Scout Ruling

* For the 4th District Court of Appeal to label the Boy Scouts of America a “business” (“Scouts Can’t Bar Atheists, Court Rules,” March 1) is an absurd technicality. The Boy Scouts are composed almost entirely of unpaid volunteers, draw their support mostly from donations and transact “business” among themselves primarily for convenience with profits plowed back into camps and programs.

For young boys, the discipline, teamwork, self-reliance and altruism they gain as Scouts is second only to values instilled by family and church. Statistics prove only a minuscule percentage of Scouts ever get into trouble with the law.

Yet because the Scouts forbid homosexual Scoutmasters and require their young men to pledge an oath to God, they are constantly under attack.

So tell me, who in America stands for the family? Who in America stands for the church? Who in America stands for God? Not the courts. Not the media.

JOHN ROMERO

Westlake Village

* In your editorial “Business of Scouting” (March 2) you ask, “If the young people are uncomfortable swearing allegiance, why not leave them alone. . . .?” That’s exactly what the Boy Scouts have wanted to do from the beginning. The boys are unwilling to leave the Scouts alone. They want to join a private, voluntary organization, but they want to force that organization to change its rules of admission. What crap.

MIKE MATHEWS

Los Alamitos