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Atheist says he's been booted from Boy Scouts
USA TODAY | 11/04/02 | AP

Posted on 11/05/2002 12:27:48 AM PST by kattracks

SEATTLE (AP) — An Eagle Scout who has earned 37 merit badges said Monday he has been kicked out of the Boy Scouts for refusing to declare a belief in a higher power. Darrell Lambert said he was told of the decision earlier in the day by the Chief Seattle Council, the Scouts' regional governing body.

"Am I bitter? No. Disappointed? Yeah," he said. "We're in the 21st century. Our country was founded on religious freedom, and the Boy Scouts of America are still discriminating."

Lambert said he plans to appeal the decision within the Scouting council within the required 60 days.

On membership applications, Boy Scouts and adult leaders must say they recognize a higher power, although not necessarily a religious one.

As a private organization, the Boy Scouts can bar anyone it chooses from membership. The organization's ban on gay leaders was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2000.

The issue arose about a month ago, after Lambert attended a Boy Scout leadership training seminar where he argued with a Scout leader about whether atheists should be expelled from the organization.

Last week, the council said it would give him about a week to declare his belief in a higher power. Lambert refused, saying that to lie would make him a bad Scout.

The Irving, Texas-based Boy Scouts of America did not return calls seeking comment Monday.

Lambert, 19, said he has been an atheist since ninth grade, when he concluded that science had disproved the accounts of creation given in the Bible.

He had declared his atheism to the Scout leaders overseeing his Eagle Scout application last year, but was still granted the award.

"They commended me on my honesty," he said.

His mother told CNN that no one in their family attends church, and that her husband is also an atheist.

"Darrell's not just fighting this for himself. He's fighting this for all the Scouts that have no real belief in God," Trish Lambert said.


Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bsalist
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To: poopoobutter
Given all of the above, parents aren't going to want homosexual men with their teenage boys, I assure you - and they're right.

Not all parents are so tight-butted about homosexuals being in the company of their children. Heck, some parents are gay.

You're right. Not all parents are anything. The vast, vast majority of parents don't want their teenage sons spending lots of 'quality' time with homosexual men in their (the parents') absence. They have that right. You can send your 14-year old sons out camping with homosexual men if you want. You have that right. Of course, the parents of a couple of thousand raped and molested Catholic teenage boys are regretting that their sons spent so much 'quality time' with homosexual priests. The point is - we have the right to raise our kids as we see fit - and you have the right to raise yours as you see fit. But nobody has the right to say to me: "I'm an active homosexual man, and I have the right to take your son out camping with me." That right does not exist.

201 posted on 11/14/2002 8:05:15 AM PST by yendu bwam
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To: poopoobutter
Boy Scouts is one of the last places where (normal) men can be men, and boys and parents can be relatively assured of having normal men as mentors and role models. I had a 'queer' assistant scoutmaster and he done me no harm.

I'm glad. So, if you believe that that one experience means all homosexual men won't harm your sons, go ahead and send your sons out camping with homosexual men. I prefer to keep my sons away from men who have abnormal sexual attractions to them. I must be a monstrous bigot.

202 posted on 11/14/2002 8:11:06 AM PST by yendu bwam
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To: kattracks
buh-by
203 posted on 11/14/2002 8:15:58 AM PST by Skooz
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To: yendu bwam
I prefer to keep my sons away from men who have abnormal sexual attractions to them. I must be a monstrous bigot.

You may be a bigot if you believe all homosexual men have an abnormal sexual attraction to boys. How would you tell which homosexuals do or do not, or which Scout leaders engage in criminal behaviour of any kind? With that mindset you will be uncomfortable letting your boys near a Scout troop anywhere.

204 posted on 11/14/2002 9:58:36 AM PST by poopoobutter
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To: yendu bwam
But nobody has the right to say to me: "I'm an active homosexual man, and I have the right to take your son out camping with me." That right does not exist.

Correct. The BSA is not a public institution.

