Boy Scout Backlash? Organization May See Rapid Decline in Church Support Following Gay Leaders Vote

Christian Post ^ | 08/02/2015 | Michael Gryboski

[SeekAndFind]

The Boy Scouts of America may experience a severe backlash from church sponsors following its recent vote to approve openly gay scout leaders.

A national organization boasting over 2.6 million members, many of the BSA's more than 37,000 troops come from churches that officially state that homosexuality is a sin.

These include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the United Methodist Church, and the Southern Baptist Convention.

Roger S. Oldham, spokesman for the SBC, told The Christian Post that Southern Baptist churches have been cutting ties with the BSA since 2013, when the youth organization voted to allow openly gay members but not leaders.

"Some already have following the 2013 vote. We anticipate that others will following this vote," said Oldham to CP.

"We predicted in 2013 that the Scouts would see an immediate loss in membership with continual attrition over time, something their 2014 and 2015 annual reports clearly demonstrate."

Oldham told CP that while the SBC does not have an official relationship with BSA, there are member churches within the Convention that sponsor troops.

Ernest Easley, professor of evangelism with the School of Theology and Missions at Union University, has called on churches still connected to the BSA to sever their ties.

"The Supreme Court's recent ruling on same-sex marriage played right into the hands of the Boy Scouts as they take ... yet another step away from their own pledge of being 'morally straight.' I suppose it's time to change the pledge," said Easley to the Baptist Press.

"I hope churches that still sponsor troops, that were reluctant to end their sponsorship earlier, will now decide to cut their ties with the Scouts and find other ways … to invest in the lives of young boys."

In July, the BSA executive committee voted to end its historic ban on openly gay adult leaders, a decision ratified soon after by the National Executive Board in a 45-12 vote.

While ending the gay scout leader ban, BSA also stated that church-sponsored troops can still set their own policies on adult leaders.

The Boy Scouts leadership said in a memo that it "rejects any interference with or condemnation of the diverse beliefs of chartering organizations on matters of marriage, family, and sexuality."

Nevertheless, denominations like the LDS church have openly considered reassessing and possibly ending its connection to the BSA.

In a statement released soon after the vote, the LDS Church said they were "deeply troubled" by the BSA's decision, adding that "the admission of openly gay leaders is inconsistent with the doctrines of the Church."

"As a global organization with members in 170 countries, the LDS Church has long been evaluating the limitations that fully one-half of its youth face where Scouting is not available," continued the statement.

"Those worldwide needs combined with this vote by the BSA National Executive Board will be carefully reviewed by the leaders of the Church in the weeks ahead."

The United Methodist Church, itself embroiled in a debate over its official position on homosexuality, is not openly considering a severance with the Scouts.

A UMC spokeswoman directed CP to a statement by Gilbert C. Hanke, general secretary of the General Commission on United Methodist Men.

"The Office of Civic Youth-Serving Agencies/Scouting, GCUMM, has enjoyed partnerships with four civic youth agencies for many years, including the Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, Camp Fire and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America," stated Hanke.

"The primary reason for these partnerships is our commitment to ministering to the children and youth of our church communities, including at-risk youth."

Hanke also said that further comments on the BSA policy change may come following the next meeting of the GCUMM Board on Aug. 20-22.

[Morpheus2009]

Most of these people will never admit to wanting to destroy anything. No decent narcissistic individual ever will. With a narcissist, it’s give me what I want, consequences to other people are irrelevant.

[lurk]

Who would let their 12 year old son go on camping or other trips with this organization, other than parents who are already perverse?

[silverleaf]

She is marrying a man with whom she has a child
Looks like a good life choice for all of them

Would Jesus go?

People’s attitudes change as they get older
When she has to worry about her child being molested her attitude could change

[Yosemitest]

There's not but one way to sole this problem.


TO TOLERATE HOMOSEXUALS IS EVIL.
This is what we get when we FAIL to OBEY God.
For it is written:

“ For whosoever shall commit ANY of these abominations,
even the SOULS that commit them
SHALL BE CUT OFF from among their people. ”

Those who support homosexuals are against our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
These anti Christ people only bring destruction on us ALL.
I have NO sympathy for homosexuals!

Homosexuality is a "Mark" of disobedience.

It was given by our Heavenly Father to test us
to see ... if we will OBEY our Heavenly Father,
and abide by His commandments, statues, and ordinances.

Someone once asked

"Why are they [homosexuals] all so angry?"

The answer is in the definition of "REPROBATE".

rep·ro·bate \ˈre-prə-ˌbāt\ a. [L. reprobatus, reprobo, to disallow; re and probo, to prove.]

1. Not enduring proof or trial; not of standard purity or fineness; disallowed; rejected.


Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them. Jer. 6.




2. Abandoned in sin; lost to virtue or grace.

They profess that they know God, but in works deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate. Titus 1.

3. Abandoned to error, or in apostasy. 2Tim. 3.

And the reason"why" is given in the Bible.

God has a cure for homosexuals.

But will we OBEY our Heavenly Father?

"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect
that God is just,
that his justice cannot sleep forever."

[allendale]

This “vote” was always about keeping corporate donations flowing to the Boyscouts. Homosexuals have undue influence on corporate boards and can stop donations that support “hate” or whatever they don’t like. It takes a huge amount of money to maintain the Boyscouts national headquarters and pay the full time staff. Its about the bucks.

