On Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 10:00 a.m. Central Time, Governor Perry will appear on CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer for to discuss On My Honor and the Texas primaries.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
In his new book, On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For, [Stroud & Hall Publishers] Texas Governor Rick Perry, examines the “scorched earth” attacks on the Boy Scouts of America over the last three decades by the secular leftist forces, explains the wider impact of this battle on the culture, and offers a rousing defense of this iconic institution and its impact on millions of young American men.
As a governor and an Eagle Scout, Perry tells of the Boy Scouts’ growth and most importantly, its role in the development of character and leadership in young men. Yet, in recent years, the Scouts have been targeted by those who scoff at the Scouts’ values and want to reverse its time-honored virtues such as “duty to God” and the Scout Oath’s requirement to be “morally straight.”
“Although the first attacks on the Boy Scouts seemed isolated and uncoordinated thirty years ago, we now see them as part of a larger movement to redefine American values,” writes Gov. Perry. “If seen in the wider context of a great debate taking place in our society, then one is more likely to join the once silent majority who are now speaking out about the role of faith and family in society.”
Readers of On My Honor will learn about:
The nature of the litigation brought on by the ACLU regarding the Boy Scouts’ commitment to God.
Efforts of radical homosexuals to become Scout leaders and twist the founding principles of the organization.
The tactics used to stop the Boy Scouts from meeting in schools and camping in public parks.
How the United Way and employee-giving campaigns are excluding the Scouts from receiving donations.
Gov. Rick Perry hails from Paint Creek, Texas. Governor Perry was active in scouting and earned the high distinction of Eagle Scout. He assumed the office of Governor in 2000 and was elected to four- year terms in 2002 and 2006.
To schedule an interview with Governor Perry, please contact Kevin McVicker with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at (703) 739-5920 or (800) 536-5920.
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If you’re a bit bewildered, as the year 2007 rolls into its final quarter, by all the ballyhoo over William Wilberforce, get set—because the tempo is about not to die down but to pick up. Just about everybody, it seems, wants to hitch his wagon to the Wilberforce star.
That’s partly because Wilberforce was some star. His story, popularized especially for Americans earlier this year in the very well done film Amazing Grace, was a picker-upper during a period when Christians seemed so regularly frustrated in their efforts to do anything significant to influence public policy in the United States. If that little pipsqueak of a man could make an impact, people seemed to respond, why should we give up?
The Wilberforce story is getting special attention this year, of course, because 2007 is the 200th anniversary of his success in bringing an end to Great Britain’s approving involvement in the transatlantic slave trade of that time. But to narrow the Wilberforce story to a single year would be to miss the heart of the drama. It was, after all, the man’s relentless persistence—his disciplined year-after-year-after-year determination—that accounts for the fact there’s even a story to tell a couple of centuries later.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--One year after the movie “Amazing Grace” reintroduced America to William Wilberforce, a new documentary about the famous Christian abolitionist seeks to shed more light on the British man whose fight against slavery inspired Abraham Lincoln and countless other people of faith throughout the world.
“The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce” is airing on PBS stations nationally beginning this month and also is available on DVD. (A list of broadcast times is available at http://www.TheBetterHour.com. Click on “TV Info.") Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the one-hour program details how Wilberforce, a member of Parliament, was driven by his faith to fight great odds for 20 years to end the slave trade in the British empire, finally succeeding in 1807.
Although Americans are prone to remember Lincoln when the subject of slavery arises, the former president himself mentioned Wilberforce’s name in speeches.
Last year’s Amazing Grace film—so named because of Wilberforce’s friendship with John Newton, writer of the famous hymn—surprised some movie observers by grossing $21 million domestically. It was released during the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.
“It’s been a nice one-two punch,” The Better Hour spokeswoman Sheila Weber said of the film and documentary, “because they came out with the feature film that highlighted the larger story, but it’s very satisfying for people when they see the documentary because it fills in a lot of the gaps and it gives more content and more commentary. We have interviews with leading historians and scholars. And it’s very inspiring—it’s not a dry and dull documentary.”
The documentary gets its name from a tribute to Wilberforce written by the poet William Cowper, who said Wilberforce’s effort led to “the better hour” for Britain.
Wilberforce already was a member of Parliament when he became a Christian, and he struggled in deciding whether he should stay in the legislature or become a clergyman within the Church of England. But Newton, himself a former captain of a slave ship who later became an abolitionist, urged Wilberforce to remain a legislator. Wilberforce’s oratorical skills were well-respected and even feared by other legislators.
“God may have a purpose for you in politics,” Newton is said to have told Wilberforce, according to Wilberforce expert Kevin Belmonte, who appears in the documentary.
In 1787 Wilberforce wrote in his diary, “God Almighty has placed before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners [morals].”
The slave trade was an evil almost beyond description. Slaves were taken from the west coast of Africa on a two- to three-month voyage to the West Indies, where they were sold. Conditions for the slaves aboard the ships were atrocious: They were kept under the deck, chained side by side. According to the Wilberforce 2007 campaign, each man had a space roughly six feet long, 16 inches wide; each woman had a space two inches shorter and the same width. They often had to lie in feces and urine, and many died of disease during the journey. It is estimated more than 10 million Africans were put aboard the ships, with perhaps more than 2 million dying during the journey.
At the beginning of Wilberforce’s effort around 1787, many members of Parliament argued that abolishing the slave trade would collapse the economy, and MPs used all sorts of tactics to kill the bill, including giving opera tickets to Wilberforce’s MP supporters the day of a scheduled vote (a tactic that worked). But 20 years later, some of those same members of Parliament supported Wilberforce when his bill overwhelming passed, 283-16.
Christian leaders say Wilberforce should serve as an example of how faith should drive believers to change society for the better by, for instance, ridding the world both of abortion, and, once and for all, slavery, which still exists in some parts of the world. Wilberforce’s faith plays a significant role in the documentary.
“I’ve known about him for 40 years, and he has been something of an inspiration to me,” Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Commission, told Baptist Press.
Representatives with The Better Hour are encouraging churches and community groups to watch the documentary in small settings and discuss it afterward. A book, “Creating the Better Hour,” is being released to coincide with the documentary. It has a foreword by Rick Warren and chapters written by such notables as Charles Colson. Additionally, The Better Hour is sponsoring a $10,000 contest for high school students. (Deadline is March 1.) Information is available at http://www.TheBetterHour.com.
“While [the documentary] will be satisfying to the faith community, it’s also presented in a tone that will be really appropriate to show outside of the church,” Weber said. “That’s a good thing.... William Wilberforce is a wonderful icon of what it means to be a Christian.”
--30--
Michael Foust is assistant editor of Baptist Press. “The Better Hour” documentary contains no offensive language but does contain drawings depicting nude slaves.
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William Wilberforce’s battle to end the transatlantic slave trade inspired moviegoers who saw it retold last year in the feature film Amazing Grace. Now a new book and television documentary aspire to use the example of Wilberforce and his Clapham Circle to ignite a new generation of social activism.
The documentary, The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce, will air on national public television in early February, in time for Black History Month (check local listings). Paired with the study guide Creating the Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce (Stroud & Hall Publishing), edited by Chuck Stetson and with a foreword by Rick Warren, it is part of a wave of Wilberforce rediscovery during the 2007-2008 celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the end of the slave trade.
“Modern-day human rights started with William Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle,” said Stetson, who initiated the book and documentary projects; the John Templeton Foundation funded the documentary. A managing director of the New York private equity fund PEI Funds, Stetson chairs the Bible Literacy Project—recently renamed Essentials in Education—and serves on the BreakPoint Advisory Board, under Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship ministry and until lately known as the Wilberforce Forum.
Colson contributes a chapter to the book, as do author Os Guinness (The Call); former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph A. Califano Jr.; Baroness Caroline Cox, an international humanitarian activist and deputy speaker of the House of Lords in the U.K.; and Don Eberly, director of the Civil Society Project and founder of the National Fatherhood Initiative. The book, which includes questions for small-group discussion, covers the story of Wilberforce and his group, how they brought about change, and what is yet unfinished. It also profiles contemporary Wilberforces.
Stetson told RBL, “When I was growing up, people talked about leaving the world a better place. Over recent years you see bumper stickers such as ‘He Who Has the Most Toys When He Dies Wins.’ But I think we can return to the former goal.”
Stetson said his own model for using financial success to fund change was his late father, Charles P. Stetson Sr., who helped start Outward Bound South Africa as a uniting force, before it was clear apartheid would end. The younger Stetson’s next project deals with how generosity and philanthropy should be taught in business schools.
“In each generation, people have to do what they are called to do,” he said. “I think we’re all called to serve others, particularly the least, the last and the lost. The way I’m focusing on that is through education.”
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When The Bible and Its Influence was unveiled at the National Press Club last September, promoters of the new textbook hailed it as a great way to introduce Bible classes into America’s public schools.
Chuck Stetson, chairman of the Bible Literacy Project, gave the lavishly illustrated 390-page volume an endorsement of biblical proportions.
“There has never been a public high school textbook like this,” he said. “It was created to satisfy all constituencies involved in the heated debate about the Bible in public schools. It treats faith perspectives with respect, and was examined by 40 reviewers for accuracy, fairness and the highest level of scholarship. At the same time, it meets consensus standards for fulfilling First Amendment guidelines in that it informs and instructs, but does not promote religion.”
To prove his point, Stetson enlisted some diverse voices to bless the book: Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center, Marc Stern of the American Jewish Congress and Leland Ryken, a professor at Wheaton College, one of the leading evangelical Christian colleges in America.
That was an impressive rollout, but I’m very wary of the project for several reasons. Here are some of them.
In the first place, there is something troubling about allowing a well-funded religious pressure group to initiate Bible classes in our public schools. Public schools exist to serve the widest possible range of students from many faith perspectives and none. While the courts have never ruled against objective study about religion, involvement in that sensitive subject is always controversial. Red flags should go up when religious groups seek special classes for their holy scriptures.
It seems clear to me that Stetson, the 59-year-old founder of the BLP, has a sectarian, rather than an academic, motive for his campaign. Stetson, a wealthy Manhattan private equity investor, has long been active in conservative religious and political causes. Although he is often described in news stories as an Episcopalian and a registered independent, his record seems less mainline and more partisan than that description merits.
The Stetson family apparently has been devoted to conservative Republican politics for some time. The Sacramento Bee reports that Stetson donated funds to “faith-based” candidate George W. Bush. Stetson’s father, Charles P. Stetson, supported far-right GOP candidates Alan Keyes and Gary Bauer, both Religious Right zealots. (The newspaper says Stetson’s grandfather was a banking colleague of Prescott Bush, the president’s grandfather.)
