MAJOR CHURCH GROUPS THREATEN BOY SCOUT WALKOUT

WASHINGTON, DC (CWNews.com) - Officials of several major church groups have threatened to sever their ties with the Boy Scouts of America if the US Supreme Court forces the group to allow homosexuals in the ranks of volunteer scoutmasters, according to court briefs filed in the case last week.

A New Jersey man has sued the BSA, alleging illegal discrimination against him under a state law that bans discrimination for sexual preference. James Dale, a former Eagle Scout and assistant scoutmaster, was removed from his post after publicly declaring his homosexuality in a local newspaper. The case has been brought to the high court for review.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, said it would "withdraw from Scouting if it were compelled to accept openly homosexual Scout leaders." The group was joined in the brief by the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, the General Commission on United Methodist Men of the United Methodist Church, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the National Council of Young Israel.

The religious groups, as well as others voicing support for their position, represent the vast majority of Boy Scouts in the US. However, other religious groups have expressed their support for requiring acceptance of openly homosexual scoutmasters, including the Unitarian Universalist Association, the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ Board for Homeland Ministries, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, New Jersey.

Richard Land, director of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that the "the assertion that the state has a 'compelling interest' in protecting the civil rights of those whose sexual preference is homosexual to the exclusion of the constitutional rights of free expression of another's religious convictions ... is almost beyond belief."

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