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 ...
From the article:“we must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be,”
Whatever happened to CHANGING the world for the better?
I got an advance copy:
The New Scout Oath
On my honor, maybe, I will try To do my duty to God as I define him or her and my government, and to obey all government approved Scout Suggestions;
To help other people at all times except the racist haters who listen to Rush;
To keep myself physically attractive, mentally tolerant and morally straight or gay. Or Transgendered. Whatever.
But they won't. The LDS Church has been reaching out to the LGBT activists since 5/23/2013. UT has passed state legislation protecting LGBTs. The UMC is split down the middle on LGBT. It has been dragging its feet, but a schism appears likely in the near future. We have all watched in horror as Pope Francis has danced around the flame of LGBT issues in the RCC. The RCC committee in the U.S. that oversees its BSA affiliation balked at withdrawing from the BSA after 5/232/2015.
If a new membership rule for open adult homosexual leaders is created to give the local chartering institution, i.e., the church, the right to restrict homosexuals from membership, this will also be attacked by the LGBT activists.
It is even more than that. A lot of kids favor other activities such as athletics or clubs which require plenty of commitment, such as sports of honor society, which takes time and were programs which I saw plenty of children drop out of scouting for commitment to those programs instead. Another issue has been the growing percentage of children not in traditional families, mostly with a single unwed parent, who are far less likely to join scouting. Finally, religion is down in America with plenty of young adults not belonging to any religion at all, with the BSA having prayers and all, why bother sending your kids to a mostly religious group? Some exceptions like my father are out there, but overall, it will bring scouting down.
The UMC does not shove it in your face. And the PCA and SBC sponsored troops have bolted from BSA since 5/23/2013.
I agree that todays young families may well percieve that religion is going to be forced in their faces, but that was, for the most part, not my experience.
We had prayers back when I was in an RC sponsored troop, but I have been out of Scouting since 2001, when I turned 17 and got Eagle, we prayed and had an appointed troop chaplain back then, can’t speak for now though.
As I may have mentioned, my father didn’t belong to religion, but personally knowing and respecting a Scoutmaster that I had at the time, he was fine with me being in that troop.
since Gates willingly served the obamanation in the white hut, I ‘ve never trusted him...
form the argument and narrow the talking points and whallaam.....you get these kinds of "judgements" just "out of the clear blue"...
why they would willingly sacrifice their young kids for political correctness is a question that is unanswerable...
“pack” would be the wrong word.
““we must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be,”
And we shall. Just as Jesus instructs.
BINGO!!! Gates must be GAY himself or he has a KID that’s GAY!!! What else would cause INSANITY like this.
Didn’t Gates do it to the military? If so then he was probably brought into the Scouts to do it to the Scouts
I think the Gay Scouts will be a smaller organization than the Boy Scouts were. If Gates doesn’t lose his job in a month then the decision has already been made and after some “serious” huddles, will be implemented. We knew this was coming when they first started discussing admitting overt fairies as scouts. Giving homosexual men access to groups of boys is a major step toward homosexualizing the natiion. Homosexuals are becoming a political Elite. I don’t think the process will be stopped, no matter who is elected to what in 2016. These things go only one direction and will end only when the society ends, which it will.
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You're analysis of the situation in Utah is flawed, and is typical of what the media reported at first.
The state of Utah, with the LDS Church backing, passed legislation protecting religious freedom specifically because of what the gay agenda was doing. They were pretty forward thinking about it too, putting the legislation in place before the protests broke out around the country, establishing freedom of religion in the guise of throwing a bone to non discrimination, but protecting marriage and religious freedom.
This is a pretty funny article, the Huffington Post got wise on this one.
"How the Mormons Punked the Press." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brooke-p-hunter/how-the-mormons-punked-th_b_6564238.html
]
Here’s a better link.
How the Mormons Punked the Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brooke-p-hunter/how-the-mormons-punked-th_b_6564238.html
Thank you for this insight. While I am loathe to click on the HP, I agree that we do have to know what our enemies (i.e., folks like those at the HP) think. This article gives me a little hope that the LDS have not completely cast their lot with the "cultural marxists".
Don’t believe what you hear in the media. The LDS Church, including their 400k plus scouts in the USA, do not support the gay agenda. Actually, the opposite.
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/the-divine-institution-of-marriage
Here’s a small snip:
“A large number of people around the world recognize the crucial role that traditional marriage has played and must continue to play if children and families are to be protected and moral values propagated. Because the issue of same-sex marriage strikes at the very heart of the family and has the potential for great impact upon the welfare of children, the Church unequivocally affirms that marriage should remain the lawful union of a man and a woman.
Unchanging Standards of Morality
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that God has established clear standards of morality for His children, who are accountable before Him for their behavior. Such standards cannot be changed by the reasoning, emotions, personal interests, or opinions of mortal beings.[10] Without the higher authority of God, as revealed in scripture and by His prophets, secular society will flounder and drift.
Many advocates of same-sex marriage argue that traditional standards of sexual morality have changed and that “tolerance” requires that these new standards be recognized and codified in law. If tolerance is defined as showing kindness for others and respect for differing viewpoints, it is an important value in all democratic societies. But as Elder Dallin H. Oaks has observed, “Tolerance does not require abandoning one’s standards or one’s opinions on political or public policy choices. Tolerance is a way of reacting to diversity, not a command to insulate it from examination.”[11]”
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