wfn.org | United Methodist Church has no position on Scouts issue

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Oct. 27, 1999  News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-28-71B{569}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church does not have an
official position on the issue of whether homosexuals should be allowed to
serve as Boy Scout leaders.

Two official agencies of the United Methodist Church have expressed opposing
viewpoints on the issue, but neither agency is authorized to speak for the
denomination as a whole. The only official body that speaks for the church
is the General Conference, which is convened every four years.

The United Methodist Board of Church and Society is pushing the Boy Scouts
of America to allow homosexuals to serve in leadership positions. The
Commission on United Methodist Men has spoken out in support of the Scouts
being able to set their own guidelines, which currently bar homosexuals from
such roles. 

The disagreement between the two agencies has created a lot of confusion
among the public, according to Mary Lynn Holly, director of the United
Methodist Church's information service, InfoServ, based in Nashville.
Several published news reports have been misleading or blatantly inaccurate
about the issue, she said.

"Our callers are confused by the fact that when this is reported in the
press, it's not clear that the boards and agencies are speaking only for
themselves and not for the denomination as a whole," Holly said. "This comes
from a lack of understanding about how the church works.

"What you need is a short course in United Methodist polity to understand
what has happened," she said. Without that, sorting out the issue can be
difficult, she said.

Unless the General Conference acts in some way on the Boy Scouts issue, the
United Methodist Church has no official position. The next meeting of the
denomination's top legislative body will be May 2-12 in Cleveland. 

The Board of Church and Society, based in Washington, is the denomination's
social action agency. United Methodist Men, based in Nashville, Tenn.,
houses the church's Office of Scouting Ministry.

In August, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts could not
discriminate against a leader who is homosexual because of the state's laws
against discrimination. The court ruled the Scouts are a "place of public
accommodation."  The court also ruled that the Scouts are "public" because
they are chartered by the federal government and receive aid from public
groups such as schools, fire departments and the federal government,
including the military. 

During a Sept.17-19 meeting, governing directors of United Methodist Men
voted to support an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding that ruling.
The men's group said that the Scouts should have the right to set its own
course without government interference.

A year earlier, the United Methodist Men had joined with other religious
groups in filing a friend-of-the-court brief with the New Jersey Supreme
Court.

After the court's ruling, Scouting Ministry Director Larry Coppock said it
was important for the commission to join the appeal. "We are the number one
charter organization of Boy Scouts of America and it is our belief that the
Boy Scouts should be able to select and recruit leadership in accordance
with their guidelines and principles," he said, in an earlier United
Methodist News Service report. 

Governing members of the Board of Church and Society took an opposite
viewpoint at their Oct. 7-10 meeting. "While the General Board of Church and
Society would like to enthusiastically affirm and encourage this continuing
partnership of the church and scouting, we cannot due to the Boy Scouts of
America's discrimination against gays," the board said in a statement. "This
discrimination conflicts with our [church's] Social Principles." 

In the statement, the board quotes references from the Social Principles
that affirm the human rights and civil liberties of homosexual people. The
Social Principles are contained in the denomination's Book of Discipline.
The board statement concluded by affirming the New Jersey court's decision
on James Dale v. Boy Scouts of America and calling upon the Boy Scouts
organization not to discriminate.

Membership in the Boy Scouting organization through local United Methodist
churches total more than 421,000 in 11,738 Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops
and Venture crews.  More than 8,000 United Methodist churches charter at
least one scout unit. 

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United Methodist News Service
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