Atheist Boy Scout fights decision to boot him
 

The Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts has given Eagle Scout Darrell Lambert about a week to decide "in his heart" if he's truly an atheist. If he insists on sticking to his belief that there is no God, the Council will terminate his membership.

"No way" is he going to change his beliefs, says Lambert, who has been in scouting since he was 9 years old. "It'd be like me asking them to change their belief. It's not going to happen."

His beliefs, if unchanged, give the Scouts no choice, says Brad Farmer, council's Scout executive in Seattle.

In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Boy Scouts' right as a private organization to ban certain members. The Scouts exclude atheists.
The 19-year-old has earned 37 merit badges, been a quartermaster and three-time senior patrol leader, and now he's an assistant Scoutmaster and a field leader in training as part of the Search and Rescue Program. In his senior year in high school, he racked up more than 1,000 hours of community service.

He doesn't believe in smoking or taking illegal drugs. His mom offered to take him out for a drink when he turns 21. But he doesn't believe in drinking alcohol.

And he doesn't believe in God — not since the ninth grade. And even before then he was unsure.

"You need to have a recognition of a supreme being," said Farmer. "We as the Boy Scouts do not define what that is, but you need to have a recognition."

Every Boy Scout and adult leader must attest to that belief on an application in order to join. It can be part of subscribing to a structured religion — such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam or Hinduism — or a more amorphous faith in some presence greater than ourselves, Farmer explained.

The issue has garnered national attention over the years. In 1998, 16-year-old twins Michael and William Randall, who refused to take an oath to God, won a seven-year legal battle with the council in Orange County, Calif., and were awarded Eagle badges, Scouting's top award.

Whether Lambert will be allowed to stay remains in doubt, but last night he explained his predicament to the parents of the kids in his Port Orchard troop, Troop 1531. He laid out the choices and asked for their support.

His mom, who is Scoutmaster, and his dad stood by his side. He told the parents that the troop could watch him get kicked out, which he said he would regret because "I couldn't teach merit badges, which is something I absolutely love to do." Or, he said, they could stand up to the Boy Scout Council and say, "It's wrong."

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hake: hake: hake:

Now blame the liberals. Come on.... SAY IT!

Sorry I cant blame the liberals for this one, they would be on the same side as me on this issue. I mean if the kid takes the oath,doesnt care if the rest of the scouts believe in god and just wants to complete scouts, they should let him.

Whatever. I still can't believe I read it all... eek:

i was going to start with saying "jesus christ" but im not religious and this is a load of shit beyong "jesus" himself. FORCING someone to belive in ANY form of superior being is just a load of shit. Aren't the scouts supposed to mean something now adays? like acceptance? Im gonna read up on this on Canadian scouts and if they have the same rules I guarantee you EVERYONE will know every day they walk in to scouts that they HAVE to belive in a god. Then Im takin it to the scout leaders and demanding their religions, if one and i mean one of those fuckers says they dont have one I will fucking flip.

To think i was going to go into scounts four years ago,

this kid is trying to get shit rolling and it back fired. looks like the boy scouts not a pc org. and he is already a eagle scout there is no higher honor. and its for kids. i say he needs to retire any way.

he wants to be a troop leader, from what Ive seen he deserves it. He looks like a good kid. (hes 19 yrs old now)

ahh troopleader. i see now. i personly would have kept my mouth shut.

The boyscouts are a private org and have the right to kick the kid if they like. They have already been down this road and have paid a price for this right. If they say so, the kid goes.

Damn Atheists hake:

Whats wrong with atheists? eek:

Whats wrong with atheists? eek:

They are going to Hell eek:

I dont believe in hell. sorry, but why are we so bad, we have morals, standards just like religious people.

*hopes no one remembers a certain old thread by anti*

i dont care what u are. just as long as u dont force it onto others (the idea of hell pops into mind) then i have no problem.

like i said, land of the free my dimpled pimpled ass!

Confusion riegns in my head right now. Hes 19 won so many awards, and only NOW they find out hes athiest?
I was in the scouts for 2 years, joined aged 14, left aged 16, i made it to patrol leader. I am athiest, and my scoutmaster knew this, infact hardly anyone belived in a God, and noone bothered. We had a prayer at the start of each night, or well not so much a prayer but more like one of us said a little about things that had happened that week, congrats to anyone who had won an award, etc etc
Point is, this guy would have had to do the same, ie say a prayer of some sort, and if he was so strict on his beleif i think people would have noticed him not saying amen, or he would objected it in the first place.
Unless of course that particular scout group hasnt been following the traditions of baden powell who would be turning in his grave at that.
One of my teachers taught us a good lesson about principles one time. It was a class debate about the queen, and god, and peoples beleifs.
To join the police, part of the oath is about working for her majesty the queen, now personally i dont give a shit about the royal family, and said, i wouldnt want to have to say that i liked the queen. He told me that if i was offered a million pounds to say i liked the queen would i do it. of course i said yes, even though i wouldnt mean it.
His point was, that if you have to do or say something to get something you want - your principles can go hang. Standing up for what you beleive in is one thing, but getting your priorities mixed up is quite another.

Hey, it's a private organization and most likely, the Boy Scouts was founded on a base of religion... don't blame them for that.

If they kick him out - they kick him out, it's thier organization.

Clearly you dont know what youre talking about Cpt. Zapotoski.

meh i found out canadian scouts do the same so in a reply i wrote.

"Congradulations! I will make it my duty to make sure everyone knows about this.... do you or your oginization ever feel like NAZI'S!?"

[quote="Captain Bunny":23291]Clearly you dont know what youre talking about Cpt. Zapotoski.[/quote:23291]

Maybe you're to dense to figure out what my opinion meant?

Let's start our own organization to rival the scouts, an organization that does not discriminate for any reason.

[quote="Sgt Stryker":b8542]Let's start our own organization to rival the scouts, an organization that does not discriminate for any reason.[/quote:b8542]
We'll call it the Spooge Youth.

or lets start a group that no religious people can join. then we would be sued by those christian whores for being anti-sematic(sp?) then we could thus sue the scouts on the same grounds.

[quote="CSF_Jaizen":f9a72]or lets start a group that no religious people can join. then we would be sued by those christian whores for being anti-sematic(sp?) then we could thus sue the scouts on the same grounds.[/quote:f9a72]
Anti-semites are people who hate the Jews...

actually spooge its people who hate any particular religion. (i remember cause i got this huge lecture from a teacher after saying "dammit im sick of this shit, we've had people mass murder muslims and jews when the fuck are we gonna blow the fuck out of those ass raping catholics!?") apperently not all people feel that the most offensive religion isn't the worst.