Emptying the Cradle of Liberty. (The Right Perspective).

A few weeks ago, I was ignoring a stream of e-mails from Scouting for All, a left-wing activist group attempting to force change in the Boy Scouts' policy on homosexuals and God. These emails were announcing a demonstration that was to take place outside of the convention center in Philadelphia where the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) would hold its annual national convention. I should have detected the warning signs of what was about to happen.

Convention-goers were mostly oblivious to the small group of Scouting for All picketers that showed up during the meeting. But they could not help but be astounded by the interestingly timed decision of Philadelphia's local Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council to allow open homosexuals into the organization as leaders and members.

Philadelphia is now the third largest local council in the nation to fall prey to the radical conspiracy against the Boy Scouts. Last year, the Boston Minuteman Council and the Piedmont Council near San Francisco rebelled against the BSA national policy stating that homosexuals cannot hold membership in the organization. Now that the three councils have given in, others in the country are discussing the possibility of following along on the dark road to moral relativism.

Two years ago, the chief executive officers in nine major Scout councils wrote letters requesting that the Boy Scouts of America change its policy to accommodate homosexuals. Those councils were from Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Minneapolis, and three from Los Angeles.

Though some have claimed that the Cradle of Liberty Council was courageous in its stand, nothing could be further from the truth. The council set a pathetic example of cowardice and moral indifference for its 87,000 young members.

Those who wish to destroy the core values of the Boy Scouts wish to destroy Scouting itself. For over 20 years, the radical Left has exercised gradual efforts to defund and destroy Scouting through constant lawsuits and protests. The conspiracy behind the feminist movement, the homosexual rights movement, and the atheist/humanist movement has weighed down on the Scouts so heavily that it is now beginning to buckle. The anti-Scouts have persuaded companies, charities, churches, and schools to end ties with the Scouts.

As a result of the work of the United Way, several ecumenical church denominations, unions, educational and medical organizations, liberal judges, the Clinton administration, and many other "mainstream" causes, left-wing activists are able to go largely unchallenged in labeling the Boy Scouts as bigots and homophobes. They've looked Scouting in the eyes and declared that a moral code built on truth doesn't work in our time. The anti-Scouts have drawn the Boy Scouts into a vast political and cultural debate that the organization would rather not spend its time fighting.

Of course, the Scouts would rather spend time camping and hiking and teaching important life skills and doing the things that Scouts do. But if the Scouts fall apart with their foundational moral code, the rest of society can't be far behind.

Which is why it is so absolutely crucial that Americans wake up to the tragedy of the Philadelphia Council. Local parents must withdraw their children from their troops, and individuals who contribute to the council must immediately stop giving. Since the Boy Scout Oath and Law are core elements of a true Scout, the rejection of "morally straight" effectively severs the Philadelphia Council from the Boy Scouts. In fact, I refuse to identify the council as a part of the Boy Scouts of America from this point on. The national organization must make same refusal by ending its ties with the Philadelphia Council.

For 90 years, the U.S. has boasted the strongest program of Scouting in the world. It is no coincidence that America is the world's strongest nation. And the same people who want to destroy the Boy Scouts are working hard to destroy America.

The movement to destroy the Boy Scouts or America is a movement to put our nation on the same list with the 20 major countries that don't have Boy Scouting. The list includes Afghanistan, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, North Korea, Myanmar, Somalia, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, and Zaire. These countries are ruled by dictatorship, anarchy, or Communism, and most of the citizens of these countries have never experienced freedom.

But the Boy Scouts of America learn that freedom requires great responsibility and great virtue. They know that honor is the core of character and that duty to God and country is the only cradle in which liberty is safe.

As an Eagle Scout and an assistant scoutmaster, I cannot allow my organization and my nation to be taken over by radical movements that find their grounding in vicious intolerance of moral absolutes. The Left must be stopped from taking over the Boy Scouts, lest America join those nations of the world that neither know about, nor recall resting in, the Cradle of Liberty.

Hans Zeiger, 18, is an Eagle Scout, a spokesman for tire Scout Oath coalition, and a Seattle Times columnist.