The Bethlehem Affirmation

An Open Letter to the Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America

 
September 26, 1998 

Mr. Jere B Ratcliffe
Chief Scout Executive
Boy Scouts of America
P.O. Box 152079
Irving, TX 75015-2079

Dear Mr. Ratcliffe:

Given the Boy Scouts of America's recent unholy alliance with the Religious Right and its corresponding crusade against the Unitarian-Universalists, I would like to clarify exactly what my subscription to the Declaration of Religious Principle - with its affirmation regarding duty to God - means.

Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines the word "God", in its primary sense, as "the supreme or ultimate reality". As I believe in, honor, and respect ultimate reality - though I see no necessity to use the word "God" to refer to that reality - I subscribe to the Declaration of Religious Principle.

And as I take seriously my duty to conform my thoughts and actions to ultimate reality, I subscribe to the Declaration of Religious Principle.

I also respect the absolutely non-sectarian character of the Boy Scouts of America regarding the nature of that ultimate reality. As this absolutely nonsectarian character mandates acceptance of Scouters holding pantheistic or atheistic models regarding the nature of that reality no less than for those holding theistic models, I subscribe to the Declaration of Religious Principle.

Scouters do not owe the BSA an inventory of their religious beliefs warranting their subscription to the Declaration of Religious Principle. But given the BSA's propensity for interpreting "duty to God" in sectarian terms, it is important that the Boy Scouts of America understand that this affirmation provides my sole personal justification for my subscription to the Declaration of Religious Principle.

Specifically, theistic Judeo-Christian connotations comfortable to the BSA and its allies of the Religious Right - including those portraying God as separate from the world, intentional, male and a dispenser of "favors and blessings" in the manner of a feudal lord - are irrelevant to my membership in the BSA and are, therefore, explicitly excluded from my subscription.

Sincerely,

William Bekkenhuis
Member, Boy Scouts of America

[Note: Sent by Certified Mail to the Boy Scouts of America on September 26, 1998]

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Bill Bekkenhuis

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