A Jacksonville Boy Scout troop lost its charter Tuesday when First Baptist Church of Gravel Ridge revoked it, becoming the first organization in Arkansas known to revoke a charter since the Boy Scouts of America’s decision last week to accept openly gay Scouts.
Senior Pastor Tim Reed said the decision was a difficult one for the church, but it had been a long time coming. Church leaders have known since February that they would terminate Troop 542’s charter if the Scouts made the national change to accept gay troop members,he said.
Reed said the troop would be falling short on its responsibility to respect the aims of its chartering organization - First Baptist Church - if it accepted openly gay members.
“The Boy Scouts left us,” he said. “They left the promise they made to us.”
More than 850 of 1,400 - or about 61 percent - of the Scouts’ national council delegates voted May 23 to approve the policy change, which will take effect Jan. 1 nationwide. Openly gay troop leaders are still not allowed.
The change comes for the Boy Scouts of America after years of kicking openly gay boys out of troops.
Reed said more than half of Troop 542’s Scout leaders and members had planned to quit the organization anyway if gay members were to be accepted. A 15-year-old Scout was only a few badges away from Eagle status, Reed said.
He said the decision is about principles, not anger.
“We don’t hate anyone,”Reed said. “We don’t ban anyone from our church. But we cannot condone something that God’s words say is sin.”
Reed added that the church is “actively looking” for another organization to charter that is more in line with the church’s views on homosexuality.
“Homosexuality is a choice, not a birthright,” Reed said. “Just like murder is a choice for someone who can’t control their anger.”
Troop 542 is part of the Quapaw Area Council, which includes more than 18,000 boys and covers about halfof Arkansas, including Little Rock. Religious organizations charter about 330 of the 440 Scouting units in the council, Scout Executive John Carman has previously said.
Carman was out of town and unavailable for comment Thursday.
Thursday afternoon, Assistant Scout Executive Terry Sharp said he’d heard that Troop 542 already had another charter and would be meeting next week, although he didn’t have specific details.
“So there’s a silver lining in that story,” he said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 05/31/2013