Southern Baptists Move To Cut Ties With Boy Scouts Of America Over Inclusion Of Gay Scouts

International Business Times ^ | May 29, 2013 | Eric Brown

[SeekAndFind]

Last week, the Boy Scouts of America made its landmark decision allowing gay Scouts to be members (but not adult leaders), and while many liberal organizations are pleased, America’s largest Protestant church organization seems poised to cut off ties with the Boy Scouts in protest.

More than 70 percent of Boy Scout troops across the country are sponsored by religious organizations. Many sponsorships come from the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination with more than 47,000 churches. Now, Frank Page, president of the SBC's executive committee, says it’s time for its congregations to cut all ties with the Boy Scouts of America.

"I think I can say with pretty strong accuracy that the vast majority of Southern Baptists are very disappointed in the latest change in policy ... deeply disappointed," Page told ABC News.

Convention plans to hold a national meeting, where Page and the executive board will officially recommend that all Southern Baptist churches pull their sponsorship from the Boy Scouts. The resolution will not be binding, however, and each church is free to make a decision for itself.

"We don't hate people," said Page. "We don't hate anybody, but we just felt like there's got to be some objective standard, and we felt they were maintaining that until recently."

Despite the likely Southern Baptist move, not all religious organizations are as opposed to the change. The Mormon church, which sponsors many Scout troops, has embraced the Boy Scout decision despite its own disapproval of homosexuality. The Roman Catholic Church is considering its response.

ABC News also reports that the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association and the gay-founded Metropolitan Community Church are all in favor of repealing the ban on openly gay Scouts.

Some churches have already withdrawn their support. Father Derek Lappe of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Bremerton, Wash., has already removed its sponsorship of a local Boy Scout troop.

Pastor Tim Hester of Southeast Christian Church Louisville, Ky., has already done the same. "Truly, for us it's a logical decision," Hester told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "We cannot be distracted from the mission God has called us to."

Under the Boy Scouts of America’s new policy, openly gay Scouts will be allowed to serve in troops nationwide. But gay scoutmasters and adult leaders are still banned.

"No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone," the resolution passed Thursday states, according to CNN.

"The resolution also reinforces that Scouting is a youth program, and any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting," the BSA said in a statement.

The ban on gay Scouts and leaders was instituted in 1991 when the organization determined that gay people were not living in accordance with the Boy Scouts of America oath, which demands that Scouts be "physically strong, mentally alert and morally straight." The point of contention was with the "morally straight" clause. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the BSA as a private organization had the constitutional right to set its own rules in a case brought by a gay Eagle Scout named James Dale, who was barred from serving as a leader in a New Jersey troop in 1990 because of his sexuality.

[MCH]

BSA voted for organizational death - it’s time to accelerate the process now. Sooner or later, they’re done for as a viable organization. Might as well be sooner.

[SoldierDad]

When in college I joined a co-ed national service fraternity. The “Pledge Master” for the class of pledges I was in was an Eagle Scout. As it turns out, he was also a sodomite. It would appear that being in the BSA did NOT assist in him coming to manhood with an emotionally healthy outcome.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm sorry to hear that.

"I read somewhere" (and I know that's not an authority) "that somebody's research showed" that 75% of the boys who say they're gay at 13, say they're NOT gay at 18; and of those who still consider themselves gay at 18, 75% of them no longer do at 24.

The point (no matter what the numbers) is that many boys feel sexually confused at 13, and it turns out to be a temporary thing --- an immaturity issue, really --- that resovles itself as they grow up.

IF they have normal friendships with other boys, IF they are not encouraged to adopt "gay" as their "identity", and IF they avoid being raped, seduced, or otherwise initiated into sexual behavior with another male.