Boy Scouts and Failure of Moral Courage

[DAVID E. BERNSTEIN]

One point that I have not seen mentioned anywhere in the entire Boy
Scouts debate is the failure of moral courage among the liberal churches
that oppose the Boy Scouts policy but sponsore troops.  They are
perfectly content to file an amicus brief, but apparently not brave or
committed enough to engage in what would obviously be the ideal, civil
society-ish way of dealing with the Boy Scouts' policy: threatening,
collectively, to quit the Boy Scouts and form their own similar youth
organizations if the Boy Scouts won't change it's policy.  Talk is
cheap, and amicus briefs are pretty cheap.  Is there any reason to think
that the Scouts wouldn't fold if they risked losing a significant
percentage of their members, not to mention the mainstream
respectability the churches give them (note: The churches wouldn't need
to insist that no Boy Scout troops discriminate against gays, only that
their troops, and troops sponsored by like-minded groups, wouldn't be
required to discriminate).

David E. Bernstein
Associate Professor
George Mason University
School of Law
3401 N. Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 993-8089
dbernste at wpgate.gmu.edu
<http://members.aol.com/deliotb/home.html>