Homosexual Boy Scouts

January 25, 2000

The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the Boy Scouts must allow a homosexual man to lead a scout troop. You know, if I told someone five to ten years ago that this would be a major case before the Supreme Court in the year 2000, I doubt many people would believe it. Perhaps that shows how far down the moral slope this country has slid in the last decade.

The case involves James Dale who was serving as a volunteer adult leader in a troop. He achieved the rank of Eagle Scout when he was a teenager. But the Monmouth Council revoked his registration when he identified himself as a homosexual in a local newspaper interview.

One would think the case would be closed. The Boy Scouts, after all, is a private organization. It is dedicated to high moral principles like purity, abstinence, chastity, etc. James Dale's interview seemed to be a violation of those principles. Case closed.

Wrong.

The New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Boy Scouts were not a private organization, but a "public accommodation" bound by the state's civil rights laws. The Monmouth Council, therefore, must obey the New Jersey laws and ignore the policies of the Boy Scouts, which the court said was "based on little more than prejudice."

At stake is much more than just whether homosexuals can serve as scout leaders. The Boy Scouts argue that their First Amendment rights supersede the public accommodations law of New Jersey. How the court rules will determine whether homosexuals can serve in positions of leadership where character matters, and it will determine if private organizations are truly private. Let's pray that the Supreme Court does the right thing.

I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.