Dead Man Blogging

Boy Scouts to Atheist: Accept A God or Get Out — 10/30/2002
(also here: Atheist Eagle Scout Gets Ultimatum)

I was in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts since the first year I was eligible. I still have my Cub Scout uniform somewhere. I earned the rank of Eagle Scout. When my sons get old enough to join, I plan to be involved as an adult leader. So I think I would be fairly qualified to comment on this story.

Darrel Lambert’s scouting record sounds comparable to mine. He was in Scouts for 10 years, and received his Eagle Scout award. Now, at 19, he is serving as an Assistant Scoutmaster which is an adult leadership role.

Trouble is, since 9th grade he has been an atheist. Now, this is a free country and he can believe whatever he wants. But the BSA is a private organization, and can set whatever membership requirements it likes. And one of the requirements is that you affirm belief in God. It’s not particular about which religion you belong to, provided you affirm belief in God. Since he refuses, the local Boy Scout council is planning on removing him from leadership after giving him some time to think about this.

Speaking from my own experience, I can affirm that spiritual life is an essential part of what Boy Scouts is all about. It’s not about camping, or merit badges, or social events. It’s about developing boys into men, teaching them leadership, morals, responsibility, and duty. That’s why the BSA takes such a firm stance over homosexuals and atheists. It’s also why troop leadership ought to be male (Lambert’s mother is the troop’s Scoutmaster). Religious, moral men provide role models for boys through the Boy Scouts.

In addition to his godlessness, Lambert has demonstrated a deep character flaw. Boy Scouts regularly repeat the Boy Scout Oath and the Boy Scout Law. The Oath goes (emphasis added):
“On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”

The Boy Scout Law reads “A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, curteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”

Lambert has flagrantly violated the oath that he took on his honor. He is not doing his best to do his duty to God, as he does not even believe in God. He is not obeying the Scout Law because he is not, nor can be, reverent. And he is not trustworthy in the least, because he will stand and make these pledges when he knows he has no intention of keeping them.

Lambert was not qualified, by virtue of his atheism, dishonesty, and blemished honor, to receive any rank or merit badges once he became an atheist. His council’s Eagle Scout review board should have caught this. His troop’s review board should have caught this, regardless whether his mother was Scoutmaster or not.

Lambert was not qualified to receive the ranks he received, was not qualified to remain as a member, and is certainly not qualified to serve as a leader. What sort of example does he set to the boys in that troop? It’s OK to lie “on your honor”? You can pledge “on your honor” to do things you have no intention of doing?

That sort of ethic may be the norm for atheists, but it is diametrically opposed to the moral foundation of Boy Scouts.

Update: John Davis points out the negative implications of the BSA’s stance that “any faith will do”.

WorldNetDaily: Fascism, corruption and my ‘Democratic’ Party

Now, 25 years later, I am ashamed to be a Democrat. More than that, I have come to fear my own party. Hatred and corruption - the roots of fascism - are on the march in America as they have never been before, and leading this march is the Democratic Party. Increasingly, mainstream Democrats are uncomfortable with what we see in our party. We may not have a real name for it, but we know it is dangerous.
…
Suddenly, the traditional restraint of civilized limits was gone. Gone was comity. Gone was loyal opposition. It was somewhere in the mid-nineties - perhaps around the time the Republicans seized control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. The panic among Democrats and the panic within the Clinton administration may have been the turning point. Whenever it was that the dam cracked, it had exploded by the end of 1998.

ABCNEWS.com : Family Grants a Father’s Dying Wish

A single father of 4 got Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was sure that after he died his family would be split up, and that terrified him…until a local Christian family (who already had 3 kids) adopted all 4.

Christian women have obligation to dress modestly, Mary Mohler says - (BP)

Mary Mohler believes there are certain clothes Christian women should never wear. Ever.

