There’s something puzzling about the media buzz surrounding the Boy Scouts of
America’s upcoming decision on changing its membership policy regarding gays.
As the day approaches when 1400 or so delegates to the BSA’s national council are
supposed to vote on this, we’ve gotta wonder: how is this happening so quickly?

Just last summer the BSA reaffirmed its longstanding membership standards
after two years of studying the issue and decided it “remains in the best interest
of Scouting” to continue the longstanding policy not allowing open and avowed
homosexuals to join or lead the Boy Scouts.

Then, seemingly out of the blue, on January 28th of this year, it was announced there
would be a vote, within days, on a new resolution which said: Let local troops and
councils decide whether to open their units to homosexuality.

Seventy percent of troops are chartered to churches and religious organizations.
Liberty Institute’s Kelly Shackelford said, “A lot of these churches are going to say
we can’t open ourselves to that kind of danger or that kind of litigation, and they’re
liable to lose a lot of sponsoring churches and religious organizations,”

Liberty Institute is one three top religious liberty law firms who joined together
to formally warn the BSA of the consequences of such a decision — including huge
potential financial losses eclipsing any expected support from “organizations
supporting the gay agenda.” The letter also said the BSA and all local troops and
councils would lose the “legal safe harbor” they now enjoy from the 2000 Supreme
Court decision in BSA vs. Dale

The letter stated, “if you adopt the proposed change it will not buy you peace” and
offered legal representation if the BSA stands against the change.

I spoke with Hugh Travis, an executive from the Middle Tennessee Scout Council. He
told me that letter was crucial in getting the decision postponed.

Also crucial was the massive public response against this. The BSA tabled the
discussion until the planned May 22nd meeting of the entire national council.

This time, a faction in the Scouts has proposed a different resolution. It says the
BSA would retain its prohibition against adults 18 and older who openly engage
in homosexual behavior from serving in any capacity in the Scouts. But, (and I’m
quoting it) “No youth (under 18) would be denied membership on the basis of
sexual orientation or preference.” So, does “morally straight” apply to boys, and not
men ?

A small group on the Executive Committee of the Scouts is driving this change using
push polling and deceptive results analysis. In the BSA’s poll, sixty-one percent
of scouting families said they wanted to retain the longstanding policy. But, news
outlets reported a real shift in attitudes regarding the policy.

Believing saint, this is no intermural dust-up. The Left is going after the Boy Scouts
to get another huge bludgeon to undermine Biblical truth and traditional morality.