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By Heather Hahn*
6:30 P.M. ET June 12, 2013 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)
United Methodist Men have a message for Scouts: If they no longer
have a home at a Southern Baptist church, United Methodist
congregations would be happy to welcome them.
The Commission on United Methodist Men oversees Scouting ministries and civic youth-serving agencies across the denomination.
“Our office has already received notices of invitation from local
churches and United Methodist annual conferences,” Gil Hanke, the
commission’s top executive, said in a statement.
“They are welcoming Scouts, leaders and their families to join
existing or new Cub Scout packs and Boy Scout troops hosted and staffed
in United Methodist churches, if their current scouting program needs
to find a new home.”
The United Methodist agency was responding to a resolution approved
June 12 by Southern Baptist Convention delegates — called messengers —
meeting in Houston.
The resolution stopped short of urging Southern Baptist churches to
disassociate from the Boy Scouts of America after the group’s National
Council voted in May to allow gay members.
However, according to the Baptist Press,
the resolution expressed “opposition to and disappointment in the
decision of the Boy Scouts of America to change its membership policy.”
The Southern Baptist Convention agreed to support churches and
families who drop ties with the Boy Scouts.
The resolution also pushed the national Boy Scouts organization “to
remove from executive and board leadership the individuals who earlier
sought to allow gays as both members and leaders without consulting the
many religious groups that sponsor Scout troops.”
After the Boy Scouts of America vote, United Methodist Men leaders also criticized the organization for not consulting its Religious Relationships Task Force but did not call for the removal of any leaders.
Agency leaders also noted their continued support for Boy Scouts. The membership policy change takes effect Jan. 1, 2014.
United Methodist support
United Methodists have had varied reactions to Boy Scouts’ decision on May 23 to admit gay members but not gay leaders. For some the change goes too far, and for some, not far enough.
Larry Coppock, national director of Scouting ministries for United
Methodist Men, said he knows of individual United Methodists who have
left Scouting as a result of the group’s vote, but so far he knows of
no United Methodist congregations discontinuing their charters.
Of United Methodist Men’s 212 Scouting ministry specialists in May,
only two have resigned their position as a result of the decision, he
said.
“We’re moving on, and I think that’s the general attitude,” Coppock
told United Methodist News Service. “We’re here to serve youth.”
The United Methodist Book of Discipline,
the denomination’s law book, identifies homosexuality as “incompatible
with Christian teaching” but also commits the church “to be in
ministry for and with all persons.”
The Boy Scouts of America said in a statement after the Southern
Baptist Convention’s vote that its “youth member policy is not about
the BSA condoning homosexuality, or forcing its chartered organizations
to do the same.”
“This change allows Scouting to be more compassionate in its
response to a young person who expresses a same-sex attraction, but is
not engaging in sexual activity, by no longer calling for their
automatic removal from the program,” said the statement from Deron
Smith, the group’s spokesman.
“Scouting’s policy prohibits any sexual conduct, whether homosexual
or heterosexual, by youth of Scouting age and requires all members to
demonstrate behavior that exemplifies the highest level of good conduct
and respect for others.”
Coppock has sent a letter to United Methodist scouting leaders and
United Methodist Men leaders emphasizing this point and urging them to
stick with the organization.
“I can tell you that in my 11 years as a BSA professional scouter,
16 years as director of scouting ministry and several more as a
volunteer, I have never heard of a Scout being removed or expelled from
membership due to ‘sexual actions,’” his letter said.
“That is not allowed in a BSA unit. Nor do I expect it to happen in
the future. If inappropriate actions were to occur, the chartering
church would deal with the individuals in accordance with Safe
Sanctuary and/or BSA Youth Protection policies.”
He told United Methodist News Service he sees Boy Scouts as an important tool for evangelism.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan. —
one of the largest United Methodist congregations in the United States —
is one example of a church that plans to continue its commitment to
Scouting. The church hosts a Cub Scout pack, a Boy Scout troop and a co-ed troop for adolescents and young adults with special needs.
“Scouting ministry is important to our church,” said Dan Entwistle,
the church’s managing executive director for programs and ministries.
“We’ve discussed the Boy Scout’s recent policy change and have no
plans to discontinue our sponsored Scouting units. In fact, the new
policy of the Boy Scouts more closely resembles our church’s existing
practice of welcoming the participation of every child and teenager in
our church’s ministries.”
Boys Scouts and religious groups
More than 70 percent of Scout units are chartered to religiously affiliated groups, reports Boy Scouts of America. Those charters comprise 62 percent of the group’s 2.7 million youth members.
The United Methodist Church is second only to the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints in the number of congregations that host
Boy Scouts of America groups. The United Methodist Church hosts more
Cub Scout packs than any other religious group.
“The United Methodist Church is the second largest sponsor of the
Boy Scouts with 363,876 Scouts in 10,868 units chartered by 6,700
churches,” Coppock said. “I would love to see those numbers increase.
Scouting remains one of the finest youth-serving agencies in America
and it will continue to serve as a positive influence on boys and young
men.”
The Southern Baptist Convention, while the largest Protestant
denomination in the United States, trails the Mormons, United
Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans and Presbyterians in chartering Boy
Scout of America groups. Baptists charter 3,981 such groups.
The Southern Baptist resolution approved June 12 asked its churches
that choose to sever ties to Boy Scouts of America to “consider
expanding their Royal Ambassadors ministry.” Royal Ambassadors
is a Baptist discipleship organization for first- through sixth-grade
boys founded in 1908, two years before Boy Scouts of America.
The United Methodist Book of Discipline says “Civic
youth-serving agencies and scouting ministries offer another setting
for ministry to children, youth, their leaders and their families.”
The book lists Boy Scouts of America among the civic youth-serving
organizations the denomination supports. United Methodist Men also
promote Girl Scouts of the USA, Big Brothers Big Sisters Amachi
Partnership, Camp Fire USA and 4-H.
To change that list would require action by General Conference, the
denomination’s top lawmaking body, which next meets in 2016.
*Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Heather Hahn, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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