Just days ahead of a critical meeting of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in which a change in their long-standing ban against homosexuality in their ranks will be determined, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting (NCCS) says Catholic delegates need to keep some important principles in mind when voting about the new laws.
The BSA is expected to take up its Membership Standards Resolution at its National Annual Meeting in Grapevine, Texas on May 24. This long-awaited meeting will see a resolution to a dilemma that has plagued the Scouts for years – whether or not to permit open and avowed homosexuals to become scouts and/or to lead troops.
As a compromise, BSA leaders developed new standards that would permit same-sex attracted scouts to join, but ban all homosexuals from serving as troop leaders or in other leadership positions.
The NCCS statement says that while those inclined toward homosexuality must be treated with dignity and respect, it has no intention of going along with any standard that violates Church teaching in troops that meet on its premises.
” . . . (T)he Church reserves the right to seek to place those who live by its teachings in leadership positions that serve our youth, as well as the right to continue to call our young people to live by the teachings of our faith and by moral truth which can be known by all.”
But if the Boy Scouts new resolution is only referring to scout membership, why does the NCCS statement focus on leadership positions which, according to the BSA, will remain the same?
Because many insiders know that these new resolutions will never stand up in court and will eventually be struck down, thus opening the door to homosexual scouting.
Cathy Ruse, Esq., Senior Fellow for Legal Studies at the Family Research Council, explains how this dissolution of the Boy Scouts will occur.
“The Boy Scouts allow older youth members to apply for leadership positions with significant authority over younger members in the troop,” she explains. “The proposed membership change would authorize open and avowed homosexuality on the part of older teens in leadership posts.”
Another reason is because the practical and legal result of a split membership policy will inevitably effect the policy on adult leaders as well.
“Practically speaking, if the resolution passes, open homosexuality will be officially consistent with the Scouting code throughout a Scout’s career until the moment he turns 18, when it suddenly becomes inconsistent with the code. Under the new policy, some action against the Scout will be required, but no troop leader would want to enforce such an irrational rule and few will. A de facto change in the rule for adults will occur almost immediately,” Ruse explains.
“What’s more, the new policy would forfeit the legal victory the Scouts won at the Supreme Court over a decade ago. When the organization was sued for unlawful discrimination because of its membership policy, the Court ruled in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale that the policy is constitutional under the Boy Scouts’ First Amendment speech and association rights. But if the Scouts’ new ‘speech’ is incoherent — open homosexuality is consistent with the Scouting code except when it isn’t — there will be no legal basis left for courts to uphold the prohibitory portion of the policy.”
The result? “The Scouts will be sued, they will lose, and it will be impossible for them to continue to prohibit open and avowed homosexuality on the part of adult leaders,” Ruse writes.
The BSA is heading down a long and difficult road if it decides to change its policy. This is especially true because 72 percent of their chartering organizations, which are largely faith-based institutions such as Catholic parishes, oppose changing the policy.
“How can Catholic churches sponsor troops with leaders who live in open and avowed opposition to the truths of the Catholic faith and the teachings of its Church?” Ruse asks.
“It is a question that all Catholic delegates must ponder before they vote in Grapevine . . . .”
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