Kathleen Rhodes, CNSNews.com
Thursday, Nov. 18, 2004

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  "I don't think the Department of Defense should endorse that mind-set [of ACLU] by making a deal or capitulating prior to litigation or taking a step that really would be, I think, very disturbing to the people who are the primary constituency of the military in terms of recruiting," Donnelly said.

The Boy Scouts are an independent organization that requires its members to take an oath of "duty to God." The Scouts also exclude homosexuals from leadership posts, a policy that was validated by the U.S. Supreme Court several years ago but that sparked "liberal" efforts across the country to ban government support of the Scouts, in funding and access to public buildings for meetings.

The Boy Scouts also have deep historical ties to soldiering. The concept of the Boy Scouts was devised by a British general late in the 19th century as a means of relieving combat troops of the task of having to deliver messages from one fort to another.

However, the Scouting oath violates "the religious liberty of youth who wish to participate but not ... swear a religious oath," and should not be funded by the federal government or "taxpayers' dollars," a press release from ACLU stated Monday.

Donnelly suggested that the Pentagon's decision to settle wouldn't be popular because "people don't support the ACLU" and its attempt to "eliminate ... expressions of religion by independent organizations" such as the Boy Scouts.

A backlash is sure to happen, she said, from "the people who support their sons and daughters in the decision to volunteer for the armed forces. The same type of families ... would be very disturbed to see the Department of Defense cowed by the ACLU," she said.

'Pariah'

"Is the Department of Defense now going to treat the Boy Scouts as some kind of a pariah organization, not worthy of any kind of support?" she asked.

Damaging the link between the Boy Scouts and the military will eventually hurt the Pentagon's recruiting efforts, Donnelly said.

"Being a part of a group, wearing a uniform, accomplishing tasks ... all of these things are conducive to the kind of culture that is endemic in the military," she added. "And for a young man to go from Cub Scout to Boy Scout to Eagle Scout to the armed forces, that's a kind of lifetime progression that ... I suspect is very prevalent."

According to a report Tuesday in the Washington Times, however, several spokesmen for the Boy Scouts are more optimistic.

Dave McChesney, a Boy Scout executive in the San Fransisco Bay Area, reportedly said that he doubted relations between the Boy Scouts and the U.S. military would be jeopardized. "Our relations with the federal government ... [have] been fantastic. I'm sure they will remain that way," McChesney said.

In the same report, Larry Abbott, a Boy Scout official from Arizona's Grand Canyon region, also suggested that the military would remain an ally of Scouting. "We've had really good support from the military, and we're positive that will continue."

In a press release Monday, Adam Schwartz of Illinois ACLU said the most important issue surrounding this controversy involved religious liberty.

"If our Constitution's promise of religious liberty is to be a reality, the government should not be administering religious oaths or discriminating based upon religious beliefs," Schwartz stated.

He claimed that the American military had sponsored hundreds of Boy Scout units across the country and that the Pentagon had singled out the Boy Scouts of America and the national Boy Scout Jamboree for a $2 million federal expenditure. A settlement on the funding for the Jamboree, which was also addressed in ACLU's lawsuit, is still pending.

Members of the military may still lead Scout troops on their own time, according to the ruling, and the Boy Scouts are still permitted to meet on areas of military bases used by other civilian organizations.

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