Boy Scouts will no longer ban gay leaders

Boy Scouts will no longer ban gay leaders July 29, 2015

The Boy Scouts of America will now allow gay leaders, a decision made by its Executive Board led by former Defense Secretary, now BSA president, Robert Gates.  The action applies to corporate employees.  Local troops, many of which are sponsored by churches, can make their own decisions.  But churches are worried that this just kicks the liabilities and possible discrimination charges down to their level.

Read the news report after the jump.  Then read the Family Policy Institute of Washington post entitled “New Boy Scout Policy Makes Host Churches Liable?”.   The group offers this legal guide: The Legal Ramifications to Churches of BSA’s New Membership Policy.

Some churches are apparently considering dropping their Scouting programs.  Here is a statement from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which is convening a meeting in August to consider the issue.  (Hey, maybe this could be the catalyst for a rapprochement between the LCMS and the Wisconsin Synod, which has never approved of Boy Scouts!)

From Michelle Boorstein, Boy Scouts of America votes to end controversial ban on openly-gay scout leaders – The Washington Post:

The Boy Scouts of America, facing litigation, shrinking membership and sweeping acceptance of gay rights, voted Monday to lift its ban on openly gay troop leaders and employees.

The national organization will no longer allow discrimination against its paid workers or at BSA-owned facilities. But local troops and councils will be permitted to decide for themselves whether they will allow openly gay volunteer leaders.

It wasn’t clear if the compromise would satisfy religious traditionalists. The Mormon Church put out a statement Monday night saying its “century-long association with Scouting would need to be examined.”

The executive board’s vote was taken at the suggestion of the group’s president, former defense secretary Robert Gates, who noted that the Scouts are facing potential lawsuits by gay adults who were shut out of positions. But church-state legal experts said the decision will likely just shift the controversy and legal battles from the national group to local troops and councils as volunteers barred from participating file suit.

“It’s changing the target [of litigation] because now it will be all about the local, not the national,” said Douglas Laycock, a prominent religious liberty scholar at the University of Virginia. “It changes the dynamic a lot. It makes it more informal, less visible.”

 

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