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Boy Scouts’ President Calls for End to Ban on Gay Leaders
New York Times ^ | May 21, 2015 | ERIK ECKHOLM

Posted on 05/21/2015 10:42:22 AM PDT by reaganaut1

The president of the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday called for an end to the group’s blanket ban on gay adult leaders, warning Scout executives that “we must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be,” and that “any other alternative will be the end of us as a national movement.”

At the same time, religious organizations that sponsor a majority of local Scout troops, including the Mormons and Roman Catholics, should remain free to set their own policies for leaders, said the president, Robert M. Gates, the former director of the C.I.A. and the former secretary of defense.

Mr. Gates called for the changes at an annual national meeting of the group, in Atlanta. He said that he was not yet making a formal proposal but that the Scouts’ governing body should take up the issue formally at a future meeting.

The treatment of gay men and boys has been a source of wrenching debate over the last decade. Conservative religious groups that sponsor many Scout troops, including the Mormon Church and the Roman Catholic Church, have opposed the participation of openly gay members while local leaders in more liberal areas have called for an end to the ban.

In 2013, Boy Scout leaders from across the country voted, with more than 60 percent approval, to say that no youth may be denied membership “on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” But it left intact the policy that no openly gay adults could serve in the organization.

Since then, a Scout group in New York has defied that policy by employing an openly gay leader, and several other groups around the country have expressed opposition to the ban.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: boyscouts; bsa; deathofthewest; foxinthehenhouse; homosexualagenda; homosexuals; pedophilia; robertgates; scouting
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To: MacNaughton

The text makes me glad Gates wasn’t the Sec Def from say 1941-1942. All would be lost by a quitter.


101 posted on 05/21/2015 3:19:07 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

More along the lines of how Britain and France surrendered over countries to Germany to appease Hitler.


102 posted on 05/21/2015 4:07:02 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: reaganaut1

If the Boy Scouts of America do away with the ban on scout leaders, it will mean the end of the Boy Scouts of America. No normal men will allow their children to enroll in an organization that allows homosexuals to take their children on overnight camping trips or to be counseled by a man with unnatural leanings. Why can’t the homosexuals be satisfied to accept things as they are and leave the Boy Scouts alone? They want to get their hands on our children.

Mr. Gates doesn’t care about our children. He is making political points for himself. When making your decision, remember the priests and what they have done to our children. Do you want to look back on this in 30 or 40 years and say ‘why didn’t we do something?’?.


103 posted on 05/21/2015 4:07:52 PM PDT by maxwellsmart_agent
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To: dfwgator

Most pedophiles are. Just because a guy can get it on with a woman doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a second life.


104 posted on 05/21/2015 4:08:26 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: Cowboy Bob

I wonder that myself. FWIW, I would not send my daughter when she’s a teenager or even younger with a man other than myself, her actual father. Let’s face it, how attractive would some girl in her teens look to me if she wasn’t my own daughter, and if I wasn’t incestophobic as I am, because if there is something I am actually “phobic” of, it’s incest.


105 posted on 05/21/2015 4:15:31 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: maxwellsmart_agent

Well, it’s $%^&$% Robert Gates, WTH did you expect?! I expected him to view the BSA like he viewed the military.


106 posted on 05/21/2015 4:16:25 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: maxwellsmart_agent

But then you have to worry about when the leaders of Trail Life suddenly turn around and do an about face...


107 posted on 05/21/2015 4:17:13 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: reaganaut1

If the Mormons, Methodists, and Catholic charters take their tents and go home, it’s good night Gracie!

Faith-Based Chartered Organizations
The 25 faith-based organizations with the largest Scouting youth membership
(Source: 2013 Boy Scouts of America Local Council Index, using December 31, 2013, membership data):
Name of Organization
Total Units
Total Youth