According to the Boston Globe, Stetson is the “main organizing force” behind the National Bible Association, which sponsors National Bible Week and promotes the Bible as the path to salvation. In November 1998, he told the newspaper he wants to turn Bible Week into a ceremony as grand as the Fourth of July. Other Stetson causes include School Ministries, an outfit that promotes released-time religious education for public school students, and the Network of Biblical Storytellers, a group that communicates “the sacred stories of biblical tradition.”
Stetson attended the October 1997 Promise Keepers rally on the mall in Washington, D.C. He told one reporter, “Obviously, it’s a big event. But what’s important is what happens afterward. Where do the people go from here?”
Perhaps most telling, Stetson is a disciple of Charles Colson, the Watergate-figure-turned-Religious-Right activist. According to a Sept. 28 column by Colson, Stetson is a “Wilberforce Centurion,” a graduate of Colson’s year-long training program intended to recruit Christian men and women who will “restore our culture by effectively thinking, teaching, and advocating a biblical worldview as applied to all of life.” Centurions “make a lifelong commitment to ... shape culture by living out a biblical worldview in their spheres of influence.”
Stetson completed the indoctrination program in 2005 and now serves on the advisory board of Colson’s Wilberforce Forum. As might be expected, Colson is an enthusiastic backer of the BLP’s proposed Bible class in public schools.
“This represents a rare opportunity for us,” Colson told followers. “The Bible and Its Influence is a great resource for anyone looking for a comprehensive academic understanding of the roots of modern civilization. So I hope you let teachers, administrators, and school board members in your community know that they can teach the Bible without fear of being sued....”
In another column, Colson touts the BLP’s work as helping open the door to another “Great Awakening” of evangelical religious fervor. He concludes, “That’s why Christians must be the ones to lead the way, teaching a love for the Bible in our homes, our churches, and anywhere else we can, including classrooms, when we provide these kinds of resources for teachers.”
The advisory board of Stetson’s BLP also has a distinctly rightward flit, featuring conservative Christians such as Mary Ann Glendon, Os Guinness and George Gallup Jr. Kevin Seamus Hasson of the right-wing Becket Fund for Religious Liberty serves on the BLP’s Board of Directors alongside David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values.
Although Stetson seems to recognize that the Constitution and the federal courts do not permit overt proselytism in public schools, he appears to be hostile to the concept of separation of church and state. In a Sept. 9, 2003, speech posted at the Web site of the Institute for American Values (http://www.americanvalues.org), Stetson complains that character education classes in public schools are inadequate because they omit religion.
“Why haven’t we included religion in character education when it works?” asked Stetson. “This would only make sense.”
Is Stetson’s “biblical worldview” reflected in the BLP’s new book?
Yes and no. The book was apparently compiled by a committee, and the ideological tilt varies. Readers will find it an interesting mix of conservative and liberal concepts. Stetson was apparently willing to include progressive voices in the volume as the price he had to pay to get endorsements from the moderate end of the civil liberties spectrum.
The book credits Joanne McPortland, Marjorie Haney Schafer, Marc Stern and Eve Tushnet as “content contributors.” Stetson is “general editor,” although he seems to have no particular academic qualifications for the role--other than deep pockets. Some 40 religious leaders and professors from a variety of academic fields were asked to review the work. A few public school teachers also were asked to weigh in.
The resulting volume devotes half its pages to the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians usually call the Old Testament) and half to the New Testament. The material is richly illustrated with full-color pictures of noted religiously themed artwork. The text tends to treat Bible passages straightforwardly as stories, poetry, proverbs and theological concepts. Three versions of the Bible are used: the King James Version (often preferred by evangelical Christians), the New Revised Standard Version (produced by the mainline National Council of Churches) and The Jewish Bible, The Tanakh TaNaKh - Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim (Hebrew: Law, Prophets, Writings; Jewish Bible) (produced by the Jewish Publication Society).
I will leave it to experts in religion, history and archeology to say whether the text fairly and accurately describes the creation of the Bible, its content and its authors. But even a layperson can see some significant problems with the book.
For example, it sometimes blurs the line between academic study and scripture promotion. A chapter on Proverbs includes this assertion: “In 1992, the Associated Press evaluated 4000 self-help books” and “concluded that the oldest and best of the how-tos of happiness are in the oldest self-help book--the Bible.”
The Bible is repeatedly promoted as having an overwhelmingly positive impact on individuals, American history and, indeed, the whole world. The scriptures are heralded as the inspiration of great art, music and literature and as the basis for extraordinary advances in social justice.
A dozen pages trumpet the role of the scriptures in the antislavery movement and the drive for African-American civil rights. The role of women in the Bible is celebrated, with a sidebar on the women’s suffrage movement and a chapter on “Women of Valor: Ruth and Esther.” A “unit feature” treats farm workers’ rights advocate Cesar Chavez, Holocaust author Elie Wiesel and the peace-promoting American Friends Service Committee as examples of modern-day prophets!
All of this may be commendable (and perhaps hard for some of the book’s conservative supporters to swallow), but at the same time, there is little acknowledgement that the Bible has also served as a major resource for pro-slavery and pro-segregationist forces or that women have been--and still are, in many cases--treated as subject to male authority because of fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible.
A textbook should offer objective study about both the positive and negative uses of the Bible. Where is the analysis of the role of the Bible in the Inquisition or the Salem witch trials? There is no mention at all of Thomas Jefferson’s Bible, a version the third president produced that omitted the miracles in the New Testament and treated Jesus as the world’s most sublime ethicist. Instead, we are treated to some excerpts from George Washington’s speeches with rather deistic terminology that is miraculously transformed into biblical allusions.
Church-state separationists will be especially appalled at the book’s concluding “unit feature” on “Faith and Freedom in America.” The two pages are a wholly inadequate treatment of this important issue.
The book offers a very short section on each of the centuries of America’s life as a nation. The 1600s appropriately address Roger Williams. The 1700s talk about the First Amendment but suggests it was only intended to “prohibit the establishment of a national religion,” a poor description of the sweep of the Establishment Clause. The section also mentions the Northwest Ordinance, a government document touted by the Religious Right because it calls religion “necessary to good government.”
The 1800s miraculously include a long quote from Alex de Tocqueville that attributes America’s genius and power to the flaming righteousness of church pulpits. The last paragraph often makes its way into political speeches and Religious Right propaganda, but it does not appear in Democracy in America or any other known Tocqueville work. (If a horde of college profs and other experts reviewed this book, how did this howler get past them?)
The 1900s include no reference to important church-state decisions on Bible reading in public schools, but do feature short excerpts from speeches by Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt that have little relevance to the topic other than mentions of God’s help and guidance.
The “Today” section concludes with an excerpt from David Aikman’s book Jesus In Beijing. Aikman, an evangelical Christian, quotes an unnamed professor from the Chinese Academy of Social Science who attributes the pre-eminence of the West to “your religion: Christianity.” This is ideology, not scholarship, and it is entirely inappropriate in a public school class.
So where do we go from here?
Two influential Alabama legislators have already introduced a bill recommending the BLP’s book and its Bible class. According to the Religion News Service (RNS), House Majority Leader Ken Guin pre-filed a bill that would authorize public school systems to offer the elective in grades 9-12. House Speaker Seth Hammett endorsed the measure as well.
Other legislators and school board members in other states are likely to follow suit.
This situation illustrates part of the problem with the BLP project. The curriculum at public schools should be insulated as much as possible from political and religious intrigues. While usually governed by elected school boards, public schools are not meant to be caught up in sectarian agendas.
Public school textbooks should be produced by respected scholars in their various academic fields, not Religious Right “centurions” fighting to present students with their “biblical worldview.” When religious politics intrudes, the classroom can easily become subject to majoritarian pressures.
Are teachers in Alabama public schools ready to offer objective instruction about the Bible? Will there be funds to provide such training? Is this a proper priority when many public schools in the state are already woefully underfunded and core subjects such as math, science, history and civics get inadequate treatment?
A recent poll of Alabamians by the Mobile Register/University of South Alabama found that three out of four profess to be “born-again Christians,” and two-thirds choose the Genesis account of creation over evolution. Seven out of ten said creationism and “intelligent design,” its latest iteration, should be taught in science classes. According to the RNS, fewer than half think evolution should be offered!
In a climate where one religious tradition holds such extraordinary sway, what are the odds that a Bible class in Alabama public schools will be taught objectively?
Ironically, the Guin Bible class bill is meeting opposition from some religious conservatives who want a more fundamentalist approach to the scriptures. They favor a course by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a North Carolina outfit with a pronounced Religious Right agenda.
Neither political faction seems interested in a course in comparative religion that might be more appropriate for the public school system.
The growing crusade to introduce Bible classes into public schools is deeply worrisome to those of us who support churchstate separation. We have a responsibility to see that elected officials and the general public are aware of the larger agenda at work here.
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Protesters greeted Governor Rick Perry Wednesday night in Austin as he arrived for his book signing.
They’re upset about what the governor reportedly said about homosexuals.
The governor’s book is titled: “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are worth fighting for.”
Hundreds lined up for signatures, but many of the protesters were fighting mad.
Perry is donating money from the sale of the book to the Scouts’ legal fund, which is fighting to keep gays out of scouting.
Perry called the issue “an attack on traditional values.”
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Gov. Rick Perry stirred up controversy ahead of his book signing Wednesday night in Austin.
Perry’s book is titled “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.”
Yet what he said about the Boy Scout’s ban on homosexual troop leaders is getting a lot of the attention.
Story continues below
In a New York Times interview, Perry was quoted as saying: “Scouting ought to be about character, not about sex. Period. Precious few parents enroll their boys in the Scouts to get a crash course in sexual orientation.”
The governor is an Eagle Scout as is his son Griffin.
He said he believes their traditional family values have stood Americans well for generations, even if that means affirming the ban against gay troop leaders.
Wednesday night’s signing at BookPeople on North Lamar Boulevard was jammed. More than 300 people lined up for autographs, many of them Scouts who are now fathers with children of their own in the Boy Scouts, like Tom Willi.
Scouting goes back four generations in Willi’s family, and he said he believes in the traditional values of loyalty, trustworthiness and thrift.
His sons are next.
“The Scouts values have worked for many years and many generations, and I see no reason why that should be changed,” said Willi, an Eagle Scout.
Perry said he does not know if homosexuality is the result of social surroundings or genetic wiring, but overt sexual orientation and some other things are not part of what the Scouts are about.
“The Scouts didn’t ask for this fight,” Perry said. “The ACLU went to court to say you must accept girl troops, you must take God out of the Scouts, you must accept homosexual Scout leaders, you can’t meet in public buildings; and their fights have cost the Scouts millions in lawsuits over the past 40 years.”
