Los Angeles Punishes Boy Scouts for Standing on Christian Principles
By Fred Jackson and Jim Brown
(AgapePress) – One of the biggest cities in the United States has voted to cut its ties with the Boy Scouts. In a unanimous vote last night, the Los Angeles City Council said it will no longer support the Scouts because of the group’s exclusion of homosexuals and atheists.
Homosexuals violate the Scouting oath to be “morally straight†and the Scouting law to be “clean.†Los Angeles becomes the latest and the largest municipality to attack the Scouts for standing on Christian principles.
Despite a ruling last summer by the U.S. Supreme Court which said the Scouts had the right to set its own moral code for leadership, various municipalities and other organizations across the country have declared war on the Scouts for its policy of not allowing homosexual leaders. In the case of Los Angeles, Reuters News reports a lesbian city councilwoman, Jackie Goldberg, was one of the major backers of the move to cut the city’s ties with the Scouts.
The decision will have immediate and dramatic impact. For example, the Los Angeles Police Department has been given 90 days to dismantle its Explorers unit, a Boy Scouts-affiliated police cadet program for young people, and replace it with an alternative.
In addition, all city departments will be audited to determine what contractual agreements exist with Scouting organizations. And effective immediately, the city will start charging the Scouts to use city parks and recreation areas for camping and other activities.
More than 90 million Americans have joined the Boy Scouts since the organization was founded in 1910. It now has nearly 5 million members between the ages of 11 and 17 and nearly 1.3 million adult leaders.