Coalition lobbies against gay scoutmasters
Religious groups file joint legal brief as justices prepare to review NJ case

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON - A coalition of religious groups from Roman Catholics to Orthodox Jews to Mormons to Southern Baptists has sent a clear message to the Supreme Court: Don't force the Boy Scouts of America to accept gays as scoutmasters.

When the justices convene Wednesday to review a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that said the Boy Scouts cannot ban gays and lesbians, the legal arguments will center on questions dealing with civil rights and freedom of speech and association.

James Dale, a 29-year-old gay activist barred from a New Jersey Boy Scouts troop in 1990, will argue through attorneys that the Irving-based Boy Scouts of America is a public organization that may not discriminate based on sexual orientation. Attorneys for the Scouts maintain that the organization is private and entitled under the First Amendment to establish its own membership rules and code of behavior.

But for many churches and synagogues that sponsor Boy Scouts troops and believe that homosexuality is immoral and wrong, the issue is being cast in religious terms.

"Any attempt by the government to regulate scoutmaster selection decisions in the more than 60 percent of the scouting units sponsored by religious organizations would interfere directly with the right of churches and synagogues to govern their own ecclesiastical affairs," the groups said in a legal brief filed in the case.

These groups, which view scouting as a vehicle for "youth ministry" and pick scout leaders who conform with their values and religious principles, include the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the National Council of Young Israel and the General Commission on United Methodist Men of the United Methodist Church.

The U.S. Catholic Conference, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Agudath Israel of America and several groups from the religious right such as Focus on the Family have taken a similar position, arguing in other friend-of-the-court briefs that the New Jersey decision places them in a wholly untenable situation.

"Unless the decision is reversed, not only the Boy Scouts of America, but churches, synagogues and other religious sponsors will be forced to provide tacit approval of scout leaders whose conduct they find religiously and morally objectionable," said a legal brief filed by the U.S. Catholic Conference.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one of the largest single sponsors of scouting in the United States with almost 400,000 members, said it would "withdraw from scouting if it were compelled to accept openly homosexual scout leaders."

Not all in the religious community, however, hold that viewpoint.

The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, the Diocesean Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark and deans of several divinity schools and rabbinical institutions have filed legal briefs supporting the right of gays to be scout leaders.

Evan Wolfson, the attorney for Mr. Dale, said the religious arguments are an effort to "muddy the waters" and do not reflect the Boy Scouts history as "a nonsectarian, pluralistic organization" that is open to all boys.

He said Boy Scouts troops are sponsored by civic organizations and public institutions, and use public facilities like schools, firehouses and police stations.

"An organization as vast, non-selective and entwined with government as the Boy Scouts of America cannot claim the freedom of intimate association to shield itself from the laws against discrimination," Mr. Wolfson said.

George Davidson, the attorney for the Boy Scouts, said the New Jersey Supreme Court decision now being challenged would "force scouting to appoint openly gay leaders."

In its unanimous decision last year, the New Jersey court ruled that the Boy Scouts are a place of "public accommodation and are therefore bound by the state's anti-discrimination law."

Mr. Dale, now living in New York City, was expelled by scout officials in 1990 after they learned from a newspaper that he was gay and co-president of the Rutgers University Lesbian/Gay Alliance. He sued in 1992, losing in the trial court but then winning on appeal.

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