Perry has another book signing in Dallas Thursday. His book is already No. 1 on The Washington Post’s non-fiction list.
A touted protest Wednesday night by gay activists never materialized.
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A friendly crowd including many present and former Boy Scouts greeted Gov. Rick Perry at BookPeople on Wednesday to ask the first-time author to sign copies of his new book.
In the tome, “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For,” Perry shares memories of being a Boy Scout in West Texas.
He also opines that the American Civil Liberties Union is creating a “cultural war” and attacking religious believers by fighting to force the Boys Scouts to include gays, agnostics and atheists.
Perry’s tour to promote the book has garnered national attention. The book debuted at No. 1 on The Washington Post’s best-seller list for hardcover nonfiction in Washington-area bookshops. His office touted that achievement the day after The New York Times Magazine published an interview in which Perry said scouting was about building character and not about sex. The word “homosexual,” he said, suggests that gay people are focused on sex.
Representatives of local gay rights groups stood outside the bookstore Wednesday evening to answer questions and discuss the governor’s recent comments.
Matt Smith, executive director of Out Youth, said Perry’s words send a chilling message to the gay community.
“I think people in a leadership role have even more responsibility for their words and actions, and Gov. Perry’s words and actions in this case are part of the problem,” Smith said.
BookPeople staff said they expected between 300 and 500 people to attend the signing.
Briefly addressing the autograph-seekers before sitting down to sign and shake hands, Perry said he wrote the book to honor the impact the Boy Scouts have had on millions of young men and to rally support for an organization caught in the middle of conflict.
“Scouting does not need to be remade,” Perry said.
Perry, who often wears his Eagle Scout lapel pin, has said he will donate the book’s net proceeds to the Boy Scouts.
Former Boy Scout David Harakal, 41, of Austin brought his son, Timothy, a 13-year-old Boy Scout, to the book signing to shake the governor’s hand and thank him for writing the book.
“I’ve seen the program change a lot of boys’ lives, and it’s neat he’s standing up for it,” David Harakal said.
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Despite groups urging a protest of his book tour, Gov. Rick Perry enjoyed a strong turnout Tuesday in San Antonio for support of his first tome, “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.”
Two Austin-based advocacy groups had urged the protest against Perry and his book in response to recent comments he made, saying that allowing gays in the Boy Scouts would promote “sex.”
Equality Texas and Atticus Circle said that although no one responded to their appeals Tuesday, they would continue in their protests, adding they expected a crowd to gather in support of their cause when Perry holds a book-signing event in Austin today.
Perry didn’t address homosexuality, or the recent uproar his comments have generated, during his brief speech at San Antonio’s Borders bookstore at the Huebner Oaks Center before signing books for more than 150 supporters.
His spokeswoman, Allison Castle, attempted to clarify Perry’s comments, saying the governor wasn’t speaking in general terms and was only objecting to gay Scoutmasters.
Perry told the New York Times Magazine he’s “pretty clear” on the issue.
“Scouting ought to be about building character, not about sex. Period,” he said. “Precious few parents enroll their boys in the Scouts to get a crash course in sexual orientation.”
The comments quickly drew reaction from gay-rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Equality Texas, lambasting Perry for narrowly defining gays as being interested only in sex.
“Discrimination against someone because of their sexual orientation is clearly not character building, and implying that being gay is a defect in character is inaccurate and offensive,” said Paul Scott, executive director of Equality Texas, in a prepared statement. “Gov. Perry’s perpetuation of stereotypes and falsehoods is the complete antithesis of good character.”
Jodie Eldridge, executive director of Atticus Circle, said she hopes “to politely show the governor that there are Austinites that care about inclusion and equality and that want to teach respect not hate.”
In his book, Perry — a Republican and Eagle Scout — champions values the Scouts instill in youth and writes about the “radical leftist movement that seeks to tear down our social foundations,” according to the book’s Web site.
Perry also writes about the U.S. Supreme Court’s split decision in 2000 that affirmed the Scouts’ right, as a private organization, to ban openly gay Scoutmasters. The case reached the high court after the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America violated anti-discrimination laws when it dismissed gay Scout leader James Dale.
When the New York Times Magazine asked Perry why a gay would be more likely to talk about sex, he responded, “Well, the ban in scouting applies to scout leaders. When you have a clearly open homosexual scout leader, the scouts are going to talk about it. And they’re not there to learn about that. They’re there to learn about what it means to be loyal and trustworthy and thrifty.”
On Tuesday, Perry told the crowd inside Borders — many dressed in Boy Scout uniforms — that he also wrote the book to rally support for the Scouts, which he said has come under attack for its “long-held principles.”
“I say without hesitation that Scouting does not need to be remade,” he said.
Scott, of Equality Texas, said Perry’s responses reveal “fear and ignorance” that is not only harmful, but prevents the Boy Scouts from “truly fulfilling its mission.”
Representatives of the advocacy groups said they want people, especially current and former Boy Scouts who are gay, to demonstrate to Perry that the principles of scouting are beneficial to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.
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Governor Perry will appear on The Dennis Miller Show on Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 11:35 a.m. Central Time. The show, hosted by famous comedian Dennis Miller is nationally syndicated.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will appear on The Jeff Katz Show on Thursday, March 6, 2008 at 3:05 p.m. Central Time. The show will be aired on WBT-AM serving the area of Charlotte, NC.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will appear on the Martha Zoller Show on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 10:15 a.m. Central Time. The show will air on WDUN-AM, covering the Atlanta, Georgia area.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Rick Perry, governor of the nation’s second-largest state, has forsaken the typical memoir in his first book. Instead, the Texas Republican has chosen to focus on the Boy Scouts of America, defending the group’s traditional values and lashing out against organizations that oppose the Scouts’ conservative principles.
“The Scouts weren’t looking for trouble, the trouble found them,” Perry, an Eagle Scout, said in an interview. “People need to know what’s going on here, which is why I wrote the book.”
The first-time author calls “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For” a tribute to his lifelong dedication to the Boy Scouts, including his service as the leader of his son’s troop in the 1990s. “That’s when the seeds of this book were actually sown,” Perry said.
“On My Honor” in part is a nostalgic recollection of Perry’s scouting days in the West Texas community of Paint Creek. Perry said Troop 48 instilled in him a sense of obedience and loyalty, along with a strong work ethic. “The Boy Scouts didn’t hand out badges for trying,” he writes. “They handed out badges for getting the job done.”
While “On My Honor” is peppered with heartwarming tales of merit badges and Cub Scout hikes, the bulk of the 226-page book takes aim at the outside groups and individuals who have filed lawsuits against the Scouts, objecting to the group’s boys-only membership requirement and policy of banning homosexuals from leading Boy Scout troops. With each case, Perry writes, the Scouts are fighting “the culture war for America’s soul.”
A southern politician defending an all-American tradition is not much of a stretch, and in defending the Boy Scouts, Perry has not strayed from the recipe for success. Right beside mom and apple pie, the Boy Scouts are a symbol of American values that many of Perry’s southern Republican supporters can rally behind. And taking a shot at the American Civil Liberties Union never hurts either.
Perry, who was in Washington, D.C., last week for the National Governors Association winter meeting, also interviewed a handful of elected officials and business leaders in writing the book to help make the case that public service is central to the Boy Scouts’ mantra.
In his interview with Perry, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the Boy Scouts “the foremost vehicle for teaching young men about values and the importance of character.” Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), one of10 Eagle Scouts serving in the Senate, told Perry that working toward a life goal is just like earning a merit badge. “I learned [that lesson] when I flunked my first try for the Civics merit badge,” the five-term Senator quips in the book.
The book details some of the lawsuits the Scouts have defended with mixed results over the past three decades. The first suit against the Boy Scouts of America was filed in 1976 by an Oregon girl who was denied membership in her local Cub Scout Pack. Since then the Scouts have defended themselves in 30 cases at levels from county district court to the Supreme Court.
“The long-running volley of lawsuits challenging Scouting’s traditions [is] part of a much larger phenomenon, a ‘culture war’ between determined secularists and the traditional values of American society,” Perry writes.
Perry is especially passionate when writing about the ACLU, the free-speech advocacy organization that has raised objections to the Scouts on several fronts. The group has represented individuals objecting to the Scout Oath, which pledges a “duty to God,” and the ban on allowing homosexuals to lead Scout troops. In each case, Perry writes, the ACLU is pushing “a larger movement to redefine American values.” He defends the Scouts’ position that “a homosexual who makes his sex life a public matter is not an appropriate role model of the Scout Oath,” and he maintains the group teaches its young Scouts to be tolerant while upholding their own moral standard.
Perry said the timing of his book, which came out in late January, was not meant to coincide with the heat of the primary election season, though it is a fortunate coincidence. “I’ll use any catalyst I can to help the book,” Perry said, noting that he’ll be campaigning for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), this week in the runup to Texas’s March 4 primary. While the decorated war veteran and presidential aspirant was not an Eagle Scout, Perry said he still has an ally in the Arizona Republican. “Sen. McCain doesn’t need to be whispered to on this issue. He totally gets it,” Perry said.
Proceeds from Perry’s book will go to the Boy Scouts of America.
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That is the subject of this evening’s “Talking Points Memo.”
Three names come to mind. The first, Mitt Romney. Good business guy who can raise money and has name recognition. The governor ran a good campaign. He’s smart, honest. Also, his conservative views may help McCain with the right-wing that distrusts him. The downside is the Mormon deal, which some voters did consider even though they should not have.
The second name is Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. At age 47 he would bring youth to the ticket. He’s been a good governor. Tough on illegal immigration and spending.
And the third name is Texas Governor Rick Perry, a conservative with an edge who would pull few punches in going after big government Democrats. The downside for Perry is that Texas is a Republican state, and John McCain needs Minnesota and the upper Midwest. So Pawlenty has an advantage there.
Now there’s no rush for McCain to name a running mate. Drama creates interest, of course. And interviewing a bunch of people will create goodwill for the senator. So we’re not expecting an announcement any time soon.
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But Romney, Pawlenty and Perry would all be good choices. And we will continue to scan the landscape for more.
By the way, we will do the same thing for the Democrats once a candidate is chosen. And I’m sure they’ll be very appreciative.
And that’s “The Memo.”
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From a Texas vantage point, Gov. Rick Perry appears to be enjoying the start of his national book tour behind “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are Work Fighting For.” He’ll do an Austin reading at Book People, 603 N. Lamar Blvd., at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
His tome debuted at No. 1 on a bestseller list for hardcover nonfiction posted by The Washington Post — beating works by Madeleine Albright, Stephen Colbert, Ann Coulter and Newt Gingrich, Perry’s office notes. (Not stated by Perry’s office; the Post list of bestsellers covers only Washington-area book shops. Peek here.)