205 posted on 11/14/2002 10:02:03 AM PST by poopoobutter
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To: yendu bwam
C'mon, poopoobutter. Many 14-year olds are just entering into sexual maturity, and many have conflicting sexual feelings for some time - until they are somewhat more adult.

I can really only speak for myself. At 14 I knew what a homosexual was and that I was not homosexual.

The last thing parents want is for an older man on a scout trip to try to engage their son in homosexual activity.

Of course.

Again, that's their right. (And most parents don't believe that 14-year olds are well-equipped to make good decisions regarding sexual behavior anyway.) You might think they're misguided, but so what? You raise your sons as you see fit. We will raise our sons as we see fit. Do you concede that we have the right to do so?

Of course.

206 posted on 11/14/2002 10:10:24 AM PST by poopoobutter
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To: yendu bwam
If teenage boys (like my sons) were the specific temptation that caused many black men to commit crimes, that would be reason to ban them from Boy Scouts. Of course, teenage boys are precisely the temptation that leads a significant percentage of homosexual men to molest such boys. That's why most parents wouldn't let their teenage daughters go out camping with heterosexual men either.

It's up to the parent, it's their choice. If they know and trust these homosexual leaders, then fine.. if not, it's their right to deny their children the scouting experience.

Most parents, believe it or not, do not want to increase the odds that their children will be molested. But apart from that, most parents don't want to condone, implicitly or explicitly, the filthy practices engaged in by (the majority) of homosexual men - such as anal intercourse - or the promiscuity which is endemic to homosexual society.

What about the filthy, promiscuous heterosexual men who engage in anal intercourse with their wives and/or girlfriends? :-o.

Should they be barred from Scout leadership as well?

You may disagree with these parents - but they have the right to determine who will be in charge of their children. Homosexuals are in a far outer universe to think that they have the right to be in the close company of other people's children on overnight campouts in the absence of those children's parents. They don't. So sorry.

Not in the Boy Scouts, no.

207 posted on 11/14/2002 10:21:22 AM PST by poopoobutter
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To: poopoobutter
It's up to the parent, it's their choice. If they know and trust these homosexual leaders, then fine.. if not, it's their right to deny their children the scouting experience.

What are you talking about? Parents have the right to choose the organizations that they think will most benefit their children. Several millions parents have chosen Boy Scouts of America to help raise their kids. It's a good choice - because Boy Scouts brings a lot of benefits to their sons. If you don't like their policy on homosexuals, I'm sure you can find some homosexual men to take your kids on overnight camping trips. Liberals expect everyone to trust homosexual men with their teenage sons. People don't. The continued yearly molestation of Boy Scouts by homosexual men, the molestations and rapes of thousands of teenage boys in the Catholic Church by homosexual priests, the continued attempt by homosexuals to tell kids that homosexuality is 'normal' and 'healthy' (it's not), the continued attempts by homosexuals to lower ages of consent in every state in the union, the vilification of anyone who has any reservations about homosexuality, etc. etc. tells you why. But of course, liberals distinguish themselves almost always by a complete lack of common sense - whether on Iraq, foreign policy in general, affirmative action, bilingual educaiton, welfare, etc. etc. Putting homosexual men in charge of other people's teenage boys is just one more example.

208 posted on 11/14/2002 11:00:32 AM PST by yendu bwam
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To: poopoobutter
What about the filthy, promiscuous heterosexual men who engage in anal intercourse with their wives and/or girlfriends? :-o. Should they be barred from Scout leadership as well?

Homosexual men represent the practice of anal intercourse (a practice which most of them engage in and which is well known to most teenage boys). Surprisingly to you, I'm sure, most parents don't want to promote that practice to their sons. But hey, if you want to promote the joys of humping other men's rear ends to your sons, go ahead.

209 posted on 11/14/2002 11:02:49 AM PST by yendu bwam
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To: poopoobutter
You may be a bigot if you believe all homosexual men have an abnormal sexual attraction to boys. How would you tell which homosexuals do or do not, or which Scout leaders engage in criminal behaviour of any kind? With that mindset you will be uncomfortable letting your boys near a Scout troop anywhere.

