Editorial

THE SCOUTS AND THE CITY

The American Civil Liberties Union is giving the city [Chicago] a chance to save taxpayer money: It warns it will file suit next week over the city's agreement with the Boy Scouts of America.

At issue is city sponsorship of Boy Scout programs. While acknowledging the value of these programs to at-risk inner-city youth, the ACLU correcly asserts that Chicago cannot contract with an organization that discriminates on the basis of religious belief and sexual orientation.

In signing a Boy Scouts of America charter, the city agrees to follow BSA policies. One is that Explorer Scouts, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts and their leaders must adhere to the BSA's "declaration of religious principle." Also, the organization will not permit "avowed homosexuals" to be BSA members or leaders. The city's response is lame: "It's unfortunate that the ACLU is choosing to challenge a program that provides mentoring to inner-city youths and minorities."

Certainly there is value in programs such as the one in the corporation counsel's office designed to introduce high school juniors and seniors interested in legal careers to lawyers and judges. But no government can enter into any agreement that requires it to discriminate against any of its citizens. Chicago should not fight this losing battle. So these scouting programs must go -- even though it remains to be seen whether the city can replace them as easily as the ACLU maintains it can.

The ACLU's secondary goal, of course, is aimed at getting the BSA to abandon its discriminatory requirements. While discrimination is inappropriate for government, a private group can do as it pleases. By the ACLU's own count, nearly two-thirds of the 600 scouting posts, troops and packs in the Chicago area are operated by religious organizations. They find a lot to like in the Boy Scouts' position that a "recognition of God" is necessary to build "the best type of citizenship."