Catholic, Mormon Church Official Policy Now Supports Gay Youth In Boy Scouts — Holdouts Persist
Not All Christian Faiths, Or All Catholic Churches, Are Following
Despite years of opposition to the inclusion of gay youth in the Boy Scouts, the Mormon Church and now the Catholic Church have stated publicly that the BSA’s new policy is acceptable and are urging their members to continue to support Scouting.
LOOK: Anti-Gay ‘Pro-Family’ Group: All Churches Must ‘Pull Out’ Of Boy Scouts
The Mormon Church immediately issued a statement after the Scouts voted to allow openly-gay male youth into Scouting, and to not remove any openly-gay youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone.
A few days ago the Catholic Church joined with the LDS, stating gay Scouts are “not in conflict with Catholic teaching,” as the National Catholic Reporter notes:
“Scouting is still the best youth-serving program available to all youth,” Edward Martin, chairman of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, wrote in a May 29 letter addressed to “fellow Catholic Scouters.”
“We should be encouraged that the change in BSA’s youth membership standard is not in conflict with Catholic teaching,” Martin said, asking that “Catholic Scouters and chartered organization heads not rush to judgment.”
Martin said that despite some concerns, the NCCS had taken a neutral stance on a resolution adopted on May 23 by the BSA’s National Council.
Although officially the Catholic Church has accepted the Scouts’ decision, all Catholic churches are not obligated to comply. One Catholic church in Chicago is dropping its scouting program.
“A Roman Catholic church in Crystal Lake will no longer sponsor a local Boy Scout troop because of the Scouts’ new acceptance of gay members,” the Chicago Tribune reports:
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church notified local Scout officials by mail last week that the Cub Scout pack and Boy Scout troop it chartered will have to find a new meeting place.
The Rev. Brian Grady wrote that the Boy Scouts are “condoning” homosexuality, which the church opposes.
“For a young boy to (have to) share a tent or be exposed to other boys who are openly homosexual is not only unjust, but immoral,” Grady wrote. “As a former Boy Scout, I know how uncomfortable it would have been to have to be in close proximity with boys that would perhaps be looking at me as more than just a friend.”
Grady said he was saddened to be “forced to make this decision.” In an interview, he said: “We welcome those individuals … but we also recognize certain actions are not to be encouraged.”
Troop 550 Scoutmaster Charlie Payseur said he and his assistant leaders were “livid” about the move. Grady has been very hospitable, Payseur said, but had not discussed the issue with them.
“It has never been an issue, nor would I turn a Scout away,” Payseur said. “I treat everyone the same. It’s bothering me that people can’t just accept people for who they are.”
The Boy Scout troop and Cub Scout pack, which each have about 10 members, use the church for thrice-monthly meetings and annual banquets. The Scouts did not pay rent, but donated about $200 from fundraising last year, and did gardening on the grounds, Payseur said. An Eagle Scout built a brick sidewalk and repaired a patio for the church.
Payseur said he will try to find a new home for the troop that would not be affected by religious views.
In general, the Boy Scouts have strong ties to religious groups, who charter about 70 percent of the Scouts’ 100,000 units.
And neither are all Christian faiths signaling acceptance.
“The Methodists’ reaction was a bit tamer, saying that they weren’t consulted sufficiently but were still staying in scouting,” the Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein writes today:
But the slope between affirming the total equality of a gay boy and then asserting the lesser status of a gay man is clearly slippery to some. Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the largest groups of Scouts, said after the vote that a resolution urging Baptist-run troops to leave the Boy Scouts will pass easily at its convention next week.
“With this policy change, the Boy Scouts’ values are contradictory to the basic values of our local churches,†spokesman Roger Oldham told CNN.
Image via Facebook
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Related:
Fischer: Mormon Church Believes Gay Boy Scouts Will Bring Back Polygamy
Obama ‘Welcomes’ Boy Scouts Decision But Says Leadership Should Be Open To Gays Too
NOM: Accepting Gay Youth Is The ‘Beginning Of The End’ For The Boy Scouts
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President Donald Trump is promising mass pardons to White House staff, and has done so repeatedly, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” Trump said in a recent meeting, to laughs, the Journal reported, citing people familiar.
“That radius,” the Journal added, “appears to be expanding as the president repeats the line. Another person who met with Trump earlier this year said the president quipped about pardoning anyone who had come within 10 feet.”
