ChristiansUnite Forums

Effort underway cites discrimination against atheists, 'gays'


A renewed effort by several members of the American Library Association's governing council would sever all ties with the Boy Scouts of America until the youth organization stops "discriminating" against avowed atheists and homosexuals.

In 1998, the governing council of the ALA, the world's largest library organization, condemned the Boy Scouts over its policies, but a WorldNetDaily investigation reveals activists quietly are planning to take action at the association's annual convention in June.

The renewed effort is led by Mark Rosenzweig, formerly an official archivist with the U.S. Communist Party and a chief defender of Fidel Castro in the ALA controversy over the communist regime's repression of the independent library movement in Cuba.

"It is scary that an organization which purports to believe in free speech and intellectual freedom would take this kind of action," said BSA spokesman Bob Bork. "It is a Soviet-style effort to make us a non-person."

Rosenzweig unveiled his proposal April 9 on the ALA Council e-mail list, declaring, "I am tired of seeing Council pass resolutions which like the previous one on the BSA are never monitored or reported back upon and for which no one takes responsibility."

He was referring to a 1999 ALA resolution, which read: "That the American Library Association urges the Boy Scouts of America to reconsider their policy of discrimination in the areas of sexual orientation and religious belief and demonstrate a commitment to human rights, inclusiveness, and mutual respect."

The BSA's Bork responded: "How could they show such utter disregard to the First Amendment rights of any organization? We have the same rights of freedom of association as the ALA and it is disgusting to think they would disrespect those rights."

Michael Golrick, an ALA council member and city librarian for Bridgeport, Ct., told WND he believes the resolution "will accomplish exactly what the last one did: No changes in BSA policies, and irritated librarians who hold views not shared by the radical left."

Golrick was one of the few council members to publicly object to the 1999 resolution. He wore his Scout uniform to the meeting, prompting ridicule from John Berry III, editor of Library Journal, who called it silly.

"This resolution plays into the hands of critics who take ALA to task for being too liberal," Golrick warned. "If anything, this will turn off many librarians who might otherwise join the organization since it positions ALA in such a left-wing position."

The announcement of the new proposal touched off a long flurry of policy questions and debate on the ALA Council e-mail list in which members from various committees looked into old records to see what is meant by phrases such as "affiliate," "liaison" and "official."

In response to apparent uncertainty about the outcome of the previous resolution, Stephen L. Matthews, a councilor-at-large, said "We still need to hear from ALSC about what is really happening today."

"Whether there is anything happening or not," he then added, "it is important to reiterate our concern to BSA about the destructive nature of their so-called "moral modeling" policy." Matthews said, with little response from fellow councilors, "I wholeheartedly support additional communication with BSA challenging their policy of intolerance and its encouragement of hate and contempt as part of their organizational commitment to 'moral education.'"

The volume and intensity of the response on weblogs, e-mail lists and e-mails to WND shows the issue has struck a chord.

Among the opinions received by WND after querying three library e-mail lists are these:

    * We should be open to working with the Boy Scouts or any organization which does so much to help boys in so many ways. If ALA wants to help the Scouts become more inclusive, they certainly won't do it by severing all contact and shutting them out of our organization. – Carol Simmons, director, Daly City Library, Calif.

    * I am so sick of the ALA speaking for ALL librarians when I believe that they are only speaking for a MINORITY of librarians. I was a Boy Scout leader for 10 years. Boys Scouts is a great organization. The ALA needs to concentrate on library issues and leave the Boy Scouts ALONE!!!!! – Sharon Beever, Maine.

    * "This could turn into a bigger brouhaha than Dr. Laura started, and even teach the Scouts themselves how uptight we are about being liberal – another side of bigotry," wrote a retired California librarian who wished to remain anonymous. "Young people deserve better."

      "Couldn't ALA show the bigger heart and merely proclaim itself disapproving of the BSA stance and continue to help the Scouts in the reading and librarianship business?" she wondered.

