Boy kicked out of scouts for refusing to swear allegiance to god

[Tino]

My thinking on this has changed since the thread was posted. At first my reaction was irritation and disgust with the Boy Scouts for this policy. And when I did some research on the pledge, I saw that it includes the phrase "To do my duty to God and country..." and I was thinking that it would be interesting to define what the God duties are. But my view changed when I took a closer look at the pledge and BSA's explanation of it. Here it is:

Boy Scout Oath or Promise

On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

Note that the Boy Scout Oath has traditionally been considered to have three promises. Those three promises are delineated by the semicolons in the Oath, which divide it into three clauses. The three promises of the Scout Oath are, therefore:

Duty to God and country,
Duty to other people, and
Duty to self

DUTY TO GOD AND COUNTRY: Your family and religious leaders teach you to know and serve God. By following these teachings, you do your duty to God.

(the rest is not included as it doesn't address the god issue)

So here's my new thinking. First, this kid joined an organization that is clearly faith based. They don't hide this, and he would have been taught this pledge from his first contact with the Boy Scouts. Second, I wouldn't want my kid to think it's a good idea to go announcing his atheism in a religious setting - just bad manners. Third, their explanation is that "your family and religious leaders teach you to know and serve God" and I think he could have easily interpreted this to mean that his family-taught knowing of god is that it's an ancient myth and doesn't actually exist, and his duty to god is to not accept the myth, or something similar. In other words, I think he could have remained in the scouts without compromising himself and without making this an issue. It's unfortunate that he'll be denied the benefits of being a scout. So at this point I'm kind of irritated with the kid and his dad for handling it this way.