Scouting Around for Acceptance : Judge rightly orders readmission of two atheist Cub Scouts
The United States in the late 20th Century has become a supermarket of philosophies, with beliefs and non-beliefs alike coming in all shapes and sizes. No surprise then that one prominent youth organization, the Boy Scouts of America, found its “religious” requirement, an oath of allegiance to God, challenged by the attorney-father of two Cub Scouts in Orange County who were booted unceremoniously from their den for professing atheism.
Last week, a Superior Court judge wisely concluded that because the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America employed 55 people, advertised for members, owned considerable land, operated on a budget of more than $4 million and ran stores open to the public, the organization qualified as a business under the state Unruh Civil Rights Act. That means no discrimination allowed on the basis of “sex, race, color (or) religion.”
Essentially, this case turned not so much on freedom of association--the issue raised by the Scouts. The case was a standard civil rights matter involving the activities of a business in California.
Moreover, the judge observed that normal den activity did not have much to do with religion, anyway. Youngsters who raise religious questions were usually told to take that matter up with parents. Activities centered more on the “fun and games” that appeal to young people of every philosophical stripe.
Was settling the religion question worth putting two 10-year-old twin boys through all the courtroom drama and public scrutiny? Even now, in victory, and in the face of a certain appeal, the twins have soured on their old den in Anaheim Hills and say they will seek refuge in another Scout group, in Tustin.
But their discomfort has illustrated a valid point for the rest of us as we pursue our various American dreams for ourselves and our children. We are truly a multicultural society. And organizations like the Scouts, under state law, must accommodate those who may have vastly different belief systems--whether theistic, non-theistic or none of the above.