Richard Land of the Southern Baptist
Convention has described the Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) ban on gay
scouts and leaders as a “core value” of scouting.
The BSA's national board will consider
ending the ban and allowing local chapters to decide the issue at its
regularly scheduled meeting, which began on Monday.
(Related: Boy
Scouts mull ending gay ban.)
Appearing on CNN, Land also suggested
that lifting the ban would lead to pedophilia.
“The Scouts have said for themselves
for over a hundred years that traditional morality is at the core
value of scouting, teaching them to be morally straight,” Land
said. “Homosexuals, by definition, are attracted to people of the
same sex. Now, I'm not accusing homosexuals of being pedophiles, but
I'm accusing homosexuals of being what they say they are: attracted
to males. How many people that are listening to me would allow their
teenage girls to go on campouts and engage in camping activities with
heterosexual males? They wouldn't.”
Lifting the ban would “lead to human
tragedy,” Land said.
“Boy Scouts have the right to define
character, and they define character as being morally straight and
that involves being sexually pure and being a heterosexual.”
(Watch
the segment at CNN.)
(Related: Boy
Scouts receive petition signed by 1.4 million urging end to gay ban.)