A boy scout carried a rainbow flag
during a gay pride parade in San Francisco last year. The group on Monday ended
its nationwide ban on openly gay adult
The Boy Scouts of America on Monday ended its
ban on openly gay adult leaders.
But the new policy
allows church-sponsored units to choose local unit leaders who
share their precepts, even if that means restricting such positions to
heterosexual men.
Despite this compromise, the
Mormon Church said it might leave the organization anyway. Its
stance surprised many and raised questions about whether other conservative
sponsors, including the Roman Catholic Church, might follow suit.
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is
deeply troubled by today’s vote,” said a statement issued by the church moments
after the Scouts announced the new policy. “When the leadership of the church
resumes its regular schedule of meetings in August, the century-long
association with scouting will need to be examined.”
Only two weeks ago, the Mormon Church hinted that
it could remain in the fold so long as its units could pick their own leaders.
The top Boy Scouts leaders,
including Robert M. Gates, the current president and a former defense secretary
who pushed for the new policy, did not immediately respond to the Mormon
declaration. In previous statements, Mr. Gates expressed the hope that with the
exemption for religious groups, the Boy Scouts might avoid a devastating
splintering.
Many scouting leaders said they had not expected
the Mormon Church’s sharp response and threat to leave.
“My assumption was that the concept voted on today
had been fully vetted so as to avoid any unnecessary surprises,” said Jay
Lenrow, a longtime volunteer scout leader in Baltimore who is on the executive
committee of the Scouts’ northeast region and serves on the organization’s
national religious relationships committee.
“I can only say that I’m hopeful that when the
leadership of the L.D.S. Church meets and discusses the issue, that they will
find a way to continue to support scouting,” Mr. Lenrow added.
Mormons use the Boy Scouts as
their main nonreligious activity for boys, and the Cub Scouts
and Boy Scouts units they sponsor accounted for 17 percent of all youths in
scouting in 2013, the last year for which data have been published.
Under the policy adopted Monday, discrimination
based on sexual orientation will also be barred in all Boy Scouts offices and
for all paid jobs — a step that could head off looming lawsuits in New York,
Colorado and other states that prohibit such discrimination in employment.
One legal threat was immediately averted. In
response to the change, the New York State attorney general, Eric T.
Schneiderman, announced on Monday that his office was ending its investigation
of the Scouts for violating state anti-discrimination laws.
The Boy Scouts’ national executive board, composed
of 71 civic, corporate and church leaders, adopted the changes with 79 percent
of those who participated in a telephone meeting voting in favor, according to
an announcement issued by the Scouts. The announcement did not say how many
board members were not present.
The policy change, which was expected, was widely
seen as a watershed for an institution that has faced growing turmoil over its
stance toward gay people, even as it struggles to halt a long-term decline in
members. It was praised by gay-rights organizations as a major if incomplete
step toward ending discrimination.
In 2013, facing growing public and internal
pressure, the Scouts decided that openly gay youths could participate, but not
adults. That approach satisfied no one, forcing the ejection of gay Eagle
Scouts when they turned 18 but still causing some conservatives to quit.
Mr. Gates gave an urgent warning in
May that because of cascading social and legal changes, the organization had no
choice but to end its ban on gay leaders.
In a statement on July 13, the Mormon Church seemed
to suggest that it could accept the compromise adopted on Monday. The statement
said that any new leadership standard must preserve for its churches “the right
to select Scout leaders who adhere to moral and religious principles that are
consistent with our doctrines and beliefs.”
But the tone of Monday’s statement from the
Mormons, after the formal announcement of the new Boy Scouts policy, was
markedly more negative.
“The church has always welcomed all boys to its
scouting units regardless of sexual orientation,” the statement by the Mormon
Church headquarters said. “However, the admission of openly gay leaders is
inconsistent with the doctrines of the church and what have traditionally been
the values of the Boy Scouts of America.”
The statement also suggested another reason the
Mormons are considering withdrawing from the Boy Scouts: the possible creation
of its own boys’ organization to serve its worldwide membership.
“As a global organization with members in 170
countries, the Church has long been evaluating the limitations that fully
one-half of its youth face where Scouting is not available,” the statement
said.
Some conservative evangelical churches ended ties
with the Boy Scouts after the 2013 decision to admit openly gay youths. Total
national enrollment of youths, which had declined by a few percentage points in
many prior years, fell by 6 percent in 2013 and by 7 percent in 2014, to 2.4
million.
More departures by religious conservatives are
likely, said Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty
Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Mr. Moore expressed skepticism
about the Scouts’ promise to let church-sponsored units exclude gay leaders on
religious grounds.
”After the Scouts’ shift on membership, they told
religious groups this wouldn’t affect leadership,” he said. “Now churches are
told that these changes will not affect faith-based groups. Churches know that
this is the final word only until the next evolution.”
But scouting executives hope that with Monday’s
change they can renew ties with corporate donors, schools and public agencies
and attract parents who had steered their children away from scouting because
of the policy.
“Moving forward, we will continue to focus on
reaching and serving youth, helping them to grow into good, strong citizens,”
said the statement Monday from the Boy Scouts.
The toughest challenge, Scout leaders say, may be
to capture the time and enthusiasm of today’s increasingly urban, diverse and
over-scheduled youths. To increase their appeal, the Boy Scouts have built new
adventure camps with mountain biking and zip lines, and have created new merit
badges in fields like robotics and animation.
PAT SAYS:
The move by the US Boy Scouts is an excellent move and another step in the furtherance of equality.
It means that any boy or teenager in the USA who is gay will feel deliberately welcomed by the Scouting community.
It also means that scout leaders who happen to be gay will not feel like second class citizens or leaders under some kind of suspicion.
Anybody and everybody wishing to be a scout leader realises that there is a code of conduct required of all who are involved, particularly in the area of child protection.
The new decision takes away that irrational cloud of suspicion over leaders who happen to be gay.
Anybody working with young people, regardless of their own situation, is called to the same standard.
Once again, of course, the stone age attitudes of the so called Christian churches are shown up.
But gradually these churches, thankfully, are losing their influence.
PAT SAYS:
The move by the US Boy Scouts is an excellent move and another step in the furtherance of equality.
It means that any boy or teenager in the USA who is gay will feel deliberately welcomed by the Scouting community.
It also means that scout leaders who happen to be gay will not feel like second class citizens or leaders under some kind of suspicion.
Anybody and everybody wishing to be a scout leader realises that there is a code of conduct required of all who are involved, particularly in the area of child protection.
The new decision takes away that irrational cloud of suspicion over leaders who happen to be gay.
Anybody working with young people, regardless of their own situation, is called to the same standard.
Once again, of course, the stone age attitudes of the so called Christian churches are shown up.
But gradually these churches, thankfully, are losing their influence.