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HALL COUNTY, Ga. - Court documents reveal evidence that church and Boy Scout leaders knew about a sexual abuser and not only allowed him to continue working, but also promoted him. Fleming Weaver would go on to meet victims who eventually came forward with rape accusations last year. This is a case that spans several decades in Hall County. It’s a case that accuses the Boy Scouts, a Gainesville church and its leaders of lying to keep a horrific secret. Documents obtained by Channel 2 Action News include a file that Boy Scouts handed over just last week after a...

Older teenagers will be pulled from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), the Mormon church announced Thursday. The announcement from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints means an estimated 130,000-180,000 teenagers ages 14-18 will no longer participate in Boy Scouts starting next year. The Mormon church is the largest sponsor of Boy Scouts troops in the United States. The Boy Scouts' "Varsity" and "Venturing" programs for older teens had become difficult to implement within the religion, Mormon officials said in a news release. "Instead, Young Men activities will focus on spiritual, social, physical and intellectual outlined by the...

SALT LAKE CITY — The LDS Church, the oldest and largest charter organization of the Boy Scouts of America, will drop Scouting from its Young Men's program for boys ages 14 through 17. Effective Jan. 1, the move will carve about 180,000 Mormon boys from the Varsity and Venturing Scout programs in the United States and Canada, replacing them with activities created for boys in those age groups by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church will continue to sponsor Cub Scouts for boys 8 to 10 and Boy Scout programs for those 11 through 13 in...

OLMSTED FALLS, Ohio (AP) - A former suburban Cleveland Boy Scouts troop leader suspected of raping a teenage boy has been charged with rape, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition. Twenty-eight-year-old Aaron Robertson was arrested last month and terminated from his role as a voluntary, unarmed auxiliary police officer in Olmsted Falls.

Fr. Don Miller, OFM Image: Saint George and the Dragon | Gustave MoreauSaint George Saint of the Day for April 23 (c. 280 – April 23, 303)  Saint George’s Story Saint George is the object of a vast amount of imagination. There is every reason to believe that he was a real martyr who suffered at Lydda in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. The Church adheres to his memory, but not to the legends surrounding his life. That he was willing to pay the supreme price to follow Christ is what the Church believes. And it is...

North Carolina church leaders have told a Boy Scout troop and Cub Scout pack they’re no longer welcome to use their facilities as a home base after the Boy Scouts of America decided in January to allow transgender boys. The Charlotte Observer reports Coddle Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Mooresville booted both Troop 169 and Pack 169. Mooresville is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Charlotte. …

In a moment of historic significance, Joe Maldonado put on a Cub Scout uniform on Tuesday night as he became a member of Pack 20 in Essex County while his mother held back tears — one week after the Boy Scouts of America changed its national policy to allow transgender children to be scouts....

A New Jersey boy has become the first openly transgender member of the Boy Scouts. Just one week after the Boy Scouts of America changed its policy to allow transgender children to join, Joe Maldonado donned his uniform as the newest member of Pack 20 in Maplewood. 'I am accepted,' said the nine-year-old on Tuesday night, as his mother fought back tears. The youngster had previously been banned from Pack 87 in Secaucus because his birth certificate stated that he was born a girl.

RUSH: Would you like an illustration of what I mean by Donald Trump not being ideological and how it’s a problem? He understands he has opposition. How could he not? (chuckles) I mean, I’m sure he knows that he’s got opposition. Don’t misunderstand me, now. And I’m sure that he may have had his eyes opened about some of these people. In his mind, they’re Democrats. Liberal, conservative, that’s not in his lexicon, folks. I’m not offering this as a criticism. It’s just a truth. It’s something that, if you want to understand Trump, then there’s no better deconstructor of...

Editor's Note: This piece was coauthored by Tim Graham.The Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, used to be derided as a "traditional, values-based" organization, whose oath spoke of a "duty to God" and whose law insisted the Scouts be "reverent." Now the BSA worships something else: corporate donations. It should have been expected after it folded on homosexual Scouts and then on homosexual scoutmasters. Within a month of being pressured by the case of 8-year-old Joe Maldonado, who was born a girl named Jodi Maldonado, the BSA folded on God and how he "made them male and female." In today's...

