Bishop responds to Boy Scouts' decision on admission of homosexual members [CWN]

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Post 220: Might want to double check your link. :confused: Not sure if it is working after that build up that made it something I would think we’d want to read.
 
gilliam said:
Letter from the head of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting

nccs-bsa.org/comment/Response-EPM-130529.pdf
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I saw that link the other day. I note that there seems no mention of Vatican documents from then Cardinal Ratzinger regarding issues about just discrimination and the orientation itself.
 
**
**REACTION TO POLICY CHANGE IN
MEMBERSHIP STANDARDS FOR THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
**
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**National Catholic Committee on Scouting
Thursday, May 23, 2013@ 5:48 PM

For over 100 years, thousands of children in Catholic parishes, schools and fraternal organizations have benefited from chartering Scouting units. The Catholic Church has maintained a strong relationship with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) through the National Catholic Committee on Scouting (NCCS) for many years and we hope to maintain that relationship.
Today, the voting members of the BSA voted to change the membership standards for its youth members. The BSA proposed in its resolution that “no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” Its membership standards for adult leaders remain unchanged.
The Catholic Church teaches that people who experience a homosexual inclination or a same sex attraction are to be treated with respect recognizing the dignity of all persons. The Church’s teaching is clear that engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage is immoral. Individuals who are open and avowed homosexuals promoting and engaging in homosexual conduct are not living lives consistent with Catholic teaching.
Since the change in policy will not take effect until January 1, 2014, the National Catholic Committee on Scouting has adequate time to study its effects. The NCCS will determine how it may impact Catholic chartered Scout units and activities. In doing so, we will work within the teachings of our Catholic Faith and with the various local bishops and their diocesan scouting committees.
Ed Martin- National Chair
Father Michael Hanifin-National Chaplain nccs-bsa.org/comment/NCCSComment52313.php
 
fix said:
It is putting a good face on a bad situation. Note he said we can live with it, Not a glowing endorsement. The point is the change happened for a reason, so if it is really no big deal then why change at all?

On paper it is not bad. The problem is in practice it is a much bigger deal.
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I like putting a good face on a bad situation. 🙂

I understand why people are upset. For me, I am concerned that reacting too much just plays right into the “gay agenda.” If we react as though this is an earth-shattering change in policy, we give credence to the interpretation that the policy change is earth-shattering. That’s exactly what the proponents want people to see it as. They want people to read into this. They want people to view this as a sign of things to come. They want people to view further changes as inevitable. And they want committed Christians to leave the Boy Scouts in droves and leave them defenseless against further policy changes. And from what I’ve read, many Christians are following the script perfectly.

In reality, it is not so great a victory for “gay rights” as the media would have us believe. They could have allowed for gay leaders. They could have worded it such that “open and overt” homosexuals could be members. They didn’t do that.

I think it’s very reasonable to look at the silver lining in this situation. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to hold the line and prevent the Boy Scouts from being an organization that Catholics cannot join.
 
Can you help me with my reasoning?

The Catholic church loves the person as a creation of God and they chastise the homosexual act as a sin in regards to a sexual act outside of marriage. Marriage is only between a man and a women so a homosexual act is thus considered a sin.

So it only makes sense that the BSA allows homosexuals boys into scouting since if they didn’t then we would have to also kick out the heterosexual boys who have had pre-marriage relations.
 
preisinger said:
Can you help me with my reasoning?

The Catholic church loves the person as a creation of God and they chastise the homosexual act as a sin in regards to a sexual act outside of marriage. Marriage is only between a man and a women so a homosexual act is thus considered a sin.

So it only makes sense that the BSA allows homosexuals boys into scouting since if they didn’t then we would have to also kick out the heterosexual boys who have had pre-marriage relations.
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We are all called to chastity. Not just homosexuals.
 
correct a life of chastity but unfortunately we all know that is not accepted 100%. I’m sure there are several older boy scouts who have had pre-marital relations and are not kicked out of the group. So why should the homosexual be chastised or kicked out if the heterosexual is not chastised and kicked out if they both have pre-martial relations.
 
on_the_hill said:
This is what I don’t understand.

