Posted by Hemant Mehta in Ben points out that a Boy Scout group in Alaska is about to get nearly $1,000,000 worth of federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Both HUD and White House websites have rules that say no grant-receiving group can discriminate against anyone who wants to use the service.
If our organization receives Federal funds, can it choose not to provide services to some people?
No. If you take Federal money you may not discriminate against a person seeking help who is eligible for the service. For example, if you are a religious organization and receive public money to run an emergency food distribution program, you may not serve only persons of your faith and turn away others. In addition, and as discussed above, you may not require those you serve to profess a certain faith or participate in religious activities, in order to receive the service you provide for the Federal government.
But if the Boy Scouts of America continues to kick out gays and atheists, they’d be doing just that.
Possummomma has problems with this, too:
…why not give the money to the Girl Scouts? The Girl Scouts do not discriminate against anyone. The Boy Scouts, however, do…and do so openly. Why, then, are they receiving FEDERAL MONIES to build this camp? I liken it to giving an LDS stake the funds to build a stakehouse or the Catholic Church a fellowship hall. Since when is it okay for the United States government to pay for exclusive clubs? No matter what your position is on god(s) or religion, this is not right…
If the BSA wants to fund their own programs, so be it. Our tax money shouldn’t be used to help a group that willingly kicks out those who have a different religious view or sexual orientation.
You can contact HUD and report the potential abuse by going here.
[tags]atheist, athiesm[/tags]
I don’t know if that’s a true assumption - “grant-receiving group can discriminate against anyone who wants to use the service.” Pretty sure I’m too old to join the boy or girl scouts, i can’t go to public school (age discrimination?) I can’t seem to get any help from welfare… (wealth discrimination?) and can’t seem to get the pain meds I want… (what, now i’m being discriminated because I’m healthy?) They won’t let me play on the local high school basketball team - it really sucks… I don’t get any money from homeless shelters… they tell me to go back to my house… but for better or worse, there is obvious discrimination that takes place. The real question is of he nature of that discrimination.
Reported, and spreading the word.
Thanks for the links and information.
Wouldn’t this constitute a fraud the moment they BSA organization applied for federal funds? They do know they are discriminating and still applying it sounds like attempt to defraud.
They may be able to skirt the discrimination issue if they open the camp to all groups who wish to use it. Then the camp wouldn’t be discriminating, even though the BSA still does.
Sweet Christmas, I despise the Mormons’ stranglehold on the BSA. If it weren’t for them my happy memories of boyhood wilderness savagery would still be untainted by the realities of religious bigotry.
I could be wrong but I seem to recall hearing or reading that the BSA has an out of sorts via a congressional act sometime ago, so that although they are officially a private organization they are also recognized as a government agency., something like that. They get to have their cake and eat it too. (I think maybe I heard it on Penn & Teller’s “Bullshit!” program.
severalspeciesof, I have that episode of Bullsh-t at home and remember that but I thought it was just recognition of them but I don’t know if that gives them the loophole to avoid receiving federal funds while discriminating. I’ll have to watch it tonight to see. Our Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, just came out with a new book on how great the BSA is and how bad the ACLU is for suing them. Yeah, that darn Constitution making life fair for atheists and gays.
You can be a scout leader. Public school graduate? You got your public education but you can go to public university. You can get welfare if you need it and won’t be discriminated against if you need it. Your doctor will prescribe necessary meds. You can try out for a NBA team and make the team if you are good enough. You can stay at a homeless shelter if you are in line early enough and weather conditions determine it needs to be open. The nature of the discrimination of the BSA? Superstitious bigotry.
All religions, and Atheists are allowed in scouting. The misconception stems from the fact that many scout troops are sponsored by religious organizations. In this case, you can easily find another sponsoring organization that is not affiliated with a church/temple/mosque.
After contacting HUD headquaters in DC about this issue I got this response:
This and my original message was all that was included.
Thanks, Stogoe, I had no idea that the mormons were behing the BSA’s discriminatory policies. No wonder that what is a fine group in the rest of the world is in the crapper here.
If anyone else in interested in the history, I found this article which seems to be a fairly factual and impartial account of where the BSA went wrong.
By ‘impartial’ I mean that it mentions as well some christian organizations that oppose the BSA’s discriminatory practices against gays and have tried to get the BSA to change its policies. It doesn’t mention anything about atheists, but then the article is about what the BSA has against the gay community, so the author probably considered it a side issue.
It is worse than just the BSA.
Some overtly religious groups are targets of earmarks for HUD and other agencies.
The Americans United for Separation of Church and State has protested many of them. I’m involved with the American Humanists in opposing another.
The AU letter can be seen here:
http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=9679
And the actual list of earmarks can be seen here:
http://www.rules.house.gov/110/text/omni/jes/jesdivk.pdf
I don’t know for certain that it’s just the Mormons, or them at all. It’s just what I’ve oft heard repeated in BSA discussions - that there are a ton of Mormon boy scouts and troops, and upsetting them enough to make them leave (i.e, by allowing atheists and/or gays to join and participate) would be a bad thing for the organization.
Stogoe, it’s not just a rumor,and it’s not a vague fear of upsetting them. This quote is from that article I linked to before, from 2000:
The other biggest sponsor is the catholic church. Churches are a major source of both funding and other support. And yes, there are welcoming and tolerant churches out there who protest the restriction and would be happy to see the BSA include the gay community, but those aren’t the major sources of their funding.
Is it any wonder they ban both gays and atheists?
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