May 7, 2013

Scouts' gay ban offensive to some religions

We keep hearing that the "religious right" is offended by the idea of the Boy Scouts removing their ban on gay members and leaders. Today, Frank Bruni tells the other side of the story in a column at the NYT.
“From my faith perspective, singling people out for exclusion from the life of the church or the life of the community cannot possibly be part of God’s plan,” Ward [a Scout leader and elder in his Presbyterian church] told me on the phone recently.

He added, “If you look at the people Jesus tended to be most suspicious of, they were people who sat in positions of authority to say that they had the unique ability to judge others.” 
It's an interesting take on the situation. And it's a viewpoint we never read about in the news. Short version of Bruni's column: some religions are not obsessively focused on hating gay people. And since the Scouts’ bylaws "require equal treatment of every religion’s teachings", something is very wrong here.

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