Posted on 07/28/2015 11:58:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Quelle surprise. The Boy Scouts of America has faced pressure for decades to end its national policy barring gay men as Scout leaders, finding itself barred from schools and other public venues for its stand even as churches and other civic organizations supported them. Yesterday, BSA’s national office changed its policy to end hiring discrimination within the organization and remove its bar on openly gay volunteer Scout leaders, while allowing church-sponsored troops to make their own leadership choices. Will that end the controversy? Don’t bet on it:
The Boy Scouts of America, facing litigation, shrinking membership and sweeping acceptance of gay rights, voted Monday to lift its ban on openly gay troop leaders and employees.
The national organization will no longer allow discrimination against its paid workers or at BSA-owned facilities. But local troops and councils will be permitted to decide for themselves whether they will allow openly gay volunteer leaders. …
The executive board’s vote was taken at the suggestion of the group’s president, former defense secretary Robert Gates, who noted that the Scouts are facing potential lawsuits by gay adults who were shut out of positions. But church-state legal experts said the decision will likely just shift the controversy and legal battles from the national group to local troops and councils as volunteers barred from participating file suit.
Needless to say, the move made almost no one happy. The Mormon Church declared itself “deeply troubled,” and hinted it may end its long and broad association with BSA as a result:
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is deeply troubled by today’s vote by the Boy Scouts of America National Executive Board,” said a statement issued by the Mormon Church moments after the Scouts announced the new policy.
“In spite of a request to delay the vote, it was scheduled at a time in July when members of the church’s governing councils are out of their offices and do not meet,” the statement said. “When the leadership of the church resumes its regular schedule of meetings in August, the century-long association with scouting will need to be examined.”
Mormons use the Boy Scouts as their main nonreligious activity for boys, and the Cub Scout and Boy Scout units they sponsor accounted for 17 percent of all youths in scouting in 2013, the last year for which data have been published. The negative reaction to Monday’s vote took many Boy Scout leaders by surprise; it had been widely assumed that the exemption for religious sponsors would keep them in the fold.
“The church has always welcomed all boys to its scouting units regardless of sexual orientation,” the statement by the church headquarters continued. “However, the admission of openly gay leaders is inconsistent with the doctrines of the church and what have traditionally been the values of the Boy Scouts of America.”
But the people who have put pressure on BSA for decades must be celebrating their big win, right? Er … not exactly:
Wahls also worried about what he called a “political necessity” built into the new policy—the decision to allow the roughly 70 percent of members in the US who are chartered through religious organizations to continue excluding gay adults from hiring.
Wahls suggested this could create a sharply divided organization, while Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said the policy “undermines” the “historic nature” of the decision.
“Discrimination should have no place in the Boy Scouts, period,” he said.
Geoff McGrath, a former Boy Scout leader in Seattle whose membership was revoked last April because he is gay, also called this element of the policy “atrocious.”
The problem seems to be that BSA did not replace its policy of exclusion with a mandate for inclusion. Practically speaking, such a mandate would be tough to enforce, and would almost certainly cause a collapse of membership. Even this moderate change threatens to alienate one of BSA’s biggest partners, the Mormons, who were a significant force within Scouting even when I was earning merit badges.
It’s not just the Mormons, either, who would have issues with a top-down inclusion edict. Churches sponsor Scout troops at least in part as an extension of faith formation. That is a ministerial function, one which churches guard and monitor carefully in most cases. Certainly some faith communities will have no issues with having gay Scout leaders in their troops, while some will, just as they might with similar positions within a ministerial function. Those that decide to continue the traditional policy probably won’t be much of a surprise, and people can choose to either start an independent troop or find another, more welcoming faith community. Those choices will now exist with BSA’s policy change where they did not before.
Inevitably, though, this will get dragged into court in one context or another. I doubt that independent troops will get to maintain exclusions, especially in states with Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) protections exist in law, but churches will have somewhat stronger ground in standing on ministerial prerogatives. The net effect, though, will be to drive religious organizations away from Scouting, to the detriment of all concerned. Be prepared.
I asked him if he was comfortable having a gay man alone with a kid.
He told me that there is a difference between gays and pedophiles, so his answer is "yes."
I think this is the belief of all those who voted to allow gay leaders in the BSA.
