Posted on 12/12/2002 1:38:43 PM PST by RonF
Edited on 04/29/2004 2:01:46 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
SALEM, Oregon (AP) -- A state appeals court on Wednesday rejected an atheist mother's effort to prevent the Boy Scouts from recruiting in schools because the organization requires a belief in God.
The three-judge panel of the Oregon Court of Appeals, upholding a lower-court ruling, said allowing the Boy Scouts of America to make brief in-school presentations with no religious content doesn't violate the state constitution's ban on government involvement with religion.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
That's right Only the liberal antichristian, pro-union, pro-gay, pro-lesbian NEA has guaranteed access to schoolchildren. And its access is virtually monopolistic.
Ask yourself if these are merely separate attacks from the same source.
Unfortunately, despite the Boy Scouts' refusing to accept avowed homosexual scoutmasters, its two-deep adult rule and its strong efforts to educate teenage boys about the dangers of homosexual molestation, there are still well over a hundred boys each year who are homosexually molested in Boy Scouts. Still, the Boy Scouts has vastly improved the situation from what it was (when the incidence of homosexual molestation of scouts was much higher). And you're right, the Catholic Church doesn't get it - and needs to follow the same policies - that is, if it really cares about children first. To date, it hasn't. That's an abomination.
I know I could be all wet with this analysis.
In June of 1997, a prospective Scout was denied membership in an Explorer Post because he refused to accept the requirement to believe in God. At the time, the Explorer Post was sponsored by a Police Department. Although not cited in this link, previously a Chicago-area Cub Scout Pack lost it's charter with a local public school because an atheist tried to register his son without accepting the religious part of the program. The school took no position on the controversy itself, but didn't want to get involved in the ensuing lawsuit. That Pack eventually died out.
Atheists have been suing the BSA before the various homosexual-based lawsuits were filed.
I don't see the connection. The BSA teaches Scouts that they should have a belief in some kind of God, or at least some kind of ethical/moral system wherein the doctrines/basic beliefs have at least some divine inspiration. Whereas a teacher who believes in God can work in the schools his or her entire career without once mentioning Him.
Having said that, I believe that allowing the BSA, GSUSA, and other organizations that require their members to believe in God to hand out recruitment flyers, etc., in the schools doesn't violate the First Amendment as long as the religious component of their program itself isn't being conducted at the school during this recruitment process.
In fact, it is a strict rule in the BSA that no Scout who is a member of a given unit can be required by that given unit to participate in any kind of religious ceremony.
That's a pretty specific number, yendu. Where'd you get it from?
I've seen (honestly) a number between 100 and 200 reported in several articles. I haven't saved them, though I do have the following from Leslie Carbone's article (6/19/2002) on National Review Online, which, in reference to past abuse, states: "a nationalwide investigation of child molestation in the Boy Scouts found that more than 2,000 boys had reported molestation by adult Scout leaders who slipped by the ban during 1971 to 1991 [or about 200 per year, on average]. Lifting the ban on homosexual scoutmasters would surely only increase this number." As you know, I agree with her.
Actually, I can argue the opposite. Note that the BSA doesn't ban homosexuals. They ban "avowed" homosexuals, and so far have left the local Councils to define "avowed". A homosexual whose sexual orientation is known to some of the adults in his/her unit, but who makes no effort to make their orientation known to the Scouts or to the public at large, is likely to maintain their registration in the BSA without challenge, as long as the sponsor and the unit committee is satisfied with him or her.
Now, should the sponsor be an LDS unit or a Southern Baptist church, he'll be out. If he's sponsored by an Episcopal church, it'll be 50-50 depending on the particular congregation. If it's a UU church, no problem. If it's a Moose Lodge, who knows?
James Dale didn't lose his registration just because he was gay. He lost it because he got involved as a very active head of a gay rights organization and gave a newspaper interview regarding his orientation. A few copies of that newspaper were dropped on the desk of Monmouth County Council's Scout Executive. And the BSA has stated more than once that it does not and will not conduct investigations into someone's sexual orientation. So it seems that it is behavior, not status, that gets a homosexual (or anybody else) bounced out of Scouting.Homosexuals do NOT have an intrinsic right to be in close quarters with other people's teenage sons.
Nobody has an intrinsic right to be in close quarters with other people's teenage sons. I've been a Scouter for 10 years now. But it's a privilege, not a right. If my sponsor tells me tomorrow, "you're out", then I'm out, even though I'm as straight as a string. They don't need to give a reason, either. No one has a right to be a Scouter.
That RIGHT is dependent upon their recognition as a PRIVATE exclusive organization. And AS a private exclusive organization, they are fairly expected to ACT like one. That means no special bennies... ESPECIALLY not at taxpayer expense. They aren't being "destroyed," they are just expected to play by the same rules as everyone else.
This is one that I like to talk about. Tell me, what special benefits does the BSA get? By "special benefits", I mean benefits that aren't available to other such organizations.
Umm…that would be the “good reason” of the pedophile connection. You know it, now say it with me…Homosexual Catholic Priests in the Catholic Church.
Don’t forget Federal Equal Access is for innate characteristic and not chosen behavior. Your pathology accounts for nothing.
You “are” a sick person, should the BSA pretend you’re not?
and NOT for what they do.
What you do is the issue, the pathology of same-sex relations is WHY homosexuals are kicked out.
The BSA teaches that every Scout should be Reverent, and that he should acknowledge and perform a Duty to God. However, the BSA leaves the nature, form, frequency, etc. of this up to the Scout and his family and religious leader. Thus, the BSA teaches no specific religion, or religious practice, and the actual teaching of religion in general, or religious doctrines, forms no part of the BSA program. Thus, religious instruction is not a substantial purpose or activity of the BSA. As a Scouter, I can tell you that I spend very little time discussing religion with the Scouts.
However, since the BSA requires that you do at least believe in God, or whatever equivalent your religion has for Him, atheists are disqualified.
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