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.
This is just an elaborate attempt to make it appear as if the perverts have or should have sympathetic company.
Pretty lame if you ask me.
How often will an atheist volunteer for a faith based enterprise? It seems almost contrived.
Why?
I can think and make judgements every day.
That allows me to be intolerant of evil things. I am proud of that intolerance.
Where's the beef?
Exactly. I doubt the Boy Scout organization kept him in the dark about this and then sprung it on him AFTER he had done all the work.
earned 37 merit badges - knowing full well during that time that a faith to a higher power is required to be a Boy Scout...
and racked up more than 1,000 hours of community service in one year. - knowing full well during that time that a faith to a higher power is required to be a Boy Scout....
If he signed on to the Boy Scouts, which makes clear at the time of signing on that a faith to a higher power is one of their requirements, and DID NOT live up to that requirement, who's the hypocrite?
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