Don’t Blame Boy Scouts for the Acts of One Unit

As a Boy Scout leader and former Scout, I appreciate the mostly positive article about Doug Allen and his career in Scouting (“Leader of the Pack,” May 10). It’s a bizarre world in which an institution that used to be mocked for standing for a saccharine, overeager goodness is now portrayed by some as practically the embodiment of hatred and evil. Boy Scouting hasn’t changed much, but the world around it surely has.

I want to comment on the article’s assertion that the religious right has somehow infiltrated and changed Boy Scouting in recent years. Most Cub Scout and Boy Scout local units are now, and always have been, sponsored by churches as a wholesome activity for their male youth. Any PTA, Lions Club, ad hoc parents organization or similar group of responsible adults may also organize or “charter” a Cub Scout or Boy Scout unit--and many do. They will be enthusiastically welcomed, trained and assisted in their efforts by other Scout leaders, also volunteers. The church or civic organization chooses its Scout leaders and membership. The sponsoring organization sets the religious tone, if any. There is wide variety in how this is handled.

The Boy Scouts of America is a loose umbrella organization that encourages religious belief in a non-sectarian way but leaves it to local units to set their own standards. The Anaheim Hills boys ousted from Cub Scouts would have been tolerated in most Scout units, even most church-sponsored ones. The Cub Scout unit that ousted the boys exercised poor judgment, I believe, but they acted within their rights to set a religious standard for their membership. The Boy Scouts of America went to court, I believe, not to compel anyone to profess a belief in God, but to protect the right of its local sponsoring organizations to set their own standards. That’s what diversity used to mean.

J. KIM APEL,

San Clemente