The only people left in the BSA will be gays, and idiot parents. Membership is going to shrink about 90%.
What happens when a parent demands a non gay scout leader for their kid?
They need to change the name to GSA.
He told me that there is a difference between gays and pedophiles, so his answer is "yes."
What a fool. He needs to spend just a few minutes looking at the facts of how queer pedophiles groom and recruit young boys.
Or to “Scouting for Boys.”
I don’t see any problems with the fox in the henhouse.
Are these the same dummies who hate the Catholic Church because of its scandals? I mean, talk about blind!
Deeply troubled? May end???
For being such nice people, Mormons sure love their perverts.
“Wahls also worried about what he called a “political necessity” built into the new policy—the decision to allow the roughly 70 percent of members in the US who are chartered through religious organizations to continue excluding gay adults from hiring.”
When they first accepted gays as members 2 years ago, they said that they wont allow gays as leaders in the scouts. Many of us knew better and said it was only a matter of time before they reversed themselves and would indeed allow gays in leadership positions. Sure enough, 2 years later here we are.
So dont be surprised when they no longer allow charters to exclude gays too.
They’re going to see what happened in Canada, rapid dropouts of kids to other organizations where parents feel kids are safer, because the leadership won’t let people exclude those they just voted to include. You can try to find a troop with just straight leaders, but even that’s not a guarantee at a campout or jamboree.
My recommendation:
Conservative Boy Scout Alternatives
http://tamarawilhite.hubpages.com/hub/Conservative-Boy-Scout-Alternatives
I had a buddy in high school who’s wealthy father went a little off the deep end. All of a sudden he was having parties at their big house and all these gay men were there. I was 16 at the time. I can tell you without any reservation that gay men prey on young men. They cannot help themselves. They want to turn you their way. They cannot help themselves.
I literally met 100’s of gay men while I was in high school. They were all self-loathing and self-destructive.
Queer men are perverts when it comes to young men and boys.
The Queer Scouts have just voted to allow the mentally ill to run their organization at the lowest levels where these mentally ill people have the most control over young minds full of mush.
The BSA will be sued and sued and sued because of this. This is the end of their organization.
“there is a difference between gays and pedophiles”
No there isn’t!
Over 80% of homosexuals were molested as children.
The ONLY reason they want this access is to MOLEST YOUR SONS!
Good thinking, The Gay Scouts of America would cover both the queers in the Boy Scouts and the lesbos of the Girl Scouts.
They would have both under one big tent and the LGBT could run the whole damn show.
Shut it down. Although they will probably be invited back to public schools, any one in their right mind should just say NO WAY.
From what I hear, the vote was unanimous.
That is enough to know.
Burn, baby, burn
if you expose your child to pornography, knowingly or unknowingly, you can be charged with child abuse and/or molestation
if you allow your child to attend an event run and they get exposed to pornography or molested while on ‘outings’ ... you should also be charged with abuse and molestation and also willful endangerment of the child
if you want to protect your kid and avoid any possible charges, it’s best to remove them from the scouts.
A high school acquaintance is one of the leaders of the gay scout movement, and I am his facebook friend. It has offered me a front row seat in liberal goal post moving.
Two years ago, BSA allowed gay scouts. My friend - very upset. That’s right - it ‘didn’t go far enough’, and the BSA was still a phobic den of hatred.
Ok. Today’s decision to allow gay leaders. My friend - very upset. Again, not far enough - because a church or sponsoring organization for a troop can still reject gay leaders. BSA, despite their capitulation, (thank you Robert Gates), gets no ‘credit’ from liberals - still a phobic den of hatred.
When will he be happy? I assume if churches were forced to accept gay leaders, he would next be upset that none of the BSA senior leadership is gay, etc., etc. So he won’t ever be happy.
That’s liberalism.
And that’s a very good illustration of why GOP politicians should never, ever, try to ‘compromise’ with a liberal.
OK, let’s categorize them:
1) Homosexuals who are attracted to children of the same sex
2) Homosexuals who are only attracted to adults
3) Heterosexuals who are attracted to children of the OPPOSITE sex.
The BSA leadership seems to think that #2 applies all the time and #1 is not something to be worried about.
which has been the intended goal since the beginning.
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