    * "I absolutely believe the ALA should take this action, as should all organizations committed to fairness. With its goal of being "a leader in recruiting and developing a highly qualified and diverse library work force," the organization must take actions like the proposed resolution to improve the profession's relationship to diversity." – Liberty Smith.

    * Because the Boy Scouts choose to discriminate within their organization, my family does not support any of their local or national efforts. I would truly appreciate the gesture of ALA breaking all ties with them as well. – Katie O'Dell, reading promotions coordinator, Multnomah County Library, Portland, Ore.

    * "We would be undermining another value – that of inclusivity – that many people love about libraries and by extension ALA. On the other hand our relationships say something about our values, and not making some sort of statement puts us in murky ethical territory – kind of like not divesting in the Sudan or wherever. I wonder if there is some middle ground that preserves the value of inclusivity." University of California librarian.

    * "BSA will not change its policies but ALA can and should." – "Big grandma"

Officially, leaders of the ALA and its divisions appear to be taking a very cautious approach.

Asked the president's opinion and if the executive board had discussed the issue, ALA spokeswoman Larra Clark said, "The ALA executive board is not discussing the BSA matter at this time, but I can let you know if action is taken in the future."

Officials at the Association of Library Services to Children, which has had the most contact with the BSA in the past – and which was criticized most on the council list – did not reply to WND by press time.

cont'd next post

Beth Yoke, executive director of the Young Adult Library Services Association, or YALSA, told WND that if an official resolution "regarding any issue is put before ALA's council, YALSA's board of directors, when it next meets, will discuss the proposed resolution with the intent of coming to a consensus on what direction to provide YALSA's Councilor on how to vote on the resolution."

She also confirmed her group has not received any complaints from ALA members or the public about the informal contacts the ALA maintains with the Scouts.

Librarian and ALA council candidate Greg McClay says the lack of public outcry over the BSA-ALA relationship shows there is "no professional reasoning behind any of this, as libraries serve everyone."

"This is strictly personal politics," he charged, pointing out comments posted on his weblog of ALA councilor K. R. Roberto, who said "Personally, I am rather uncomfortable with the concept of ALA having close ties with an organization that finds me morally unfit."

"And yet this person engages in a discussion to decide if the Boy Scouts are morally fit enough for ALA to have close ties with?" said McClay, a Massachusetts librarian.

While no scientific opinion polls have been take, just this week the ALA's American Libraries Direct online magazine asked the question, "Should the Boy Scouts of America's policy of excluding agnostics, atheists, and gays prohibit libraries from cooperating with the organization in joint programs?"

Forty-Seven percent voted yes while a majority, 53 percent, vote no. There is a difference, however, between this poll and an informal one by WND. The WND question asked only about a resolution that would cut off relations with the BSA; it didn't mention particular libraries.

Even the supporters of the resolution within the ALA have not gone as far as to say libraries themselves should not cooperate with Scouts and Scout troops.

As Rosenzweig wrote to the council list: "Serving the needs of members of the Boy Scouts is one thing, supporting the BSA, Inc. organizationally linking to them is QUITE another."

The AL Direct poll seems to indicate many members are not familiar with the Library Bill of Rights, which forbids viewpoint with respect to collection policy and public use.

"Who are we to tell the Boy Scouts that their philosophies are wrong? Have the Boy Scouts told ALA that they disagree with our stand on certain issues?" asked Evelyn Bell, administrative secretary at the Moreno, Calif., Valley Public Library. "While I don't agree with BSA's stand on atheists and homosexuals, I'm not interested in alienating, as a group, an organization who works at creating good citizens."

In support of her argument not to pass the resolution, Bell cited a policy on tolerance from the BSA website:

"A core value of the BSA is respect. Scouting respects those with ideas and customs that are different from our own and expects the same respect from those who may disagree with Scouting's position. Tolerance for a diversity of values and ideals does not require abdication of one's own values."

