GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP) -- Delegates to the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Thursday (May 23) approved new membership guidelines which open the ranks of the organization to homosexual members. Young men who openly claim to be homosexual may now participate as Scouts.
GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP) -- With the decision Thursday (May 23) to open the Boy Scouts of America membership to homosexual youth, the 70,000 faith-based organizations, including many churches, that have championed the virtues of "duty to God" and moral straightness by sponsoring local troops must decide whether to cut ties with the Scouts or continue their association with evangelistic outreach in mind.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (BP) -- As the Boy Scouts of America seriously considers lifting its ban on gay and lesbian troop leaders, churches across the Southern Baptist Convention may turn to the Royal Ambassador program, which for decades has shaped boys into responsible followers of Christ.
Page, Land send letters opposing Scout proposal
NASHVILLE (BP) -- Southern Baptist leaders Frank Page and Richard Land have written letters expressing strong opposition to a proposal that would leave in place the prohibition on homosexual Scout leaders but would allow youth who identify as gay to join.
IN-DEPTH: Will the Scouts withstand pressure?
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP) -- Every four years more than 40,000 Boy Scouts and their leaders hold a National Jamboree. This year they are scheduled to gather in July at the new Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia. They'll pitch tents, hike, tie knots, trade patches, and raise their right hands to affirm: "On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, to obey the Scout law, to help other people at all times, and to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight."
NASHVILLE (BP) -- The Middle Tennessee Council of the Boys Scouts of America has voted to affirm Scouting's current national membership policy as "a core value of the Scout Oath and Law."
Hugh Travis, the Scout executive for the 37-county council, said in a May 6 news release that its delegates "will not vote to approve the resolution" -- to allow openly homosexual youth as Scouts -- "but to retain the current membership policy."
Meanwhile, Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, has issued a statement underscoring his opposition to what the national Scouting organization has touted as a "compromise" by dropping its plan to allow openly gay Scout leaders.
NASHVILLE (BP) -- "Stand with Scouts," a national simulcast by the Family Research Council, urged viewers to preserve Scouting's traditional values by opposing a policy change to allow youth who identify themselves as gay to become Scouts.
IRVING, Texas (BP) -- Members at the Boy Scouts national convention in May will consider a proposal that would leave in place the prohibition on homosexual Scout leaders but would allow youth who identify as gay to join, it was announced Friday (April 19).
Group urges prayer for gay marriage cases
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (BP) -- A prominent Christian legal group is urging believers nationwide to pray as the U.S. Supreme Court gets ready to decide the legal definition of marriage.
NASHVILLE (BP) -- The Boy Scouts will lose members and the support of faith-based organizations if it changes its policy on homosexuality, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee told two top Boy Scouts leaders in a meeting Thursday (March 7).
SBC Executive Committee backs current Boy Scout policy of "moral rectitude that has marked the Boy Scouts of America for more than one hundred years."
NASHVILLE (BP) -- The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution that criticizes Boy Scouts leadership for trying to change the policy on homosexuality but also urges the Scouts' voting members to uphold the current policy in May.
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