BSA and Religion

Recently the Boy Scouts of America changed their membership policy to allow the inclusion of Scouts who are gay.  I'm now beginning to see articles about churches and hear of local churches who sponsor  Scout troops breaking their ties with the Scouts.  This makes me very sad.  The reason churches are giving for breaking these ties with Scouts is morality.  This puzzles me.  I have a Scout and am married to an Eagle Scout.  I helped my son, when he was in Cub Scouts, to complete the religion program to earn his "God and Me" pin and blue knot.  In planning for this pin and knot, I was surprised to see that MANY religions were represented in the material.  One did not have to be "Christian" to complete this step.  One could be Muslim, Hindu, etc.  But, I have never heard any protests from the Christian church about this.  Interesting.  The Troop of which my son is a member is chartered by our church.  This Troop has been sponsored by this church for over 100 years.  A former Scoutmaster has made it very clear that he sees this partnership with the church as an outreach or mission of the church.  There are boys in the Troop (and have been for years and will hopefully continue to be) who do not go to church.  Boys who have very difficult home life.  Boys who might not feel they belong anywhere else.  Boys who might not see the love of Jesus anywhere else.  I am quite certain this situation is not unique to the Troop at my church.  Churches, what message are you sending these boys?  The message I see is "we are taking the moral high ground and to hell with you young men who might need this Scout troop."  Is that really the message you want to send?  Are you going to go through all the other community groups you support and break ties with those that serve homosexuals?  No?  Why not?  I applaud the Boy Scouts for changing their policy.  I'm not sure it went far enough, but it is a step in the right direction.  I encourage church leadership to really consider the message you want to send to the Boy Scouts.  NOT the administrative organization, but the young men who are looking for a place to fit in.  

Here is a link to an article about the Southern Baptist response . . .

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/31/southern-baptists-to-urge-churches-and-members-to-cut-boy-scout-ties/?hpt=hp_t2