A Firm Belief in Scouts’ Honor

* I was filled with disdain when I read (Dec. 21) of the two young men who are attempting to receive the coveted rank of Eagle without meeting an essential requirement, accepting a duty to God.

As one of two great-grandsons of the first president of the Boy Scouts of America who earned the Eagle award, I feel uniquely qualified to speak out.

My great-grandfather, Colin H. Livingstone, envisioned an organization where young boys could be exposed to duty to God and country.

Early on, Scouts collected materials for the war effort. Scout troops were mostly sponsored by community churches and synagogues. Scouting was intertwined with God and community and service to both.

Livingstone and others realized that young boys are impressionable and often thrive under direction. With that knowledge they developed an organization that was reflective of their sense of morals and duty to God. That is not to say that these young men are without morals or worthy convictions, but it does bring to issue that they are not Scouts.

Most assuredly, they have not met the criteria for the Eagle award. Our nation is in peril if we continue to marginalize every thought that we do not all share or, as importantly, honor.

These young men most likely benefited from their experience in Scouting and I, for one, am glad that they were at least exposed to it.

However, Scouting does demand a pronouncement of God’s existence. For the courts to ignore this and give these young men the Eagle award would be a disservice to Scouting and the millions of boys who did stand tall for something greater than themselves.

D. CRAIG LIVINGSTONE

Laguna Beach

* William and Michael Randall are victims of a self-serving father who rationalizes his lack of faith in a God who allowed young men to suffer and die in Vietnam, and a small-minded, judgmental den mother in Anaheim Hills who had a colossal nerve in assuming anything by their refusal to say the word “God.”

As a former den leader and recording secretary for the Boy Scouts of America, Three Rivers District in the state of New York, I find it tragic that these seemingly articulate, goal-oriented teenagers may not be allowed to pursue their dream of attaining Eagle Scout status. I am aware of how difficult and arduous a journey this is, and the interference of two selfish adults may have cost two young men a rare achievement.

May I remind the father of the twins, James Randall, of something our beloved George Burns said when he was playing God. When asked by John Denver how he could allow young men to be killed in war, God (George Burns) said, “I didn’t allow it. You did.” We are solely responsible for our own actions, both good and bad.

DIANE BARRETT

Santa Ana

* As a 77-year-old Eagle Scout, I support the twins in their effort to achieve Eagle rank: The example they set by what they do is far more important than defining their growing concept of God.

If their current understanding of God is a result of family values, that would be the norm for ages 12 to 16. As a 23-year-old Air Corps private in World War II, I was amazed at the varying concepts of God that other soldiers had. Some believed in predestination (God had your whole life written down); others had God as the creator of the universe who sat back and let Mother Nature take her course. The point is that there was a great variation of opinion among the 18- to 30-year-old troops, and there did not seem to be a clear definition of what God is. And I was talking to just Protestants and Roman Catholics. Add in the concepts of Eastern Catholics, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and other major religions, and it becomes easy to see how a couple of inquiring and honest kids will find it hard to say “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country” in the absence of a standard definition of God.

N.L. ROY

Orange