Posted on 02/01/2013 6:45:30 AM PST by NYer
.- News that the Boy Scouts of America may soon approve of openly gay members and leaders has sparked a wave of concern and criticism throughout the country.
Eagle Scout Andrew Hill, who lives in Philadelphia, said that he is “disappointed” that the organization’s leadership appears to have “caved to external demands.”
“The Boy Scouts are now just another organization or public figure that has given in to societal pressure,” Hill told CNA on Jan. 31. “These are the times we live in, and as Catholics, we need to go forward aware of this reality.”
He added, however, that even if the policy change is made, he does not “expect this to have a significant effect on the majority of current and future scouts.”
“With so many troops being organized by and supported by churches, these troops will continue on as they were,” he explained.
Hill’s comments came in response to an announcement by the Boy Scouts of America that a ban on openly homosexual leaders and members is being reconsidered.
Deron Smith, director of public relations for the organization, announced on Jan. 28 that the group “is discussing potentially removing the national membership restriction regarding sexual orientation.”
He explained that the removal of a national policy would allow each local unit to set its own guidelines, permitting “the religious, civic, or educational organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting to determine how to address this issue.”
The announcement drew criticism from both religious and secular sources concerned about the well-being of future scouts.
“Boy Scouts leaders are exactly that – leaders,” said Greg Quinlan, president of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays. “Boys watch them very closely. Boys also look up to older Boy Scout members and want to imitate them and follow their examples.”
Quinlan, who identifies himself as a “former homosexual,” said that a gay man “who gently eases boys and young men into exposure of homosexuality by his own personal example promotes homosexual behavior as normal, natural and healthy.”
“This paves the way for youth to question their own sexuality and be affirmed into homosexuality,” he explained.
Quinlan – who attributes his past homosexual behavior in part to the experience of being sexually molested when he was young – also raised concerns of increased sexual abuse with a change to allow openly gay scout leaders.
He speculated that the Boy Scouts’ decision to reconsider its policy is due to financial and political pressure.
“It seems that one or more of your major corporate donors is pressuring you, and others are bullying you, to change the Boy Scout policy to admit homosexuals,” he said, adding that “(m)oney with dangerous conditions attached is not a donation - it's a bribe.”
In recent months, several significant donors – including Intel, UPS and Merck - have stopped giving funds to the Boy Scouts of America due to the ban on homosexual members. The organization had previously defended its policy, explaining that it aligns with the group’s values, respects parental rights and avoids distractions.
The Diocese of Arlington, Va., which sponsors 68 Boy Scout troops, will be watching the situation closely, alongside other parishes and dioceses around the nation.
“The clarity and courage of the Boy Scouts of America over the years in the face of considerable cultural, political and legal pressure has been a blessing,” said Michael Donohue, director of communications for the Diocese of Arlington.
Donohue told CNA that the diocese “is pleased to sponsor Boy Scout troops in its parishes, as are many Catholic dioceses across the nation.”
He explained that diocesan officials are awaiting the final results of the upcoming Boy Scouts meeting.
“Obviously, any substantive changes in the mission or policies of the Boy Scouts of America would require the diocese’s careful consideration,” he said.
There is an agenda at work here...WHO are the members on the Board of Directors that are pushing this? We need NAMES. This can be fought; this can be defeated.
“On my honor” used to mean something - and financial pressure should not be enough to change that.
My Letter to the Southern Arizona Catalina Council:
Subject: Scouting is By and For People Who Love Scouting
Mr. Tucker,
As a Scout Parent I have volunteered thousands hours as a Den Leader, Asst. Leader, and as a Volunteer Parent helping the Troop on activities from camp-outs to Spit and Slurps. I also give money regularly through the “Friends of Scouting”. I am a typical Scout Parent. In my Troop alone there are Scouting Parents and Scouting Adults who no longer have kids in Scouting, who volunteer hundreds of times the hours that I have given, all for the love and joy of Scouting.
If the BSA keeps it current policies it may lose some corporate money but the BSA will survive. If the BSA bows to outside pressure groups and allows homosexual leaders, my family, and many other Scouting families, will withdraw volunteer support as well as monetary support from the BSA. Many BSA troops are hosted, as my Troop is, by Churches of every religion, Mormon, Methodist, etc. Should the BSA allow gay leaders, those Churches who host Troops would soon likely let their charters lapse and Troops would be forced to find new homes or disband.
The BSA will never survive a blow like that. No amount of corporate promises could ever take the place of those volunteers and church sponsors. The BSA was not and is not meant to be a corporate run entity. Scouting runs, as we all know, on the generosity of people who LOVE SCOUTING, and cannot survive by the hand of those who despise the BSA’s adherence to GODs Law.
Once the BSA is abandoned by parents and sponsors, the outside pressure groups who forced the new policy would not be able to or even willing to make up the short fall in BSA volunteers. They would abandon the BSA as quickly as the Scouting Parents and the BSA would likely cease to exist.
I hope and pray, while outside groups still allow Scouts to pray, that the BSA will make the right choice.
Yours In Scouting,
(Name withheld to protect the guilty)
I will not allow any son of mine to join the Blow Scouts.
Intel, Merck and UPS should not give money to the BSA with strings attached nor should the BSA take money from companies that accept and encourage deviant behavior. These companies are a mouth piece for our progressive government because the gay political agenda is associated with government contracts and Obamacare. The subterfuge that is occurring within the US Government and its culture of mendacity is disgusting. The Obama administration and Democrats love to destroy conservative icons because they don’t want children taught conservative values and they hate Christianity.
I disagree with above statement completely. No Church is going to want to be liable for any sort of molestation incident that WILL occur by letting in active deviants into this organization. The Boy Scouts are asking for trouble if they go through with this decision.
James Turley, CEO of Ernst & Young accounting firm
Randall Stephenson, AT&T CEO - expected to be selected as the BSA national (volunteer) president in 2014.
This can be defeated IF ...
1. The Catholic Church, Mormon Church and Southern Baptist Convention all come together and press back hard.
2. Work through your local council executive board (all volunteers), especially the council president. The council professionals are all compromised on this because their allegiance is to the national office.
3. We have to demand heads on pikes of the national scout executive-Wayne Brock, James Turley and Randall Stephenson, i.e., they must be made to resign.
So much of this matter is tied in with AT&T's (whose corporate HQ is in Dallas - close to BSA national in Irving) donations to the new scout property in West Virginia - The Summit Bechtel Family Scout Preserve. AT&T is providing all the telecomm substructure in preparation for this summer's National Jamboree.
One of the insider arguments going on in scouting forums is that BSA national needs corporate $$$ to pay for the inevitable law suits which will come out of the court-ordered ongoing release of BSA's ineligible volunteer files, i.e., those kicked out for bad behavior, especially child molestation. The current situation, which could change, is that National BSA pays for lawsuit settlements of victimized former Scouts, not the churches where the units are chartered. Much discussion whether the ground beneath our feet has shifted 10 ft. to the left on this matter.
the leadership are fools to think this will mitigate suits. In the end they will still be sued by some other lawyers.
The two BOD members pushing for homosexual access to minors should be forced to resign. They have no place in scouting.
boy scouts of america has a “do ask and do expell” policy.
that is what upsets the recreation sex fetish lobby.
Where is the outrage on talk radio? Has anyone nationally even brought this up? Our champions are silent mice. I have a seven year in scouting and well i want him out.
The Boy Scouts are now out of their text in the Scout Oath and Law.
No participation by my children, grandchildren or me, ever again.
Goodbye to a once great organization.
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