Thanks to all who made helpful suggestions to my earlier draft, which I posted here. This is official now, with the unananimous support of Diocesean Council, on which I sit. Louie/Quean Lutibelle ======================== Resolution: The Diocese of Newark and the Boy Scouts of America RESOLVED we the Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark ask the Boy Scouts of America to admit to full membership otherwise qualified homosexual persons. RESOLVED we ask all Episcopal congregations in our diocese which now sponsor troops to review the terms of sponsorship and to meet with local Boy Scout councils to explore irenic ways together to end the BSA's national policy of discrimination. We ask priests in charge of sponsoring congregations to file a report of these negotiations with Council no later than our October meeting. RESOLVED we ask the chancellor of the diocese to investigate all legal aspects of the relations between the BSA and sponsors, including but not limited to the following questions: As owners of the troops, sponsors incur what liabilities for damages to the homosexual youth harmed by BSA policy? Does BSA derive its tax-exempt status on its own or vicariously through the sponsors? What formal mechanisms exist within BSA for sponsors to influence BSA policy short of withdrawing sponsorship?.... We ask the chancellor to report his findings to Council at our October meeting. RESOLVED that we ask our bishop to appoint an ad hoc committee of Council to network with all sponsors in our diocese and with the directors of all BSA councils of Northern New Jersey. This committee will review the results of sponsors' reports, will investigate all other relations between the diocese and BSA, and will draft an appropriate resolution for Council to introduce at our 1994 Diocesan Convention. Supporting Information The Boy Scouts of America refuses membership to homosexual persons. Any gay person who takes seriously the vow to tell the truth risks scorn and abuse from the scouting community. This policy potentially contributes to lesbians' and gays' disproportionate share of teen suicides. The BSA claims that it upholds/enforces family/religious/moral values, yet Jesus established the "family value" that it is better that a millstone be hung about our necks and that we be cast to the bottom of the sea than that we should harm one of the least of God's little ones. The Diocese of Newark has already been asked to file an amicus brief on behalf of an Eagle Scout removed when it was discovered that he is gay. The Diocese does not seek to withdraw from the BSA. We support the high ideals of scouting, and we applaud families and individual scouts for their commitment to the scouting program. We want gays in, not the diocese out. The Diocese wants parishes to remain as thoughtful sponsors, insisting on dialog, enabling BSA to disentangle itself from captivity to a bigoted and prejudiced agenda. We honor our calling to leaven the loaf. Submitted by Louie Crew, Member from the South Essex Convocation Passed unaninmously by Council on June 9, 1993 -- ========================================================================== Louie Crew, Academic Foundations Department, Rutgers University, NWK 07102 lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu 201-485-4503 Preferred: P. O. Box 30, Newark, NJ 07101