{"id":106266,"date":"2013-06-05T14:25:12","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T18:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=106266"},"modified":"2013-06-05T14:27:40","modified_gmt":"2013-06-05T18:27:40","slug":"seven-questions-about-boy-scout-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/06\/seven-questions-about-boy-scout-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven questions about Boy Scout gay policy coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>Headlines over the Boy Scouts of America\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?oq=boy+scouts+&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=boy+scouts+of+america#q=boy+scouts+of+america&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ei=_FavUdvsBIqTyQHG94HQCg&ved=0CA0Q_AUoBA&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.47380653,d.aWc&fp=1fa5c954d79c8c82&biw=1273&bih=681\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">decision to allow openly gay<\/a> members are still flying fast and furious.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s been so much recent coverage, actually, that it\u2019s impossible to critique all of it in a single post. So I thought I\u2019d ask seven questions related to the decision and news coverage of it.<\/p>\n1. Does the new Boy Scout policy conflict with Catholic teaching?<\/strong><\/p>\nNo, according to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.religionnews.com\/2013\/05\/31\/catholic-leaders-urge-support-for-boy-scouts-after-shift-on-gays\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Religion News Service report<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>(RNS) The U.S. Catholic Church\u2019s top liaison to the Boy Scouts of America is telling Catholic Scout leaders and troop sponsors that the BSA\u2019s new policy welcoming gay Scouts \u201cis not in conflict with Catholic teaching\u201d and they should continue to support scouting programs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n2. Why did religious groups that opposed allowing gay Boy Scouts suddenly change positions?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe \u201cOn Faith\u201d section of the Washington Post<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/on-faith\/wp\/2013\/06\/03\/religious-groups-ok-with-gay-scout-ban-for-years-now-say-no-problem-what-gives\/?wpisrc=nl_cuzheads\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">tackles this question:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>What gives?<\/p>\nExperts say the Scout vote embodies the struggle going on today in traditional religion over homosexuality. There is a strong desire and effort to be more welcoming \u2014 and even affirming \u2014 of some equal rights, but not to back off completely. But that\u2019s proving tricky to do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWho are the \u201cexperts\u201d who say that? This piece offers interesting analysis but provides inadequate attribution, it seems to me.<\/p>\n3. Will Southern Baptist churches leave the Boy Scouts over the new policy?<\/strong><\/p>\nA mass exodus appears likely, <a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2013\/05\/31\/southern-baptists-to-urge-churches-and-members-to-cut-boy-scout-ties\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">according to CNN:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>The Southern Baptist Convention, the country\u2019s largest Protestant denomination, will soon urge its 45,000 congregations and 16 million members to cut ties with the Scouts, according to church leaders.<\/p>\nThe denomination will vote on nonbinding but influential resolutions during a convention June 11-12\u00a0in Houston.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s a 100% chance that there will be a resolution about disaffiliation at the convention,\u201d said Richard Land, the longtime head of the Southern Baptists\u2019 Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, \u201cand a 100% chance that 99% of people will vote for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cSouthern Baptists are going to be leaving the Boy Scouts en masse,\u201d Land continued.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n4. Exactly how new are the Royal Ambassadors, an alternative scout group <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/06\/04\/us\/boy-scouts-gay-policies-benefit-alternative-groups.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130604&_r=1&\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">highlighted by the\u00a0New York Times?<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\nThe Times<\/em>\u00a0(just two weeks <a href=\"http:\/\/www.religionnews.com\/2013\/05\/13\/church-based-scouting-alternatives-attract-interest\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">behind RNS<\/a>) suggests:<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<blockquote>For more than a century, the Boy Scouts of America has had something of a monopoly on neckerchiefs, knot-tying, merit badges and all manner of backcountry skills for boys, treating snakebite and frostbite alike.