Religious Society of Friends General Conference FGC Statement on the Boy Scout's of America

http://www.fgcquaker.org/library/fgc-news/scoutingminute.html

Minute on Scouting
From FGC's Central Committee Minutes, November 2000

In the unprogrammed tradition of the Religious Society of Friends we have many examples of Friends individually and collectively laboring with issues, individuals, and organizations with whom we disagree. We are in disagreement with the Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) policy to discriminate in its membership against men and women who are homosexuals. In our experience, many men and women who are homosexual have ministered in leadership roles in all aspects of Friends' religious life, including the care and nurture of our children and youth. Friends believe that God is present and at work in each of us and that through worship and prayer we can know God's work for us. We have expressed this work in our testimonies of peace, equality, and integrity. We affirm that God calls us to love and respect each person regardless of race, of gender, or of sexual orientation or identity (gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered). There is no place in God's creation for discrimination one against another.Living in the occasion of God's love, we are called to continued engagement with the BSA and their policy of membership discrimination within the structure of Friends Committee on Scouting and their representation to the BSA's Religious Relations Committee.

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Central Committee members of the Friends General Conference (FGC), at their annual meeting in September 2000, approved the following minute and encouraged its dissemination more widely among their constituent members. Information about the Friends General Conference and The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) may be obtained on their web page: <www.fgcquaker.org>. Additional information about the Religious Society of Friends may be found at: <www.quaker.org>.

"In the unprogrammed tradition of the Religious Society of Friends we have many examples of Friends individually and
collectively laboring with issues, individuals, and organizations with whom we disagree. We are in disagreement with the Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) policy to discriminate in its membership against men and women who are homosexuals. In our experience, many men and women who are homosexual have ministered in leadership roles in all aspects of Friends' religious life, including the care and nurture of our children and youth.'

"Friends believe that God is present and at work in each of us and that through worship and prayer we can know God's work for us. We have expressed this work in our testimonies of peace, equality, and integrity. We affirm that God calls us to love and respect each person regardless of race, of gender, or of sexual orientation or identity (gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered). There is no place in God's creation for discrimination one against another.'

"Living in the occasion of God's love, we are called to continued engagement with the BSA and their policy of membership discrimination within the structure of Friends Committee on Scouting and their representation to the BSA's Religious Relationships Committee."

Submitted by:
Mitch Richardson and Robert Shaffer, Members, Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee, Friends General Conference
Central Committee. Mitch is also a member of "Scouting for All."