And so it begins — the abandonment of the Boy Scouts of America by churches of the Southern Baptist persuasion, for the lifting of the longtime national ban on admitting openly gay Scouts.
The First Baptist Church of Helena, Ala., will no longer allow Boy Scout Troop 2 to meet at their church. Pastor Greg Walker made the following statements:
“It’s hard on a personal level to say to a troop of young boys who have done nothing wrong and to the leaders, You’re not welcome here.”
“I didn’t make the decision, Boy Scouts of America did.”
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“It’s an issue as a church pastor and Christian that I can’t allow a group to openly support a sinful lifestyle under the umbrella of First Baptist Helena.”
The Southern Baptist Convention – the largest Protestant denomination in the United States – will be holding their national meeting June 11-12, 2013 in Houston. It’s pretty much a given that they will recommend that its 47,000 churches here in the United States pull away from the Boy Scouts of America.
But their recommendation isn’t the final word on the matter, as the individual churches actually get to decide what it is they want to do.
The Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal group, also denounced the Boy Scouts new policy. Their statement is as follows:
“We believe that the BSA policy change will lead to a mass exodus from the Boy Scout program, as Assemblies of God and many other churches can no longer support groups that are part of an organization allowing members who are openly homosexual.”
The Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., has around 300 families who participate in Scouting. Executive pastor Tim Hester announced plans for his church to break its ties with the Boy Scouts:
“Truly, for us it’s a logical decision. We cannot be distracted from the mission God has called us to do.” He also stated: “We want everyone, including ourselves, to live by biblical standards.”
At the end of the day, who really suffers here? The Southern Baptist Convention? The Assemblies of God? The Southeast Christian Church?
No, of course not. These churches will continue to preach their version of the Bible and continue to discriminate and alienate. And they will do it all in the name of their so-called “loving” God.
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Then again, and I don’t know about you, but some of the Boy Scouts I’ve known in my life were far from morally straight. Unless of course, smoking, drinking and committing adultery are on the lists of merit badges, then I would say they were indeed the pride of their troop.
But in the end, I believe the Boy Scouts will flourish with the inclusion of gay youth — young men growing into men who are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
Would we not want every young man to grow up with said values? Would this not be good for the whole of mankind?
Perhaps every young man should be required to be a Scout! Can you even imagine a world such as that?
The Boy Scouts of America and the irreverent churches