Atheist Scout given a week to declare belief
Scout executive: 'Mother Nature would be acceptable'
PORT ORCHARD, Washington (AP) --Eagle Scout Darrell Lambert has earned 37 merit badges, worked more than 1,000 hours of community service and helps lead a Boy Scout troop in his hometown.
But the 19-year-old has another distinction that may lead to his removal from the Boy Scouts: He's an atheist.
Last week, Lambert was given roughly a week by the Boy Scouts' regional executive to declare belief in a supreme being and comply with Boy Scout policy, or quit the Scouts.
The official and Lambert were to talk again this week regarding Lambert's answer.
"We've asked him to search his heart, to confer with family members, to give this great thought," Brad Farmer, the Scout executive of the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts, told The Sun of Bremerton.
"If he says he's an avowed atheist, he does not meet the standards of membership."
On membership applications, Boy Scouts and adult leaders must say they recognize some higher power, not necessarily religious. "Mother Nature would be acceptable," Farmer said.
As a private organization, the Boy Scouts are permitted to exclude certain people from membership. The organization bans gays and atheists.
Lambert, who has been a Scout since he was 9, said he won't profess a belief he doesn't feel, saying it amounts to a lie. "I wouldn't be a good Scout then, would I?"
The issue arose about three weeks ago when Lambert got into an argument with a Scout leader at a Boy Scout leadership training seminar over whether atheists should be expelled from the organization. Farmer's office soon contacted him to talk about his nonbelief.
Lambert disclosed his atheism to Scout leaders overseeing his Eagle Scout application last year, but still received the award.
The issue has surfaced before. In 1998, 16-year-old twins Michael and William Randall, who refused to take an oath to God, were awarded Eagle badges after a seven-year legal fight with the Orange County, California, council.
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That's funny. They'll allow him to declare belief in "Mother Nature," but homosexuals aren't allowed, despite the fact that several Christian and non-Christian religions have no moral issue with it.
It is of my opinion that this organization is in some serious need to reorganize its priorities. When I was a Boy Scout, this was an organization where one goes camping...lol. Since when was this *ever* a religious organization? The idea of civic ethics that this group expounds certainly transcends theism.
Your thoughts?
Melon
Scout executive: 'Mother Nature would be acceptable'
PORT ORCHARD, Washington (AP) --Eagle Scout Darrell Lambert has earned 37 merit badges, worked more than 1,000 hours of community service and helps lead a Boy Scout troop in his hometown.
But the 19-year-old has another distinction that may lead to his removal from the Boy Scouts: He's an atheist.
Last week, Lambert was given roughly a week by the Boy Scouts' regional executive to declare belief in a supreme being and comply with Boy Scout policy, or quit the Scouts.
The official and Lambert were to talk again this week regarding Lambert's answer.
"We've asked him to search his heart, to confer with family members, to give this great thought," Brad Farmer, the Scout executive of the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts, told The Sun of Bremerton.
"If he says he's an avowed atheist, he does not meet the standards of membership."
On membership applications, Boy Scouts and adult leaders must say they recognize some higher power, not necessarily religious. "Mother Nature would be acceptable," Farmer said.
As a private organization, the Boy Scouts are permitted to exclude certain people from membership. The organization bans gays and atheists.
Lambert, who has been a Scout since he was 9, said he won't profess a belief he doesn't feel, saying it amounts to a lie. "I wouldn't be a good Scout then, would I?"
The issue arose about three weeks ago when Lambert got into an argument with a Scout leader at a Boy Scout leadership training seminar over whether atheists should be expelled from the organization. Farmer's office soon contacted him to talk about his nonbelief.
Lambert disclosed his atheism to Scout leaders overseeing his Eagle Scout application last year, but still received the award.
The issue has surfaced before. In 1998, 16-year-old twins Michael and William Randall, who refused to take an oath to God, were awarded Eagle badges after a seven-year legal fight with the Orange County, California, council.
...
That's funny. They'll allow him to declare belief in "Mother Nature," but homosexuals aren't allowed, despite the fact that several Christian and non-Christian religions have no moral issue with it.
It is of my opinion that this organization is in some serious need to reorganize its priorities. When I was a Boy Scout, this was an organization where one goes camping...lol. Since when was this *ever* a religious organization? The idea of civic ethics that this group expounds certainly transcends theism.
Your thoughts?
Melon
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ect ect ect..
