BSA vote and the church statement

I respect the church response. They will lose membership over this…much like they did in 1978.

If you doubt me, do a Google search for “Mike Tannihill”…one of LDS most known voices of reason within the bloggernacle and podcast community.

UNBELIEVABLE stuff.

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It actually does solve it for gay members who choose to remain celibate, since this decision doesn’t exclude gay adult leaders who are celibate. It doesn’t solve it for gay members who choose not to remain celibate, but those adults aren’t likely to be involved actively in the Church – unless gay marriage becomes the law of the land and the Church keeps the current wording of the endowment covenant (“legally and lawfully wedded”).

Frankly, I hope for the latter (maintaining the current wording and allowing married, monogamous gay couples to attend the temple, even if they can’t be sealed there). It will be interesting to see the next few decades, if I live long enough to have multiple decades left. At my age, that’s not a given.

I didn’t realize they would allow celibate gays to be leaders. That’s good to know. Things have changed a lot recently, so it will be very interesting to see what happens as time goes on.

Roy, I am glad for this small step, it just seems like it will not be a solution for the long run. I am really glad they won’t prevent gay youth from participating. I actually took a survey about this for the BSA, and I wrote in a comment that to me it would be most important if they don’t ban the boys. So I am very glad they made that change. I just think it doesn’t send a consistent message.

Baby steps. This will be like don’t ask don’t tell. A temporary measure until it’s fairly unanimous that the change is no big deal.

I don’t really care if a boy or a man is gay.

But…I don’t want an openly gay (celibate or not) boy sharing a tent with my son.

So glad we are almost done with scouting.

And…no…as far as I can tell…openly gay men (celibate or not) are not permitted to work with scout troops (BSA guideline).

There is a disconnect there….gay boys can play, but gay men cannot.

Leaders don’t share tents with the boys, and per BSA rules, leaders must always be 2 deep. Beside that, homosexuals are not pedophiles.

I read an article about BSA sex abuse that was remarkably similar to the Catholic Church scandal. Leaders, families, and even law enforcement officials hushed it up for decades for the sake of the good name of scouting. To assume that because a particular scout leader is a religious, married man with children of his own then it is ok to trust your children to him would seem to be a recipe for disaster. The 2 adult deep and no sharing of tents rule was a lesson learned the hard way.