Several weeks ago, Boy Scouts of America’s leadership made headlines when its members announced that they were considering changes to the organization’s anti-gay policies. However, when the time came to make any changes, the nation’s largest youth organization instead gave in to pressure and delayed a decision until its National Annual Meeting in May. Former Army Captain Jason Torpy, president of the board of Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, has been following the developments around the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay policies – and its ongoing exclusions of atheists and agnostics. He joins Welton this week to discuss how the U.S. military supports the Boy Scouts, a private organization – and why ongoing discrimination means this support needs to end.
A Word from Welton in Response to a Listener
After receiving a listener email reacting strongly to last week’s interview with David Blankenhorn, we tried to respond, but the return email address turned out to be unreachable. So, this week on State of Belief, Welton takes a moment to respond to some of the questions raised regarding building alliances with people of diverse views.