The U.S. Catholic Church’s top liaison to the Boy Scouts of America is telling Catholic Scout leaders and troop sponsors that the BSA’s new policy welcoming gay Scouts “is not in conflict with Catholic teaching” and they should continue to support scouting programs.
Now that Boy Scout delegates have taken their long-awaited vote and permitted openly gay Scouts, will there be a mass exodus by religious groups?
It depends on who you ask.
They have pledges. They have merit badges. And they may go camping. But they’re not the Boy Scouts.
Conservative and liberal religious leaders may not agree on much, but both are expressing displeasure with the Boy Scouts' proposal to accept gay members but reject gay leaders.
For former scoutmaster Richard Guglielmetti, the Boy Scouts of America’s reconsideration of its ban on gay scouts and leaders is long overdue.
For nearly a decade, hundreds of local Boy Scouts have learned the virtues of the Ten Commandments on an annual Thanksgiving holiday hike to churches, synagogues and mosques, where clergy and scholars explained their faiths' take on the ancient code. But this year, Touro Synagogue, a major Reform congregation and a longtime partner, has told the organization it’s no longer willing to take part because the Scouts deny membership to gay troop leaders and gay Scouts.
As scoutmaster to two Minneapolis Boy Scout troops, Dave Moore has mentored 203 Eagle Scouts over 45 years as a scout leader.