Southern Baptists Condemn Boy Scouts but Don’t Sever Ties
June 13, 2013 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Southern Baptist Convention, which represents the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, adopted a resolution Wednesday condemning the Boy Scouts of America for lifting a ban on openly gay members but stopped short of calling on its churches to boycott the Scouts, USA Today and MSNBC write.
The resolution, approved at the convention’s annual meeting in Houston, calls for the removal of Boy Scouts board members and officials who support greater involvement for gays.
The resolution does not explicitly call on member churches to cut ties with the Boy Scouts, as some prominent Baptist leaders had urged, but it does recommend that churches consider Southern Baptist-backed youth group the Royal Ambassadors as an alternative. Southern Baptist churches sponsor nearly 4,000 Boy Scouts troops nationwide.
