Boy Scouts and Unitarian Universalists Reunite

Two groups, both with historical ties to Christianity, have unified over their liberal pro-LGBTQ platform. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) officially reestablished ties on March 24. The move came nearly two decades after the organizations had a slow-motion falling out that culminated in the late 1990s.

UUA once took issue with the BSA’s policy of not permitting individuals identifying as LGBTQ or atheist to join its ranks, which led to the schism. The Boy Scouts have since reneged on this position. They decided to allow openly LGBTQ scouts to join in 2013 and LGBTQ leaders to serve in July 2015. This liberalization brought the BSA into line with UUA tradition and opened the door for the agreement signed last week.

The agreement stated that “all member congregations of the UUA” were allowed to host Boy Scout chapters. The documented noted how the UUA and BSA were aligned on sexual identity issues: “no youth may be denied membership in the BSA on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone,” while “the UUA has a long history of support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.”

“Thanks to the tireless efforts of LGBTQ advocates—many who are Unitarian Universalists—we have seen an enormous shift in support for equal rights for LGBTQ people,” UUA President Rev. Peter Morales said in a subsequent statement. He lauded the the Boy Scouts for “revising their policies to reflect those societal shifts.”

“After this welcome change on the part of the BSA, and through many deep conversations with Unitarian Universalist leaders, it became clear that a new agreement between the UUA and the BSA would benefit both organizations,” Morales said.

He concluded that it was “gratifying to have restored a relationship that was broken, and I look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the UUA and the BSA.”

This declaration of unity differed dramatically in tenor from controversy that once embroiled the UUA and BSA. After years of strife beginning in the 1980s, the organization “effectively excommunicated” the UUA in 1998, as the Chicago Tribune described it. Its leadership reportedly told the UUA that “youth may not be awarded a Unitarian Universalist religious emblem in Scouting or wear the emblem on a Scout uniform.”

In hindsight, observers can now consider the BSA’s so-called excommunication of the UUA as a complete failure. Not only did the move fail to inspire any meaningful change in the UUA, the present-day BSA would be forced to ban itself under its previous standards.

Furthermore, the BSA’s membership decline has accelerated since liberalizing on sexuality. Membership fell 6 percent in 2013 and 7.4 percent in 2014, “continuing a decade-long decline for one of the nation’s oldest youth organizations,” AP reported last year. The organization has yet to release its 2015 annual report, but based on initial data, membership fell from approximately 2.4 million to approximately 2.3 million members.

Allying with the UUA will likely accomplish little in stopping these loses. With fewer than 200,000 members, the religious group has never gained mainstream relevance. Granted, the UUA has more members than it did in the 1980s and 1990s. But it has never matched, much less exceeded, its peak membership in the late 1960s. Its member rolls now include a significantly smaller proportion of the U.S. population.

Decreased support for the BSA among other religious groups outweighs any possible gain from uniting with the UUA. Some denominations, like the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, have cut ties with the the group entirely. Other Christians, ranging from Roman Catholics to Evangelicals, have begun exploring involvement with other scouting organizations.

As the BSA isolates itself from the most vibrant strains of Christianity, it is little wonder that the group’s membership numbers mirror the declines of Mainline Protestantism. Once again the BSA has demonstrated the irony that caving in to cultural norms on sexuality leads to cultural irrelevance.

Groups that embrace a Judeo-Christian worldview, like the BSA once did, should take heed. Such organizations must be prepared to stand firm on their beliefs (particularly regarding sexual ethics) for the long haul. Otherwise, they will morph into ideological clones of their opponents, equally devoid of vibrancy.