Courts, ACLU beating up on the Boy Scouts

[fgoodwin]

Courts, ACLU beating up on the Boy Scouts

 

http://www.ddtonline.com/articles/2005/08/09/news/editorials/edit1.txt

 

The presence of such an organization as the Boys Scouts of America should be praised and encouraged rather than scorned and ridiculed.

 

Many of this nation's leaders, great and small, have been a part of the Boy Scouts organization as Scouts, leaders or volunteers. Most have earned and prospered from that experience.

 

At no time in the organization's nearly 75 years of existence has the organization preached any organized religion or promoted any religion above another.

 

However a tie that binds in the organization, and through the decades, is the belief in God - and saying so publicly. The last we checked, it still wasn't against the law to say one believes in God and saying so in public. Although at the rate the courts are going now, it may soon be illegal to profess such faith on public streets or sidewalks or in public places.

 

The national Boy Scout organization has been dealing with a number of other negative issues such as declining enrollment, inflated membership rolls from some state and local organizations, sex scandals involving pedophile Scout leaders, and, most recently, the deaths of nine Scouts and Scout leaders in five states from accidents and lightning.

 

Now comes the American Civil Liberties Union, which wants to have the Scouts expelled from using a military base, which they've used for decades, because of their use of the word God in their oaths. The ACLU contends that its use is exclusionary. And since taxpayers' money is used to support the jamboree on public property, then that is a violation of church and state relations.

 

Where does it all end?

 

Never mind the fact that taxpayers who support the Boy Scouts and their ideals are being told by the ACLU and the courts: "You are wrong, and we are right, so your money can't be used that way."

 

David Crary, an Associated Press national writer, reported on Aug. 6, that "some critics acknowledge that the Scouts, for now, have weathered the storm that followed a 2000 Supreme Court ruling upholding their right to exclude gays."

 

And now this. Is it any wonder that kids are confused?

 

The Boy Scouts have a long history of teaching values, morals and responsibility. It's too bad that the courts and the ACLU haven't learned some of these lessons.

 

It might be helpful to send judges and ACLU lawyers out on a jamboree or weekend camp out to learn some of the realities of living in today's society.

 

Thank goodness, the U.S. Congress - both houses and both parties - along with President George W. Bush know the value of the Boy Scouts and what they mean to the leadership of this country.