If Boy Scouts’ position shifts, it will be a seismic cultural change indeed. Moreover, it will affect hundreds of thousands of boys who have gone through the program and are yet to. Relationships to affiliated groups, such as churches and other local organizations, will be forever altered as well, especially since more than 70 percent of Boy Scouts units are chartered to faith-based organizations.
Moreover, a change here will set a poor example to other groups which are presently standing for something in specific, rather than caving in to the politically correct pressure that beckons them to embrace everything and stand for nothing in particular.
The Boy Scouts will no longer be what it has been for decades if it accedes to the demands of others. Once it accedes, far from making peace, it will only open itself and the local councils to continued and more aggressive attacks.
This is a war the Boy Scouts of America didn’t launch. Yet since it has been launched against them, it’s one that they must win from the high ground of the Supreme Court victory (Dale) and the constitutionality of association.
A victory here will be a victory for current scouts as well as generations of scouts to come. This has nothing to do with what the Boy Scouts are against, but everything to do with what they are for.
David Cortman is senior counsel, vice president of religious liberty, at Alliance Defending Freedom (www.alliancedefendingfreedom.org).
By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
