Boy Scouts ban church that let gay man lead troop

Associated Press ^ | Apr 21, 2014 3:00 PM EDT | Phuong Le

[Olog-hai]

The Boy Scouts of America has revoked its charter agreement with a Seattle church that refused to remove a gay troop leader after the organization withdrew his membership.

A Boy Scouts attorney told Rainier Beach United Methodist Church last week that it no longer could host troops under the Boy Scouts name.

The church has stood by Geoff McGrath, 49, a Seattle software engineer and Eagle Scout, after his membership in the organization was revoked last month, setting off an impasse between the church and one of the country’s most popular youth organizations. …

[rjsimmon]

I thought BSA was all for this? The church should have been the one to evict the troop leader, BTW...

[Wicket]

Good for the boy scouts, not surprising for the church.

[GeronL]

So-called church

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

So now that the BSA organization is allowing gay scouts this was an obvious next step. So if they let the gays in their organization and they advance through their ranks and become an Eagle scout, how or they going to prevent them from advancing to a leadership position.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The UMC is one of the most liberal, if not THE most liberal, churches in the country. They have no problem with homosexuals in positions of leadership in the church.

[AU72]

When I had Cub Master orientation it was stressed that pedophiles were constantly trying to get in leadership positions.

One way around this is to limit adult participation to those who have, had, or will have young relatives who join. Gets away from the gay thing while qualifying legitimate volunteers.

[MNDude]

A great comment a Freeper once posted was “Why don’t they just create their own organization called the “Boy and Gay Man Camping Club” and let them seek their own members?”

[Kackikat]

Louis Green, Author wrote a local book, and in it he described his Church as having a guy give communion to parish people, and he was gay. Green wore gloves to take the goblet from him during communion...the author is dead now, but he had an ongoing criticism about his church being so liberal.

[Vigilanteman]

I recall the announcement when the BSA lifted the ban on gay scouts that the organization was not changing its stance on leaders because the purpose of the organization was to provide opportunities for boys, not for adult leaders.

What they have yet to answer is how any scout who insists on being "openly gay" can possibly keep the "morally straight" part of the scout oath.

I'm not unsympathetic with young men who struggle with feelings of sexual identity, but I have none for the militant "openly gay" variety who expect organizations to kow-tow to their demands and declare immorality to be moral.

That's what has hollowed out many mainline Protestant sects and it will hollow-out any other organization which refuses to confront it.

[tanknetter]

Yes. The elephant in the room about BSA is that it’s all really about liability. Even if the BSA were to allow gay leaders in under an explicit zero-tolerance, no strikes policy, they’d still be liable for any assaults/rapes that did occur.

It would very quickly consume and destroy the organization ...

[Vigilanteman]

There would be too many chiefs and not enough indians. The perverts understand this better than anybody else.

[DannyTN]

I wonder if this is a test case being set up so that the BSA can blame the courts for having to allow gay leadership.

It seems to me that restricting membership based on shared values and belief in God is a lot easier than restricting just leadership positions.

But then again, when it comes to labor law, Christian organizations are more successful at restricting policy making leadership, rather than requiring janitorial staff to have shared values.

[DannyTN]

I wonder if this is a test case being set up so that the BSA can blame the courts for having to allow gay leadership.

It seems to me that restricting membership based on shared values and belief in God is a lot easier than restricting just leadership positions.

But then again, when it comes to labor law, Christian organizations are more successful at restricting policy making leadership, rather than requiring janitorial staff to have shared values.

[fwdude]

I thought BSA was all for this?

They will be, when the screws are tightened down enough.

The church should have been the one to evict the troop leader, BTW...

This "church" is run by a liberal witch of a "pastor," fully on board with the queer agenda, and willing to ignore the rules and push to the limits.

[BuffaloJack]

You can count on the BSA “To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.”
God Bless the BSA.

[fwdude]

“Why don’t they just create their own organization called the “Boy and Gay Man Camping Club” and let them seek their own members?”

Why? Because sodomites are parasites, which must invade and feed upon healthy organisms, since they have no moral health in themselves.

[fwdude]

This was a pretty rapid test case, only about 4 months after the ban on openly homosexual (i.e. militant) boys was lifted. Actually, this homosexual scoutmaster has been in his position for about this same period of time, so they wasted no time pushing the next limit.

And it will only be a couple more cases before the BSA will cave. They've had plenty of practice.

[fwdude]

From the article:
"The Boy Scouts of America told McGrath in a March letter that it "no choice" but to revoke his registration after he said he was gay while being profiled by NBC News."

Notice the subtle language. It's almost like they really want to accept him, if only their arm were not being twisted by some rule that prevents them from accepting his participation in the organization.

A cave is coming.

[Vinylly]

I don’t know about that. There’s St. Marks in Seattle which is Episcopalian, The Church of Christ {Pilgrims} and Lutheran. But of all things we have a First Baptist Church on Capital Hill that is very gay. The University Presbyterian Church is still straight and hosts a great scout troop.