John Stemberger appeared on Peter LaBarbera’s show Americans For Truth About Homosexuality Radio Hour yesterday to promote his new alternative to the Boy Scouts. Stemberger left the Boy Scouts of America after it voted to lift its ban on openly gay youth, and in a press conference announced that “young men who have same-sex attractions will be permitted into the organization, though they will not be allowed to push a gay agenda or flaunt their sexual orientation. I think that there’s a real difference between someone who has a same-sex attraction and someone who identifies with the gay political movement.”
Seeing that the breakaway group left solely over the issue of homosexuality, Stemberger’s claim that only “someone who identifies with the gay political movement” will be barred from his group may seem perplexing.
But that is until you realize that Stemberger actually believes that anyone who is openly gay and not suppressing or trying to change his sexual orientation is part of the sinister gay agenda.
As he explained to LaBarbera, “if there is a young man who we find out or confesses to a leader, in the context that these are Christian men, that they have a same-sex attraction, we will deal with that as a ministry issue. We will point them to the scripture, point them to the standard of our membership oath and to the scripture and to help them through that.”
“However, we will not tolerate under any circumstances any kind of flaunting, any kind of outward loud and proud nonsense, all of that that encompasses gay activism, the promotion of the gay agenda, will absolutely not be tolerated in the program,” Stemberger said. “That’s a huge difference because the BSA will have that, that’s exactly what they are inviting when they allow open and avowed [gay] youth.”