That stunner came after Perry evidently shocked an interviewer for the New York Times Magazine. If my read is right, Perry appeared to say that the word “homosexual” implies that gays are focused on sex.
Asked why he views the Boy Scouts’ battle to bar gays from leading Scout troops as a worthy cause, Perry replied: “I am pretty clear about this one. Scouting ought to be about building character, not about sex. Period. Precious few parents enroll their boys in the Scouts to get a crash course in sexual orientation.”
(Side note: Perry’s reply to this question drew a reaction from Debbie Russell, president of the Central Texas chapter of the ACLU, which nationally has battled the Scouts over its not admitting gays and individuals who don’t profess a belief in a higher being. “Exactly,” Russell said in an e-mail shared with the American-Statesman. “Then why are you making it about sex?”)
The Times interviewer followed up: “Why do you think a homosexual would be more likely to bring the subject of sex into a conversation than a heterosexual?”
Perry: “Well, the ban in scouting applies to scout leaders. When you have a clearly open homosexual scout leader, the scouts are going to talk about it. And they’re not there to learn about that. They’re there to learn about what it means to be loyal and trustworthy and thrifty.
Interviewer: “But don’t you think that homosexuals might also be interested in being loyal and thrifty?”
Perry: “The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex. Do you agree?”
Interviewer: “No.”
Perry: “Well, then why don’t they call it something else?”
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Governor Perry will appear on the the Jerry Johnson Live radio show with Dr. Jerry Johnson, president of Criswell Bible College on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. The interview will be aired on KCBI-FM in Dallas, TX.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will appear on the News Interview Show with David Goodman on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 3:05 p.m. Central Time. The interview will be broadcast on WERS-FM, a station reaching the Boston, Massachusetts area.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
On Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. Central Time, Governor Perry will be a guest on the “Point of View” Radio Show with hosts Kirby Anderson and Carmen Pate. The interview will be broadcast on USA Radio Network. “Point of View” is a nationally syndicated program.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Texas Governor Rick Perry has written a new book that issues a strong defense of the Boy Scouts of America and details secular attacks against the organization.
Governor Perry says he wants Americans to recognize that the Boy Scouts espouse the moral and ethical values that have positively shaped the lives of millions of young men. In his new book On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For, Perry exposes what he calls the “virus of secularism” that threatens institutions like the Boy Scouts that teach traditional values.
In recent years, atheists and homosexuals have filed discrimination lawsuits against the Scouts, and cities such as Philadelphia have barred the Scouts from meeting on public property. Perry insists such attacks must be resisted. “I want scouting to continue to be this positive impact on America’s youth, upon the next leaders in America,” he declares. “Scouting is, I think, one of the most venerable and important institutions that we have in this country.”
Perry warns that the left will continue to “fight this culture war” against the Boy Scouts and those who “help instill those types of values.” And he says efforts by homosexual activists and the American Civil Liberties Union to redefine values espoused by the Scouts must not go unanswered.
The Texas governor, who grew up as an Eagle Scout in West Texas, says all proceeds from his book will go to the Boy Scouts Legal Defense Fund.
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Governor Perry will appear on The Michael Smerconish Show on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 8:00 a.m. Central Time. The interview will be broadcast on WPHT-AM in Philadelphia, PA.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s first book is a defense of what he calls the traditional values of the Boy Scouts. In “On My Honor,” the Republican governor writes about legal attempts to force the organization to accept gays and atheists into its ranks. He paints the Scouts as a bulwark against “nihilism” and “moral relativism” in the nation’s “culture war.”
An Eagle Scout and the father of an Eagle Scout, Perry stresses the importance of Scout values such as being “courteous and kind.” (He is fond of phrases like “gosh” and “jiminy cricket.") He has received the Silver Antelope Award for outstanding service to the Scouts.
-- Libby Copeland
How old were you when you earned the Silver Antelope?
Gosh, quite an adult. In 2003.
And you wear it every day?
Unless I forget it. Which is rather rare.
What does it mean to you?
It is an affirmation that scouting still matters, that you can make a difference, that adults—[a phone rings in the background] excuse me. I thought I had that thing cut off. [Pause.] We just cut off Phil Gramm.
I’ll explain it to him—that we were doing it for Boy Scouts.
When did you decide to write this book?
I did not get back engaged with scouting again until I was married and I had a son and knew that I wanted my son to be exposed to the values and characteristics that come from scouting. . . . So better than 10 years ago the idea of defending those values was percolating in my mind.
You see the Scouts as the first line of defense?
I do. They have been attacked—and unfairly from my perspective—by those secular humanists, the ACLU. They want to force their ideas and their beliefs upon the Scouts. And my pushback is, “Look, the Scouts have worked very fine for 100 years. . . . They don’t need to espouse the values that you’re espousing. Their value set is just fine.”
You write that the problem with having openly gay Scout leaders is that “scouting is not about sex, but about building character.” And I wanted to ask you what makes you think that an openly gay Scoutmaster would be inclined to, for example, tell Boy Scouts about his sex life any more than, say, a straight Scoutmaster?
I’m not sure that was my point.
Look, I agree with the right of individuals to choose their own sexual orientation. . . . But I don’t believe that parents enroll their sons in Scouts to get a lesson on human sexuality. And if there is an openly gay Scoutmaster, the kids are going to talk about it.
Being gay: Choice? Not a choice? You referred to it as a choice.
I’m not a social scientist. I can’t answer the question of, “Is it the environment that one finds oneself in or is it the way you’re wired up when you are born?” I don’t know. I do know this: that people have a choice to engage in that activity.
For instance, there’s probably a debate that goes on about if you’re an alcoholic you were born with that genetic trait. But every day, individuals realize that that is a trait that is not particularly good for their health, not good for their well-being and that it can be controlled with responsible behavior. And I would suggest that that is probably an argument that can be made for a host of genetically inclined disorders. If that in fact is where they come from.
You talk about the role of the ACLU in many of these suits. As you see it, the ACLU: intellectually honest? Or intellectually dishonest?
I think they’re intellectually honest, and I totally respect their right to do what they do. I hope they respect my right to do what I do. . . . This attack on Scouts is a part of a larger cultural phenomenon. . . . The secularists want to sanitize the Pledge of Allegiance, our currency, our government buildings and Scout oath from any mention of God.
You interviewed a number of people about their experiences as Boy Scouts. . . . Whose experiences surprised you the most?
My instinct is [Ohio State University President] Gordon Gee. Gordon has been the president of Brown University, Vanderbilt University—in a climate that basically would be substantially left of center. Yet he has remained true to those values. And I think the point here is just because you’re a liberal doesn’t mean that you can’t be loyal, trustworthy and kind and obedient.
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As the governor of Texas, do you feel it is getting a little crowded there lately as the presidential candidates and their busloads of campaigners continue to descend in preparation for the primary on March 4?
We tried to move our primary up, and it didn’t work. This is a very rare occurrence, to have a primary of national import in Texas.
You have reportedly asked Mike Huckabee to drop out of the race, in order for McCain to clinch the nomination.
It is time for him to get out. We have a mercy rule in six-man football. After halftime, if you’re behind by more than 45 points, you can stop so it doesn’t get to be really ugly.
What do you think of Barack Obama?
I think he is a very attractive, very intriguing and, to many, a very stimulating candidate. I think he is one step away from being a socialist.
You mean because he wants universal health care? So does Senator Clinton.
Yeah, well I didn’t say she was that much further to the right.
As a Republican who is known to be more conservative than your predecessor as Texas governor, George W. Bush, what do you make of the deficit he has run up in Washington?
George was never a fiscal conservative. The Texas Legislature spent a lot, and he signed the bill.
Did he send Texas into debt?
You can’t in Texas. See, we are wiser than Washington. We can’t have deficit spending in Texas. You have to balance your budget every two years.
Let’s talk about your new book, “On My Honor,” which draws on your experience as an Eagle Scout and champions the values of the Boy Scouts of America, to whom you are donating your royalties.
Yes, to their legal-defense fund.
Which has been fighting the A.C.L.U., to keep gays out of the scouts. Why do you see that as a worthy cause?
I am pretty clear about this one. Scouting ought to be about building character, not about sex. Period. Precious few parents enroll their boys in the Scouts to get a crash course in sexual orientation.
Why do you think a homosexual would be more likely to bring the subject of sex into a conversation than a heterosexual?
Well, the ban in scouting applies to scout leaders. When you have a clearly open homosexual scout leader, the scouts are going to talk about it. And they’re not there to learn about that. They’re there to learn about what it means to be loyal and trustworthy and thrifty.
But don’t you think that homosexuals might also be interested in being loyal and thrifty?
The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex. Do you agree?
No.
Well, then why don’t they call it something else?
It’s a shame the Scouts are alienating so many American kids when they could be a force for equality and civic unity. What about the Boy Scout merit badges? Do they ever update them?
Oh, yes, absolutely. I was looking at a young man’s sash the other day, and he had merit badges on there I didn’t know.
I was just looking at the hundred-plus merit badges online and was surprised that the Boy Scouts haven’t introduced more relevant projects than coin collecting.
They’ve done that. They’ve reached out and included things like the environmental-science badge.
I know they have a dog-care merit badge, but why not a child-care badge?
Why not teach scouts how to change a baby’s diaper and help out moms? I don’t have a problem with that.
How about a merit badge in vegetarianism?
It’s out there. It’s your choice. We raise a lot of vegetables down here in Texas. We like for people to eat vegetables.
And instead of a shotgun-shooting merit badge, how about a gun-control badge?
Now you’ve stepped across the line. Remember, you are talking to a Texan.
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We would like to restore William Wilberforce to his rightful place in history.’
A new documentary is building on the popularity of last year’s Amazing Grace feature film, the story of British abolitionist William Wilberforce, which took in nearly $30 million worldwide.
Sheila Weber conducted some of the interviews for the documentary, The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce, which provides more content, commentary and historical perspective. She is vice president of communications at The Better Hour and spoke with CitizenLink about Wilberforce’s legacy:
1. Tell me about Wilberforce.
William Wilberforce is a lost figure of American history. Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, said years ago, “Let no man forget the name of William Wilberforce.” And, in fact, Abraham Lincoln said that every schoolboy knew the name of William Wilberforce.
Wilberforce was a parliamentarian in England. He led the fight for the abolition of the slave trade, which ended in 1807. This is actually our 200th anniversary year of the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Not only did he leave behind this tremendous legacy, but he also left behind a tremendous number of philanthropies that changed the face of England.
2. What do you want people to take away from the documentary?
We would like to restore William Wilberforce to his rightful place in history. It has been a largely lost story. This documentary is going to be available for use in social studies and history classes.
