Posted on 08/02/2015 6:10:57 AM PDT by 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.
The Boy Scouts will also suffer regional declines in membership with some conservative States carrying on the tradition of service and morality in the Scouts.
RE: I think its time for the marketplace to take over and offer alternatives to the Boy Scouts.
See Post #31 and #33 of this thread.
UMC won’t do sh!t. They voted to give benefits to same sex partners!
“RE: I think its time for the marketplace to take over and offer alternatives to the Boy Scouts.
See Post #31 and #33 of this thread.
“
Excellent. The problem with the Boy Scouts is that they have been around so long their mission has become polluted with political correctness. I suspect this is partially a funding issue with where the money comes from and partially an issue where people who aren’t really interested in Scouting have acquired “jobs” rather than a calling.
The same thing happened with Scouts Canada when they went homo back in 1998 when it was known up until then as the Boy Scouts of Canada.
Scouts Canada membership numbers.
http://www.scoutscan.com/issues/membershipstats.html
In 1965 membership peaked at 321,608. By 1990 they had 265,313 scouts. In 2013 that number had plummeted to 98,142.
According to this wiki membership dropped even further to 88,178 in 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouts_Canada
The Death of Canadian Scouting
by Hans Zeiger
MensNewsDaily.com
August 13, 2004
http://www.virtueonline.org/canada-death-canadian-scouting
A warning: Canadian scouts fled after open-door policy
http://onenewsnow.com/culture/2013/05/23/a-warning-canadian-scouts-fled-after-open-door-policy
Boy Scouts’ ranks drop after year of policy change
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/12/boy-scouts-ranks-drop/5435033/
12FEB2014
(excerpt)
DALLAS (AP) — The Boy Scouts of America said Wednesday that it lost 6 percent of its membership after an often-bruising year in which it announced it would accept openly gay boys for the first time, over the objections of some participants who eventually left the organization.
Boy Scout membership falls again in 2014
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/17/us-usa-boyscouts-idUSKBN0KQ05O20150117
17JAN2015
(excerpt)
Membership in the Boy Scouts of America took a steeper tumble during 2014, the first year under a policy that allows openly gay youth to participate, than in recent years of a decade-long decline.
About 2.4 million youth participated in the nearly 105-year-old Texas-based scouting program, representing a 7.4 percent decline over 2013 enrollment of 2.6 million youth, Boy Scout officials said in a statement on Friday.
Enrollment declined by about 6 percent in 2013. BSA officials said that decreasing participation is a trend that most youth organizations are facing.
AS GIRL SCOUTS MEMBERSHIP PLUMMETS, THREATS OF SPLIT EMERGE
20OCT2014
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2014/10/20/girl-scout-membership-plummets-nearly-12-in-past-two-years-and-now-a-split/
That’s easy. Don’t go.
I’d say a private wedding was in order.
Whose plan?
The destruction of the BSA is self-initiated. In fact, some people would tell you that hasn't been destroyed at all. By some measures it may even be a successful business enterprise that makes its leadership a lot of money and functions the same way as any other massive non-profit corporation that doesn't give a sh!t about fulfilling any kind of mission anymore.
There is no way I would let my kids go camping with a gay guy.......no brainer!!!
.
Christian Churches will find themselves WONDERFULLY BLESSED BY GOD when they give-up their “prison chains” of IRS 501-C3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8TlzFiMSwY
.
That is what will be needed to free the churches to do what they do best, preach the need for repentence and conversion if they get out of the chains of 501-C3.
I think Royal Rangers might be a good alternative too.
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America has LOST ITS BLEEPING MIND!!!!
I am also an ex-Scoutmaster. Left in Dec 2013 when the initial vote to allow homosexual youth was made. My 2 sons, both months away from Eagle also quit. When my older son announced to the trip his resignation he said ‘The only way to obey the Scout Oath and Law, was to quit scouting’ . They have both joined TL and close to being award their highest award.
Folks need to know that TL is founded by Scouters who quit with the 2013 decision. It has Scout executives in the upper leadership positions. The head legal council for BSA is now in TL, he is the one who argued the Supreme Court case. The lead Scout historian is now writing the TL handbook. He has taken the path of modeling it after the pre-1970 BSA handbook.
There is an alternative Trail Life organization that does all the stuff the Boy-scouts uses to do. Except they are not afraid of doing scouting as its been done for a 100 years.
I think we need to push all Christian Boy Scout troops to transfer to Trail Life Groups.
They need to consolidate the names and organizational alternatives. We have to build a new brand to replace the BSA.
Somehow I don’t see the “royal Rangers” taking off in the USA.
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