Religious groups shape Boy Scouts debate

The decision by the Boy Scouts of America to postpone any change in policy about gay membership was fueled by an “outpouring of feedback.” Much of that reaction came from a sector with strength in numbers: the religious groups that compose the majority of the Scouts’ chartered organizations.

On February 4, two days before the announcement by the BSA, its Religious Relationships Task Force met for a regularly scheduled meeting with an unexpected topic on the agenda: a possible drop of the Scouts’ ban on gay members and leaders.

Larry Coppock, the United Methodist Church’s national director of Scouting ministries, said the group—including Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist representatives—unanimously requested that Scouting executives give them more time to consider the possibility. “There’s a lot of passion around this,” he said. “There’s a lot of differences of opinion.”