Conservatives Expect ‘Mass Exodus’ If Boy Scouts Accept Gays

This week, the executive board of the Boy Scouts of America will reconsider the organization’s policy of barring gay Scouts and leaders. While the debate has been ongoing, many conservatives are pleading that the organization not abandon the principles on which they were founded, despite pressure.

Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) has written extensively about how the Boy Scouts molded and shaped his life, and he expressed those thoughts to hundreds of Texas Scouts who gathered in the state House of Representative on Saturday for their annual Report of State. In his speech, Perry defended the Boy Scouts stance, staying:

“Hopefully the board will follow their historic position of keeping the Scouts strongly supportive of the values that make Scouting this very important and impactful organization. I think most people see absolutely no reason to change the position and neither do I…To have popular culture impact 100 years of their standards is inappropriate.”

Perry claimed that the nature of Scouts in general is an atmosphere of “tolerance and diversity,” regardless of the ban on gays.

Rick Santorum offered a similar plea, suggesting that this week is “a challenge to the Scouts’ very nature.” Santorum suggests that lifting the ban will create a “mass exodus” amongst the organization. While some people mistakenly believe that homosexuals should be banned from the Scouts because “all homosexuals are pedophiles,” the more prominent argument is the Scouts’ religious foundation. The Boy Scouts tradition bases its principles on the Bible, which condemns the practice of homosexuality.

Santorum writes:

“We have witnessed how challenging it is in the elite circles of our society to keep true to what is good and right. the pressures are enormous, but here too this old institution instructs us about another word, ‘bravery,’ for those circumstances: ‘A Scout can face danger although he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at him or threaten him.’ “

President Obama stated in a pre-Super Bowl interview that the Scouts should drop their policy because “gays and lesbians should have access and opportunity the same way everybody else does in every institution and walk of life.”

The Inquisitr reported earlier that most local Boy Scout troops are governed by civic and religious groups in the community. It the Boy Scouts change their overall policy, it “would be up to sponsoring agencies and local councils to decide whether to allow gay troop leaders and Boy Scouts.”

The policy would end an organization-wide ban on gay Scouts and leaders. This is not the first time the organization has been pressured to change their stance on gays, and the groups continues to lose large corporate sponsors over the issue.

Do you think the ban should be lifted; if it is, do you think a lot of people will leave the organization as Santorum predicts?

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