Letters to the Editor

HNN Readers React

For Humanist Network News
July 21, 2010

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"Injustice" is the Wrong Word to Describe the BSA's Membership Policy

(Re: The Greater Worcester Humanists Take On the Boy Scouts of America, Humanist Network News, July 14, 2010.)

The BSA, like any other private institution (or person acting in a private capacity) has the right to hold, and act on, objectionable beliefs so long as there is no infringement on the rights of others. People may, of course, express their disagreement with the BSA. However, I think the following observations are worth nothing: (a) labeling the BSA's actions as injustice is conceptual corruption as it implies that someone has not got what he deserves–and no boy should claim that he deserves membership in the BSA even though he does not meet their rational or irrational entry requirements; (b) time and other resources spent giving the BSA undue attention could be more gainfully employed boycotting them and forming an alternative.

We who preach tolerance should realize that it extends to the intolerant–as long as they don't infringe the rights of others–and that tolerance does not imply acceptance.

–Robert Henry, St. Catherine, Jamaica