ACLU/gays/atheists - do I have your attention yet?

A week or two ago I entered a short article about the ACLU sueing the City of
Chicago over being a chartering organization, mainly because of Explorer
Posts, partly because of the supposed prejusice against gays and atheists and
Scouting. (IMHO, we are not "prejudiced against" these people, we only feel
that they need our concerns and prayers rather than be in charge of our sons
and daughters in our program.)

At that time I asked NOT to raise any discussion, however the story grows. We
now also have the atheists in the form of Rob Sherman attacking Northwest
Suburban Council on the same basis. (See DAILY HERALD - published in
Chicago's Northwest and Western Suburbs, 6/20/97 Suburbs section, "Des pite
village ties, Explorer Scouts ban atheist" by Ron McKee, Herald Staff
writer.) We refused membership to Sherman's son, Richard, bec ause he
crossed out the phrases "trust in God" and "be faithful in my religious
duties" on his application.

Allow me to point out that Rob's son was present six or so years ago at the
press meeting where his father protested his membership in cubbing being
denied. Those of us present and there mainly for the show heard the boy state
outright something along the lines of "I don't know why my father is doing
this, I never wanted to be a Cub Scout anyway." We called reporters we knew
to the back ofthe room and had him repeat the statement while his father took
questions. None of those statements were ever reported, to my knowledge,
while the court case dad brought ran the press over Scouting in the area for
months. And when Mr. Sherman failed in the Northwest suburbs, he found a
similar situation in the Western suburbs and got press all over again as he
supported the family in a losing fight that went to Appeal and still lost.

His losses at that time apparently taught him much, however. His protests are
that public facilities were being used by a private organization with leaders
supplied by the village; that BSA is not a private organization because it is
chartered by congress. And this time his son apparently sat with him and
claims the following: He attended six meetings while trying to decide to join
after his father saw the Explorers doing traffic control and other things at
some suburban festival; that he decided to join _even though after his
previous experience he probably knew what the outcome would be_; and
Sherman's son maintains that this time HE was adament in stressing his lack
of belief in God and that his father showed him what parts of the application
to cross out.

For Cub Packs and Troops chartered to churches, schools, PTO's, and other
groups this may not seem like anything to be concerned about. But I must
stress that it involves us all since one victory in the courts over Scouting
over anything on these lines will affect school and PTO charters eventually.
Thus pushing the number of organizations that will support units ever smaller
and smaller.

I still do not wish to discuss this publicly, especially since the
information I posted FOR INFORMATION ONLY brought me two responses anyway -
one attacking the idea of the ACLU case and the other being a Scouter who
supported the ACLU's position in the case. I must now state that those
responses were neither of help to me in trying to help the units I work with
- mainly Posts at this time - in handling the problems we see developing for
our many units chartered to fire and police departments, plus state's
attorneys and other government agencies. The person who attacked the ACLU
supports my overall view, but he sent only a brief comment. The person who
supported the ACLU apparently has no concept of the number of chartering
organizations and units the ACLU's case could destroy.

I point out the details of this second case because at this time, having
discussed girls joining in California, having gone through the "if you don't
like the standards why not start your own organization or support the
organizations that exist that allow you to do as you please and leave our
private organization alone" discussion, we all need to look at what is
happening and the continuing attacks and bad press, as opposed to good
publicity about Scouting and change our view of the papers and reporters. We
need to publicize EVERYTHING we do and announce every name and every award
and every service project and every Eagle project and _every_ event in the
very best possible light so that there is public support of Scouting as a
whole and so that it is not viewed as "some private organization for a bunch
of people who wear uniforms" but as "the group that Jimmy down the street
belongs to and that does such nice things for our town". If anyone doesn't
believe that, imagine the fact that 4 columns in Friday's paper almost made
_me_ (the man who snips out every Scouting article he can find, you never
know when you need a reference, and laminates them for protection) miss
completely TWO FULL PAGES of press on the same council's Jamboree troop and
its preparations for that event just a day or two later (true, I'm working
through two days and four papers, but the headline went right by me since
this little article depressed my attitude from a Webelos Weekend with my #2
son, but still...).

For that reason I write this long, rambling mess at a _very_ late hour (hey,
you're all probably up doing Scouting stuff now too!) telling you that, if
you did not look at the National Association of Presbyterian Scouters
website, www.pcusa.org/pcusa/scouters, consider doing so in a week or so. I'm
rushing into getting an article with suggestions on how to get publicity.
It's the first page of three we hoped to include eventually anyways and these
pages have been used in several councils now to improve press.

Originally put together by myself for my Troop's use (we had full pages in
the local paper of our Philmont trip, with photos, and also the full cover
photo and another inside page on an Eagle project before I was through),
they've been turned into general forms that teach anyone (even your Troop
Scribe!) to write a press release.

In the meanwhile, all of you units with only websites, consider putting out
the newsletter again and make sure a copy gets to all of the local papers and
also to the local churches and schools. Publicity in a church bulletin
("Congratulations to Timmy for making First Class Scout") and the like can
offset this bad news effect faster than anything else by making Scouting
personal in your community, and the few extra stamps it will cost you now
will be worth much more to the boys and girls who continue to receive Scoutng
because the program is seen as more important than the results of people like
Sherman.

I rest my case. Discuss it as you wish, but don't drag me into it any deeper.
BUT GET OUT THERE AND SPREAD THE WORD TO EVERY UNIT: _PUBLICITY_ _IS_ _THE_
_KEY!_ And since I first started setting up all of this after a RT
commissioner brought it up about 7 years ago, and this is the "electronic
roundtable", I'm spreading the word. I _will_ answer questions about how to
get publicity, if anyone has any.

Tom Petrik

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