We want to inspire and mobilize people, today, to follow in his footsteps because it’s a remarkable story of faith. Wilberforce had a dramatic conversion. It was because he was compelled by his newfound Christian faith that he undertook such an arduous task to end the evil of human trafficking. He spent many hours every morning in private prayer and Bible reading and devotions with his family. This is, in large part, what gave him the strength to persevere.
We hope people will host screenings in their communities — at a local school or library or community center, and to reach out beyond the faith community, because that is what Wilberforce did. This is a way for people to come together to collaborate, to create some of the service works and projects in your own neighborhood that reflect the concerns of William Wilberforce.
3. Why is it so important to teach the next generation not only about the scourge of slavery, but specifically about Wilberforce?
We need to teach the next generation about the scourge of slavery because man is so frail and so likely to repeat the offense. Wilberforce is an example of principled leadership and character and perseverance. We would do well to learn more about his life and model our actions after him.
4. What might Wilberforce think about America today?
He might view America in much the same way as the late 1700s and early 1800s of England, which was a time that (Charles) Dickens had written, “It was the worst of times and the best of times.” There was cheap gin and rampant drunkenness, public hangings, lewd behavior. Wilberforce gathered around him a group of friends in Clapham, England, whose aim was to love God, love each other and serve the needs of others. Wilberforce wrote in his diary that “God Almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.”
5. What would you like to say to Wilberforce?
“Thank you. Thank you for your perseverance, but also, thank you for your example of what it means to be a dedicated follower of Christ.”
Wilberforce puts a new face on what it means to be a Christian — that we can be true to the tenets of the faith and yet show forth compassion to the world.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce is airing nationally this month on public television. Check your local listings. If you missed it, you can buy the DVD.
Creating The Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce is a companion book to the documentary that is great for small groups. It features discussion questions and a foreword by Rick Warren.
The 2007 feature film Amazing Grace is available through Focus on the Family.
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Of all the things the governor of the state of Texas has to do, protecting the reputation of the Boy Scouts would seem far down the list.
In Rick Perry’s case, the governor deems his support of the Boy Scouts “intensely personal.”
Those who share the governor’s loyalty and respect for what the Boy Scouts are and stand for should appreciate Perry’s resolve.
Perry is promoting his new book: “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.”
Perry is an Eagle Scout, and his work was obviously a labor of love.
Perry said this week he penned the book to counter the rash of public relations and legal attacks against the Boy Scouts.
“The ACLU and its allies seemed determined to force the Boy Scouts to bend to their version of what is right and wrong,” Perry said in his book.
Considering the many infamous attempts by the ACLU and its ilk to force the Boy Scouts to condone homosexuality and bend to an alternate view of religious freedom, Perry isn’t far off base.
We don’t know if there is “a culture war” that targets the Boy Scouts, as Perry alludes to, but there is no denying that there are those in this country who would like to change the values that have made the Boy Scouts an American institution.
There are many things wrong in America, but the Boy Scouts hardly would qualify as one of them.
Occasionally, we still hear someone say “Scout’s honor” when claiming honesty and integrity. We’ve never heard anyone say “ACLU’s honor.”
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For close to a century, Scouting has planted the values of our founding fathers in the next generation of Boy Scouts, and the next generation of many U.S. leaders. Men like Astronaut James Lovell, Ross Perot, Michael Dukakis, Gerald Ford, James Stewart, William Bennett and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates were all Eagle Scouts long before they were prominent, successful public figures.
And yet the organization that produced so many of our nation’s leaders—the Boy Scouts of America (BSA)—has been under cultural and legal attack for close to thirty years by a small but dedicated minority of secularists because the BSA has refused to bend to the winds of political correctness. And sadly, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have refined their tactics and begun to prevail in courts of law even as their actions are largely seen as appalling in the court of public opinion.
I wrote the book—On My Honor: Why American Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For—for two main reasons: to espouse the virtues of a movement that has positively shaped the lives of millions of young men, and to expose the virus of secularism that endangers institutions that teach traditional values.
As the culture has increasingly told young people that “moral values are relative,” “if it feels good do it,” and “look out for number one,” it has elevated self as a false idol of worship, and defined our existence as a self-centric pursuit at the expense of serving a higher calling of living for causes greater than self. Scouting is a rare institution in today’s society because it teaches young men that there are causes greater than self, that there is value in hard work and sacrifice, that it is more important to do what is right instead of what is easy, and that there are obligations and responsibilities we share in a free society, such as: being good stewards of the outdoors and one another’s trust.
In fact, there are 12 positive attributes Scouting seeks to instill in young men, known as the Scout law: “A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.”
Ignoring the enormous positive influence scouting has on our youth, the secularists on the left have aimed to shut the Boy Scouts down on three basic fronts: that BSA requires scouts and scout leaders to believe in God; that it limits adult scout leadership on the basis of sexuality, and; that it limits the participation in troops to boys. These secularists pursue radical agendas in the name of political correctness, standing up for atheists and militant homosexual groups who would attempt to shut Scouting down if they won’t change their membership standards.
While the courts have sided with the BSA on all three issues, it has come at great cost in legal fees. Furthermore, the secularists have refined their attacks and have begun to find success. Today many suits by the ACLU and their allies focus on public facilities used by Scout troops. Cities that used to offer free park space to Scout troops either charge them for its use or kick them off totally. The Department of Defense has been sued for making its facilities available. And in Philadelphia, the city bureaucracy said the Scouts would have to start paying fair market value for their headquarters because the property is city-owned—this despite the fact that the Scouts built the facility eighty years ago and gave it to the city for free!
The attack on Scouting is part of a larger cultural phenomenon. Secularists seek to drive people of faith from the public square and to sanitize the Pledge of Allegiance, our currency, our government buildings, and even the scouting oath from any mention of God. They also seek to open Scout troops to Scout leaders who are openly homosexual. While I agree with the right of individuals to choose their own sexual orientation, and share a “live and let live” view about homosexuality with millions of my fellow Americans, I also don’t believe parents enroll their sons in Scouts to get a lesson on human sexuality. They shouldn’t be subject to a debate about homosexuality in troop meetings anymore than they should the sexual exploits or proclivities of heterosexual scout leaders. Scouting isn’t about sex, period.
In waging a culture war, the secularists take a good cause—defending individual liberty—and ruin it by defending license. There is a difference between liberty and license: one is the application of freedom with respect for the responsibilities and boundaries of freedom, the other is the indulgence of self with no regard for the greater good of society.
Scouting teaches young men the responsibilities of freedom. It teaches them the traits of leadership. It instills courage and character. And it guides its subjects along the path to proper citizenship. I hope and pray, in telling the story of the Boy Scouts, I might bring greater awareness to the virtues of the Scouting movement, and the battle it must win in order to preserve its primacy in the lives of millions of young men.
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP)—The governor of Texas argues in a new book that attacks on the Boy Scouts are the latest front in a ‘’culture war’’ and the moral struggle for the country’s future.
Gov. Rick Perry was scheduled to be in New York on Wednesday to launch a book tour promoting ‘’On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.’’
In a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Perry said his support of the Boy Scouts is ‘’intensely personal.’’
‘’Scouting teaches young men the responsibilities of freedom, it teaches them how to be leaders. It instills character, it instills courage,’’ Perry said.
The book extols the virtues of the Boy Scouts and its impact on Perry as he was growing up in rural Paint Creek. ‘’Life revolved around school, church, and—for most boys—the Boy Scouts,’’ Perry wrote.
Perry would eventually achieve Scouting’s highest honor, Eagle Scout, as would his son Griffin years later. Perry often wears his Eagle Scout lapel pin.
The book also traces a 30-year history of litigation involving the Scouts—most of which they won—which Perry considers an attack on traditional values and faith in God.
Perry, a Republican, targets the American Civil Liberties Union as the primary force behind a leftist push to accept homosexuality and challenge Scouting’s duty to God.
‘’The ACLU and its allies seemed determined to force the Boy Scouts to bend to their version of what is right and wrong,’’ he writes.
If intimidation and the threat of lawsuits succeed, Perry writes, ‘’the culture war will be lost before we know it. If that happens, we will find ourselves living in a world where moral relativism reigns and individualism runs amok.’’
Several officials with the ACLU said they are aware of Perry’s book but have not read it.
‘’Our issues aren’t with the Boy Scouts per se, but they are with issues of tolerance in general,’’ said Lisa Graybill of the ACLU of Texas.
On homosexuality, Perry says he is tolerant of gays he knows: ‘’I believe in valuing their lives like any other, as our God in Heaven does,’’ and is open to the idea that sexual preference may be genetic.
But he says any discussion of sex—heterosexual or homosexual—has no place in scouting.
‘’Most Americans have a live-and-let-live view about homosexuality,’’ Perry writes. ‘’Scouting’s leaders have the same tolerant view, but they do not believe that someone whose personal agenda is to make an open issue of his sexual orientation should be a Scout leader. Scouting is not about sex, but about building character ... The Boy Scouts is not the proper intersection for a debate over sexual preference.’’
Perry wrote the book last year with Eric Bearse, his former communications director who left the governor’s office to start his own consulting firm. The two have worked together since Bearse joined Perry’s campaign for lieutenant governor in 1998.
‘’On My Honor’’ is published by Stroud & Hall of Macon, Ga., which specializes in books from a conservative viewpoint. Stroud & Hall would not release how many of the books are in print. All net proceeds go to the Boy Scouts of America.
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How to light a candle in the Midst of Darkness
Dear Friends,
Chuck Colson had a great commentary today.
The transcript is pasted below.
A Model for Engagement:
Wilberforce and The Better Hour…
February 19, 2008
At a recent conference on Christian worldview, a college student asked the question: “Is there a model for engaging secularism?” The panel of well-known experts was stumped, clearly unfamiliar with the fact that 200 years ago a small group of politicians, bankers, writers, and lawyers addressed and overcame the crisis of secularism and immorality in England.
A small group of about 10 friends was known as the Clapham Circle. Following the lead of English parliamentarian William Wilberforce, the Clapham Circle set about with two great, major objectives: In Wilberforce’s words, “the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.” In the process, they helped transform the self-indulgent society of eighteenth-century England.
How they did that is the subject of a new book called Creating the Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce, edited by a Centurion, and my friend, Chuck Stetson. The accompanying documentary called The Better Hour airs this month on PBS television stations.
Stetson discusses 10 methods or strategies that Wilberforce and his associates used to shape public opinion. One was the use of a powerful symbol to focus attention on the plight of the slave. Wilberforce enlisted the famous Josiah Wedgwood to create a special cameo. At the center of the cameo was a kneeling slave in shackles. Inscribed around the edges of this picture was the simple, but provocative question: “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?”
