The disgraceful ACLU

Time and again, the ACLU takes on faith in the public sphere, attempting to relegate religious expressions to within the four walls of a church. It has now done it again. In the past, the Pentagon had permitted military bases to sponsor Boy Scout troops. The Boy Scouts, as you may recall from their Supreme Court case in 2000, is a private association that is nonetheless federally chartered. The Boy Scout oath is as follows: "On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight." The general mission of the Scouts is "to instill values in young people."

The ACLU objected, claiming that DoD sponsorship of Scout troops constituted government officials administering a religious oath, and filed a lawsuit that includes several other challenges. DoD has reached an agreement with the ACLU that it will inform all of its military bases around the world to stop direct sponsorship of Scout troops. "If our Constitution's promise of religious liberty is to be a reality, the government should not be administering religious oaths or discriminating based upon religious beliefs," claimed an ACLU spokesman. It is sad that the Pentagon has hardly even put up a fight on behalf of the right of the bases to sponsor Scout troops.

The Scout oath recognizes that there is a God; so does the Declaration of Independence, with its statement that we "are endowed by [our] Creator with certain inalienable rights." Which of our traditions will the ACLU attempt to assault next? Our currency? The Pledge of Allegiance (they will have to get in line behind Michael Newdow)?

This is the same ACLU that has represented NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association. NAMBLA (whose site I will not link to) states that its "goal is to end the extreme oppression of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships by: building understanding and support for such relationships; educating the general public on the benevolent nature of man/boy love; cooperating with lesbian, gay, feminist, and other liberation movements; [and] supporting the liberation of persons of all ages from sexual prejudice and oppression."

Explaining why it represented NAMBLA, the ACLU stated, "[w]hat we do advocate is robust freedom of speech. This lawsuit strikes at the heart of freedom of speech. The defense of freedom of speech is most critical when the message is one most people find repulsive." In defense of NAMBLA, the ACLU asked a court to "dismiss what it calls an "unconstitutional" lawsuit against a national pedophile organization being sued in a wrongful death case after two of the group's members brutally raped and murdered a 10-year-old boy."

To recap: the ACLU is willing to defend the rights of pedophiles to engage in illicit conduct, but continues to wage its assault on the Boy Scouts, who are trying "to instill values in young people." The ACLU's animus toward the Boy Scouts stems no doubt from the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision stating that, as a private organization, the Scouts could not be compelled to accept as a scoutmaster an individual whose lifestyle contradicted Scout policies. What disgusting priorities.