Waging Jihad on the Boy Scouts

In the mid-1970s, I was a member of Boy Scout Troop 3115, a ribald collection of teens from the Orange Mound section of Memphis (black) and the Poplar-Higland corrider (white). Roughly half white and half black, the troop was stationed at the Tennessee National Guard Armory and headed up by Mr. Bill Lanier, a sargent in the guard. We caused Mr. Lanier untold nightmares, as we were mischievious and full of devilment. While we were good at "scout" things -- we had numerous awards we'd won at scout events -- we were also good at fighting (often each other) and finding other assorted trouble. I often think of this period as my "Huck Finn" period, as I learned of the woods via the numerous camping trips and of black folks, whom I had never been around much prior to the scouts. Some of my fondest memories of my youth can be found in the camping trip weekends I shared with Jesse Green, Andrew Phillips, Michael Prichard and other members of Troop 3115. Bill Lanier is/was a great man for giving so much of himself during this time. Lord knows, many members of the troop would have found "other" things to get into were it not for the Boy Scouts.

My personal experience with the Boy Scouts is why I am so angered by the Do-gooder-social-engineers and their attempts to destroy the Boy Scouts of America. The latest assault in Philadelphia is outrageous and merely the latest attempt by the left to impose "San Francisco" values on the normal and decent.

The left has a long history of hating the Boy Scouts. The ACLU filed the first lawsuit against the Boy Scouts in 1980. This was the beginning of a litany of forays brought against the Boy Scouts. The year 2000 was a particularly brutal year for the scouts. With the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the scouts -- their policy to deny homosexuals access to boys as Scout leaders -- and the real threat George W. Bush would win the 2000 election, the liberals stepped up the attacks on the Boy Scouts:

- The Clinton Administration launched investigations into the Scouts and ties to federal agencies, particularly its relationships with national parks and military installations.

- Al Gore called for a law demanding that the Boy Scouts allow homosexuals in its ranks.

- The city of Los Angeles voted to evict the Boy Scouts from public facilities.

- Broward County's school board also voted to evict 60 troops and Cub Scout packs from its schools.

- Private business Knight-Ridder, Inc. and Levi's stopped funding the scouts.

- United Way chapters also cut off funding for the scouts.

The message was clear: run afoul of the newest preferred minority -- homosexuals -- and you'll be punished.

The situation in the "City of Brotherly (literally) Love" is beyond outrageous.

Addressing more than 30,000 scouts in August 2005, President Bush reminided the scouts that "At times, you may be come across people who say that moral truth is relative, or call a relgious faith a comforting illusion." The President must have been thinking of Philadelphia's city solicitor Romulo Diaz.

The "Cradle of Liberty Council" serves more than 64,000 boys, mostly from the inner-city and fatherless homes (just like many of the kids in my Troop 3115). Since 1928, the council has been headquartered at the Beaux-Arts Building -- a building the Boy Scouts built in 1928 -- for the symbolic sum of $1.00 a year. But because a Boy Scout pledges to live "morally straight" and because the city of Philadelphia has bought into the phony homosexual civil right movement, the Boy Scouts are being threatened with eviciton from their longitme home. Romulo Diaz, an open homosexual and the city solicitor, has given the Cradle of Liberty Council until December 3, 2007 to come up with $200,000.00 -- fair market rent -- or they must vacate the building. Of course, the council could remain, their $1.00 agreement in place, if they give homosexuals access to the council's 64,000 boys.

What an outrage.

Has America not learned a thing from the experience of the Catholic Church and its homosexual priest problem of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s? The U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released the John Jay Report in 2004, and it revealed that 4,392 accusations had been levied against homosexual priests, with most sexual assaults occuring between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. Fully four percent of Catholic priests had engaged in molesting adolescent boys, resulting in millions of dollars being granted to victims via settlements reached in courts across the country. In 2006, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles paid $60 million to settle 45 cases of abuse, only to shell out $660 million in 2007. The Dioceses of Dallas, Boston, Louisville, Orange, and Phoenix all agreed to settle cases in the nine year period between 1997 and 2006 to the tune of $242 million. Because they had lawsuits and trial dates pending, several dioceses -- Portland, Spokane, Tucson, Davenport and San Diego -- filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to save their parishes from financial ruin.

Is this the fate we want the Boy Scouts to suffer?

If you ask the radical homosexuals and their mafia-like backers, the answer is a loud "yes." How dare any organization believe in moral absolutes in this day and age of "secular-progressives" and their gospel where right and wrong are merely matters of interpretation.

Radical homosexuals and their defenders will view the example of the Catholic Church and say the problem was "pedophilia" and not homosexuality. Au contrare, I would add. The overwheliming majority of the complaints in the Catholic Church scandal regarded priests molesting adolescent boys, not young children. Pedophiles like pre-pubescent boys and girls. While NAMBLA -- a prominent member of the homosexual mafia -- might enjoy groping young boys, the homosexual priests preyed upon adolescent boys, young men, if you will.


Romulo Diaz can say, "We will not subsidize...discrimination..." in Philadelphia, but what he really means is, "Unless we homosexuals get a shot at these teenage boys, the Boy Scouts will not be allowed to use city property, no matter what the Supreme Court says."


Joseph Farah of World Net Daily has written extensively of the phony homosexual movement and, in particular, of its hostility towards the Boy Scouts. He poses the following question for all to consider: "Would you rather live in a community populated by the Boy Scouts and Scout leaders or one populated by members of ACT-UP?" Discuss. (Oh, and by the way, don't answer until June 2008