5 years ago
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Arkansas Boy Scout volunteers say they will not sacrifice their membership standards just to appease the ACLU or any gay rights activists.
Lynn Alexander, a committee chairman for Boy Scout Troop 2062 in the Jonesboro and Harrison area, says for years he's followed the ACLU's legal proceedings against Boy Scouts of America. ?They have taken one instance and totally blown it out of proportion,? he says.
He's talking about the 2000 case "Boy Scouts of America versus James Dale." In that case, a former scout who had openly declared his homosexuality was denied appointment as an assistant scoutmaster. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled for the Scouts. ?If they want to join their organization that believes the way they do, they have that right," says Alexander. "I'm not one to say that they don't. But when they join Boy Scouts of America, it says on the application you will abide by the guidelines."
Last year the ACLU complained the Boy Scouts were a religious group because members must swear an oath of duty to God. Under the separation of church and state argument, the ACLU says scouts shouldn't be allowed to meet on school property. It has won cases in St. Louis and San Diego. So to head off a lawsuit here, Arkansas scout troops have started looking for other places to meet. And the loss in the Dale case, scout leaders say, forced the union to change its tactics. John Carmen of the Quapaw Area Council B.S.A. says, ?They were successful in getting military bases to not sponsor Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops and the like because they receive government funding." Carmen says the argument was that the Scouts were receiving government funding so the group couldn't discriminate against atheists or homosexuals.
Carmen says, ?For some reason they think they're well intended in attempting to change our leadership standards and the way we do things, scouting in not for everybody.?
And that's exactly what Alexander says his argument is based on.
Since the 1970s, Boy Scouts of America has had more than 30 lawsuits attacking its values. Nearly all of those lawsuits were about membership.
Nationwide, the Scouts now have about 3-million members.