The Wedgwood cameo became a kind of logo when the whole concept of a logo was still novel. The picture and the accompanying question became a powerful symbol for human dignity. Women, who at the time could not vote, wore it on their dresses and on jewelry to show their support for the abolition of the slave trade.
The images from the cameo appeared on everything from plates to snuff boxes. The slogan “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” was as well known to the people of Wilberforce’s day as Nike’s “Just do it” is to any modern American consumer.
And the slogan posed a pointed question that was simple but brilliant. People who never gave slaves a second thought had to examine their own attitudes and engage the issue. It reminds me of how pro-lifers are using in utero photography to force people to ponder the humanity of babies in the womb.
Stetson goes on to describe the other methods Wilberforce and company used so well: long-term planning, teamwork, research, effective networking, use of volunteers, etc.—methods we Christians would do well to emulate as we tackle the myriad social ills we face in this postmodern, self-indulgent society.
But what I take away from Wilberforce and his circle is not just good ideas about strategies and tactics, but also hope. This small handful of committed believers changed the world. Their unfailing efforts eventually resulted in the abolition of slavery itself in Britain and led to the formation of more than 69 voluntary organizations—organizations that tackled a wide range of social concerns, from child labor to the prevention of cruelty to animals to universal education.
“Is there a model for engaging secularism?”
As Stetson’s book shows us, thanks to William Wilberforce and the Clapham sect, there certainly is.
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At a recent conference on Christian worldview, a college student asked the question: “Is there a model for engaging secularism?”
A Model for Engagement, CHARLES COLSON, CATHOLIC EDUCATION RESOURCE CENTER
The panel of well-known experts was stumped, clearly unfamiliar with the fact that 200 years ago a small group of politicians, bankers, writers, and lawyers addressed and overcame the crisis of secularism and immorality in England.
This small group of about 10 friends was known as the Clapham Circle. Following the lead of English parliamentarian William Wilberforce, the Clapham Circle set about with two great, major objectives: In Wilberforce’s words, “the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.” In the process, they helped transform the self-indulgent society of eighteenth-century England.
How they did that is the subject of a new book called Creating the Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce, edited by a Centurion, and my friend, Chuck Stetson. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0979646219/ref=nosim/catholiceduca-20 The accompanying documentary called The Better Hour airs this month on PBS television stations http://www.thebetterhour.com/tbh/
Stetson discusses 10 methods or strategies that Wilberforce and his associates used to shape public opinion. One was the use of a powerful symbol to focus attention on the plight of the slave. Wilberforce enlisted the famous Josiah Wedgwood to create a special cameo. At the center of the cameo was a kneeling slave in shackles. Inscribed around the edges of this picture was the simple, but provocative question: “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?”
The Wedgwood cameo became a kind of logo when the whole concept of a logo was still novel. The picture and the accompanying question became a powerful symbol for human dignity. Women, who at the time could not vote, wore it on their dresses and on jewelry to show their support for the abolition of the slave trade.
The images from the cameo appeared on everything from plates to snuff boxes. The slogan “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” was as well known to the people of Wilberforce’s day as Nike’s “Just do it” is to any modern American consumer.
And the slogan posed a pointed question that was simple but brilliant. People who never gave slaves a second thought had to examine their own attitudes and engage the issue. It reminds me of how pro-lifers are using in utero photography to force people to ponder the humanity of babies in the womb.
Stetson goes on to describe the other methods Wilberforce and company used so well: long-term planning, teamwork, research, effective networking, use of volunteers, etc. — methods we Christians would do well to emulate as we tackle the myriad social ills we face in this postmodern, self-indulgent society.
But what I take away from Wilberforce and his circle is not just good ideas about strategies and tactics, but also hope.
This small handful of committed believers changed the world. Their unfailing efforts eventually resulted in the abolition of slavery itself in Britain and led to the formation of more than 69 voluntary organizations — organizations that tackled a wide range of social concerns, from child labor to the prevention of cruelty to animals to universal education.
“Is there a model for engaging secularism?” As Stetson’s book shows us, thanks to William Wilberforce and the Clapham sect, there certainly is.
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By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press
AUSTIN — In his new book, Texas Gov. Rick Perry uses the Boy Scouts to draw a battle line in what he considers a “culture war,” defending them against the American Civil Liberties Union and what he sees as a moral struggle for the country’s future.
Perry was scheduled to be in New York on Wednesday to launch a book tour promoting “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.”
He will make some appearances on cable television news programs as well as syndicated radio. He also expects to do some book signings in Texas over the next few weeks.
In a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Perry said his support of the Boy Scouts is “intensely personal.”
“Scouting teaches young men the responsibilities of freedom, it teaches them how to be leaders. It instills character, it instills courage,” Perry said.
The book extols the virtues of the Boy Scouts and its impact on Perry as he was growing up in rural Paint Creek. “Life revolved around school, church, and — for most boys — the Boy Scouts,” Perry wrote.
Perry would eventually achieve Scouting’s highest honor, Eagle Scout, as would his son Griffin years later. Perry often wears his Eagle Scout lapel pin.
The book also traces a 30-year history of litigation involving the Scouts — most of which they won — which Perry considers an attack on traditional values and faith in God.
Perry, a Republican, targets the ACLU as the primary force behind a leftist push to accept homosexuality and challenge Scouting’s duty to God.
“The ACLU and its allies seemed determined to force the Boy Scouts to bend to their version of what is right and wrong,” he writes.
On homosexuality, Perry says he is tolerant of gays he knows: “I believe in valuing their lives like any other, as our God in Heaven does,” and is open to the idea that sexual preference may be genetic.
But he says any discussion of sex — heterosexual or homosexual — has no place in scouting.
“Most Americans have a live-and-let-live view about homosexuality,” Perry writes. “Scouting’s leaders have the same tolerant view, but they do not believe that someone whose personal agenda is to make an open issue of his sexual orientation should be a Scout leader. Scouting is not about sex, but about building character ... The Boy Scouts is not the proper intersection for a debate over sexual preference.”
On religion, Perry writes that Scouting is firmly nonsectarian, but expects members to express a belief in the Almighty, and to live according to that faith in their daily lives.
Perry considers the Boy Scouts ironic targets of litigation.
“Which one of the Scout laws are bad? Is it the trustworthy part? The loyal part? Maybe it’s the clean part,” he joked.
And while the Boy Scouts have generally prevailed in court, Perry notes recent lawsuits against other organizations that support the Scouts or attempts to force them out of public places.
“That’s where I have my greatest concern,” he said by telephone. “The secularists are winning some of those.”
If intimidation and the threat of lawsuits succeed, Perry writes, “the culture war will be lost before we know it. If that happens, we will find ourselves living in a world where moral relativism reigns and individualism runs amok.”
Several officials with the ACLU said they are aware of Perry’s book but have not read it.
“Our issues aren’t with the Boy Scouts per se, but they are with issues of tolerance in general,” said Lisa Graybill of the ACLU of Texas.
In one of the last chapters, Perry also tackles a broad range of issues for America today, ranging from education to reliance on foreign investment.
Perry wrote the book last year with Eric Bearse, his former communications director who left the governor’s office to start his own consulting firm. The two have worked together since Bearse joined Perry’s campaign for lieutenant governor in 1998.
“On My Honor” is published by Stroud & Hall of Macon, Ga., which specializes in books from a conservative viewpoint. Stroud & Hall would not release how many of the books are in print. All net proceeds go to the Boy Scouts of America.
The timing of its release raises questions of whether Perry is trying to bolster his conservative credentials and the chances of an appointment to a federal post if Republican John McCain is elected president.
Perry’s predecessor, former Gov. George W. Bush, released his autobiography, “A Charge To Keep” in 1999 during the buildup to his first campaign for president.
Perry was criticized by some conservatives for his previous endorsement of Rudy Giuliani. Perry endorsed McCain after Giuliani dropped out.
Perry has said he’s not interested in moving to Washington, D.C., after seven years as governor, but “he should be on John McCain’s short list for a running mate or cabinet post,” said Ray Sullivan, a Republican consultant who used to work for Perry.
“His conservative credentials are rock solid,” Sullivan said.
Releasing the book in an election year is the smart way to attract readers and buyers, Sullivan said
“Putting out an important cultural and political debate in a general election campaign makes sense,” Sullivan said. “Not only for public policy impact but for book sales.”
Perry chuckled at questions about the timing of the book’s release, noting he’ll likely lose out in the media to the fiercely contested Democratic primary between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on March 4.
“I may not get top billing over the next week or so,” he said.
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Though the Democratic nomination has yet to be decided, Barack Obama and John McCain have begun acting very much as if the general election has already started, exchanging direct criticisms and sizing each other up. And, while neither has talked publicly about it at this early stage, both men are doubtless pondering the running-mate question.
In a matchup with Obama, McCain would face two potentially conflicting imperatives with his choice of a vice presidential candidate.
On the one hand, he badly needs to fire up an apathetic conservative base that even now has not warmed up to his candidacy. For a long time, he’d been assuming that Hillary Clinton—perhaps the most reviled figure among the conservative grass roots—would win the Democratic nomination and accomplish this for him. But if the vastly less polarizing Obama is his opponent, McCain may find his VP choice to be his best remaining means of mobilizing the G.O.P.’s base.
But picking a candidate with well-established conservative bona fides may not help McCain with his other imperative: the excitement factor. Obama’s candidacy has history-making potential, and the age difference between him and his presumptive general election opponent—25 years—would be the largest in history. The 72-year-old McCain would benefit from picking a younger, less conventional running mate who can appeal to the non-G.O.P. base voters who are instinctively attracted to Obama’s personality and to the future-versus-past theme of his campaign.
Meanwhile, conventional wisdom holds that Obama’s main criteria for picking a VP is to find someone with foreign policy heft, since most of Obama’s elected experience came in the Illinois state legislature. This would be particularly true against McCain, who will make Obama’s supposed foreign policy inexperience one of his main lines of attack.
Of course, Obama could thumb his nose at conventional wisdom, and pick a running mate whose foreign policy background—at least in the traditional sense—is just as thin as his, preferring instead to choose a VP who reinforces his emphasis on fresh thinking. Bill Clinton employed this logic in 1992 when he selected Al Gore, a fellow baby boomer who was from a Southern state that bordered Clinton’s Arkansas, when conventional wisdom suggested that he needed a graybeard from up north.
McCain will enjoy one slight advantage in the selection process: Since the G.O.P. convention comes after the Democrats’, he can wait for Obama (or Hillary Clinton) to make his pick before filling out his own ticket.
