. The case does not address the Scouts themselves.
From James Dale's web site: James Dale spent 12 years of his life working with the Boy Scouts of America, ultimately achieving the rank of Eagle Scout and volunteering as an Assistant Scoutmaster until he was expelled in 1990 for being gay.
I think the most reliable estimates are between 1 and 2%.
.....and thank God they are, Mr. Atkins, you drooling, liberal twit.
People want their sons in Scouts to learn and reinforce traditional values.......and those do NOT include your slavish devotion to the cause du jour such as homosexuality or atheism.
You see, Mr. Atkins, MOST boys in America (let alone their parents.....................oh......forgot us, did ya????) don't subscribe to homosexuality nor atheism.
So, Mr. Atkins, you drooler, get bent.
Easy enough to find out, read the press release at http://www.scouting.org/nav/enter.jsp?s=mc&c=pr
The SC case and scout policy refers only to leaders.
Bingo! There are those who want nothing more than for there to be rot behind the wholesome image. In their world mom is a drunk and the apples were sprayed with malathion. Believing this makes them feel better. It's a cheap and easy way of being an "intellectual." And so the Boy Scouts can't just be a club for kids to get together and camp, they must be tool of would be theocrats. When I was in the scouts I just kept my mouth shut and pretended to believe in God. It was all voulentary and no one was harmed.
Tell you what. After 10 years as a Scouter, I'll say that although you may not like Hillary's tone, her facts are on target. Scouting is especially hit with this by female single parents who are looking for a good male role model for their sons, so they put them in Scouting.
I agree. And I also don't think that a majority of heterosexual men molest female teens.
But I don't want heterosexual men taking teenage girls on camping trips any more than I'd want homosexual men taking teenage boys on camping trips.
The way I generally look at the "gay thing" in this context is how I would feel about the situation if the gay individual was instead a member of the opposite sex. Because in terms of sexuality, I think that analogy is pretty accurate.
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