It's the "Morally Straight" Part that Drives 'em Nuts.

That's actually part of the Boyscout Oath, you see.

On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
to help other people at all times;
to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Oh, yeah. They (Scout bashers) probably hate that "duty to God and my country" part as well.

Bill Murchison just wrote a piece at Townhall covering President Bush's recent speech at the Boyscout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia. Murchison points out that the President's speach, in the long run, will likely call down more liberal thunder both on Bush and the Boy Scouts than will his recess appointment of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

For the record, the expression "morally straight" was part of the Boyscout Oath long before the words "gay" and "straight" had anything to do with a person's sexual preferences. And most intelligent Scout bashers (if there are such persons) understand that. However, the Boyscouts do specifically exclude atheists and homosexuals both from the ranks and from among the adult leaders. It's not like the Scouts have agents monitoring the entrances to gay bars to see if any of their people go there, but they make it clear that homosexuals and atheists aren't welcome, and that they don't think much of discretely avoiding the topic, either.

But "morally straight" irritates Scout bashers as much for what it really means as for what it accidentally says. What it really does mean is a commitment to an above-board sense of obedience to God-given moral absolutes: something which is anathema to moral relativists, secularists, hedonists, and liberals.

What's worse, a universal set of implications are specifically outlined in the Scout Law (Reference din the Scout Oath above).

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

Horrors!

What's worse: Scout leaders do often remind the boys that the part of the law about being clean includes language, humor, and sexual behavior as well as hygiene.

And to add insult to injury, to those litanies of imperatives (the Scout Oath and Scout Law) recited by every single Boyscout at every single Scout Meeting across the country, they even add that classic in right-wing thought control: the Pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

It's enough to make a good, atheistic, America-hating, Streisand-loving, vegetable-oil-powered-bus-touring liberal throw-up.