Great Alaska Council delegates to vote:
Will active homosexuals be embraced
by Boy Scouts of America?

This Saturday, April 13th, from 2-5 pm, the Boy Scouts of America Great Alaska Council will hold a Town Hall meeting at Community Covenant Church in Eagle River, specifically for MEMBERS OF THE SCOUTING FAMILY here in Alaska.  While the gathering will cover several topics, this meeting is the principle format for Scouting families to convey their concerns in person to the three voting delegates to the BSA National Meeting, where this issue is scheduled to be decided next month.

Alaska Family Action is forwarding this information because many concerned families are not aware of this important meeting.  As the crowd is expected to be large, please click here to register if you are planning to attend to help them prepare.

For decades, this honorable group has kept the interest of the boys it serves as the focus of all its actions. No matter what, the Boy Scouts of America could be counted upon to do the right thing and not yield to any social pressure, and has thus far stood strong.

We firmly believe that the Boy Scouts should not jeopardize the safety and moral integrity of Scouting in the interest of social activism. The proposal to relegate the decision on homosexual leaders to local chartered organizations sends the wrong signal from the national body: that political correctness ultimately triumphs over character.

Click HERE to view an ad Alaska Family Action helped sponsor earlier this year in USA Today along with Family Research Council and other family policy councils. Click HERE for excellent resources on this issue provided by Family Research Council.

Present BSA policy, upheld by the US Supreme Court, excludes avowed homosexuals because this behavior is not consistent with a key part of the Scout Oath:  “Morally Straight.”  Nevertheless, Scouting is under tremendous pressure from the homosexual lobby, including corporations, to abandon their long-standing policy.  If BSA caves, many chartering organizations will drop the program, making this venerable part of our national heritage unavailable to millions of boys.

If you are a registered Scout leader, or the parents of a registered Scout, please take the time to attend this meeting and express your concern.  Again, the Council has asked that you pre-register by clicking on this link.

If you are not a part of Scouting, but wish to comment, rather than attend the meeting, please provide feedback to BSA using this link.

One of the most thoughtful statements I've read about this sad episode was the following comment regarding a First Things article recently that went as follows -

" Sexual tension and/or attraction had no place in the former culture of the Boy Scouts. But then children (as we then called them) were allowed a period of stasis which provided them with the time necessary to integrate their sexuality – time to achieve at least the beginnings of mature personhood before being labels as a “this” or a “that” rather than simply a growing boy.

I am certain that a certain number of Boy Scouts have in the past and at this time struggled with questions surrounding sexuality.

But, until now there was no need to announce a particular policy on this question of sexuality. No child who was struggling inwardly with sexual desires was excluded (surely the Boy Scouts were not capable of mind reading) unless he himself or certain interested parties chose to make the matter an issue – in other words, decided to force a confrontation.

Since the organization has nothing whatsoever to do with sexual activity and since all of the members are of the same sex, the reasons for this initiative seem politically motivated."

As this outstanding resource from FRC states," Affirming homosexuality in Scouting would be a violation of the Scouts' own moral code and would jeopardize the well-being of vulnerable young men.  It would introduce issues of explicit sexuality into the lives of boys who join Scouts to learn to camp, hike, and become responsible and respectable citizens. The homosexual lobby is free to start their own organization based upon their own values.  Is it fair for them to force scouts and parents to surrender their values?"

Show up Saturday and make sure your answer to that question is heard.