Banning Boy Scouts on Bases Typifies Red/Blue State Divide
December 1, 2004

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

Even as the political junkies continue to shift through the fallout from the Nov. 2 election, wondering why there are divisions in values between the red states and blue states, there are lessons in the news that highlight some vast differences. One of these involves the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

“The American military cannot survive the challenges of the 21st century without the preparatory support of the Boy Scouts of America,” according to a WorldNetDaily.com article by Hans Zeiger, an Eagle Scout, president and founder of the Scout Honor Coalition, and a student at Hillsdale College in Michigan.

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, Zeiger continued. “A US 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,” he wrote.

“Apparently seeking the annihilation of our nation’s defensive capacity along with its moral character, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced on Nov. 15 that US 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,” Zeiger editorialized.

It is the Boy Scout Oath to which the ACLU responded by filing legal claims against the US Department of Defense, the US 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.”

Prohibition Coming
Following its new settlement with the ACLU, the DoD 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,” Zeiger commented.

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.

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 BSA 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, according to Zeiger.

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.

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 BSA remains 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.”

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,” Zeiger said. “Our armed forces must be aligned with the standards of character that make America worth fighting for.”

On Nov. 18, CNSNews.com reported that Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) wants President Bush to get directly involved in defending America’s Boy Scouts.

Jones said he stood with the American Legion in support of the Boy Scouts.

Jones said he has sent a letter to the President, asking him, as commander-in-chief, to investigate the matter further.

“Many of the men and women in the military who live on these bases have children who may want to be a member of the Boy Scouts,” Jones wrote to Bush. “These devoted parents who serve this nation do not make much money as it is, and sadly they are sometimes asked to give their life in defense of freedom.

“If a base commander decides that the base should sponsor a local chapter of the Boy Scouts for the children of these parents, why should they not be allowed to do so?”

The American Legion, the nation’s largest veteran’s organization, had delivered a stern letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the agreement with the ACLU, but the Pentagon insists it has done nothing to diminish its support for Scouting, WorldNetDaily followed up.

Responding to news of the deal, American Legion National Commander Thomas P. Cadmus wrote, “The idea that sponsorship of Scouting by American military units is ‘unconstitutional’ goes beyond the absurd, even well past the point of stupidity.”

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Joe Richard told WorldNetDaily, however, the agreement should be seen as a resolution to a narrow part of the lawsuit, which only requires the DoD to clarify its stated policy against sponsorship of non-federal organizations.

“We don’t believe the Boy Scouts will suffer in terms of support within the military community,” he said, noting troops still can meet in civilian venues on bases, and personnel will continue to serve in a private capacity as scoutmasters and assistants.

“Our concern is to emphasize to the American people that the Department of Defense still supports the Boy Scouts of America,” Richard said. “It’s an outstanding organization that plays an important role in developing young leaders, and there should be no interpretation that this particular settlement would in any way jeopardize that support.

“What we simply agreed to do, in a limited sense,” he said, “is to remind our commands that official sponsorship of non-federal organizations is prohibited.”

Richard emphasized the Pentagon does not agree with the ACLU’s assessment that its support of the Scouts is unconstitutional and points out that the department still contributes $2 million to the quadrennial national jamboree, which takes place this year at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia—an issue still subject to litigation in the case.

Nevertheless, the ACLU agreement means 422 Scouting programs will no longer be chartered, or sponsored, by the DoD.

And this is just another symptom of the red state/blue state cultural divide in America.