Bryan Fischer of the Christian
conservative American Family Association (AFA) is worried that by
allowing openly gay scouts and leaders the Boy Scouts of America
(BSA) will make the term “morally straight” meaningless.
The BSA's national board will consider
ending its national 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.)
On his Focal Point radio show,
Fischer said that without the ban the organization's pledge, in which
Scouts vow to remain “physically strong, mentally awake and morally
straight” – will need to change.
“Even homosexuals refer to us as
'straights,'” Fischer
explained to a caller. “Because we're straight. We're not
crooked, we're not bent, we're not twisted, we're not perverse, we're
straight. I mean, the opposite of straight is bent, twisted,
crooked, perverse. So the term [morally straight] is going to be
meaningless now.” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
Other conservatives who have criticized
the proposal include Richard Land, who described the
ban as a “core value” of scouting, and Rick Santorum, who
said the
Boy Scouts may not survive if the ban is lifted.