It's Not Only Gays :: Mormons Denied Leadership Role in Scout Troop

A gay Texas father who had helped out with his 9-year-old son's Cub Scout troop by running a yearly fundraiser learned last week that he was being stripped of the right to wear the Scouts shirt or to serve in any leadership capacity, following a complaint about his being gay.

"What message does that send to my son?" asked Jon Langbert. "It says I'm a second-class citizen." Langbert added that he was incensed at the fact that the group is allowed to use space at his son's public school building. "My tax dollars are paying for their discrimination," Langbert told the media. "And the next gay dad who wants to come along can't." Added Langbert, "My position is that the school cannot allow the use of their facilities to an organization that discriminates." Even so, Langbert plans to continue running the fundraiser--a capacity that the Scouts says is okay since it does not entail leadership responsibilities.

An Oct. 15 article in local weekly newspaper Park Cities People noted that Langbert had increased the success of the yearly fundraiser in 2009, the first year he took it over, to $13,000 from the 2008 tally of $4,000.

The Scouting organization to which Langbert's son's Scout pack belongs cast the issue as one of respecting differing points of view, reported the Dallas Morning News on Oct. 19. "Our policy is not meant to serve as social commentary outside the Scout program," the Circle 10 Council's Pat Currie said. "We respect people who have a different opinion from us. We just hope those same people will respect our right to have a different opinion."

The Boy Scouts of America bars active membership or leadership status to gays, as well as to atheists and agnostics. As a private organization, the Scouts has the right to restrict membership as it sees fit--a right that was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2000.

But restrictions on who may serve as Scout leaders seem to extend beyond gays, atheists, and agnostics to religious traditions that are not deemed to be Christian. A Raleigh, NC, couple whose sons joined a Cub Scouts pack hosted by a Presbyterian church were initially accepted as Scout leaders--but then told that although their sons were welcome to stay in the pack, the parents themselves would not be allowed to serve as pack leaders because they are Mormons.

Jeremy and Jodi Stokes' faith is not considered to be a truly Christian denomination, an Oct. 19 Associate Press story reported. Said the boys' mother, Jodi Stokes, "I can't believe they had the audacity to say, 'You can't be leaders but we want your boys.' Are you kidding me? Do you really think I'd let my boys go there now?"

The episode has led Christ Covenant church to contemplate how it might "assure that our parameters for leaders are clearly defined and well-communicated to volunteers and those interested in leadership roles for church sponsored programs such as the Boy Scouts," according to church spokesperson Stelle Snyder, the AP reported. An e-mail from Snyder also offered "a link to a site explaining the differences between Mormon and historical Christian doctrine," the AP story said.

"We had bought the uniforms, we had gone to two meetings, they had played with the other kids," said Jodi Stokes. "And then my sons are saying, 'Mommy, why can't we go back there?' "

A Wikipedia article on the Boy Scouts of America notes that apart from the requirement that Scouts and adult leaders be religious in some capacity, the organization itself does not discriminate on the basis of religious faith. "The BSA believes that atheists and agnostics are not appropriate role models of the Scout Oath and Law for boys, and thus will not accept such adults as leaders," the Wikipedia article states. "The BSA does not require adherence to any particular religious beliefs or ethos beyond this," the article goes on to note. "Buddhists, followers of Native American religions, Muslims, Jews, Christians of all denominations, Wiccans, and many others can be and are members of the BSA. The BSA recognizes religious awards for over 38 faith groups including Baha'i, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Hinduism, and 28 varieties of Christianity."

But the rules of the overall organization and the rules set out by individual organizations that host Scout troops may diverge in some respects. Mecklenburg County Council of the Boy Scouts of America executive director Mark Turner told the AP that the church-run Scout pack could turn away prospective leaders due to their religious faiths, and cited as an example of the latitude that individual troops have one Scout pack that only admits boys who are home-schooled. "If you're in the unit for three or four years and your family sends you back to school, you're out of the troop," said Mecklenburg. "That's their niche."

The AP article noted that Mormons adhere to the belief that Jesus is the Savior of humankind. As such, Mormons say that they are Christians. But other faith traditions view Mormons with skepticism, partly because the faith has its own version of scripture, The Book of Mormon.

The Stokes family subsequently enrolled their sons in another troop--one run by a Mormon church.