AREA SCOUT LEADERS ARE RELIEVED BY COURT RULING

Benjamin Lewis was relieved by Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Boy Scouts' ban on homosexuals serving as troop leaders.

"It means that it is a private organization, and we have a right to determine who can be a member of the organization," said Lewis, who grew up in Scouting.

The Cape Girardeau lawyer was a Cub Scout and later a Boy Scout. Today, he is a Cubmaster for Pack 8 in Cape Girardeau.

In a 5-4 decision, the nation's high court said Wednesday forcing the Scouts to accept homosexual troop leaders would violate the organization's constitutional rights of free expression and free association. The ruling reversed a New Jersey Supreme Court decision that the Scouts wrongly ousted assistant scoutmaster James Dale when the organization learned he is gay. The state court had said the Boy Scouts' action violated a New Jersey law banning discrimination in public accommodation.

Lewis said the local Scouting effort would have been hurt if the high court had upheld the New Jersey court's decision.

"There would have been a substantial loss of support from churches, private organizations and individuals had it gone through," he said.

A number of Scout troops are sponsored by area churches. Lewis said one church in Cape Girardeau delayed starting a Scout troop to see how the Supreme Court would rule on the case.

Lewis said the Boy Scouts don't condone homosexual activity and bar anyone from participating as a member or leader who actively promotes a gay lifestyle.

"It is essentially a don't ask-don't tell policy," he said.

Atheists also are barred from the organization.

Lewis said the Boy Scouts aren't gay bashers. "We are not hostile to anybody else having their own organization, but that is not the Boy Scouts," he said.

Lewis said the Boy Scouts is a volunteer organization that revolves around shared values.

"The gay lifestyle is not what most parents, as far as I know any parents, hope for their children," said Lewis.

"That is not what we teach them at home. That is not what we teach them at church and that is not what we teach them at Boy Scouts," he said.

Last year, 4,935 children were involved in Scouting in Southeast Missourian. They were among some 62,000 registered members in the Boy Scouts of America Greater St. Louis Council.

The council serves 37 counties in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois. Troops in Southeast Missouri are part of the St. Louis council.

Throughout the year, the council serves close to 90,000 children. Most are boys, but the council's Explorers and Venturers groups include girls.

Joe Mueller is a spokesman for the council in St. Louis. "We are pleased with the Supreme Court decision and we are anxious to move on," he said.

The high court, he said, has affirmed the right of the Boy Scouts to set its own membership standards.

"Those standards are bound in the values of the Scout oath and the Scout law,' he said.

"We don't have an anti-gay policy," said Mueller. "We have a morally straight policy."