[KeyLargo]

“Boy Scout Backlash? Organization May See Rapid Decline in Church Support Following Gay Leaders Vote”

Exactly, will happen.

The Left knows that fact when they push their agenda on Conservatives, that just lay down and take it.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The leftists are caught up in another one of their paradoxes.

They crave to strip morality and faith from morality and faith based organizations. However, liberal families that lack either morality or faith never wanted to participate in morality and faith based organizations in the first place.

Granted, leftists are superb at co-opting leadership roles in national organizations, but instead of converting or changing the majority, they force a majority to schism from the leftism and moral degeneracy that is being foisted on them.

This has already happened in many of the religious denominations. The leftists end up running the organization, but those of morality and faith no longer contribute to the organization, and its leftist and liberal members never have, and never will contribute, so the organization is destined to whither.

The troubles with the BSA actually began in earnest in the 1970s. Liberals and leftists had already penetrated the leadership, and while likely not a majority, still persuaded the BSA to make some terrible, but trendy!, changes in how it taught boys.

First, it made the most unloved and pathetic edition of the Boy Scout manual ever made. If you can imagine if the BSA manual had been written by Hillary Clinton. Instead of teaching backwoods lore, it shifted to urban life, and just sucked all the goodness out of the book. Think “merit badges for community organization.” It stunk on ice, and was quickly replaced.

Their next big liberal-leftist thing was to make a big push to recruit “inner city yoots”, troublesome, gang-oriented minorities. And then the fools sent them to a Boy Scout camp. As might be expected they trashed the camp, came close to rioting, vandalized, burned, left filth everywhere, etc. It cost the BSA hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix what the “yoots” had ruined.

[super7man]

Earlier this week I returned my Eagle Scourt Metal to the BSA and request that I be removed from their records and listing of Eagle Scouts.

I was always proud to say that I AM an Eagle Scout. It is with a saddened heart that I will have to sheepesly admit that is WAS an Eagle Scout.

If you had asked me on the day on my Eagle Scout award, “Will homosexuals be able to invade and destroy BSA in the next few decades?” I would have looked at you like you were from outer space. (At the time, I’m not sure what a homosexual really was.)

In retrospect, Scouting years were the best of my young adult life. I am so sorry that so many young men will not have a similar experience.

It is truely a sad day for America.

Scout: 1964-1971
Eagle Scout:1969 (Award signed by Richard Nixon)
Adult Scouter: 1996-2008
Son, Eagle Scout: 2007

[skimbell]

"...if I’d said those exact words at my last employer I’d have been counseled for my attitude..."

Luckily, the priest's boss has already laid out his policy in his "handbook".

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Time to zero out and start over.

[SeekAndFind]

Time to zero out and start over.

Alternative to Boy Scouts, formed in wake of gay controversy, finds its footing

[dila813]

Is there anyway to get back from the Boyscouts money and land donated in previous years?

I think it is a shame that these great facilities located with grandfathered permits in wilderness areas are potentially going to revert back to the government. I suspect they will be tore down and disposed of.

[SeekAndFind]

Trail Life USA is a Christian Scouting-like organization for boys that is "interdenominational with Charter partners representing Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox faith traditions". The organization was founded in 2013 in reaction to changes in the membership policy of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to allow the participation of openly gay youth.

All charters of Trail Life USA must pledge to follow a "Statement of Faith"; the organization states that non-Christians and those who affirm homosexuality are not eligible to lead or charter in the group as these beliefs contradict their "Statement of Faith". However, youths of all religious beliefs are allowed to join.

[Romans Nine]

Very sad.
I know two other Eagle Scouts who have mailed their medals back and asked to be removed. I can’t imagine how many others have done the same.

[DouglasKC]

Mission accomplished. The real goal was to corrupt and destroy the organization. Infiltrate, corrupt, destroy. It happening to churches. It happening(ed) to the Republican and Democrat parties. It’s happened to the government and courts. Anybody or anything that had traditional values, values of right and wrong, is a target.

[gingerbread]

This was as predictable as night follows day. For the sake of “DIVERSITY” these IDIOTS that thought that they were “LEADERS” decided, on their own, to allow GAY leaders to lead the BOY SCOUTS. Now, all they’ve done is drive the biggest supporters out of the BSA. Oh, don’t worry, these people will probably start their own version of the BSA. They won’t it BSA, but they’ll be doing exactly what the BSA does. Meanwhile, the BSA will just die off. But that was your plan to begin with. If you can’t control an association, you’ll destroy it.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

What sane father would place his son in the Scouts now that the Sodomites are rushing to control the boys?

[sgtyork]

I went to a “wedding” like that last month. If that one is like yours, don’t expect it to have the meaning that a real wedding carries. If you like a nice party, fine, but it isn’t a wedding.

[Jack Hydrazine]

New names for the BSA...

SFB - Scouting For Boys
GSA - Gay Scouts of America

soon to be merged with the other GSA - the Girl Scouts of America (aka LSFG - Lesbians Scouting For Girls).

[Tired of Taxes]

I think its time for the marketplace to take over and offer alternatives to the Boy Scouts.

The Christian marketplace has been preparing, and other organizations are out there now. Here's one example:

http://www.traillifeusa.com/