Three more Boy Scout troops are looking for new meeting spaces after the Christian organizations that help support them have ended their relationships over the national organization’s decision to lift its long standing ban on openly gay youth.
In Anchorage, Alaska, troop members of Boy Scout Troop 1316 and Cub Scout Pack 316 were notified this week they are being kicked out of the Anchorage Baptist Temple.
The church said it had hoped there would have been enough negative repercussions that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) would have reconsidered lifting the ban, but that now appears that will not be the case, reported the Anchorage Daily News.
“ABT has not changed its position because the Bible has not changed its position on sexuality (see Leviticus 18:22, I Corinthians 6:9), said Rev. Tom Cobaugh, the Baptist Temple’s education minister who serves as liaison to the troops, in a letter to parents.
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The Anchorage Baptist Temple’s chief pastor, Rev. Jerry Prevo, said he wasn’t worried about backlash. The Bible’s message is plain, he said: “No homosexual will enter the Kingdom of God.”
In Altoona, Wis., boy scout troop 90 has been meeting at St. Mary’s Catholic Church for more than 20 years, according to scoutmaster Bob Thill, but the troop has been told it should find a new home after its current charter agreement with the church expires Dec. 31 because BSA’s new gay-inclusive policy.
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The church’s pastoral council has strongly recommended cutting ties with Troop 90, Sakowski told the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram.
The Diocese of La Crosse hasn’t made any formal policy pronouncement on continuing to charter Boy Scout troops in light of the change, so the decision is up to individual parishes, he said.
