Posted on 05/14/2013 8:26:16 AM PDT by MacNaughton
Sometime during the week of May 20, about 1,400 delegates representing Boy Scout troops from across the country will gather in Texas and vote on a proposed policy that, if passed, would allow openly homosexual boys to be Scouts while continuing a ban on homosexual leaders. Most conservative Christians oppose the proposal, so the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) have engaged a high-profile advisor to help them make their case: Ralph Reed.
WORLD learned that Reed, founder of the Christian Coalition and now president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, has arranged meetings and conference calls between Christian conservative leaders and BSA officials who support the pro-gay resolution. According to John Stemberger, founder of OnMyHonor.Net, a group opposed to the policy change, “After the introduction is made, the BSA officials try to convince these top conservative evangelical leaders to support the resolution by finding friendly media venues to discuss it.”
Reed confirmed in a phone conversation with me that he had arranged conference calls in an attempt to be a “peacemaker” in the process. He said he had not personally participated in the calls and acknowledged he is paid a small retainer by the Boy Scouts. Reed would not disclose the amount of his fee except to characterize it as “de minimus.” “[I would] deeply resent any implication that I am helping this policy to pass.” he added. “I am on record opposing a change in the current policy. Period.”
Stemberger, though, called Reed’s comment “doubletalk.” Regardless of Reed’s intention, Stemberger said, “these calls could not help but further the resolution.”
Among the conference calls Reed has set up, one was between the BSA and executives at Salem Communications, the largest Christian radio company in the country. Salem executives had no comment on the content of those calls but published a short editorial statement that aired on most of Salem’s approximately 100 radio stations. Read by Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a member of Salem’s editorial board, the statement said in part:
“The central authorities of the Boy Scouts of America have announced yet another compromise position on how they propose to deal with the issue of homosexual leaders and Scouts. This came just a year after the Boy Scouts insisted that it would stand behind its ban on openly gay scouts and scouting leaders. But then, earlier this year, they floated a compromise policy amounting to a ‘local option’ for troops. After the outrage from that proposal, the new proposed policy will require all troops to accept boys without regard to sexual orientation, but they will retain an outright ban on openly homosexual adults serving as scout leaders. As one mother said, ‘I knew they would try to split the baby in the end.’ And that’s exactly what they have attempted to do again. In the end, it will please no one.”
UPDATE: In an email to WORLD, Ralph Reed stressed “my 43-year involvement in the Boy Scouts, the fact that I am an Eagle Scout, [and] the fact that I sit on the executive board of one of the most respected local councils in the country [the North Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts (– incorrect – it is either the Northeast Georgia Council or the Northwest Georgia Council)].” He said his role was to “facilitate a dialogue.” Neither Reed nor the Boy Scouts would say how much the organization is paying Reed.
Of course, they will be dead to any decent parent. What parent in their right mind would turn a young boy over to members of a lifestyle so consistent in their goals and performance of same-sex child rape? Child abuse and sexual harrassment of children by queers is simply becoming the law of the land.
Spot on! But it will be exceedling hard to accomplish. Only 1 BSA Chief Scout Executive, Alden Barber in 1976, of the 12 to date over the 103 years of the BSA, has been pushed out of office by the volunteers. That was due to a massive membership scandal. At a minimum, the following members of the BSA National leadership should be purged ...
1. Chief Scout Executive Wayne Brock
2. National President Wayne Perry, co-owner of MLB Seattle Mariners
3. National Commissioner "Tico" Perez, partner of Edge Public Affairs 4. National Executive Committee member Randall Stephenson, CEO AT&T
5. National Executive Committee member James Turley, CEO Ernst & Young
6. National Executive Committee member and past National President Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon
Very disapointed in Ralph Reed. Another conservative in name only, or in other words, an Establishment Republican.
BSA has had and continues to have too much sexual child abuse in it. BSA kept secret “perversion files” on leaders who got caught. The files include teenage leaders also.
The L.A. Times newspaper released the list here:
I looked up an individual I suspected in my troop back when I was a Boy Scout in the late 1960’s-early ‘70s and he was in the files. He went on molesting Scouts for another decade until he was caught.
If BSA National already don’t know it, they will find out that Cub Scout Packs and Boy Scout Troops here in the Deep, Deep South that are sponsored by churches will disband if gays are allowed.
OCT 1991 – GS-USA national stated in a letter:
“As a private organization, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. respects the values and beliefs of each of its members and does not intrude into personal matters. Therefore, there are no membership policies on sexual preference. However, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. has firm standards relating to the appropriate conduct of adult volunteers and staff. The Girl Scout organization does not condone or permit sexual displays of any sort by its members during Girl Scout activities, nor does it permit the advocacy or promotion of a personal lifestyle or sexual preference. These are private matters for girls and their families to address.”
2/09/1993 – In Lansing, MI, the GS-USA fired heterosexual employee Brenda Mailand after she refused to sign the following pledge: “As an employee of the Michigan Capitol Girl Scout Council, you may not proactively inform members, parents of members, prospective members or parents of prospective members, or members of the general public (including media) of the Council’s and GSUSA’s position on sexual orientation.”
10/23/1993 – Delegates at the GS-USA national convention in Minneapolis, MN, voted 1,560 to 375 to allow girls to change their pledge of service to the spiritual power of their conscience - or none at all.