Trump at one point said he would hold a news conference to announce the mass pardons.
“The president has repeatedly raised the specter of pardons with White House aides and other administration officials, particularly when staff have suggested they could face prosecution or congressional investigations over decisions, people familiar with the comments said,” the Journal reported.
The Journal did not state if the pardons would be blanket pardons, but reported that those familiar with his remarks “said they weren’t aware of specific pardons being offered to specific people for specific acts.”
READ MORE: White House Fires Back After President’s Doctor Is Asked to Test Trump’s Mental Fitness
The report also noted that Trump has often seriously pursued actions he initially had joked about.
“It seems like he previewed many times his intent to use the pardon power to bail out those who carry out his agenda faithfully,” Liz Oyer, a former Trump Justice Department pardon attorney told the Journal. She also “said the offers could spur Cabinet officials and administration officials to behave more aggressively.”
While Trump did not pardon White House or other officials in conjunction with the events of January 6, 2021, on his first day back in office he did issue sweeping pardons to roughly 1,500 of those who were at the Capitol that day and later arrested.
READ MORE: ‘Only Reason They Are Alive’: Trump Again Threatens Iran in Unhinged Truth Social Post
Image via Reuters
The White House is fighting back after a prominent House Democrat demanded that the Physician to the President test Donald Trump’s mental fitness, citing the president’s recent remarks.
“At a time when our country is at war—especially when the war was initiated by the President without congressional declaration or consent—the American people must be able to trust that the Commander-in-Chief has the mental capacity to discharge the essential duties of his office,” Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin wrote to the President’s Physician, Captain Sean P. Barbabella, D.O., in a letter published by Punchbowl News.
“I therefore request that you conduct a comprehensive cognitive assessment of President Donald Trump, provide those results to Congress, and make yourself available to brief Congress on your findings.”
Congressman Raskin noted that experts “have repeatedly warned that the President has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”
“And, in recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening. His apparently deteriorating condition has caused tremendous alarm across the nation (and political spectrum) about the President’s cognitive function and continuing mental fitness for the office of President, and prompted concerns about the President’s well-being.”
Raskin noted that during the Biden presidency, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called President Biden’s mental acuity “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history,” and subpoenaed the White House Physician.
He also noted that during that time, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan declared that a president who is not cognitively fit, “isn’t fit for office.”
Raskin offered some examples, including Trump’s recent message to Iran, which the Congressman described as combining “vulgarity and profanity, unprecedented threats of mass civilian destruction, and a sarcastic invocation of Islam on Easter morning—a bizarre display that shocked tens of millions of Americans and astonished observers across the political spectrum.”
Trump had written: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——’ Strait, you crazy b——, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
The New York Times had described Trump’s remarks as a “blistering threat” that “would have stood out on any day, much less on what most Christians consider the holiest day of the year.”
Raskin is insisting that Dr. Barbabella conduct “a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of the President, including a formal cognitive screening instrument, and publicly release the results.”
Also, it asks him to provide “a detailed report on the President’s current mental and physical health status, including any medications he is currently taking and their potential,” and make himself available for a briefing under oath.
The White House wasted no time in responding, telling Courthouse News’ Benjamin S. Weiss: “Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person.”
“President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people,” the White House added.
Image via Reuters
Ahead of diplomatic talks starting Saturday, President Donald Trump once again threatened Iran with violence as critics charge his tenuous cease-fire has fallen apart.
“As Vice President JD Vance was heading to Pakistan on Friday for peace talks with Iran, a senior Iranian official laid out new conditions for the negotiations, adding even more uncertainty about the durability of the cease-fire and whether the two sides could reach a long-term deal,” The New York Times reports, noting that President Trump “warned Tehran not to overplay its hand.”
“The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short term extortion of the World by using International Waterways,” the President wrote on Truth Social.
“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” he declared.
His remarks seemed to echo his highly-criticized comments earlier this week:
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
On April 1, Trump wrote, “we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
Some ridiculed the president.
“Completely controlling the Strait of Hormuz and charging ships a $2 million toll to pass through seem to be a couple of pretty good cards,” noted attorney Adam Cohen.
Reason’s Matthew Petti added, “You might say that Iran’s only cards are…a strait flush.”
Image via Reuters
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