WASHINGTON--This summer, an estimated 40,000 Boy Scouts and their leaders will take to the 76,000 acres of land at Fort A.P. Hill to do some-thing traditionally American: They will go camping. The Boy Scout Jamboree at A.P. Hill is a quadrennial gathering of Scouts and a celebration of what is good in America.
In these trying times, I think we can all agree that institutions like the Boy Scouts, and the sight of 40,000 young men camping together under the Scouts' instilled ethic of hard work and civic virtue, are welcome additions to our current times.
That is, of course, unless you are the American Civil Liberties Union. Unfortunately, the ACLU has once again set its sights on Boy Scouts as if it were poison in the well of American culture.
This combativeness toward this American institution rests upon a single premise: The Boy Scouts acknowledges God. So in the eyes of the ACLU and their legion of lawyers, the federal government can no longer acknowledge the Boy Scouts.
Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts of America has become the ACLU's next sacrificial lamb in the organization's effort to rid the recognition of God from the public square.
Over the past several years, the ACLU has supported a number of initiatives aimed at destroying the Boy Scouts' relationship with the federal government, and the Boy Scouts in general.
The organization has now entered litigation against the Boy Scouts in an effort to end the longstanding relationship between the Boy Scouts and the U.S. military. The problem, as the ACLU sees it, is that the Boy Scouts requires its members to take an oath that reads, in part, "to do my duty to God and my country." That's it.
Never mind that the Supreme Court asks that "God save the United States and this honorable court," or that our national currency reads, "In God we trust," or that the military and congressional oaths of office end with "so help me God."
No, to the ACLU, this simple acknowledgment of God by young men is reason to sever a nearly 100-year-old relationship between the Boy Scouts and federal government.
I have introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to protect the Boy Scouts from efforts to end the relationship between it and the Pentagon. This measure, the Support Our Scouts Act of 2005, simply removes any doubt that federal agencies may welcome Scouts to hold meetings and go camping on federal property.
This legislation is the companion bill to Senate legislation offered by Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. Additionally, the act clarifies that federal law does not compel a federal agency from providing less support to Scouts than the agency has in the past, such as in hosting the National Jamboree for Scouts and leaders.
The legislation will ensure that the Boy Scouts is treated fairly by guaranteeing its right to equal access to public facilities, forums, and programs, and will clarify federal law so that the Boy Scouts of America will receive the same amount of support from the federal government as any other nonprofit youth organization in this country, including the right to continue the Boy Scout Jamboree at A.P. Hill.
The Department of Defense has every right to support the activities of the Boy Scouts of America, and this legislation will protect this important relationship. This relationship between the Scouts and DoD should not be manipulated by an extreme group bent on pursuing a political agenda.
The National Jamboree is an incomparable opportunity for training our military, and it would be a detriment to our armed services and to the Boy Scouts to jeopardize it by frivolous lawsuits. Since 1937, the Boy Scouts has held the National Jamboree; six jamborees have taken place at Fort A.P. Hill since 1981.
This relationship between DoD and the Boy Scouts of America is a mutually beneficial partnership, as many former Scouts choose to join the ranks of our nation's armed forces. This relationship must not be severed because the ACLU objects to an oath before God.
The ACLU will claim that its legal complaint is not with the Boy Scouts, but with the relationship that the Scouts has with the government. The ACLU will say that, in fact, the Boy Scouts has the right to exist as an organization. Yet actions by the ACLU contradict this.
The ACLU is using litigation to force the Boy Scouts and similar groups to compromise their values and missions. The Boy Scouts has the right to exist as long as it adheres to the political agenda of the ACLU, the thinking goes, and in this case, that thinking includes running God out of the institution.
So that is where matters stand today--political extremism using the courts to knock down more of our nation's social and moral pillars. The ACLU uses legalspeak to, in essence, prevent the Boy Scouts from exercising the most decent and morally redeeming mission: an allegiance to God.
In a time of uncertainty and angst, our nation's young people face more challenges than ever before.
As a parent and concerned citizen, I have seen the temptations and dangers that meet our children every day of their lives. I have seen the decisions that they must make, and I have seen the repercussions of poor decisions.
Yet here is a refuge, an institution that teaches civility, friendship, loyalty, honor, and character. It is an institution that encompasses all that is good in society: faith, family, and country. The Boy Scouts of America has made a lasting contribution to America, and the partnership between the Pentagon and the Boy Scouts has played an important role in this contribution.
The ACLU will say that it is not looking to destroy the Boy Scouts--it just wants to end the relationship between the Scouts and the government. Yet this is the very same relationship that the government has with several nonprofit youth groups throughout the country.
The difference? The ACLU has an opportunity to use one of America's greatest institutions as a political football in the group's overall agenda to rid God and the existence of religion from public life.
The ACLU's attack on the Boy Scouts is just another step on this slippery slope.
JO ANN DAVIS, a Republican, represents Virginia's 1st congressional district, which includes much of the Fredericksburg area.