Ethics

Obama Urged to Reject Honorary Boy Scout Title

By Ed Brayton

A group of organizations led by the American Humanist Association has sent a letter to Obama urging him to reject the honorary leadership role offered to every American president on the basis of their avowed discrimination against gays and the non-religious.

The American Humanist Association, in conjunction with 18 other nontheistic (atheist and agnostic) organizations, sent a letter today to President-Elect Barack Obama urging him to decline the title and role of honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America. BSA policy is to deny the participation of nontheistic members and employees and expel those already involved. Thus the letter asks Obama to break with tradition because taking on the title of honorary president would send a message that discrimination against atheists and agnostics is acceptable. "President-elect Obama was himself raised by a mother whom he described as a secular humanist, a remarkable woman who was very much a religious skeptic," said AHA President David Niose. "As such, he surely realizes that, if he were to accept the current Boy Scout standard, he would be endorsing discrimination against the same value system under which he was raised."

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on January 20, 2009 (boomark / email).