Posted on 11/16/2004 11:41:18 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
By Hans Zeiger
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
The American military cannot survive the challenges of the 21st century without the preparatory support of the Boy Scouts of America. Millions of our bravest heroes in uniform – thousands who have given their lives in every war since World War I – wore their first uniform as a Boy Scout. A U.S. Marine now in Iraq – who also was my Scoutmaster when I was growing up – once told me that he became a Marine because he had first been a Scout.
Apparently seeking the annihilation of our nation's defensive capacity along with its moral character, the American Civil Liberties Union announced Monday that U.S. military bases will no longer be able to sponsor Boy Scout troops. It seems that our nation's military leadership has broken wartime policy to settle with the terrorists in the ACLU.
It is the Boy Scout Oath to which the ACLU responded by filing legal claims against the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Chicago Board of Education in 1999. "On my honor," goes the Oath, "I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight."
Following its new settlement with the ACLU, the Department of Defense will be sending word to American military bases worldwide that sponsorship of the Boy Scouts is strictly prohibited. Though Boy Scouts – primarily the children of service members – have long met on military bases in association with a base sponsor, the days of political correctness have brought that arrangement to an end. And this is the George W. Bush / Donald Rumsfeld Department of Defense that we're talking about.
Like an array of private organizations that, of necessity, have dealings with our nation's armed forces, the Boy Scouts adhere to beliefs and practices that fall outside the sanction of public policy. No one on our nation's military bases is coerced into supporting the Boy Scouts, though, no doubt, members of our armed forces hold the Scouts in much higher esteem than they do the ACLU.
It is true that Congress awarded a national charter – an honorary statement that Congress supports the patriotic, educational or scientific goals of an organization and that the organization is guaranteed rights to its name in perpetuity – to the Boy Scouts of America in 1916. Congress did this in full recognition of the Scouts' right to discriminate.
But it isn't as though membership in the Boy Scouts of America is restricted to evangelical Protestants only. The Boy Scouts are as ecumenical as organizations come. Among 29 religious groups that award patches to Scouts through the Religious Relationships Committee are Armenians, Baha'i, Baptist, Buddhist, Christian Science, Eastern Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Episcopal, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Lutheran, Maher Baba, Moravian, Mormon, Presbyterian, Quaker, Roman Catholic, United Methodist and Zoroastrian.
But the Boy Scouts do insist on belief in God. Over the years since the Boy Scouts of America was founded, several hundred atheists have been told that they could not serve in positions of Scout leadership. Is this inconsistent with the principles by which our nation's military and government operate?
Just because military bases sponsor Scout troops doesn't make those troops an extension of government. Thousands of police and fire departments, cities and schools also sponsor Boy Scout troops. The Boy Scouts remain a private organization – a partnership with government does not automatically render an organization public domain.
It's also worth noting that our nation's military itself administers an Oath of Military Service to new members of the armed forces, that, like the Presidential, Congressional, and Supreme Court Oaths of Office, concludes with the words, "So help me God." In fact, all high-ranking government officers must swear an oath in accordance with Section 3331 of Title V of the U.S. Code that includes that little invocation to the Almighty.
Further, military bases feature a vast array of religious options for the personnel and families who live and work there. In recent years, the nation has discussed the admission of Wiccan chaplains to the military, and Muslims are well represented in the chaplaincy despite the sensitive nature of our present war.
But the Department of Defense cannot expect to win wars abroad if it is capitulating to the demands of political correctness at home. Our armed forces must be aligned with the standards of character that make America worth fighting for.
Americans who care about our nation's moral condition and national security must contact the Department of Defense and tell them to stand up for the Boy Scouts. Send a comment to Secretary Rumsfeld – tell him that he must do everything possible to reverse Monday's settlement with the ACLU.
The ACLU should fear the kitty in the tagline. He's my cat and his name is Wanderer.
I will have a covey of e-mails out as soon as I can get it done. This is another step backward on our part.