Whether it be miniskirts, hip-hugger jeans or skin-tight shirts, Mohler — wife of seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. — believes they should be avoided. Her reason? Christian women have a biblical obligation to dress modestly and reflect holiness.
…
“The [world's] attitude is if you’ve got it, flaunt it,” she said. “Leave as little to the imagination as possible. Regenerate Christian women, I don’t believe, leave home with this attitude. We seek to live godly, holy lives.”
…
“It’s a timeless problem,” she said. “In biblical times there were problems with how women dressed.”
…
Mohler suggested that women sort through their closet and “throw away some things that really do not pass the test. Does God care how we dress? You bet he does. He cares about every aspect of our life, and we are called to holiness.”
…
Mohler gave a list of items that her daughter will never be allowed to wear: halter tops, tube tops, skin-tight shirts, low-cut shirts, midriff-exposing shirts, miniskirts, short shorts and anything from Abercrombie and Fitch.

“Do I sound like an authoritarian parent?” she asked. “I hope so. Because I am a parent, and as parents we are given a lot of different jobs, and it’s challenging. We are to love our children and shepherd them and nurture them. But we’re also to teach them … because they’re still children. They need direction.”

Good stuff.

From a forwarded email I received from Phil Kent. Brace yourself, especially if you have kids.

I have a little boy who waits for his daddy at the end of the street.

For several years, we lived at the end of a long Texas country road. Every evening when I was away from home on business, my little boy would ask permission of his mother to take his black lab and his daddy’s blackthorn walking stick, to make the half-mile journey from the house to the picket fence which marked the beginning of the dirt driveway.

One day, I was delayed in my business. Some seemingly all-important grown-up concern distracted me. I forgot about the faithful little boy down the road who might be waiting for his daddy.

On my way home, the floodgates of heaven opened. For several minutes, the rain was so thick I could not see ten feet in front of me. All I could think of was finishing my journey and getting out of the rain. Finally, the downpour began to abate. It was only a drizzle by the time my car turned the last corner and approached the final street between me and a warm home and nice meal.

But in less than a fraction of a second, my business priorities, my concerns, and my grown-up thoughts would fade and vanish. There was my little boy. He was holding a rickety umbrella in one hand, a walking stick in the other, and was wearing the biggest and most beautiful smile ever to grace the face of a little boy.

As I stopped the car and opened the door, he ran into my arms and held me long and hard. He was wet and shivering, but he never mentioned the rain, nor the hour-long wait, that I later discovered he had endured just to greet his father. He simply said: “Daddy, I missed you, I am so glad you are home.”

All afternoon he had been thinking of one thing: his daddy. He had lived for the time he could make the journey to the end of the road and for that one moment when he would run into my arms and tell me he loves me. Like the dog beside him, his devotion and faithfulness would not even be broken by a tardy father and a rainy day. His day and his world revolved around that one moment when he could say to himself: “I am with my Daddy again.”

Last year, we moved to a wonderful new home provided by the Lord for a special season in our lives. The little boy down the road is a little bit less little. We no longer have a long country road. Now we have a giant tree. It is often beside that tree that my little boy waits for me now, sometimes with his regiment of brothers and sisters, now old enough to venture beyond the castle walls of our home.

The tree is adorned with climbing ropes, with occasional buckets hanging off the limbs, and with the many markings of boys who thrill and delight to climb and conquer the kingdoms of trees. In the evening time, we sometimes have what we call “tree time.” This is a special thirty minutes when Daddy and sons climb into the tree and just talk. It’s a time for stories, for imagination, and for just being boys in trees.

But I have never forgotten the rainy day and the little boy and his dog. Often, perhaps a thousand times, my mind has wandered back to that scene. Like all events in our lives, it happens once, and must be savored and treasured.

I think it was this day that I grew to understand what it meant when Jesus said that true Christianity is having the faith of a child. The evidences of this faith are simple love, unfeigned loyalty, and the passion — the all-consuming passion — to be with the Father.

How thankful I am, that our Heavenly Father will never be distracted, lose perspective, or switch priorities away from His beloved sons. He will not leave us waiting, nor will He need rain and storms to refocus His attention on us.

