Australian Girl Guides drop reference to Queen and god in pledge

[AZMike]

"Doing nothing, means continual drops in numbers as the country goes to 80% being afraid on homosexuals in the 1990 to today it being 50/50, to tomorrow it swinging to 80% in favor of equal rights..

 

Even Republican politician are starting to acknowledge they picked the wrong side of the fight, some have voiced it, others don't want to discuss the issue."

 

Maybe so, maybe no.

 

Traditional church denominations that have changed their orthodox teachings to allow for gay marriage and gay ordination have not experienced a sudden rise in membership due to public appreciation for their new doctrine. In fact, quite the opposite, as members vote with their feet. Some churches are closing down because of it:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/douthat-can-liberal-christianity-be-saved.html?_r=2&hp

 

http://www.twincities.com/stpaul/ci_20975779/pastor-whose-congregation-dwindled-after-supporting-gay-marriage

 

Although these are religious denominations, the lessons these churches are learning probably would be applicable to a gay/atheist friendly BSA.

 

Before we go making radical changes in the BSA program and identity to accommodate the fewer than 5% of Americans who self-identify as gay or the 8% who don't believe in God or a universal spirit (of whom an even smaller number of each group can be considered likely to have a driving desire to have their son join scouts, or to volunteer as a scout leader), we might choose to consider whether the detrimental effects on membership and recruitment would be worth the result.

[AZMike]

"Gays???... I have heard in recent news preists giving sermans about "slapping your sons if he shows any feminine signs.. Or taking all gays to someplace and fencing them in, so they can not reproduce and will die off.."(as if gays begetting gays is where homosexuality comes from)."

 

Moosetracker, can I ask you for a source on this story? A priest is one who offers a sacrifice in a sacred ritual, and so generally is used only by Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Anglicans. Most Protestants who don't claim to celebrate a form of the Eucharist use the terms Minister, Pastor, Reverend, Preacher, etc. It sounds unlikely that a Catholic priest would say such a thing, as they teach in the Catechism that the individual should be loved and treated with compassion while the sin itself is abjured. The Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Anglicans now welcome gay members and tend to support gay marriage (at least in Europe and North America) so this story sounds a little unlikely.

 

 

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

The "fencing in gays" remark was by Pastor Charles Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church:

[moosetracker]

Thanks Merlyn saved me one look-up..

 

My use of the word "preist" was not because I was stating "Catholic" just someone of the cloth that get up and preaches on Sunday.. I was just making a statement from what I remember having read in the past..

 

The other statement seems to be Baptist. It has a nice audio of that part of the serman at the bottome of the article, if you would like to hear it..

 

http://www.advocate.com/society/religion/2012/05/01/north-carolina-pastor-advocates-punching-gay-acting-children

 

 

[NJCubScouter]

Interesting video, Merlyn. I wonder if this guy realizes that he is advocating putting people in concentration camps, or if he is just so much of an extremist that he really doesn't know the meaning of what he is saying. Among other things, how someone could call themselves an American and say what he is saying, is beyond me.

[packsaddle]

Why does it always seem to associate with the South? We trade on our basic wretchedness enough already - I wish some of the loonies in other regions would take some of the limelight...North Carolina - it figures.