Methodist panel chides Scouts on gays

By Frank J. Murray
The Washington Times

October 13, 1999

A policy board of the United Methodist Church, which sponsors 11,738 Boy Scout troops, has condemned scouting's ban on homosexuals and implied the church may sever all ties.

Sunday's vote by the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church -- a denomination that bans "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" as clergy and punishes ministers who perform same-sex "marriages" -- widened an internal schism.

The policy statement noted that "only the General Conference speaks for the entire denomination." That world conference meets every four years and a church official predicted yesterday the policy statement would force a vote at the next one, set for Cleveland in May.

A Boy Scouts of America (BSA) spokesman noted that other Methodist leaders were working to boost its troops to 37,000 and said the organization expects the relationship will survive.

"We hope that we could continue the relationship with the United Methodist Church. From what we hear from the current members, we're looking forward to it," Gregg Shields said yesterday.

The Methodists' General Board also announced it will support the legal position of Lambda Legal Defense Fund in opposing the Boy Scouts of America's appeal to the Supreme Court. The case involves an Aug. 4 ruling by New Jersey's high court that Scouting is a "public accommodation" that must be open to all, like a hotel or restaurant.

The BSA is backed in its appeal by the Nashville, Tenn.-based Commission on United Methodist Men, whose status within the denomination is nominally equal to the General Board, a church official said.

The men's commission, which handles the church's scouting involvement, is supporting discrimination in violation of church law, the board's general secretary charged yesterday.

"I believe the implication of the members voting on this would cause the men's commission to look again at their support of discrimination against a certain group of people," the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett said.

"The United Methodist Church . . . strongly condemns discrimination based on sexual orientation," said the board's formal statement. "We further, for the sake of our continuing partnership, call upon the Boy Scouts of America to discontinue this exclusion of gays."

The statement was approved 2-1 by the 60-member board, Mr. Fassett said.

He said the board action follows the social principle that any discrimination "is inappropriate in the context of United Methodist practice."

Asked how that squared with church policy against admitting homosexuals to the clergy, he said, "The prohibition in the United Methodist context is based on the issues of sacred union, but not on issues of civil and human rights."

He added the policy is not rigid. "The operative word in the United Methodist context is 'practicing.' It's generally acknowledged that there are gays and lesbians in leadership roles," he said.

Methodist Church-sponsored Scout troops had a total membership of 421,579 and represented 13 percent of the nation's Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts as of Dec. 31. That was up from 417,866 in 1997 and 407,243 in 1996.

The Rev. Joseph L. Harris, who heads the men's commission, told The Times in August the church planned to triple its support for scouting by starting a troop in every one of its 37,000 congregations.

"No one's forced to be a Boy Scout," Mr. Shields said. "We've got great support from many in the men's commission, which came out in vociferous support of us, and we have support on an individual basis, not only because they are one of the largest chartering organizations, but because they are growing."

Mr. Fassett said prospects to grow could depend on how the commission and Scouts respond to the general board, whom he called "trustees of the social principles of the United Methodist Church" in carrying out Christian social action.

© 1999 The Washington Times

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