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints*
37,933
437,160
United Methodist Church*
10,703
349,614
Catholic Church *
8,131
259,297
Presbyterian Church *
3,520
119,879
Lutheran Church *
3,728
111,483
Baptist Churches *
3,532
91,526
Episcopal Church *
1,180
41,340
United Church of Christ, Congregational Church
1,154
36,194
Community Churches
1,009
30,114
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
1,083
30,113
Church of Christ*
495
13,559
Evangelical/independent churches
299
7,740
Church of God
207
4,354
Reformed Church in America
124
3,921
Church of the Nazarene
154
3,841
Jewish synagogues and centers*
146
3,268
Church of the Brethren
101
2,614
Islam, Muslim, Masjid*
75
2,226
African Methodist Episcopal*
128
2,053
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
91
2,004
The Salvation Army
101
1,721
Community of Christ
66
1,718
Buddhist Churches of America
69
1,698
Assemblies of God*
91
1,620
Other churches
802
21,804
*Individual fact sheet available


108 posted on 05/21/2015 4:20:01 PM PDT by Ripliancum (Mosiah 29:27. Look it up.)
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To: Ripliancum

Thanks for the list Rip!


109 posted on 05/21/2015 4:20:40 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: Morpheus2009

You’re welcome. What’s amazing to me is that a full 71% of all BSA charters are faith-based and they seriously want to do this? Unbelievable!

http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/operating_orgs.aspx


110 posted on 05/21/2015 4:25:13 PM PDT by Ripliancum (Mosiah 29:27. Look it up.)
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To: Ripliancum

Well, if the top guys want to cut off the charters to the religious groups, let them do it, then watch as the BSA pretty much commits suicide in doing so. As I looked at your list, the top BSA membership religious groups also do not perform Same-Gender marriage, so it’s going to likely be that the BSA will die off in some time. What may happen is that some of the groups you listed will go over to Trail Life USA possibly, or just start their own.


111 posted on 05/21/2015 4:30:37 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: reaganaut1

Because it bothers people like us. That’s how.

America is based on traditional Christian values.

The Soviets know that.

The rise of the gay mafia is exactly what the Soviets engineered.

The Soviets are behind the destruction (moral, cultural, financial) of America.

They never lost the cold war. They just went silent, and gave us a win. So they wouldn’t be bothered.


112 posted on 05/21/2015 4:33:49 PM PDT by FreedomStar3028 (Somebody has to step forward and do what is right because it is right, otherwise no one will follow.)
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To: FreedomStar3028

Wasn’t it Putin who said that “there’s no such thing as an ex-KGB”? Disturbing if it were true. But it’s just as likely that our own people did it out of arrogance (Johnson and the Great Society).


113 posted on 05/21/2015 4:41:38 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: Morpheus2009

No. The USSR fall was engineered by Gorbachev and the KGB, so they could fight the cold war with heavy psyops.

Why do you think it wasn’t until after the “fall” of the USSR that the liberal left started coming out of the woodwork?

The Russians are winning.

There is no such thing as ex-KGB, because they are still operating in America, and around the world.


114 posted on 05/21/2015 4:50:57 PM PDT by FreedomStar3028 (Somebody has to step forward and do what is right because it is right, otherwise no one will follow.)
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To: reaganaut1

opening the door to pedophiles. the Boy Scouts already had issues with boy scouts being molested by pervs.


115 posted on 05/21/2015 4:58:16 PM PDT by RginTN
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To: tanknetter

Willie Sutton allegedly claimed that he robbed banks because, ‘that’s where the money is’. We know where the perverts are going to go once the far left gets their way. It’s a shame - BSA used to be a national treasure.


116 posted on 05/21/2015 4:58:48 PM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: fwdude

Money talks...BSA may have a lot of corporate supporters, but they still get huge sums of “free” money from units and organizations who pay for Scouts that only exist on paper...

The BSA has become a whore of an organization...it’s all about the $$ and pursuing political correctness.


117 posted on 05/21/2015 5:01:19 PM PDT by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: reaganaut1

No water guns but horray for pederasts the Boy Scouts, makes no sense.


118 posted on 05/21/2015 5:54:54 PM PDT by Bodleian_Girl (Baltimore needs more Armed Koreans)
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To: All

How soon before a straight man can be a girl scout leader and sleep in the same tents with them?

They prosecute women teachers for having sex with their students. That must stop! /s


119 posted on 05/21/2015 6:10:41 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (I'm very sad for my country. Personally, I've never been happier.)
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To: Ripliancum

My Lutheran Church/School (LCMS) has already switched to Trail Life USA.


120 posted on 05/21/2015 6:16:07 PM PDT by MacombBob
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