Oh God, help us to be more like You, to have the simple faith of our children, and to understand that more than anything else, our children crave a relationship with us, even as You crave one with each of Your children.

EPILOGUE

Someday my little boy won’t be waiting at the end of the road. Someday he won’t ask me to climb “our” tree to hear Daddy stories. Someday the wonders of bugs and butterflies will be exchanged for the dreams of noble manhood. Someday we will discuss what it means to love a woman. On yet another more distant day, we will look at new life and discuss, not only as father and son, but as friends, the joys of raising children for the glory of God. Perhaps even someday, we will live to see our children’s children walk in the grace of the light of God.

All of this by God’s grace and mercy. But for now, my little boy still likes to climb trees, to snuggle in bed, to hug and kiss, and to wrestle on the ground with his five-foot-eight father, who, for just a few more years, appears to be an insurmountable giant. What a gift! What a gift!

You may not have a little boy down the street, but perhaps you have a little girl looking out the window, or a baby in the crib, or a young man on the phone. Whatever gifts of life God has given you, and in whatever stages of their lives you find them now, remember that this season is a gift from God which lasts for but a moment, and will then be gone forever. Have the faith of a child. The message of life is relationships. Don’t leave the little boy down the road waiting for long.

Yours in Fatherhood, Family, Faith, and Freedom,
Doug Phillips
President, The Vision Forum, Inc.

Larry Wall, the author of Perl, did an interview on Slashdot. Larry is a Christian and was asked about his faith (question 7). His answer has a lot of good stuff in it. Although I don’t agree with him completely (which may be because I don’t understand him completely), it’s real good stuff. I’m thrilled that he had an opportunity to discuss his faith and did so without compromise or apology.

Quote from this week’s Federalist.

It’s simple: We’ve become a nation increasingly ruled by emotions and feelings — in a word, feminized. Men and women have different psychological make-ups. Women tend to be more nurturing, sensitive and submissive. They demonstrate greater feelings of love and tend to exhibit grief to a greater extent than men. On the other hand, men tend to be more competitive, aggressive and hostile than women. … Female characteristics are vital to a well-ordered society, for they exert a civilizing influence. I’d never want to live in a society where women didn’t have a major role in the rearing of children and management of the household. However, sensitivity, nurturing and a capacity to exhibit grief are not the best characteristics for political leadership. — Walter Williams

I couldn’t agree more.

It Takes A Village
by Glenn Conjurske

It take a village (so we’re told), to raise a child today
It take a village (we reply), to steal his heart away
To purge old-fashioned do’s and don’t’s, from his enlightened mind
To leave old fashioned Ma and Pa, a hundred years behind

It takes a village, verily, to teach some mother’s son
To steal and gamble, smoke and swear, and vandalize for fun.
His mother didn’t teach him that! His father? No, not he.
It takes a village to corrupt, a village, verily

It takes a village, this we know, to teach the maidens sweet,
To dress and act, to look and talk, like women of the street.
It takes a village, not a doubt, to teach a maiden mild,
To save the monkeys, owls, and whales, and kill her unborn child.

It takes a village public school, some subtle classroom chats,
To teach the little boys and girls to act like alley cats.
To teach them of the birds and bees, without morality,
To teach them what to do, and how, and tell them they are free.

It takes a village, yes indeed, to brainwash all the youth,
With notions and with fallacies, In place of sense and truth.
Abortion rights! The right to die! The rights of animals!
Creative spelling! Unisex! The rights of criminals!

It takes a village, well we know, to turn their minds away,
To stand for fancied “children rights”, and parents rights deny.
To honor human nature less, And trees and rivers more.
To sacrifice to Mother Earth, and Father God ignore.

“It takes a village,” so they say, but something more they mean.
United Nations. Washington. The liberal machine.
Society. The “Brave New World.” The socialistic scheme.
The global ideology. The New World Order dream!

Link via Phil Kent.