Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWaters
The church is falling in line.
Now it remains to be seen if the conservative members of the church will also fall in line.
The ones who have intimated in the hallways that the church will have to leave BSA if gays are let in.
The ones who don't want to send their boys to summer camp because their could be gays there. And the like.
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I have a little insider perspective on this at least from the national BSA side since I worked in the PR and marketing office there. I got hired in 2002 just a few months after they won the supreme court case. We had to be trained on how to respond to the high volume of phone calls we were getting from BSA members and non-BSA folks at the time. I do believe the BSA tried to handle it as professionally and sensitively as they could, but they were in a tough spot. I know for a fact that at least in the BSA offices that they believed the church (and probably the Catholics and Baptists) was going to leave if they didn't fight to uphold the ban on gay leaders. That was pretty scary because it would have represented about a third of their membership between those three combined. Whether that would have really happened or not, I don't know, but I do know the BSA acted as though they believed it.
Also, I think it's fair to point out that at least from the BSA's side, it was never about keeping out gay kids. To my knowledge, not a single kid was ever kicked out over it. But a couple of years ago they just made it official that gay youth were allowed. The church didn't stand opposed then, which I think is what helped lead up to this.