Here are a few names the candidates ought to consider, assuming, for the sake of this exercise, an Obama-McCain matchup:
Barack Obama
Chuck Hagel: This has the benefit of being both an unconventional, outside-the-box pick and yet a safe one. A conservative Republican on many issues, Hagel is an outcast in the G.O.P. for his outspoken opposition to the foreign policy that his party has embraced under George W. Bush. This has also made him something of a hero to the left and a media favorite. In many ways, Hagel has emerged as the new McCain.
He’s giving up his Senate seat this year and, at 61 years old, is probably through running for office as a Republican. But he’s impeccably qualified for national office, has a commanding presence and grasp of military and national security issues and would vividly illustrate Obama’s declarations that his candidacy represents an effort to unite blue states and red states.
Jim Webb: Webb’s presence on the ticket would have roughly the same effect as Hagel’s, even if Webb is actually a Democrat (although he wasn’t for most of his life). Like Hagel, Webb is a man of conservative instincts who found himself alienated from the G.O.P. because of its embrace of Bush foreign policy. A military man, he has the same commanding presence as Hagel and would also bring ideological diversity to the Democratic ticket (for instance, on gun control). A bonus: He could help in Virginia, a state that will actually be in play this fall.
Joe Biden: Don’t laugh. Biden stuck his foot in his mouth talking about Obama last year, and it’s not at all clear Obama likes him on a personal level. But Biden is a weighty figure on foreign policy issues and a forceful speaker and debater (on points, he won most of the Democratic primary debates). By embracing him, Obama would be sending a signal to well-meaning white voters of a certain generation that he understands if they—like Biden—haven’t fully figured out how to talk about race. I know you don’t mean any harm, Obama would be telling them, and I want you on my team.
Claire McCaskill: A counterintuitive pick, given that she has less foreign policy experience than Obama. But if Obama wants his ticket to serve as a statement that “stale” Washington thinking has no place in his campaign, then he could do worse than to tap a second-year female senator who has made combating wasteful Defense Department spending (a nice response to McCain’s anti-government waste crusade) one of her pet issues and who represents a prime swing state, Missouri. McCaskill might also help Obama mend fences with women who have been devoted to Hillary Clinton in the primaries.
John McCain
Mike Huckabee: Huckabee is doing his level best to prove his usefulness to McCain, gobbling up primary votes from religious conservatives who stubbornly refuse to come around to McCain. Pick me and you can have them all, is Huckabee’s implicit message to McCain. Plus, McCain seems to hold Huckabee in genuinely high regard for the major assist Huckabee provided him in driving Mitt Romney out of the Republican race. Huckabee is a skilled speaker and debater who would probably perform well on the stump and in the VP debate in the fall. The problem: He’s been caricatured (many would say accurately) as a religious extremist and could turn off independent voters whose support McCain absolutely must win in order to defeat Obama.
Kay Bailey Hutchison: She may represent the best realistic balance between McCain’s need to mollify the base and to make a bold statement with his VP pick. Hutchison is not the most conservative member of the Senate, but she’s also far from being a moderate. She has slowly crept to the right on abortion through the years, and after once advertising herself as pro-choice has now adopted views on the subject that could probably pass for pro-life. She would probably be acceptable to most of the right. And her gender would mean that the Republicans would not be running a “white guys” ticket against Obama.
The biggest drawback: She may have some ethical baggage from a 1993 indictment that charged her with misusing Texas state employees to assist with her Senate campaign that year. In early 1994, the prosecutor (Ronnie Earle) decided not to proceed with the case after the judge declined to rule on the admissibility of key evidence.
The best thing she has going for her: If McCain wants to make a splash by picking a woman, he doesn’t have many realistic choices.
Mark Sanford/Tim Pawlenty/Rick Perry: Three somewhat interchangeable conservative Republican governors. Sanford (South Carolina), Pawlenty (Minnesota) and Perry (Texas) all represent safe picks who would do little to inspire the masses and counter the excitement factor of an Obama-led Democratic ticket, but who would sit well with the conservative base that McCain is now scrambling to unify.
Pawlenty, in particular, has had his eye on McCain’s number-two spot for a while. He endorsed the Arizonan last year and has staked out an immigration position in opposition to McCain’s—which could make him more attractive to McCain, since he needs to reach out to conservatives who believe he has promoted “amnesty.”
David Petraeus: This is a very, very long shot. But there has been talk that Petraeus may be moving on from his role as the commander of international forces in Iraq later this year and McCain has been his biggest booster—publicly and behind the scenes in D.C.—since Petraeus took over in Iraq last year. And McCain has made his devotion to the surge and to Petraeus’ Iraq strategy central to his campaign. Petraeus has also been rumored to have political aspirations of his own. Needless to say, this would be a dramatic selection that could compensate for the excitement gap between McCain and an Obama-led Democratic ticket.
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Governor Perry will appear on the Capital Sunday program on Sunday, February 24 with host Leon Harris. The interview will air on WJLA-TV, an ABC affiliate in Arlington, Virginia.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here
Governor Perry will appear on The Dennis Prager Show, a nationally syndicated radio show, on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 2:15 p.m. EST.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will appear on The Jim Bohannon Show for an hour-long interview on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 10:00 p.m. The radio program is nationally syndicated on over 280 stations.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Rick Perry will interview with The Mike Gallagher Show on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 10:45 a.m. EST. The Mike Gallagher Show is nationally syndicated.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will have an interview with Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 9:00 p.m. The interview will air on FOX News Channel on the Hannity & Colmes show.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will be interviewed by Alan Colmes on his nationally syndicated radio show on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 10:15 p.m.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will appear on “The John Gambling Show” on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 11:05 a.m. The interview will air on WABC-AM in New York.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will be discussing On My Honor in an interview with Steve Malzberg, one of America’s most recognizable faces and voices on the political talk scene, on The Steve Malzberg Show on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. EST. The interview with air on WOR-AM in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will discuss “On My Honor” and issues facing the Boy Scouts with the editors of the National Review in an Editorial Board Meeting on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 1:00 pm EST.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Rick Perry will be interviewed on The Roger Hedgecock Show airing on KOGO-AM in San Diego, CA on Wednesday, February 20 at 6:30 p.m. EST. Roger Hedgecock is a noted conservative who frequently fill in for Rush Limbaugh and is a vocal supporter of the Boy Scouts of America.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Rick Perry will appear on the “Brian and the Judge” show on Fox News Radio on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 9:05 a.m., hosted by Brian Kilmeade of FOX and Friends and Judge Andrew Napolitano.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry, an Eagle Scout and father of an Eagle Scout, urged protection of the Boy Scouts, which he called a moral beacon for the United States, that has become a target for the secular left.
“The venerable institution of the Boy Scouts of America, with its clearly-stated belief in God, adherence to a strict moral code and steadfast focus on shaping young men, is the trophy buck that the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and their friends would like to hang above the fireplace,” Perry said Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, CNSNews.com reported Monday.
Perry wrote the book “On My Honor” about the attacks the Boy Scouts face from left-wing organizations. He said the proceeds from the book would go to the organization’s legal defense fund.
The scouts won a court battle against the ACLU, which attempted to force it to accept homosexual scout masters and abandon adherence to a belief in God. “Now, the secular left has shifted its attacks to public entities that have sponsored scout events...,” Perry said.
In one instance, the Boy Scouts were evicted from a facility in Philadelphia that they had rented for one dollar a year for almost a century. The city said they would have to pay fair market value—$300,000 a year—unless it renounced its policy on excluding openly homosexual scoutmasters. The scouts declined and were forced from the building.
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NEW YORK, NY. An inspiring, new one-hour television documentary, “THE BETTER HOUR: The Legacy of William Wilberforce,” (http://www.thebetterhour.com) is now appearing nationwide on public television. The film was produced to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1807-1808 abolition of British and American slave trade in a 20-year heroic effort led by British Parliamentarian William Wilberforce. (Effective date of U.S. legislation was January, 1808.)
“Let no man forget the name of William Wilberforce,” said abolitionist Frederick Douglass. “Every school boy knows the name of William Wilberforce,” said Abraham Lincoln, a quarter-century after Wilberforce’s death. “Yet today few Americans understand why, or even know Wilberforce’s name,” explains ‘THE BETTER HOUR’ executive producer Cullen Schippe.
Shot in high definition and funded by the John Templeton Foundation (http://www.templeton.org), “THE BETTER HOUR: The Legacy of William Wilberforce” is an engaging documentary, rich with content and commentary, that is inspiring people with the remarkable story of the character, faith, and leadership of William Wilberforce. Not only did Wilberforce use his position as a British parliamentarian to lead the 20-year fight to end the slave trade, and later for full emancipation, but Wilberforce helped establish 69 philanthropies which changed the culture of 19th century England. Many of his efforts remain in force today—education for indigent children, child labor laws, prison reform, the first society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, Bible societies, and mandatory small pox inoculation, among many others.
“Our world needs a new generation of people like Wilberforce,” writes Rick Warren in the foreword to a related study guide for small groups, ‘CREATING THE BETTER HOUR: Lessons from William Wilberforce’. “I hope Wilberforce’s example will compel people to work together with others to defeat the evil giants that loom over the twenty-first century,” writes Warren. This book, edited by Chuck Stetson, contains discussion questions for small groups and chapters by Os Guinness, Chuck Colson, Baroness Caroline Cox, and others.
“We hope this film will be used by groups across the country to host screenings with guided discussion in order to inspire and mobilize others to work together to improve their communities,” said Schippe. The film focuses on a politician who, over time, developed strength of character in the service of high and seemingly unattainable goals. This film highlights Wilberforce’s drive and love for humanity and reveals how he and his colleagues worked tirelessly to end the slave trade, even as it represented a large portion of the British economy. In Wilberforce, we see character and a sense of justice for all join together to bring into the world what the English poet William Cowper described as “the better hour.”
“THE BETTER HOUR” DVD is available at http://www.ShopPBS.org, and local broadcast information can be found at http://www.pbs.org/tvschedules/. All information is at http://www.thebetterhour.com
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Border fence no answer to illegal immigration, Perry says
By JACK DOUGLAS JR.
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Rick Perry
Rick Perry
DALLAS—Gov. Rick Perry told members of an influential Hispanic organization on Monday that building a fence down the entire length of the Texas-Mexico border, from El Paso to Brownsville, is “absolutely not the answer” to solving the immigration problem.
Perry’s comments before the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce came less than two weeks after he told reporters in Austin that “there is some strategic fencing that we support” and “that you can use strategic fencing to help control the flow of illegal activities.”
The governor’s speech on Monday, which drew applause from the audience, made no mention of “strategic fencing.” Instead, his comments were similar to those he used a few months ago during a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City. At that time, Perry railed against all the “mean rhetoric” and said that border fences “absolutely won’t work,” according to published reports. Spokesman Robert Black said he sees no contradiction in the comments the governor has made about building a blockade.
