Which would quite neatly justify the Minuteman Council (Boston) deciding to admit gays as leaders. After all, the BSA can do as it darn well pleases, including violating it's own policies.
This article reads like it's OK to attack the BSA with politics, but the BSA better keep it's political opinion to itself - so much for freedom of speech when it's the BSA I guess. . .
O.K. Let me now submit that you miss the point. The BSA doesn't have to keep it's political opinions to itself because it doesn't have any political opinions. The BSA is not a conservative organization. The BSA is not a liberal organization. The BSA is not a political organization and does not have political opinions. It does not lobby. It does not sponsor legislation. It does not support legislation or candidates. It does not issue political statements. That's National policy. And while it's members often do have political opinions, they are to keep those opinions to themselves while representing the BSA (e.g., while in uniform or while at a BSA function).
And the quote I've given above from National's web site quite neatly expresses why this is so.
Let me give you a brief rundown on BSA structure. National Council is a not-for-profit corporation (NFP) that possesses a Charter from the Federal government giving it the rights to operate the BSA program. National then grants two kinds of charters itself. One type is issued to local Councils. A local Council is an NFP made up of local businessmen and community leaders who are charged with operating the BSA programs in their area. In return for the right to hold the charter, which is renewable annually, the NFP signs a contract with National that it will abide by any and all National policies. Northeast Georgia Council has broken this contract.
When the Cradle of Liberty Council threatened to break their contract by admitting avowed homosexuals, National told them that their response would be to refuse to renew their charter and instead find a different NFP (or have the current NFP completely turn over the membership of it's Board of Directors) to grant the charter to. The CoL's response was to back down.
So now the question is, what will National's response be to this? Local Councils have lost some funding in some areas because of National's policies regarding barring avowed homosexuals as leaders. National's response has been that their principles and policies are not for sale. Now that Northeast Georgia Council has violated National policy to make more money at a fund raiser, the question becomes:
Is it just some of National's policies and principles that are not for sale, or all of them?