Key churches support Scouts’ policy on gays

After Boy Scout leaders took their long-awaited vote in late May to permit openly gay boys to be members, some church leaders predicted there will be a swift exodus of church groups from the Scouting organization.

“We believe that the BSA policy change will lead to a mass exodus from the Boy Scout program,” the Assemblies of God denomination declared minutes after 61 percent of 1,400 delegates to the Boy Scouts of America meeting voted May 23 to change the policy.

In balloting that was seen as a potential watershed in the culture wars, not even the compromise resolution worked out months earlier by the BSA, which allows gays to be Scouts but bars gays from serving as Scout leaders, appeared to satisfy evangelical church leaders.