{"id":100447,"date":"2013-02-09T13:54:58","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T18:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=100447"},"modified":"2013-02-11T08:31:01","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T13:31:01","slug":"pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/","title":{"rendered":"Pod people: Boy Scout leak and grassroots sourcing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ve done a couple of posts (here<\/a> and here<\/a>) on the Boy Scouts of America\u2019s consideration of lifting its ban on openly gay members and adult leaders.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> reported today<\/a> on a new development:<\/p>\n

A leak from inside the\u00a0Boy Scouts of America\u00a0last month about discussions on possibly ending the group\u2019s national ban on gay members changed the debate itself by creating an impression that change was imminent, according to scouting officials and taped comments from a meeting of scouting\u2019s executive board obtained by The New York Times.<\/p>\n

Those apparently false expectations were dashed days later when the board, under intense scrutiny it had never intended, deferred action.<\/p>\n

The proposed shift in policy has been portrayed in news accounts mostly as a kind of trial balloon, floated to gauge sentiment about where scouting might go on a hugely divisive question. But the proposal, though seriously in consideration, was not supposed to become public at this moment, Scouts officials confirmed. The plan for the meeting this week was a quiet discussion behind closed doors, they said, free from the outside pressures that have buffeted scouting, especially since summer, when the organization\u00a0reaffirmed its ban\u00a0on gay scouts and leaders after a two-year review.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On this week\u2019s Crossroads<\/em> podcast,<\/a>\u00a0host Todd Wilken and I discuss media coverage of the Boy Scout story. The podcast was recorded before news of the leak broke, so we do not cover that angle. We focus on my concerns about the sensationalistic nature of a CNN report<\/a> attempting to tie Mormons to the Boy Scouts\u2019 vote delay.<\/p>\n

We also explore the media\u2019s treatment of grassroots sources on this story. While most of the coverage has involved predictable reactions from organized talking heads \u2014 pro and con \u2014 I note that The Associated Press took a different approach in one story, giving a family on each side of the debate an opportunity to share its perspective. That story was published<\/a> before the vote was postponed:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite a shared affection for Scouting, the Tessier family in\u00a0Maryland and the Comers in Tennessee hope for opposite outcomes this\u00a0week as leaders of the Boy Scouts of America ponder whether to move\u00a0away from a national no-gays membership policy.<\/p>\n

Wes Comer, his wife and children belong to an Apostolic Pentecostal\u00a0church near their Knoxville home that considers homosexuality sinful.<\/p>\n

Comer says he will pull his eldest son out of the Scouts, despite a\u00a0positive experience with them, if the BSA modifies the policy to allow\u00a0some troops to accept gays.<\/p>\n

The Tessiers, who live in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Kensington,\u00a0have two sons who enjoyed Cub Scouts, progressed to Boy Scouts, and\u00a0continued to thrive there even as many in their troop became aware\u00a0that each boy was gay. The family is grateful for that, but fervently\u00a0hopes the BSA\u2019s top leaders officially scrap the ban so that open\u00a0acceptance becomes the norm for Scout units nationwide.<\/p>\n

Each family\u2019s sentiments are shared by many others, and the BSA \u2014\u00a0whose governing board is deliberating behind closed doors this week at\u00a0a Texas hotel \u2014 now finds itself in a situation where any decision it\u00a0makes is likely to rouse anger and disappointment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I really liked the concept of the AP story, but I found it rather shallow in its implementation, particularly on the religion angle. For example, the story does not mention the Tessiers\u2019 religious background \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 or explore directly the beliefs and position on gay rights of the church that sponsors the boys\u2019 troop.<\/p>\n

Also on the podcast, Wilken and I spend a few minutes discussing my recent post on \u2018Loving the sinner\u2019 in Chick-fil-A gay marriage flap.<\/a><\/p>\n