Goodbye, Boy Scouts. You fools. You invertebrates. You caved once again and will now allow “transgender boys” — also known as girls — to enter your ranks. I guess you forgot that the girls already have their own branch of the Scouts. It’s called the Girl Scouts. You know, the one with the cookies. Will the Boy Scouts start selling cookies now, too? That would be one upside to all of this, at least. Your chief executive declared yesterday that it’s “not sufficient” to use a birth certificate as reference point to determine a person’s gender. I’m certain that he...

I suppose this was bound to happen eventually. I noticed (and bookmarked) a story out of New Jersey back around Christmas regarding a “transgender boy” who was barred from joining the Cub Scouts. And just to be crystal clear here, when I say “boy” I’m not being disparaging of someone who is a few months shy of reaching adulthood. We’re talking about a little girl who is eight years old. And she’s very sad that she can’t be a Cub Scout. (North Jersey) From the moment he joined, 8-year-old Joe Maldonado eagerly looked forward to camping trips and science...

Though I was never involved in scouting, I've always been an enthusiastic outdoorsman and greatly respected the mission of the Boy Scouts. That respect was waning years ago, and is now completely gone. I have three boys and would NEVER allow them to participate in an organization so "Physically Ignorant, Mentally Lazy, and Morally Lost."

The Boy Scouts organization has adopted a transgender policy change which suddenly ends its 106-year role as a single-sex character-development group for young boys. The group discarded the unifying entry requirements of boyhood and male biology, and is now accepting females who wish to live as “transgender boys,” after just a few weeks of internal discussion.

The Boy Scouts of America announced Monday that it will allow transgender children to enroll in scouting programs. Boy Scouts chief executive Michael Surbaugh said in a video message that the organization will now accept boys based on the gender a parent puts on a child’s scouting application, ending a policy of accepting boys based on the gender listed on a child’s birth certificate. “We realized that referring to birth certificates as the reference point is no longer sufficient,” Surbaugh said in a video message. “Communities and state laws are now interpreting gender identity differently than society did in the...

The Boy Scouts of America said on Monday the group would begin accepting transgender boys, bucking its more than a century-old practice of using the gender stated on a birth certificate to determine eligibility. "Starting today, we will accept and register youth in the Cub and Boy Scout programs based on the gender identity indicated on the application," Boy Scouts of America communications director Effie Delimarkos said in an emailed statement. Delimarkos' cited shifting definitions of gender under state laws, which can "vary widely from state to state," in explaining the change.

The Boy Scouts of America says it will allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in its boys only programs. The organization announced Monday that it had made the decision to base enrollment in boys only programs on the gender a child or parent lists on the application to become a scout. The organization had previously held a policy that relied on the gender listed on a child's birth certificate. A spokeswoman for the organization says it made the decision based on states and communities changing how gender is defined. A transgender child in Secaucus, New Jersey, was...

Kristie Maldonado and her son, Joe -- who gained national attention when he was barred from his local Cub Scouts pack because he is transgender -- plan to file a discrimination complaint against the regional chapter of the Boy Scouts of America. The complaint claims that the Boy Scouts of America's Northern New Jersey Council, which oversees a number of local scouting troops, violated the state "public accommodation" law by kicking the Secaucus boy out of the local Pack 87 in November, a month after he joined. The complaint, which was obtained by The Jersey Journal yesterday, is expected to...

Atheist activist, Green candidate Rob Sherman dies in plane crash Rob Sherman, who died over the weekend in a crash of his small plane in Marengo, operated a business helping people build aircraft from kits. But the 63-year-old was better known as a colorful political activist and Green Party candidate — some might say gadfly — who called journalists and introduced himself as “Rob Sherman, your favorite atheist.” At one time, he had license plates that spelled out ATHEIST. Though he came in for derision as a self-promoter, he challenged the use of government-sponsored Christmas creches and displays and anything...

When I was a boy I swore an oath, one I take seriously to this day. It went like this: 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. Inherent in this oath are not one, but two moral issues – my duty to God and my oath of remaining morally straight. These are inextricably linked, and both preclude sexual immorality, among other things. My duty to God is...