Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel released a statement yesterday urging churches to cut ties with the Boy Scouts of America, claiming that the group’s acceptance of gay members jeopardizes “the safety of their young boys,” and encouraging churches to instead partner with a group, Trail Life USA, that was explicitly created to discriminate against gay people:
“The once great Boy Scouts of America has taken a great fall when it changes the longstanding policy to allow homosexual scout leaders and members. This change in policy is fraught with danger. While there are ways for churches to protect their integrity and the safety of their young boys, the best alternative is to abandon the scouts because the scouts abandoned them. Trail Life USA is the best alternative to the failed BSA program,” said Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver. “Liberty Counsel will continue to defend the right of churches to make employment and volunteer decisions based on church religious beliefs and the teachings of the Bible,” said Staver.
Staver, a longtime anti-gay activist who received national attention for representing Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in her quest to deny marriage licenses to gay people, urged people to leave the Scouts last year because the group’s gay members would sexually abuse children and turn the organization into “a playground for pedophiles.”
