Robert Knight is a senior fellow for the American Civil
Rights Union and a columnist for The Washington Times. He earned his Eagle Scout
badge in Troop 80, Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Twelve years ago, Bryant
Gumbel called me an
(expletive) idiot on CBS‘ “The Early
Show” for defending the
Boy
Scouts after the U.S. Supreme
Court affirmed their
right to uphold moral standards for leaders and
members.
Whether or not you
agree with his unvarnished assessment, I’d like to think most people would
contend he crossed a line.
Though he was caught on
camera saying it, CBS
denied it. Years later, Mr.
Gumbel himself
smugly confirmed it. This is what liberals mean when they lecture us about
keeping a civil tone.
On July 17, the Scouts released a two-year study whose common-sense conclusion
was that it’s still not a good idea to put males who sexually desire other males
into the Scouts as either role models or members. The report followed
the dismissal in April of an openly lesbian Cub Scout
leader.
As in June 2000, liberals exploded in outrage, with the media leading the charge.
“Once again CNN
is cheerleading the fight for gay rights, this time within the Boy
Scouts,” Media Research
Center’s Matt
Hadro reported on July 18.
“An effusive Starting Point panel welcomed gay activist Zach
Wahls on Wednesday and
celebrated his cause of pushing the Boy
Scouts toward
acceptance of openly-gay scouts and leaders.
“Wahls is no stranger to CNN, as back in May he was lauded as a ‘very powerful’
activist during a soft interview. On Wednesday, the CNN
panel oozed admiration for him. ‘I’m a big fan. I’ve followed you for a little
while,’ Starting Point regular Margaret
Hoover told him.
‘You’re a wonderful spokesman for the effort for
equality.’”
Ms.
Hoover is the
media’s idea of a “conservative.”
Later that day, as Mr.
Hadro reported, “anchor
Don
Lemon gave the sappiest of
interviews to former Cub Scout den leader and lesbian Jennifer
Tyrell, booted from the
organization because she is openly gay. Lemon asked saccharine questions like
‘You doing OK?’ and ‘do you feel disrespected?’ and ‘You sound a little sort of
downtrodden.’ Unsurprisingly, no guest was brought on to defend the Boy
Scouts.”
On NBClatino.com, blogger
Esther J.
Cepeda opined, “It’s
obvious that the decision to treat gays as unfit for membership in an
organization that seeks to instill loyalty, friendliness and bravery in their
young charges is far from, in the words of the Scout oath, ‘morally straight.’
But it’s their rope, and it’s up to the Boy
Scouts to decide
whether to use it as a lifeline or a noose.”
I don’t think it’s hard to
figure out which sort of knot many in the media would like to use on the
Boy
Scouts.
My question to them is: What
part of the Jerry Sandusky Penn State molestation convictions don’t you get when
it comes to the Boy
Scouts?
Do you honestly think
boys won’t notice or care if their leader is kissing another man or if a boy who
wants to touch other boys shares their tent? How about a Cub Scout pack leader
who lives openly as a lesbian? Is this a good example for young boys in an
organization expressly created to give them a manly start in life? How does a
woman who rejects being married to a husband and father and instead gives a boy
“two moms” claim to be a suitable person to teach the value of manhood? If you
answer, “She can’t,” you’re a hate-filled bigot.
America got another taste of
liberal intolerance and insanity the past couple of weeks when homosexual
activists and Democratic mayors of several big cities erupted over Chick-fil-A
President Dan
Cathy’s support of
marriage. Mr.
Cathy said in an
interview published by the Baptist Press that he and his company support the
biblical definition of the family unit. The company donates to pro-family
organizations that liberals reflexively label “hate
groups.”
Led by CNN, the media portrayed Mr.
Cathy’s remarks as an
attack on “gay marriage,” even though Mr.
Cathy discussed what
marriage is, not what it isn’t.
The good news is that
Mike Huckabee’s call for pro-family Americans and free-speech lovers to observe
Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day on Aug. 1 was a smash, with long lines around the
fast-food stores. Because Chick-fil-A is privately owned, sales figures are
unavailable, but they went to the moon and back. That should more than offset
any pro-sexual-anarchy boycott or in-your-face
“kiss-in.”
It would be nice if
Americans similarly rose somehow to the defense of the Boy
Scouts. In a July 31 Wall
Street Journal column, “A Century of Eagle Scouts,” Michael S. Malone, author of the new book “Four
Percent,” provides a wonderful reminder of how much the Scouts, founded in 1910, have accomplished and given
back.
Of “more than 115 million
boys who have passed through the Boy Scouts of
America in the last 102
years,” about “2 million have become Eagle Scouts,” Mr. Malone writes.
“Since the mid-1960s, all
Eagle candidates are required, beyond earning the traditional 21 merit badges,
to devise, plan, execute and manage a community-service project. it was only
recently that the National Eagle Scout Association decided to look beyond the
anecdotes and tally up all of the Eagle service projects ever done. It came to
the jaw-dropping total of more than 100 million hours of service. Eagle
Scouts are adding more than 3 million more hours each
year.”
Let’s recap: Chick-fil-A
serves millions of delicious, nutritious chicken meals, unabashedly embraces
Christianity and gives back to communities in numerous ways through its Winshape
Foundation. The Boy
Scouts train
millions of boys in practical skills and the more important value of what it
means to be a man.
No wonder the left has
declared war on them. They know the enemy when they see
it.
Published: Aug. 3, 2012 Updated: Aug. 4, 2012 9:36 a.m.
