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 About 70 percent of the roughly 100,000 U.S. Boy Scout units are
sponsored by religious institutions, and many said the Monday
decision runs counter to the moral standards set by the 105-year-old
youth organization.
"We express consummate sadness that this once vibrant organization
continues to cave to social pressure, compromising its long-held,
constitutionally protected tenets," said Roger “Sing” Oldham, a
spokesman for the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention.
Even though the decision permits religious organizations to exclude
gay adults in keeping with their beliefs, other major conservative
church groups also criticized the change, which took effect with the
vote Monday by the National Executive Board.
The largest sponsor of Boy Scout units, the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, has said it was "deeply troubled" by the move,
adding the Mormons' "century-long association with Scouting will
need to be examined."
 The Catholic Church, another leading sponsor of troops, on Tuesday
said in a statement it was concerned with the “practical
implications” of allowing gay leaders but remains committed to its
relationship with the Irving, Texas-based Scouts.
The policy, backed by 79 percent of board members, removes a
prohibition on gay adult leaders, but allows religious groups to bar
them.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, called for the
Scouts to drop the opt-out religious exemption and become fully
non-discriminatory.
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"Including an exemption for troops sponsored by religious
organizations undermines and diminishes the historic nature of (the)
decision,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights
Campaign.
The Boy Scouts' president, former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert
Gates, called for the change in May, saying continuation of the
blanket ban on gay Scout leaders was "unsustainable".
Gates helped end the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that
barred openly gay individuals from serving.
Earlier, corporate sponsors such as Lockheed Martin and Intel
dropped funding for the organization to protest policies considered
discriminatory.
Membership in the Boy Scouts has been steadily declining over the
past decade, but the 2013 decision to allow gay youth contributed to
a steeper drop of 7.4 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to
organization figures.
(Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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