As I have stated earlier: I personally witnessed sexual harassment when I was a Scout. It was perpetrated by straight Scouts. Not by adults, straight adults, gay adults, gay Scouts, but by 15, 16, 17 year old boys.

Aside from that, gay Scouts are already in troops. Just as there are gay priests in the Church. I wouldn’t tell my son not to be an altar server because a few priests were/are pedophiles.

I think we’re just going to go around and around with this. 🤷
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“It’s already bad, so let us assent to a policy that makes it worse” is a fallacy.
 
zab said:
I know why- because that link didn’t work for me either 😃
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It’s really the same as every other statement NCCS has made on the issue. A one sentence summary would be: ‘We are still working on a plan, please don’t give up on the BSA.’

With all due respect to NCCS, I have no faith in the BSA. Just a year ago they said they would never do this to us; now they are acting with total disregard for the safety of our youth. NCCS has no way to fix the BSA, all they can do is damage control, and that is doomed to fail because the problem is with BSA and the resolution itself.
 
Cat_Herder said:
It’s really the same as every other statement NCCS has made on the issue. A one sentence summary would be: ‘We are still working on a plan, please don’t give up on the BSA.’

With all due respect to NCCS, I have no faith in the BSA. Just a year ago they said they would never do this to us; now they are acting with total disregard for the safety of our youth. NCCS has no way to fix the BSA, all they can do is damage control, and that is doomed to fail because the problem is with BSA and the resolution itself.
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I basically agree with you. What I do not like is false optimism. It is as if the policy change occurred and Catholics said the change is fine as long as we can interpret it as we want regardless of what it really means.
 
on_the_hill said:
This is what I don’t understand.

As I have stated earlier: I personally witnessed sexual harassment when I was a Scout. It was perpetrated by straight Scouts. Not by adults, straight adults, gay adults, gay Scouts, but by 15, 16, 17 year old boys.

Aside from that, gay Scouts are already in troops. Just as there are gay priests in the Church. I wouldn’t tell my son not to be an altar server because a few priests were/are pedophiles.

I think we’re just going to go around and around with this. 🤷
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The problem is not that there are gay youth in the scouts. The problem is that the BSA changed its code of moral law. The Catholic Church is the same. The BSA is not.
 
preisinger said:
correct a life of chastity but unfortunately we all know that is not accepted 100%. I’m sure there are several older boy scouts who have had pre-marital relations and are not kicked out of the group. So why should the homosexual be chastised or kicked out if the heterosexual is not chastised and kicked out if they both have pre-martial relations.
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The new policy admits “openly gay” youth. How do you interpret “openly gay”? Have you ever heard the term “openly straight”? No. Heterosexuals usually do not flaunt the fact that they are having premarital sex. They usually do not have an immoral agenda to push on innocent youth. So, yes, the heterosexual having sex outside of marriage is committing a sin as is the homosexual having…(can’t be called marital relations, or sex for that matter)…whatever activity. Neither belong in scouting, neither belong in the presence of children.
A heterosexual discussing or flaunting his sexual history would be disciplined and likely removed from the troop. What makes you think he would not be?
 
Momofmyangels said:
The new policy admits “openly gay” youth. How do you interpret “openly gay”? Have you ever heard the term “openly straight”? No. Heterosexuals usually do not flaunt the fact that they are having premarital sex.
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you haven’t been in many boys/mens locker rooms (I hope), guys talk about sex a lot. this isn’t the case all the time, or with every team, but its totally unremarkable when it happens.
Momofmyangels said:
They usually do not have an immoral agenda to push on innocent youth.
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no, they’re just talking about sex.
Momofmyangels said:
A heterosexual discussing or flaunting his sexual history would be disciplined and likely removed from the troop. What makes you think he would not be?
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perhaps a scout could assure us that teenage boys do not talk about sex.
 
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