Alabama Episcopal Bishop Kee Sloan asks churches to sponsor Boy Scouts

The Birmingham News ^ | 6/20/2013 | Greg Garrison

[MacNaughton]

Bishop Kee Sloan, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, has posted a letter asking churches to sponsor Boy Scout troops. In apparent response to the Southern Baptist Convention's resolution opposing the Boy Scouts' decision to accept openly gay scouts, Sloan wants Episcopal churches to step forward to host troops that may need a meeting place.

Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter said while in Birmingham last weekend that his church, Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, plans to stop hosting its Boy Scout troop.

First Baptist Church of Pelham and First Baptist Church of Helena have also announced plans to stop hosting Boy Scout troops.

Sloan posted the following statement on the web site of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama:

"Recently the leadership of another denomination has decided to distance that denomination from the Boy Scouts of America, in response to the national BSA structure's decision about involving or including people who are homosexual. I do not want to intrude into another institution's controversies or difficulties - either that denomination's or the Scout's - we have enough to deal with on our own. But it's boys and young men who will be most affected by this decision, as their Boy Scout Troops might well be turned away from the local church that has been sponsoring them, and I do want for us to respond to that as appropriate. I am asking you to be mindful of the Boy Scout Troops in your community, especially those who will no longer be able to meet and have some of their activities in some of the churches. I am asking that our parishes extend our Lord's hospitality, and consider sponsoring a Boy Scout Troop."

"As clearly as I can I want to say and I want you to be able to say that I am not at all interested in criticizing another denomination of our Lord's one holy catholic and apostolic Church; I am not at all interested in taking a side in the ongoing argument about sexuality in the Scouting movement. I am interested in extending hospitality, as one institution torn by this controversy to another, to the boys and young men of the Boy Scouts of America, and to the adults who give their time and energy to work with them."

[Morgana]

The Salvation Army (at least around here) does not sponsor the girl/boy scouts because they have their own version.