by Kimberly Blaker

The Boy Scouts of America gave an ultimatum in late October. Nineteen-year-old Darrell Lambert from Port Orchard, Washington was offered one week to reconsider his lack of belief in God or to get out of scouting.

Lambert, according to American Atheists, is an Eagle Scout, Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Scoutmaster, a three-time senior patrol leader in the organization, and the recipient of 37 merit badges.

He has contributed more time to community service during his youth than most people do in a lifetime. And according to his mother, he neither smokes nor takes illicit drugs, unlike a large percentage of teens both religious and otherwise.

But to the BSA, all of Lambert’s extraordinary good is shattered by the fact that he is an atheist.

The issue arose about a month ago when Lambert’s views became known to officials in the Bigoted Scouts of America.

According to a New York Times report, during a training session for adult leaders, Lambert was offended when a scouting official suggested that an atheist would have to lie about his beliefs in order to advance in scouting.

In fact, said Lambert, the official indicated that "a person who doesn't believe in God is not a good citizen."

"I was angry," he pointed out. "I left the room and said I would not be a part of it."

Certainly, it would hardly be fair to paint all scout leaders and participants as being so intolerant.

The parents of all of the boys in Trish Lambert’s troop (Darrell’s mother) stood up for Darrell’s rights to be a scout regardless of his views. They petitioned the Chief Seattle Council to allow Lambert to remain in the troop.

My own son was fortunate when he signed up for Boy Scouting this year. I was aware of cases similar to Lambert’s, so I prepared Caleb for the fact that the BSA may not allow him to join. I didn’t want to get his hopes up and see him broken hearted when he was rejected.

When signing up for scouts, we crossed out the words “to God” in the oath. To my pleasant surprise, Caleb was accepted. Of course, this tidbit did not go beyond the troop leader, who happened to already know Caleb.

My son’s lack of belief didn’t affect his immediate acceptance to participate in Boy Scouts—at least, not this time. Four years prior, when Caleb enrolled, and even after following up on it, we never did receive confirmation for Caleb to begin.

In all likelihood, even if Caleb were to remain in scouts, a similar situation to that of Lambert’s would evolve in time when Caleb’s atheism became known to higher ups.

But, as is more typical, in another Michigan school district, the BSA did not show such leniency. In 1997, a BSA recruiter visited Benjamin Scalise’s Mount Pleasant school and allegedly embarrassed him for the fact that he and his family are atheists.

When his father, John Scalise applied to the BSA as an adult volunteer, Mr. Scalise was also denied admittance.

This led to a lawsuit against the school district in October 2000. And in 2001, an Isabella County judge determined that the BSA should not be recruiting during school hours.

Nonetheless, early this November, Scalise received bad news. Chief Judge Paul Chamberlain wrote an opinion that removed the option for a jury to determine damages even though Chamberlain had originally indicated in his November 29, 2001 ruling that this should be done. Scalise will now file an appeal.

The issue that remains is that, while the BSA considers itself a private organization with the right to discriminate, it continues to draw children in through its use of the public schools.

Fortunately, numerous districts and municipalities have given the BSA the boot. Nonetheless, a majority continues to allow and even assist the BSA in recruiting public school children and donates public funds to the discriminatory organization.

Hopefully, through publicity surrounding the BSA’s repeated bigotry that is often seen toward exemplary scouts, more Americans will take issue with the organization’s closed-minded practices.

It’s time that the BSA is given the ultimatum. Either accept all boys regardless of their belief or sexual orientation—or get out of the public schools!
 

Kimberly Blaker’s The Wall™ appears weekly. She is editor and coauthor of the The Fundamentals of Extremism: the Christian Right in America. Send your comments to Kimberly Blaker: TheWall@TheWall-OnChurchAndState.com  © 2002, Kimberly Blaker