Twins, 10, Testify in Suit Against Scouts : Courts: Boys say they were members three years before their atheism became an issue. They charge they were expelled because of their beliefs.

Twin Anaheim Hills boys who allege that the Boy Scouts of America ousted them because of their refusal to swear an oath to God testified Wednesday that they were members of the organization for nearly three years before their position on religion caused a problem.

“I never said the word ‘God’ in the Cub Scout Promise,” said 10-year-old William Randall. “I just mouthed it. . . . Me and my brother don’t believe in God.”

William and his brother Michael, who took non-religious oaths to tell the truth in court, testified that their Cub Scout den leader in Culver City didn’t object to their views on God. They said they ran into trouble when they moved to Anaheim Hills and transferred to a new den.

The Randalls contend in a lawsuit that Scouting officials in Orange County labeled them atheists and expelled them from the organization. They filed suit last February, charging the 80-year-old institution with religious discrimination. The boys are seeking to be reinstated to Cub Scout Den 4, Pack 519 in Anaheim.

“All William and Michael Randall are seeking today from this court is the opportunity to put those uniforms back on,” James Grafton Randall, the boys’ father and attorney, said during his opening statement.

As the Randalls’ trial opened amid a crush of reporters and spectators, the attorney for the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America said that the boys were never thrown out of Scouting, but only told that they could not advance in rank.

George Davidson, the Boy Scouts’ attorney, said in his opening statements that the boys and their parents had signed Scouting forms indicating that the religious requirement was fulfilled during the boys’ first three years in the Cub Scouts.

He said that the boys later chose to “march to the beat of a different drummer” and ignore the fundamental “duty-to-God” principle of Scouting. Allowing the Randall boys’ views in the Cub Scouts “would devalue Scouting’s message and interfere with the goal of all the other parents who want the duty-to-God and other values instilled in their sons,” Davidson said.

“By what authority do the Randalls claim to force this disruption on other families?” he asked.

James Randall responded that the authority can be found under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, a state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating against a person on the basis of race, sex, age or religious beliefs. Randall argued that Boy Scouts of America is not a private association as it claims, but a public business.

The Randall boys, who sat at the council table with their father, played with Ninja Turtle figures and race cars during the court recesses, but were attentive during the proceedings. After the attorneys’ opening statements, they were called to take the witness stand.

Both William and Michael testified that they have refused to say the word “God” for as long as they could remember.

When asked by Davidson if he believes in Santa Claus, Michael smiled and said: “Yes.”