"If human rights are the issue let us remove the mask of deception," wrote Nanette Overholt a Library Associate at the Solano, Calif., County Library.

"There is no persecution against the right to be gay that comes from the Boy Scouts of America, but there does seem to be a constant harassment and bullying from the gay community for the Boy Scouts to conform to their beliefs," she complained. "The gay community seems to want to abolish the right and freedom to think differently than themselves."

"Let me leave you with this question: Who is tolerant here?" she ended.

Anthony E. Lee, a professor and librarian at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, agreed in a telephone interview that, "This would be going against their very own principles of liberal openness," not to tolerate the Scouts.

Lee, a longtime BSA and ALA member who has degrees from Seton Hall, Columbia University and Princeton, told WND, "The Boy Scouts of America, ever since I was in scouting in the 1960s, has maintained a stance that is unchanged by the winds of caprice."

"Meaning they are who they have always been – very straight-laced," he added, "And I, being an Eagle Scout and a member of the Order of the Arrow have always backed Scouting in that stance."

"Look, if you don't subscribe to ALA rules you don't have to join," agreed Bork. "There is no 'right' to membership."

But Bork agreed that if discrimination is seen from the standpoint of ALA policies, one could conclude the association has the right, as a private organization, to choose not to associate with the BSA.

"It is a private, non-profit group and it has rights for membership standards," said Bork, "But we would find it insulting if the ALA removed all mention of Scouts from their websites."

The renewed debate over the Boy Scout resolution will come to a head at the ALA annual convention this June in New Orleans when the council can decide to table the resolution, accept or modify it, or recommend that the matter be given further consideration by a relevant committee.

"There will be, if necessary, a floor fight," the resolution sponsor Rosenzweig already has told his fellow council members.

"And this time I hope the majority is not bullied by special interests connected to the BSA," he said.

Golrick warned those same council members: "As a public library director, I know how critical it is to have support throughout the community. The youth of today are the voters of tomorrow. How can [libraries] expect support in the future, if we do not support the youth today."

AMEN

Being involved with the Boy Scouts, they have a standard. That standard shouldn't be lowered because of the few. The Boy Scouts of America, have several programs which help the physcally challenged, and the mentally challenged. 

What the gay activist want is for BSA to drop those programs. Make a new program for scouts that are gay, and for the scouts to pay for these programs. This is from the horses mouth, when we had a gay speaker here. The physcally challenged, and the mentally challenged programs, are paided for by the parents, as all scout programs.

The Boy Scout program is a great program. I know cause I am an Eagle Scout.

Librarians debate Boy Scouts affiliation
Pending resolution would sever all ties with group due to 'discrimination'

The resurrection of on old issue in the American Library Association with respect to libraries' relationships with the Boy Scouts of America has set off a vigorous new debate among librarians about sexual politics, First Amendment rights and "discrimination" based on sexual preference.

As WorldNetDaily reported, the controversy over whether or not the 65,000-member ALA should end all organizational contact with the Boy Scouts came to light after it was reported that even though there is no public pressure to revisit the issue, one of the Association's most-controversial leaders has entered a new resolution for the group to vote on this June at its annual convention.

The fact that the primary mover behind this latest effort to censure the Scouts, ALA Council member Mark Rosenzweig, is a proponent of sexual liberation for children is likely to spark even more heated discussions.

In an internal e-mail published by WorldNetDaily in 2000, Rosenzweig wrote that "The worst thing in life, even for a kid, is NOT exposure to the image of naked people, or even people screwing, blowing, licking, humping (or) having sex with animals, etc. …"

He said that progressives within the ALA should urge the Association to take the position that that while "pollution," "war and mass violence," "adult ignorance" and attempts to contain the curiosity of kids is bad for children," "so-called pornography" rated "nowhere."

A spokesperson for the BSA on legal issues, Bob Bork, said that the e-mail "speaks for itself" and that the Scouts "really wouldn't want to comment on it."