How sad. I was in the Scouts when I lived at Ft. Lewis, WA.
Homosexual Agenda Ping - another article about the ACLU, the Boy Scouts, and the Pentagon/DOD.
Guess which one is the villain, which is the victim, and which is the spineless wimp?
Can this be fought? Methinks that the ACLU needs to be dismantled, defanged, castrated, and then thrown to the dogs. It's gotta be one of the worst group of enemies of all that is good I have ever seen; rivals Planned Parenthood. Actually worse than PP as its scope is wider.
Let me know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.
These guys have to learn that "don't ask, don't tell" also means "don't let it enter into your work assignments either".
Good point, good point.
One of the reasons homosexuals have made such gains is because they first weaseled their way in to various organizations; once in, they could get their fellows hired, got in decision making positions, and voila!
Domestic partner benefits, special "gay" outreach, special "gay" committees, hiring more "gays", and on and on. That's how the Catholic church got in trouble.
I can imagine there's a subterranean vein of them in the Pentagon, as much as I hate to think of it.
"Don't ask, don't tell" is not serious enough. All recruits should be asked, and if they say "yes" or are found later to be lying, tossed out.
1. Ex military.
2. Ex Boy Scout.
3. A practicing Christian
There are terrorists in the U.S. and they go by the name ACLU.
They would be hounded out in days
Sent a comment to the Defense Department. This country needs to support the Scouts more and give the United Way the boot instead.
"The problem at the ACLU is that no one at the executive level is either:
1. Ex military.
2. Ex Boy Scout.
3. A practicing Christian"
Add to that:
4. In possession of at least one testicle.
When are the people in this nation going to realize that the ACLU is a greater danger to our freedom than Al-Queda? When are we going to bombard our lawmakers with demands that they put into place laws which will stop this poison which is spreading in America largely because the ACLU flys "under the radar" of most decent people who do not have the time for extreme vigilence on a day to day basis. In addition, many people do not have a boy in the Boy Scouts..Most folks pay attention to what is going on in their own lives. This is how oppression sneaks in..We need to be vigilent about what effects our friends and neighbors, as well. Listen to Dr. James Kennedy on Sunday morning or listen to Dr. Dobson on radio..They will tell you, in detail, about this menace and what it means to all people in this nation, Christian and Non-Christian.
Given the chance, I'm sure that the ACLU would love to ban religion of any sort on military bases.
I suggest the ACLU take their law suit and shove it up their ignorant back sides.
Our military kids will still have boy scouts here even if they manage to get the sponsorship banned. The military families will see to that.
They got there by imposing free speech violations on the entire country through political correctness.
ACLU is a communist front organization and should be disbanded for treason....America must get serious about these rats...Why are they attacking anything and everything of value to the American way of life?.....They are a far left extreme bunch of wack jobs going after our foundations...Why????
HUGE and *critical* distinction. Take note of the facts, not talking point or radio rantings.
They can still operate on bases, use the facilities available to all organizations on base, and personnel can still be scout leaders in their personal time.
It's time our various levels of government, including our military, get out of pimping narrow, liberty-suffocating agendas of corporate and private entities. You cannot embrace the notion the Boy Scouts can discriminate against atheists and homosexuals because they're a private organization while, at the same time, demanding they get preferential treatment from government. Such gross hypocrisy is an immoral, indefensible and ultimately unAmerican perspective. If this were Planned Parenthood having a base endorsement, you'd all be apoplectic. Avoid the hypocrisy by checking your pro-Scout bias at the door.
I support this settlement.
Donald H. Rumsfled's perosonnel consultant and close friend is none other that Stephen Herbits (who also bitterly fought in 2000 to keep Bush from the White House). He might well have had imput into this decision.
They are all rabid foaming-at-the mouth atheists who hate God with the passion of Satan himself. They can't sleep at night thinking that somewhere someone is praying to God. I know. I've met some of them. They must be utterly and totally destroyed. Death to the ACLU!
This settlement is pure evil.
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