1997 - Nancy Manahan’s book, On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on Their Scouting Experiences, was published. On My Honor included an essay titled “All I Really Need to Know About Being a Lesbian I Learned at Girl Scout Camp.” In a 2000 “National Review Online” editorial (10/23/2000, National Review magazine) titled “The Cookie Crumbles,” author Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote that the book was “filled with coming-of-age stories sparked by gay encounters in the Girl Scouts.” Lopez further reported that “staffers contributing stories to the book claim that roughly 1 in 3 of the Girls Scouts’ paid professional staff is lesbian.”
2009 – GS-USA radically overhauled its program. Their older youth manuals were re-written to include environmental and feminist doctrines and proclaimed some historical female role models who were communists and/or lesbians. Religion and patriotism were de-emphasized. Planned Parenthood materials were also included.
6/03/2012 – A Catholic News Agency article accused the GS-USA of having filled their National Leadership Team and Board of Directors with unwavering ideologues whose careers, non-profit work and philanthropic choices reflect a hefty commitment to liberal causes – same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian rights, abortion rights, comprehensive sex education and ‘girl power’ feminism. Their liberal ideology drives everything – from program materials to themes to partnerships – even their view of leadership. It’s who they are. And it’s who the Girl Scouts organization has become.
1919 - British Scout Commissioner William de Bois Maclaren bought the dilapidated Chinnery estate north of London in Sewardstonebury, Epping Forest, close to Chingford, for £7,000. He spent an additional £3,000 for improvements to the house that was on the estate. He donated all of it to the Scout Association of the U.K. to provide a camping ground for London scouts and a training site for scouters. It was re-named Gilwell Park. The 1st Wood Badge course was held at GP during 9/08-19/1919. Wood Badge training continued at GP, and it became the home of leadership training in the Scout movement. During the early 1920s there were several officially reported incidents of adult male volunteers sexually molesting male youth campers at GP.
I'm so glad my family is raised. My youngest is in the 30s. We enjoyed Scouts so much; and we could sit down and prepare our youth to prepare to coexist with people with whom we disagreed -- not be mean to them, but not to have to give them the stamp of approval, either, or fear persecution if you rebuffed their advances, socially or personally.
Everyone in my field of work in the arts knew plenty of gay people and we worked out ways to get along with mutual respect. Not any more. Now you risk a public pilloring and lawsuits just for being true to the religion that founded this nation.
Don't give up just yet. This will be a fight down to the wire, and will continue after the 5/23/2013 vote regardless of how the vote goes. If the vote goes for allowing homosexual youth members, there will be a schism. All conservatives who support Scouting will be needed to launch the new Scouting program and shake the dust of BSA off their sandals.
I didn’t give up. I said “IF”. “IF”.
Please provide the executive summary on their relationships.
contact Margaret Caldwell if you are in the SF Bay area/Northern CA to make you opposition to any wiff of gayness in the scouts known.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3017820/posts?page=60#60
That's an interesting insight. I have often thought the same about homosexuals who get married and then "discover" they are gay and then want to divorce and have joint custody, raising the children in the company of their GLBT partner. You wish they would not use others to work out their mess. The question is how long it takes a person to make this "discovery."
Life is so messy. And it's rarely black and white. I think the pendulum may swing back to a middle position, but not for another 50-60 years or so.
When alcohol was prohibited and then allowed again, alcoholism re-emerged as an illness that could be treated. Let's hope that the stories of children raised by gay parents will start to influence the debate going forward. Here's a sobering one:
World Magazine, really?
Trash source.
BSA has maintained its "ineligible volunteer" files since the 1920s. Not to defend the BSA but to provide context - they have done remarkably well at keeping the perverts out, but have to agree that even 1 is 1 too many. BSA has never been blessed with abundant funds to screen volunteers at a high level. That's why it depends on the charter institutions, i.e., mostly churches, to help screen the adult volunteers. BSA 1st introduced its Youth Protection Training in 1987 to guard against child abuse/molestation. In 2003, BSA began conducting 3rd party, computerized criminal background checks of public records on all new adult volunteers. In 2008, a full criminal background check was made mandatory nationwide.
Right now, the 3 conservative Christian denominations in the deep South that will rebel if homosexuals are admitted are the (1) Southern Baptist Convention, (2) Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and (3) Presbyterian Church in America. It will be interesting to watch their reactions if the vote allows for homosexual youth members.
Remember, the top dogs in BSA are 'professionals' but the guys on the ground running Boy Scouting are volunteers. It's very easy to lose all your volunteers ~ just bring in a bunch of gays and that's the end of it.
Enlighten us as to why. What the author reported seems congruent with all that is transpiring.
Why don’t you instead show us that this is a legitimate news source and not a tabloid?
1. Today was the 1st time I ever heard of WORLD magazine.
2. The headline was changed from what I submitted. I did not use the leading word, "Tabloid." Something changed from when I 1st submitted the article.
3. While I didn't know of Ralph Reed's involvement, the other content of the article is dead on, specifically, the comments by John Stemberger and Albert Mohler. Reed lives in Duluth, GA, which is within the boundary of the Northeast Georgia Council.
So, unless YOU can provide some sturdy proof that this is trash, take a hike.
Go to Red Alert when you hear that phrase, or that somebody is here as a "facilitator". You are being subjected to the Delphi Technique, a way for group leadership to manufacture group consensus.
We need to find the NAMES of the people who hired Reed, and ensure they are expelled from BSA leadership.
This is terrible.
Great for World Magazine for exposing it.
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