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In "On My Honor", Texas
Governor Rick Perry takes dead aim at the
secular humanist movement, and their agenda
of moral relativism, for its corrosive impact
on the culture. Examining the left's legal
assaults on the Boy Scouts of America -
which spans more than 30 years - Perry offers
prescient insight into one front in this
multi-faceted war which pits the proponents
of traditional American values against the
radical leftist movement that seeks to tear
down our social foundations.
In his book, Perry seeks
out the views of notable American leaders
who, like himself, are Eagle Scouts. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates, Senator Thad Cochran,
astronaut James Lovell, Ohio State President
E. Gordon Gee, and former FBI Director William
Sessions all comment on the values instilled
by scouting, and its relevancy in the 21st
Century. He also has enlisted former presidential
candidate Ross Perot to write the foreword.
Perry draws from his roots
in Paint Creek - a small community an hour
north of Abilene, Texas - where scouting
played a central role in shaping young boys
into men. You see a young man who doesn't
know what he aspires to be, but who knows
based on scouting and family tradition that
service to others is an honorable calling;
you see how scouting instills confidence
based on achievement rather than the left's
artificial attempts to boost self-esteem;
and you see that the values scouting derives
from the great middle class of America remain
as important today as they did prior to
the counter-culture movement spawned out
of the turmoil of the 1960's.
Perry looks at the public
record regarding the left's challenge to
scouting's profession of duty to God, its
attempt to force scouting to conform to
the homosexual agenda, and the harm caused
by the left's litigious assault on an organization
with limited resources. Perry also reveals
that the infamous Dale case decided by the
U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, affirming scouting's
prerogative as a private organization to
ban openly gay scoutmasters, is not the
final word on the subject: the left has
simply shifted its tactics and has begun
pressuring schools, municipalities and other
public entities that provide space to scouting
organizations.
"On My Honor" underscores
the depth to which the culture warriors
of the left will go to force their secular
humanist, minority view upon American society
and revered American institutions. It is
a revealing look at a culture war that rages
close to the surface of American life, and
it is a must read for any American concerned
that our society is slipping from the high
moral ground of liberty to the valley of
license.
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