“His position on a border wall or border fence has never changed,” Black said. “The governor has always said a fence or wall the entire length of the Texas-Mexico border is nonsensical and won’t work. But strategic fencing in your urban areas is useful and can work.”
Antonio Gil Morales, an opponent of any sort of border wall and the commander of the American GI Forum, an advocacy group for Hispanic war veterans, suggested that Perry’s comments were tailored to his audience.
“Everybody’s trying to play the middle road without [upsetting] anybody,” said Morales, of Fort Worth.
Perry told the Hispanic chamber that the way to deal with immigration is through better coordination among local, state and federal authorities, using available technology. Officials, he said, should “be wise about how we secure our borders.”
Perry called Mexico a “good neighbor” but added that criminals see the border as an “easy entryway to our prosperous state, a curtain to hide behind.”
“We must not compromise our safety and security while ensuring a free flow of commerce,” he said, adding, “We want to make sure that the good guys get in and the bad guys stay out.”
Washington (CNSNews.com) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry, an Eagle Scout himself, is now the father of an Eagle Scout. And that’s just one reason it worries him to see the Boy Scouts of America under attack.
He described the Boy Scouts organization as a moral beacon for the rest of the country, adding that’s why it has become a target for the secular left.
“The venerable institution of the Boy Scouts of America, with its clearly-stated belief in God, adherence to a strict moral code and steadfast focus on shaping young men, is the trophy buck that the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and their friends would like to hang above the fireplace,” Perry said on Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington.
Perry is the author of a book entitled “On My Honor,” about the attacks the Boy Scouts are facing from left-wing organizations. He said the proceeds from the book would go to the organization’s legal defense fund.
Perry began his speech by calling for more “transparency and accountability” in government, and he echoed the call of other CPAC speakers to rally around likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain. But it was Perry’s comments about the Boy Scouts that generated the most reaction from the crowd.
The scouts have won court battles against the ACLU, which attempted to force the organization to accept homosexual scout masters and abandon adherence to a belief in God.
“Now, the secular left has shifted its attacks to public entities that have sponsored scout events at city parks, public schools, even the Department of Defense,” Perry said. “They have gone after anyone with access to public funds to prevent them from providing space to the Boy Scouts.
“Friends, it saddens me to say, they are winning some of these lawsuits,” Perry continued. “In some instances, just the threat of a lawsuit has compelled certain public organizations to close their doors to the scouts. In other instances, city officials sympathetic to the secular agenda are creating new policies that ban access to city facilities for scouts.”
In one instance, the Boy Scouts were evicted from a facility in Philadelphia that they had rented for one dollar a year for almost a century. The city told the scouts they would have to pay fair market value—$300,000 a year—unless the Boy Scouts renounced its policy on excluding openly homosexual scoutmasters. The scouts declined and were forced from the building.
“You know what is amazing about that?” Perry went on. “The scouts actually built that facility more than 80 years ago and gave it to the city for free.” That prompted boos from the crowd.
“We have to protect the Scouts. We want it to be around for another 100 years teaching young men the value of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent,” he said to a standing ovation.
“They are our future leaders, future husbands and future fathers. We’ll need their influence then, so we need [to come to] their defense now.” Original Article
A book by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, published this month, meshes memories of his boyhood in rural West Texas with a fierce portrayal of what he calls indefensible efforts by the American Civil Liberties Union and liberal elites to turn the nation away from traditional values and faith in God.
In his book, “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For,” Perry writes that he has a personal tolerance for gay people, and concedes that it may be that a person’s sexual inclinations are set by their genes.
But, he writes, attempts by the ACLU to enable openly gay people or atheists and agnostics to lead Boy Scout troops amount to unwarranted attacks on religious believers — in keeping with a cultural war pitting secularists against people of faith.
“Whether it is protecting the rights of pornographers, molesters, perverts, terrorists, garden-variety thugs, or those merely hostile to a belief in God, the ACLU is there to provide aid and comfort, in additional to a well-funded legal arsenal,” Perry writes.
Perry, a Republican who has held state office since 1985, extends his concern to university professors and government employees who, he writes, consist largely of liberal critics intent on foisting their self-centered morals on American society.
“If the liberal elites were only to try to chip away at the values of society from the outside, it might not matter except in the particular cases where their narrow view prevails,” Perry writes. “The fact is, however, they are entrenched in public positions of power, wielding the levers of control in public institutions across the country.”
Perry wrote the book last year with Eric Bearse, who was his communications director through August. It was published by Georgia-based Stroud & Hall Publishers, which specializes in works written from a conservative vantage point.
The book’s net proceeds are slated to go to the Boy Scouts of America and its legal defense fund; Perry’s office said he was not paid an advance and has no personal financial stake in the project.
Perry is scheduled to start a book tour Feb. 20, but he has handed out copies of the book to friends and plans to sign copies during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, where he is scheduled to speak today.
Perry said Friday the book germinated as he helped his son, Griffin, work toward becoming an Eagle Scout about a decade ago. “This is a story that needs to be told,” he said.
Asked if he sees redeeming goodness in the ACLU, Perry said it’s the group’s prerogative to take different points of view, but said he believes that with its sallies against the Boy Scouts, it’s trying to “force a very narrow and frankly unpopular agenda on a venerable institution… that has been working for 100 years… It is a relentless attack.”
Paul Cates, public education director of the ACLU’s New York-based Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, has not read Perry’s book. Generally, Cates said, the ACLU doesn’t wish to see the Boy Scouts fold. However, the group believes the group’s insistence on Scouts declaring a belief in God and its refusal to allow non-believers and gays to participate in or lead Scout troops violates anti-discrimination laws and the Constitution, he said.
“They could be more inclusive of all people,” Cates said, adding that when the government gives Scout groups access to public facilities, “we have challenged them from time to time.”
In the book, Perry, who often wears his Eagle Scout lapel pin, details about 30 instances since the 1970s of the ACLU or other entities taking the Boy Scouts to task for its service requirements, though the Scouts have usually prevailed, with the exception of the organization’s 1988 decision amid legal challenges to change its policies and let women hold leadership positions.
Perry said Friday that win or lose, the ACLU’s activism drains resources that could be spent serving more boys, costing the Scouts more than $1 million a year in legal bills.
He worries too that the tussling reflects a nation that has lost its moral way.
“The faith that permeates the lives of so many middle Americans is often derided as a crutch for weak people,” Perry writes. “This seems to be the view of many liberal elitists who worship the false idol of self. The views of a great many Americans are cast aside as over-simplified, and the liberal intelligentsia like to think of themselves as the only legitimate arbiters of morality. They think the public simply doesn’t know better and is easily manipulated by the emotional appeals of troglodyte, conservative commentators.”
The book offers a few glimpses of Perry’s life before politics.
It also notes that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City when Boy Scouts were not welcomed as volunteers.
Perry goes on to quote a statement from Romney, who just dropped out of the running for the GOP presidential nomination, in a 1994 debate: “I feel that all people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation.”
Perry, who grew up near Haskell, about 55 miles north of Abilene, confesses to being a restless kid who probably would have been identified in recent years as having attention-deficit disorder.
He describes a boyhood built around his family farm and school, church and Saturdays spent with the local Boy Scout troop. A beloved Scoutmaster first took Perry to visit faraway Texas A&M University, which Perry later attended, becoming a yell leader.
“Dad called our area the Big Empty,” Perry writes. “I called it paradise.”
The Perrys lived in a six-room bungalow (counting the bathroom) and depended on a 14-foot well for water and a No. 2 washtub for baths. He was one of 110 kids in the school, grades 1 through 12.
He writes that his father, Ray, was not averse to disciplining with corporal punishment: “Dad believed in the pain principle. His leather belt was usually the delivery method of choice.”
Suggesting that Americans have developed poor manners, Perry recalled a June 2005 TV interview that he followed up by saying into the microphone: “Adios, mofo.”
He writes: “I suppose such vulgar vernacular has become so common that people could identify with me showing a little frustration using ‘street talk.’ Nevertheless, it was wrong. It fell short of the standard I learned long ago in the Scouts: to be courteous and kind.”
In another aside, Perry hints at the stresses that afflict men, writing: “We wonder why men, on average, die a few years earlier than women. My non-scientific, non-clinical explanation is that stress and anxiety, concealed over a lifetime, may eat away at a man mentally, then physically, until his body can take no more.”
Perry said Friday he won’t die from stresses, because he exercises.
“Run,” he said. “Join me on the jogging trail.”
This February, in honor of Black History Month, a new one-hour documentary The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce, will air nationwide on PBS. The film was produced to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1807 abolition of British and American slave trade in a 20-year heroic effort led by British Parliamentarian William Wilberforce. Hero for Humanity: A Biography of William Wilberforce by Gordon College alumnus Kevin Belmonte, including many of Belmonte’s historical personal archives and individual reflections served as contributing resources for the film.
The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce is the story of a man who, inspired by his Christian faith, used his political and social influence to change the world for the better. At the beginning of the 19th century, almost a third of the British economy depended on the trade of human beings. William Wilberforce was determined to end this horrific practice, by persuading both Parliament and British society to abolish slavery in the British Empire. Check your local listings at http://www.pbs.org/tvschedules for scheduled programming for your area. A companion book will also be available this fall titled Creating the Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce. The book is a 360-page collection of scholarly reflections on Wilberforce and is edited by Chuck Stetson with a foreword by Rick Warren. Other contributing scholars include Kevin Belmonte, Os Guinness, Chuck Colson, Baroness Caroline Cox, and Joe Califano.
Belmonte graduated from Gordon College in 1990 with a degree in English literature and is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on the historical life of William Wilberforce. An interview with Belmonte will be featured in the upcoming PBS documentary. In addition to his contributions with the film’s script development, Belmonte previously served as the lead historical consultant for the major motion film, Amazing Grace. Winner of the 2003 John Pollock Award for Christian Biography, Belmonte has edited Wilberforce’s classic apologetic work A Practical View of Christianity and has served as a script consultant for the BBC. Belmonte continues to work with Gordon College as director of The Wilberforce Project--an initiative that fosters scholarship relating to all aspects of William Wilberforce’s legacy. His book Hero for Humanity was selected as a finalist for ForeWord magazine’s “Book of the Year Award,” and has received critical acclaim in Booklist Magazine, the Midwest Book Review and Publishers Weekly.
For information on this PBS special, visit http://www.thebetterhour.com. For information on author Kevin Belmonte or The Wilberforce Project at Gordon College, contact Cyndi McMahon in the Office of College Communications at 978.867.4236 or email cyndi.mcmahongordon.edu.
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