Enjoy the podcast!<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve done a couple of posts (here and here) on the Boy Scouts of America\u2019s consideration of lifting its ban on openly gay members and adult leaders. The New York Times reported today on a new development: A leak from inside the\u00a0Boy Scouts of America\u00a0last month about discussions on possibly ending the group\u2019s national ban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,68,12,49,4],"tags":[904,224,242,673],"class_list":["post-100447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","category-getreligion-podcasts","category-religion","category-sex","category-social-issues","tag-boy-scouts-of-america","tag-chick-fil-a","tag-gay-rights","tag-the-new-york-times"],"yoast_head":"\nPod people: Boy Scout leak and grassroots sourcing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've done a couple of posts (here and here) on the Boy Scouts of America's consideration of lifting its ban on openly gay members and adult leaders. The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pod people: Boy Scout leak and grassroots sourcing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I've done a couple of posts (here and here) on the Boy Scouts of America's consideration of lifting its ban on openly gay members and adult leaders. The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetReligion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-09T18:54:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-11T13:31:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/files\/2013\/02\/0122podcast.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bobby Ross Jr.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bobby Ross Jr.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/\",\"name\":\"Pod people: Boy Scout leak and grassroots sourcing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-09T18:54:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-11T13:31:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/d54e0199e18cd5740a11902f7217ea10\"},\"description\":\"I've done a couple of posts (here and here) on the Boy Scouts of America's consideration of lifting its ban on openly gay members and adult leaders. The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pod people: Boy Scout leak and grassroots sourcing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\",\"name\":\"GetReligion\",\"description\":\""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - William Schneider\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/d54e0199e18cd5740a11902f7217ea10\",\"name\":\"Bobby Ross Jr.\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7fb42afe1d28dbd8c1af42a319911b95?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7fb42afe1d28dbd8c1af42a319911b95?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Bobby Ross Jr.\"},\"description\":\"Bobby Ross Jr. is an award-winning reporter and editor with a quarter-century of professional experience. A former religion editor for The Oklahoman and religion writer for The Associated Press, Ross serves as chief correspondent for the The Christian Chronicle. He has reported from 47 states and 11 countries and was honored as the Religion Newswriters Association's 2013 Magazine Reporter of the Year.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/author\/bobbyross\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pod people: Boy Scout leak and grassroots sourcing","description":"I've done a couple of posts (here and here) on the Boy Scouts of America's consideration of lifting its ban on openly gay members and adult leaders. The","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pod people: Boy Scout leak and grassroots sourcing","og_description":"I've done a couple of posts (here and here) on the Boy Scouts of America's consideration of lifting its ban on openly gay members and adult leaders. The","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/","og_site_name":"GetReligion","article_published_time":"2013-02-09T18:54:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-02-11T13:31:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/files\/2013\/02\/0122podcast.jpeg"}],"author":"Bobby Ross Jr.","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bobby Ross Jr.","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/","name":"Pod people: Boy Scout leak and grassroots sourcing","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-02-09T18:54:58+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-11T13:31:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/d54e0199e18cd5740a11902f7217ea10"},"description":"I've done a couple of posts (here and here) on the Boy Scouts of America's consideration of lifting its ban on openly gay members and adult leaders. The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/02\/pod-people-boy-scout-leaks-and-grassroots-sourcing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pod people: Boy Scout leak and grassroots sourcing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/","name":"GetReligion","description":""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - William Schneider","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/d54e0199e18cd5740a11902f7217ea10","name":"Bobby Ross Jr.","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7fb42afe1d28dbd8c1af42a319911b95?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7fb42afe1d28dbd8c1af42a319911b95?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Bobby Ross Jr."},"description":"Bobby Ross Jr. is an award-winning reporter and editor with a quarter-century of professional experience. A former religion editor for The Oklahoman and religion writer for The Associated Press, Ross serves as chief correspondent for the The Christian Chronicle. He has reported from 47 states and 11 countries and was honored as the Religion Newswriters Association's 2013 Magazine Reporter of the Year.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/author\/bobbyross\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/597"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}