My Place to Reflect

One month ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints   responded to the Boy Scouts of America change in the membership standards for adult leaders. I wrote a blog entry on that topic, which you can read here . Today, the Church updated its response with an announcement  from the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles that it is continuing its support of the Scouting program in the Church. Part of the statement says: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appreciates the positive contributions Scouting has made over the years to thousands of its young men and boys and to thousands of other youth. As leaders of the Church, we want the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to succeed in its historic mission to instill leadership skills and high moral standards in youth of all faiths and circumstances, thereby equipping them for greater success in life and valuable service to their country. This is a strong endorsement of the purposes of the...

Today, July 27, 2015 (yesterday by the time the post is live), the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America approved a policy change to allow gay adults to serve as adult volunteers in units, with an exception for units sponsored by religious organizations that allows those units to "use religious beliefs as criteria for selecting adult leaders, including matters of sexuality" (for adults only). My church and the sponsoring organization of all of the Scouting units for which I have volunteered,  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , gave a fairly strong response , objecting both about the scheduling of the vote and about the outcome of the policy, saying "the admission of openly gay leaders is inconsistent with the doctrines of the Church and what have traditionally been the values of the Boy Scouts of America." The mission statement of the Boy Scouts of America is: The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people...