Support Atheist Eagle Scout
Demerit Badge for Seattle Boy Scouts
October 31, 2002
Please show support for Darrell Lambert, the Seattle-area Eagle Scout who is being kicked out of Boy Scouts for being an atheist, despite his exemplary record. Send a letter or email to one or more of the contacts below.
To read more about it first, go to:
"Atheist Scout Fights Decision to Boot Him"
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=boyscout29m&date=20021029
"Scout Has Week to Declare Belief"
http://www.msnbc.com/news/828765.asp
"Scouting for All" news release
http://www.scoutingforall.org/aaic/2002102901.shtml
Glen Schmidt, local District Committee chair, has been quoted saying:
"I ask scouts during the training if they believe in god and if they don't I boot them out. In order for scouts to become good citizens they must believe in god. Anybody that doesn't believe in god isn't a good citizen, and that if an atheist found a wallet on the ground they would pick it up, plunder the money and throw the wallet back on the ground."
District Scout Executive Toby Estes has been quoted as saying, "Darrell, scouting will be less without you, but it was the right thing to kick you out. It is not discrimination, it is policy. Scouts have been kicking atheists out for years and we are a private organization. Darrell, it was also a mistake you received your Eagle Award."
Brad Farmer, Council Scout Executive, Seattle area, reportedly told Darrell in a phone conversation that he was not welcome in Scouts because he does not believe in a god.
Contact any of these BSA officials at:
Chief Seattle Council - Boy Scouts of America
PO Box 440408
Seattle WA 98114-4408
Phone 206/725-5200, FAX 206/723-4330
You can also send a letter to the editor on this subject to your own local daily, or to Seattle-area newspapers. To aid chances of publication, send brief letters and include full name, address and phone number(s).
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
PO Box 1909
Seattle WA 98119-4220
email: editpage@seattlepi.com
Seattle Times
PO Box 70
Seattle WA 98109
email: opinion@seattletimes.com
The newspaper closest to the area where the Eagle Scout lives is the Bremerton Sun:
The Sun PO Box 259 Bremerton WA 98337 To email the editor: sware@thesunlink.com
Other background information on BSA discrimination against nonreligious boys and families can be found at "The Boy Scouts Practice Discrimination":