<\/p>\nNo more. The protracted debate over whether to allow gay scouts and scout leaders has angered many church leaders and parents across the political and religious spectrums. The result is a surge of enrollments in alternative outdoor and character-building programs that cater to pagans and Pentecostals and everyone in between.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Royal Ambassadors, as the Old Gray Lady portrays it, are one of those presumably new groups.<\/p>\nHow new?<\/p>\nCNN, unlike the Times,<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2013\/05\/31\/southern-baptists-to-urge-churches-and-members-to-cut-boy-scout-ties\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">notes<\/a> that the explicitly Christian group was formed in 1908.<\/em><\/p>\n5. Just how excited is the Washington Post<\/em> over the Boy Scouts\u2019 new policy?<\/strong><\/p>\nMaybe it\u2019s just me, but an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/boy-scouts-shift-on-gay-youth-ban\/2013\/06\/01\/c99d6312-c87b-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">in-depth Post<\/em> story<\/a> on the issue seems to drip with enthusiasm for the policy change, starting with the headline:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Long road to Boy Scouts\u2019 shift on gay policy\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe story summary up high:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Scout leaders, gay activists, religious conservatives and historians of Scouting point to five key factors to explain the shift: a dramatic turnabout in public opinion about the morality of gay relationships and same-sex marriage, a groundswell from corporate leaders insisting on equal access for gays, shifting attitudes inside the two largest religious denominations within Scouting, a steady decline in troop membership and a sense that Scouting\u2019s image had morphed in the public mind from Mom and apple pie to an exclusionary group with a narrowing appeal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n6. What is the real-life impact of the Boy Scouts\u2019 new policy on families who view homosexuality as a sin?<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile much of the coverage has focused \u2014 appropriately \u2014 on whether specific denominations and congregations will stop sponsoring troops, NBC News <a href=\"http:\/\/usnews.nbcnews.com\/_news\/2013\/05\/31\/18633729-after-vote-allowing-gay-kids-to-become-boy-scouts-some-families-call-it-quits\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">takes a different approach<\/a> and interviews individual families struggling with the decision.<\/p>\nThe result is a story that goes beyond the cardboard-cutout caricatures of some reports:<\/p>\n<blockquote>The father of a Cub Scout sat his son on his lap late last week and told him news that tore up both their hearts: The family was leaving the Boy Scouts.<\/p>\nAaron Butler, the leader of his 8-year-old son Evan\u2019s Cub Scout Wolf den in Roseau, Minn., said he didn\u2019t explain to his eldest son exactly why they were walking away from an organization they loved so much, but he told NBC News that it was because of last week\u2019s controversial decision by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay youth to participate.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was a big disappointment \u2026 he cried for about 10 minutes because I told him that the Boy Scouts were not honoring their own law,\u201d Butler said, referring to the BSA oath that he interpreted as barring gay people. \u201cThey say it \u2014 \u2018On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep [myself] physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n7. How many incarnations can a single Bob Smietana story make?<\/strong><\/p>\nIn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/06\/churches-dumping-boy-scouts-over-gay-policy-or-not\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">my last post<\/a> on Boy Scout coverage, I noted the differing versions of Godbeat pro Smietana\u2019s story that ran in USA Today<\/em> and The Tennessean.<\/em><\/p>\nWell, it turns out that Smietana\u2019s story found one more life \u2014 on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.religionnews.com\/2013\/06\/03\/churches-move-to-cut-ties-to-scouts-after-gay-policy-change\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the RNS wire.<\/a><\/p>\nJust in case you\u2019re curious, the latest headline:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Churches move to cut ties to Scouts after gay policy change<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nMaybe the above questions (and the links provided) will spark some conversation on journalism and media issues by GetReligion readers.<\/p>\nBy all means, comment away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Headlines over the Boy Scouts of America\u2019s decision to allow openly gay members are still flying fast and furious. There\u2019s been so much recent coverage, actually, that it\u2019s impossible to critique all of it in a single post. So I thought I\u2019d ask seven questions related to the decision and news coverage of it. 1. 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