In a completely predictable move (to anyone paying attention), the Boy Scouts of America voted on Thursday to change their long-standing policy on banning gay youth from participating in Scouts. With 61.5% in favor of ending the ban and only 38.5% in support of continuing the ban, the BSA has capitulated to the radical gay lobby in America. At least Train, the San Francisco based rock band, will now be able to play at the Scouts’ Summer Jamboree, now that the organization has made the “right” decision on allowing gay youth to become Scouts.
It’s amazing that it has taken the Scouts this long to retreat on this issue. Beginning with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in Boy Scouts of America vs. Dale, which actually upheld the Scouts’ right to determine their own membership criteria, the radical homosexual lobby in this country has done everything in their power to marginalize and stigmatize the Boy Scouts. From public schools kicking the Scouts off campus to major donors withdrawing their support, “tolerant” gay rights groups have made it their mission to either destroy the Boy Scouts of America or to beat them into submission on the issue of allowing gay youth AND adults. Of course, the same First Amendment which (at least now) gives me the right to speak out against this assault on the Boy Scouts also gives pro-gay rights organizations the right to advocate for a change in the Scouts’ policy.
With Thursday’s vote, the pro-gay rights factions’ advocacy and agitation has won a major battle in the war for total and complete acceptance of homosexuality within Scouting. Yet, even this victory is only a partial one. Make no mistake. The end-game for the radical gay rights lobby is not to have just gay youth involved in Scouts, but to eventually have gay adult leaders involved as well. I believe that the leadership within the BSA would have voted to accept gay adult leaders yesterday, if not for the more massive defections that would have occurred in the short-term. While I personally disagree with the Boy Scouts’ decision to admit gay youth, I think that it is the height of hypocrisy and political cravenness to not simultaneously rescind the ban on gay adult leaders. I wrote as much when this issue first surfaced in April:
While I personally do not believe that the Boy Scouts should have changed their position on gay youth or gay leaders being in Scouting, the resolution ending the gay youth ban, but upholding the ban on adult gay leaders, is not only hypocritical, but politically cynical. If the Scouts now believe that “no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone,” then why deny leadership positions to gay adults solely on the “basis of sexual orientation or preference alone?” What if adult gay leaders are married, just like heterosexual couples? When same-sex “marriage’ is legalized by the United States Supreme Court later this summer (which I believe it will be), then why ban Scouting leaders who live “morally straight” lives and who would serve as good role models to gay youth in their local troops?
Come this May, The Boy Scouts of America will have the opportunity to make the “right” choice by lifting the ban on gay youth members. If the Scouts want to be 100% “right,” then they need to go ahead and lift the ban on adult gay leaders as well. At least that would be a more consistent and less hypocritical position to take. And, more trustworthy. Isn’t that what the Boy Scouts are known for? Well, maybe what the Boy Scouts used to be known for!
What sense does it make for a 17-year-old gay Eagle Scout to be told that he has lived such a “morally straight” life and risen to the top of the Scouting ranks, but that he is no longer welcome in the Boy Scouts as a gay adult leader? One day it’s okay to be gay; the next day, not so much. What kind of “morally straight” people are running the Boy Scouts? If the majority of delegates at this year’s national meeting think that Scouting should be open to gay youth, why not go all in? After all, it’s only a matter of time before the BSA rescinds its current hypocritical and unworkable policy banning gay adult leaders. This will happen because the radical gay rights lobby will not stop until the Boy Scouts of America hoist the white flag of surrender on allowing gay adult leaders.
Because the Boy Scouts is a civic organization, not a church, their capitulation on allowing gay youth members was inevitable. I have no doubt that the BSA will eventually capitulate on the issue of allowing gay adult leaders, sooner rather than later. For religious organizations, the Boy Scouts capitulation to the radical gay lobby should serve as a warning sign to others. When so-called gay “marriage” is legalized in this country (as I believe the Supreme Court will do next month), gay rights groups will turn their attention away from the Boy Scouts to religious groups, including churches and synagogues, which do not condone homosexuality nor admit practicing homosexuals into membership.
The tactics that were used to win the war against the Scouts will be used in the war on the church. The end-game is the same. Complete and unconditional surrender. Will churches go the way of the Boy Scouts and capitulate? Some already have. Those that don’t should be prepared for the coming assault on the First Amendment and religious liberty. Be prepared. That has a nice ring to it. Maybe churches can use that. After yesterday, I’m not sure that the Boy Scouts of America should use it as their motto!
The homosexual nature of some people is not at stake here. What is at stake is the name long given honor: Boy Scouts. The key word here is “boy” and it refers to children, as much as it does to people entering maturity later in life.
It refers to teaching those children skills that they may or may not use later in life, such as learning morse code, knots in ropes, being prepared, worshiping in various religious settings. Teaching morale behavior for all children.
Also there are hundreds of “blue” laws on the books concerning morale behavior of adults towards children. How do these apply to homosexuals? There are a number of states that consider this behavior jailable. Do this around “children” and see what happens.
I am ashamed of the leadership of this organization. An honorable name is earned. No one can give it to you or take it away but you. How do you consider your name honorable by these actions towards homosexuals? Sexual behavior is adult behavior not minors behavior.
No self-respecting person whether homosexual or not should be dealing with this at this level. There is a time and a place. This is neither the time nor the place.
Children are impressionable.
There comes a moment in the life of a nation where its citizenry crosses a moral line … a strike of the hour where a heavenly realm declares enough is enough! A point in time where blessing moves to cursing … where prayers cannot reverse a dread release of judgment that must run its course. In our self-centered madness, America is approaching that moment … perhaps there already. The American church formerly restrained the proliferation of evil and moral decline … in our complacency, we have lost our national voice and spiritual power to halt such trends. God help us in the days ahead.
Prophetic words.