Posted on 11/19/2002 2:21:44 PM PST by madprof98
Darrell Lambert used to be a Boy Scout.
He taught kids leadership, earned 37 merit badges and racked up more than 1,000 hours of community service in one year.
Lambert, 19, is also an atheist. And his honesty about his beliefs has made him the poster boy for the intolerance and hypocrisy of a powerful American institution.
The Boy Scouts of America does great good in communities and in the lives of youngsters. It teaches boys to respect others, to conserve natural resources and to be leaders in thought and in deed.
Yet that admirable record has an odd, dark side.
Last month, Lambert, an Eagle Scout in Port Orchard, Wash., was training to be an adult leader. He engaged in a debate about faith, expressing his view that there is no higher power, and hence no God.
''I think the only power higher than myself is the power of all of us combined,'' Lambert said later. ''The interactions we do affect each others' lives."
The Boy Scouts, however, require a profession of belief.
Officials gave Lambert a week to change his mind, and when he refused, they gave him the boot. No matter that he was clean, thrifty and brave. He was not reverent in the manner the Scouts demand.
To defend that practice, Scout officials point to a shaky 5-4 Supreme Court decision two years ago that upheld the right of a private organization to ban certain members. It is the same ruling used to exclude homosexuals.
But the central issue is not the legal rights afforded a so-called private organization (one that happens to have a very public persona). The Boy Scouts of America puts teaching character and citizenship as its foremost goals, yet it is not upholding those principles with its actions.
Each of us, in our own way, must undertake the intellectual and spiritual journey that Lambert made in arriving at his atheism. There is no prescribed route and no predetermined destination. America was founded on that very premise.
Lambert has been forthright in explaining how he came to his views. He has been steadfast in his right to hold them. To have made that difficult journey in a manner that is both thoughtful and mature shows a remarkable strength of character. That should be held up as an example, not expunged like some malignancy.
''On my honor'' begins the Scout oath, in which boys pledge to do their best to uphold their duty to God and country.
Part of everyone's duty is deciding for ourselves what we believe and why, and standing behind those beliefs in the face of challenge. That is the very essence of character and citizenship.
Lambert appears to have taken those duties to heart, and put them into practice. He has upheld the oath he took 10 years ago when he became a Tenderfoot.
But the Scouts have not acted with similar honor. By punishing a young man who would not profess to beliefs he does not hold, the organization has directed youngsters within its ranks to value intolerance more than principles and honesty.
MARY SCHULKEN is editorial page editor for the Daily Reflector in Greenville, N.C. Her column appears occasionally.
LOFL!!!
First time I ever heard the nation's founding described that way!
Heaven forfend it may have been founded as a result of oppressive taxation.
By the way, I have noticed that the Atlanta press is hopelessly mired in political correctness and all the self-delusion and lying that comes with it. I think that affirmative action long ago got the better of the newspapers there. Not only is the Urinal a shameless mouthpiece for the DNC, but the writing is poor. It's like a constant parade of freshmen journalism majors trying out their prose in The Daily Collegian or something.
I recommend staying clear of that paper. Nothing good comes from it.
It has been more than thirty years since I attended a scout meeting yet I can still recite these by heart. Boy Scouts are one of the true institutions in this country that teach responsibility, honor, citizenry, and reverence to God. God bless them and support them any way you can.
Not true. After reaching their 18th birthday, a male or female may register to be an Assistant Scoutmaster, Assistant Cubmaster, Merit Badge Counselor, or (maybe, I need to check this) Assistant Den Leader. At the least ....
The Boy Scouts teach responsibility, honesty, honor, duty. This young man used the organization for his own ends. Then he denied both his oath and his debt to the Scouts. He brings shame upon himself and his family. Until he learns moral responsibility, he will remain a child and never grow into manhood, regardless of his years.
That's the thing about liberals, too. They're still little brats at any age.
That's another excellent point. One of the more idiotic things that liberals do is take a private organization that accomplishes "good things" and elevate (or lower it, to be more accurate) to the level of a social services agency that must therefore meet the same requirements of a public institution.
The Ku Klux Klan has strict membership guidleines, but because they are "no good" in the eyes of people like this columnist, nobody gives a sh!t about whether they admit black people, atheists, homosexuals, etc.
Hello, and thanks for expressing it so well, from a parent whose kids are involved in the Boy Scouts precisely for the values that the Boy Scouts hold, and who really does not give two sh!ts about some atheist's "intellectual and spiritual journey."
This 19-yr-old has a chance to make his separation from the Boy Scouts into a valuable experience by which he can clarify to himself what he truly believes (or doesn't believe), and who he truly is.
Instead, he has chosen to join the legion of whining malcontents who never cease in their efforts to suppress legitimate expression of beliefs by those whom they don't agree with. Or he is being used by said legion of whining malcontents.
In my opinion, atheism or anti-theism, viewed practically, results in a worship of one's Self. Let 'em worship their Selves. I'm not stopping them, nor am I joining organizations filled with atheists and trying to impose MY belief in God upon THEM.
Similarly, I do not go to homosexual organizations, pass myself off as one who is interested in their activities, and then try to raise dissent within the organization. Let them have their unity and their organizations. As many posters here know, there was at least one homosexual organization which backed the Boy Scouts' earlier stance on not having homosexual leaders. This homosexual organization submitted a Friend of the Court brief in support of the Boy Scouts. They had enough sense to realize that there was an issue bigger than the Boy Scouts or homosexuality at stake--freedom of association.
11/19/2002
Group gives Boy Scouts $100,000 fund boost
By Grace Lee
Staff Writer
Monday, November 18, 2002 - Friends of the Ventura County Scouts has raised more than $100,000 for the county's Boy Scouts to make up for money the agency will lose from the United Way over its disagreement with an anti-discrimination policy that extends to gay members.
Friends of the Ventura County Scouts raised the money among its 80 volunteers to match donations that are made to the Boy Scouts, said Denny Weinberg, a volunteer for the fund-raising group.
The campaign has raised an additional $20,000 since it started running newspaper and radio ads this month.
"(The campaign) is resonating with an awful lot of people from Ventura County," Weinberg said. "I think people don't like others to tell them how to act. That's for consumers, but for a third agency to say we're going to force you to have certain policies and beliefs -- that's what they're reacting to."
In June 2001, the Ventura County United Way implemented an inclusiveness policy that extends to gay members and volunteers. The Boy Scouts, which received more than $50,000 from the United Way for this fiscal year, will lose its funding beginning in July 2003.
"Because our mission is to serve everyone, we could not do our role properly if our agencies discriminated," said Samuel Vernallis, board chairman for the Ventura County United Way.
I think I'll take Door #1.
My young son studied America's colonization last year in 5th grade, and I routinely tested him on the material in preparation for quizzes and tests. There was some major oppression of certain religions going on in England in the 1600s and people like Quaker William Penn brought many of these people here to my state (actually "Commonwealth") which was named after Penn's father (trivia answer there).
I do not dispute the notion that government should never oppress or favor or even endorse one religion over any other(s). But if a judge wants to put a monument to the ten commandments in the (taxpayer-owned) courtroom he runs, or if a President wants to light a giant Christmas tree on the (taxpayer-owned) grounds of the White House he runs, then that's just great by me. I am sick and tired of filthy liberal scumbags who see a conspiracy to establish a "state religion" behind every tree and in every classroom and in every public building. The pendulum has swung way too far to the side of the pedophiles, athiests, Democrats, abortionists, and child pornographers, etc., in my opinion.
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