Mormon Dad Chokes Up With Sadness After Admitting His ‘Deep Thinker’ Boy Scout Son Doesn’t Hate Gays

Listen to this Mormon dad get all choked up when he admits to NPR his boy scout son, whom he calls a “deep thinker,” doesn’t hate gay people.

Many parents love passing down knowledge, traditions, and beliefs to their children. Perhaps it’s a love of baseball, or football. For some, maybe reading, or a desire to give back to the community. Or, for some, hating gay people enough to not want them near your kids.

Raw Story’s David Ferguson yesterday introduced us to Quin Monson, a Mormon father who used to be a boy scout. His son, too, is a boy scout. Monson told NPR that the belief systems of the Boy Scouts of America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were aligned so perfectly a century ago that the Church essentially adopted Scouting. 

“Basically, if you are a young Mormon male, you join the Boy Scouts,” Monson said. “In some senses, it’s hard to tell the two apart.”

But now that the Boy Scouts have elected to allow gay adult Scout leaders, the Mormon church is strongly considering divorcing itself from the Boy Scouts – even though the BSA’s new rule wholly allows each Scout troop to make the decision on gay adult Scout leaders for itself. In other words, they can still ban gay adult leaders if they wish.

“The BSA statement allows for leaders who are openly gay and what that means in practice is, I don’t think, exactly clear,” Monson says, despite the fact that it’s glaringly clear.

“But I think that it very well could conflict with the church’s own policy which is, ‘You can identify as gay and be an active, faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.’ The problem is acting on that same-sex attraction, so there’s a distinction between actions and orientation.”

Disappointed and sad, Monson actually choked up when he admitted to NPR that his own son just doesn’t see what the problem is, that he doesn’t share his father’s feelings about gay people.

“He’s a pretty deep thinker, and a thoughtful kid, but his reaction was, ‘Well, I don’t see why it matters, dad. Why is this such a big deal?'” Monson explained.

“That’s the hard part about all of this is that it impacts a group of young men who don’t necessarily understand why,” Monson, finding it difficult to speak, said.

Listen to the four-minute interview above.

 

Image by scottlum via Flickr and a CC license