Hello AA,

I served in the military between 1953 and 1974 with gays and will vouch for their honorable and dedicated service, yet they were promptly discharged when they were found out. In some instances I thought at times that their disposition or mannerisms were unusual, but I did not even know of their
sexual preference. I would not hesitate to serve along side of them today.

I have known Atheists who went into foxholes, and were still Atheists when they came out. I am one. Ernie Pyle comment on this issue is absolutely untrue. What irritated me to the extreme was the Chaplains we had to pay with our taxes to pray us into the wars and then hypocritically pray us out
when the nasty part was over.

As for the friends of Ellen Johnson's son, I must submit that they could not be very good friends if they would not stand by him against the unreasonable discrimination. As a Scout over fifteen years ago I was an agnostic. At that time I went along with the hypocrisy and bigotry because I did not have the maturity to stand my ground. Today because of the horrible events witnessed throughout history because of the "manufactured religions" I am a dedicated Atheist and do not hesitate to declare it openly.

We must at every opportunity declare our ethics, morality, and Atheism so that a farce is ended. The farce is that this is a "Christian nation". It is not now, and it never has been. We do not need "Divine Right", "One nation under God", another Inquisition, or any more "Witch Burnings" or "Grandmother Drownings. We must reveal All of the Bible, not just the nicey, nicey parts that are typically broadcast. There are horrors perpetrated, and condoned in the Bible, and there are disgusting behaviors that had no repentance, repercussions, or recriminations. Incest, homicide, genocide, greed, authoritarianism, slavery, monomania, and megalomania are rife throughout the Bible.

Since the BSA is Congressionally chartered, the President is its honorary head, the 1964 Civil Rights Bill prohibits discrimination, and Citizens are involved throughout, the BSA cannot logically be an exclusive organization. It is by nature a public organization and must be "inclusive" of the citizenry. This is not an issue of Good/Bad, Right/Wrong, or Virtue/Vice, it is an issue of what is healthy/unhealthy for the United States and a community, a society, a culture, and a nation. Remember, almost all of the school shootings, the rapes, the murders, the child molestations, the family massacres are committed by "nice church-going" individuals among church-going families.

Dr. Carl F. Selnes (MSgt Ret.)
Walla Walla, WA