In suburban Atlanta, northern Idaho and a number of other places, churches have moved swiftly to sever ties with the Boy Scouts of America in protest over the vote last month to let openly gay boys participate in Scouting.
To date, it’s far from the mass defection some conservatives had predicted before the vote by the BSA’s National Council. But the exodus could soon swell, depending on the outcome of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting next week in Houston.
“I would bet there would be a resolution expressing disappointment with the Boy Scouts’ decision and calling on Southern Baptist churches to prepare for the need for alternatives,” said the Rev. Russell Moore, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
“How quickly that happens will probably differ from congregation to congregation,” Moore said. “I do think most Southern Baptists see the Boy Scouts moving in a direction that’s not going to be consistent with our beliefs.”
The Southern Baptists — the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. — already have a youth program for boys, the Royal Ambassadors. SBC leaders have suggested it could expand to accommodate boys leaving the Scouts.
According to BSA figures, Baptist churches sponsor Scout units serving about 108,000 of the BSA’s 2.6 million youth members.
While many Baptist churches might be awaiting the outcome of next week’s meeting, some already have decided to break with the BSA.
In Marietta, Ga., pastor Ernest Easley said his Roswell Street Baptist Church is ending its affiliation with Boy Scout Troop 204 that dates back to 1945.
“I never dreamed I’d have to stand up publicly and say to parents: ‘Pull your kids out of the Boy Scouts,’” Easley told Baptist Press, the SBC’s official news agency.
Among the latest to cut ties was Candlelight Christian Fellowship, a nondenominational church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which announced this week it would end its charter of a Boy Scout troop at the end of this year.
In all, about 70 percent of the 116,000 Scout units in the United States are sponsored by religious organizations.
Some are liberal denominations that welcomed the change of policy on gay youths and want the Boy Scouts to go further by lifting the still-intact ban on gays serving as adult leaders.
To the relief of BSA leaders, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has said it accepts the new youth policy and will not cut ties. The Mormons sponsor more Scout units than any other organization, serving about 430,000 boys.
The United Methodist Church, the second-largest sponsor serving about 363,000 boys, has shied away from official endorsement or rejection of the BSA policy change. Some individual Methodist leaders have been critical, while the General Commission on United Methodist Men, which oversees the denomination’s youth programs, says it will continue to support Scouting.
Similar divisions have surfaced within the Roman Catholic Church, the third-largest Scout sponsor serving about 273,000 youths.
A Catholic pastor in Bremerton, Wash., the Rev. Derek Lappe of Our Lady Star of the Sea, wrote an open letter to his parishioners announcing that the parish would cut its ties with the Scouts and develop new youth programs of its own.
However, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting has taken a more positive view of the policy change.
“We should be encouraged that the change in BSA’s youth membership standard is not in conflict with Catholic teaching,” Edward Martin, the committee’s chairman, wrote last week in an open letter to Catholics involved in Scouting.
From its headquarters in Texas, the BSA has formed a task force to smooth the path of implementing the new policy, which will take effect Jan. 1.
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