But Hans Zeiger, WND columnist, Eagle Scout and the author of the book "Get Off My Honor," told WorldNetDaily Rosenzweig "wants to define 'liberty' as doing whatever one pleases to do, as does the ACLU and many other Boy Scout critics."

"His efforts, if successful, would produce not 'liberty,' but a kind of slavish existence," said Zeiger, who believes that the "Boy Scout oath is one of the best examples of personal responsibility and self-government ever written."

But supporters of the effort to sever even informal ties with the Scouts say that what is at issue is not one person's stated opinions, but the question of whether or not the ALA is violating it's own policies by providing services to the Boy Scouts on a national level.

"True, not every Boy Scout agrees fully with the organization's policies in some areas," said Diedre Conkling, a librarian from Oregon who seconded the Rosenzweig resolution. "The issue is, is our association affiliating in any way with another organization that blatantly promotes discrimination in policy."

Conkling is also a member of the ALA's Social Responsibilities Round Table, as are the majority of the current supporters of this effort. For several years, vocal critics within and without the group have said the SRRT acts like a Stalinist front that works to steer the ALA on a left-wing course, without the general membership being aware of the shift.

Even Bork agrees that from the point of view of ALA policies on "sexual orientation" the youth organization "discriminates," and the BSA's own website uses similar language, saying, "No court case has ever held that Boy Scouts discriminates unlawfully."

"So we are selective," responds Bork, "But discrimination is in the eye of the beholder."

At the time of first ALA resolution, in 1999, the case of Boy Scouts v. Dale was still in the courts, but soon after that the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the First Amendment "right to associate with others in pursuit of a wide variety of political, social, economic, educational, religious and cultural ends."

The high court emphasized: "This right is crucial in preventing the majority from imposing its views on groups that would rather express other, perhaps unpopular, ideas. ... Forcing a group to accept certain members may impair the ability of the group to express those views, and only those views, that it intends to express."

With the renewed debate among ALA members and councilors, many are asking if there have been or should be any policy changes on the part of the Association of Library Services to Children, or ALSC, a division within the ALA which has the most contact with Scout troops and officials.

In response to a request from WorldNetDaily for clarification, ALSC spokeswoman Kathy Toon said that the relationship with the Scouts was "informal" and does not violate any existing policies.

"For the past several years our relationship with the BSA is no different from those we have with many other youth-serving organizations who contact ALSC for information," said Toon, in a statement. "We provide information in the form of age-appropriate booklists in requested subjects," and "specifically for BSA, we assist with merit badge pamphlets in subjects such as cooking, hiking, traffic safety and auto mechanics."

She also said that the ALSC maintains a liaison person with the BSA that is available for contact with the organization if it has library or information-related needs.

When contacted by WorldNetDaily, the contact liaison, Alice Neve, said, "As liaison I have had only a few contacts in the last year and cannot base any comments on those few interactions," in terms of policy debates.

Those members of the ALA's Governing Council who do favor the Rosenzweig resolution say that even the mere fact of having an informal liaison, or other mentions of the Boy Scouts on the ALA website, are tacit approvals of the BSA's discriminatory policies.

After the Council passed the 1999 resolution, then-ALA president, Ann Symons, wrote a letter to Chief Scout Executive Jere Ratcliff, in which she urged the Scouts "to reconsider its policy of discrimination in the areas of sexual orientation and religious belief, and to demonstrate a commitment to human rights, inclusiveness and mutual respect."

One question council member critics wanted to know from the leadership recently is if the BSA ever responded to that letter. Bork admitted that in fact the group never did formally respond to the letter, a fact likely to invigorate BSA opponents.

In the 1999 letter to the BSA, a copy of which was provided by the ALA, the group reaffirmed the "responsibility librarians have to provide library services equitably to all children regardless of their affiliation," but it also said that the "ALA considers homophobia and religious intolerance" to be among the "critical problems" the library group had a "social responsibility to help ameliorate."