It's quite obvious that a significant percentage of homosexual men will not or cannot keeps their paws off of teenage boys (or we wouldn't have continual homosexual molestations of boys in the Boy Scouts and in the Catholic Church). I never said that all homosxual men would do so - as you well know. But hey, calling people names like 'hater' and 'bigot' is the sine qua non of the homosexual movement.

210 posted on 11/14/2002 11:40:09 AM PST by yendu bwam
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To: yendu bwam
Parents have the right to choose the organizations that they think will most benefit their children. Several millions parents have chosen Boy Scouts of America to help raise their kids. It's a good choice - because Boy Scouts brings a lot of benefits to their sons.

Yep.

If you don't like their policy on homosexuals, I'm sure you can find some homosexual men to take your kids on overnight camping trips. Liberals expect everyone to trust homosexual men with their teenage sons. People don't. The continued yearly molestation of Boy Scouts by homosexual men, the molestations and rapes of thousands of teenage boys in the Catholic Church by homosexual priests, the continued attempt by homosexuals to tell kids that homosexuality is 'normal' and 'healthy' (it's not),

It is for homosexuals who practice safe sex.

the continued attempts by homosexuals to lower ages of consent in every state in the union, the vilification of anyone who has any reservations about homosexuality, etc. etc. tells you why. But of course, liberals distinguish themselves almost always by a complete lack of common sense - whether on Iraq, foreign policy in general, affirmative action, bilingual educaiton, welfare, etc. etc. Putting homosexual men in charge of other people's teenage boys is just one more example.

I guess I'm not someone to judge another person as deviant based on their sexual preference.

211 posted on 11/16/2002 1:46:05 PM PST by poopoobutter
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To: kattracks
Our country was founded on religious freedom, and the Boy Scouts of America are still discriminating"

The Boy Scouts are exercizing their religious freedom. Discrimination is good. Just imagine what the world would be like if nobody was discriminating about the things they chose to do. It would be chaos.

The Boy Scouts are a religious group who don't want to be taken over by Aitheists and forced to take God out of their organization. This guy should feel free to start the Aitheist Boy Scouts of America.

212 posted on 11/16/2002 1:57:34 PM PST by 69ConvertibleFirebird
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To: kattracks
It's been a loooooooooonnnnnnnnngggggg time since I was a Boy Scout, but then, we had to recite the Scout Oath at every meeting. Do they still do that? And, if they do, did junior mouth the words at each meeting? Maybe Doctor Whats-His-Name is behind this?
213 posted on 11/16/2002 2:04:20 PM PST by hardhead
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To: Nuke'm Glowing
Ouch!!! Ease up on the lawyers....there are a few of us who are honorable!!!!
214 posted on 11/16/2002 3:04:27 PM PST by NCLaw441
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To: MedicalMess
At the risk of diverting this thread, Evolution is 100% correct? I would like to see the inter-species that have to exist in order to support that theory. Where is the monkey-man today? Where is the bird-lizard? The examples are endless that evolution has no continuing proof today. Then again, let's keep this a question of what rights BSA has in America, as currently evolved.
215 posted on 11/16/2002 3:20:27 PM PST by NCLaw441
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To: poopoobutter
I guess I'm not someone to judge another person as deviant based on their sexual preference.

But of course, this isn't the issue being debated here. Homosexuals have the right to live their lives as they see fit. They do not have some automatic right to close quarters with other people's teenage sons. That's the issue. I'm fine with letting them live their lives as they see fit. I wish they could have the same respect for me (and millions of others like me) - including the right to decide who I want to take my teenage sons on overnight camping trips. The homosexuals who have attacked the Boy Scouts are incredibly intolerant.

216 posted on 11/16/2002 4:51:00 PM PST by yendu bwam
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To: NCLaw441
LOL, the only honorable lawyers are those on my retainer!!!!
217 posted on 11/16/2002 4:52:28 PM PST by Nuke'm Glowing
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