Darell Lambert isn’t allowed in the Boy Scouts anymore because he’s an atheist. Never mind the fact he has earned 37 merit badges, worked more than 1,000 hours of community service and helps lead a Boy Scout troop in his hometown. The Boy Scouts are a private organization, which means they can exclude membership to anyone. Gays and atheists fit into this category.

In fact, there’s little question the Boy Scouts have the right to ban Darell Lambert, who has reached Eagle Scout status. Two years ago, when the issue was the Boy Scouts’ ban on gays, the Supreme Court ruled they could set their membership standards because they are a private organization. However true this may be, why did the organization wait so long to tell Lambert he must declare a religion with a higher power?

Nineteen-year-old Lambert, who has been a Scout since he was nine, was given an ultimatum from scouting officials last week: declare a higher power or lose membership to the Boy Scouts. He was given a week to decide. A few days ago, Lambert declared that he would not admit a higher power because it would be a lie, “They say that I should think about what I really believe and get back to them. I have thought about this for years. Can they expect me to change my beliefs in seven days?”

One official even suggested that the only way a nonbeliever could advance in scouting would be to lie about his beliefs.

Lambert said that the official went on to suggest that, “a person who doesn’t believe in God is not a good citizen.” It’s a shame that an official with comments such as these is leading the Boy Scouts.

After all, two qualities the Boy Scout Law states are that members must have loyalty and trustworthiness. It seems Lambert is fulfilling his duties as a Boy Scout by being loyal and trustworthy to his own beliefs. The official’s comments, however, seem to imply that lying to get ahead is all right.

Not to mention the organization itself, which never mentioned anything to Lambert about his beliefs until two weeks ago, after the issue arose from an argument Lambert had with a Scout leader during a leadership-training seminar. Despite the fact that he admitted his atheism to Scout leaders overlooking his Eagle Scout application last year, he was still given the award.

Membership applications require Boy Scouts and adult leaders to announce that they recognize some higher power, not necessarily religious. “Mother Nature” would even be acceptable, but atheism isn’t because it doesn’t acknowledge any faith in a supreme being. Mark Hunter, the director of marketing and administration for the Chief Seattle Council, said it was enforcing a national policy. He added that the Boy Scouts is a faith-based organization, and the issue of God is not negotiable.

Lambert has been an atheist since ninth grade, when he first started studying evolution. He is now a college freshman, and volunteered as an assistant in a troop in Port Orchard, across from the Puget Sound on the Olympic Peninsula, where his mother is scoutmaster.

Lambert says he knows Boy Scout policy and is aware of the pledge of duty to God. He has participated when reciting the law and oath but says that none of it really mattered to him, until last month when he attended the leadership-training seminar where the issue first arose.

This issue has happened before. In 1998, two 16-year-old twins, who refused to take an oath to God, were awarded Eagle badges after a seven-year legal fight with the Orange County, California council. This means Lambert would have a chance to stay in the Scouts if he took the council to trial. One of two things would happen; the Boy Scouts could change their policy regarding atheists, which might possibly have an effect on gay policy, or the scout leaders will give extra special attention to membership requirements – specifically the religion and higher power category.

However unlikely the first thing is to happen, I can only hope.