In relation to the First Amendment free exercise of religion issue, Bork complained that such attitudes as those in the letter are based on a "fundamental misunderstanding" among those critics who think the group is a church or religious organization.

cont'd

"We are not a public utility, and there is no mandatory requirement that members belong to a certain religious group," he pointed out, "only that they can say in good faith that they uphold the Scout oath." "We are a private, voluntary organization, and the people who join it believe in a common sense of values," Bork added. "We don't tell them which God to believe in; it is left up to them and their parents."

Stated Werner A. Lind, assistant library director at Virginia's Bluefield College: "Look, if 'discrimination' were really the issue, the ALA should also be demanding that American Atheists put theists in leadership positions, and that NAMBLA admit heterosexual critics of homosexual activity to membership."

"If those condemning the Boy Scouts for 'discrimination' have problems extending their supposed principle of 'openness' to people they themselves disagree with," he said, "perhaps it's time for them to re-evaluate the logic behind the principle."

The references to NAMBLA and child pornography in this debate are troubling to many in the ALA who felt frustrated in recent years when, they say, some in the media and most conservatives misrepresented the group's First Amendment objections to library filters as the equivalent of promoting access to pornography for children.

The group has always officially been clear to state that any violations of laws specifically meant to protect children from pornography and other sex-related crimes should be prosecuted.

What individuals or individual groups within the ALA say, however, while not policy statements, are often at odds with national policy, and the cause of internal and public controversy.

For example, WorldNetDaily has learned it was also Rosenzweig who gave an SRRT award to a librarian in 1999 who edited the book "The Age Taboo," which was used by NAMBLA to promote sex between men and boys.

The award-winner was librarian Daniel Tsang, and his book was cited by a homosexual writer as a "defense of pedophilia which claims: 'Boy-lovers ... are not child molesters. The child abusers are ... parents who force their staid morality onto the young people in their custody.'"

More important for the current debate is likely to be the opinions of ALA members who have joined in the fray anew.

Several librarians, including some on the Council list, have expressed conflicted emotions because they have family members who have had great experiences in the Scouts, yet they also feel adamant that the BSA's membership policies must change.

Barbara Genco, a past president of ALSC from Brooklyn, N.Y., said that her son answered "unequivocally" when she asked him if he would join the Scouts all over again.

"He is entering Union Theological in the fall and is convinced that there is always room to work within any seemingly entrenched organization in order to effect real and lasting change," she wrote on the Council e-mail list.

Cynthia Wood, a librarian and longtime Scout troop leader, from Hancock, Maine, extols the Scouts for the kind of character and community-building the organization is famous for, but said she and her Congregational church have often complained to Scout officials higher-up about the longstanding policies.

"So, while I am an active Scouter," she said, "I would be happy to see the BSA receive a public rebuke for their immoral position regarding homosexuals."

Others, running 2-to-1 in responses to WorldNetDaily inquiries, are appalled at the new effort to sanction and sever services to the Scouts.

"While so many librarians complain about boys and their interests (or lack thereof) in reading, I think it would certainly be a shame to discontinue the bond forged between the Boy Scouts of America and ALA," said Ben Pastcan, and Eagle Scout who works in Sacramento's Public Library. "There is not only a reading merit badge in Boy Scouts, but Boy Scouts are given the option of being a librarian as a position in their troop."

"This resolution says, in effect, that Christians are by definition against human rights since their beliefs exclude atheism, and any organization which tries to maintain Christian values would thereby be excluded," wrote Chris Cicchetti, an associate professor of Library Science at the University of La Verne, Calif.

Yet others take a more practical approach, hoping the ALA can somehow avoid an angry showdown over the issue, which would hurt Scouts in the process.

"I would hate to see us discriminate against a wholesome and worthwhile group for boys," said Mary House, a California librarian. "Most of the elementary age scouts don't even know what homosexuality and/or atheism is and, if they do, they don't care."

"Let's not penalize the youth because we (adults/librarians) are so concerned about being politically correct," she added. "Let's keep our doors open to this important groups of children and youth."