Besides, as I understand it we’re basing the “80″ number on what the Boy Scouts of America organization itself is reporting. The leaders of the Boy Scouts of America have demonstrated repeatedly that they’re not all trustworthy.

1912: 23
1922: >2,000
1927: >4,500
1932: >9,200
1933-1938: 7,000 per year
1939: ca. 10,000
mid-1950′s: >14,000
1963: >27,000
1982: 25,573
“today”: >50,000 per year

By 2009, 2,000,000 Eagles.

If they give out 50k a year and only 80 people turned them in…nothing will change any time soon.

Untrue. They receive a great deal of governmental, quasi-governmental, corporate and public support. A small number of Eagle Scouts willing to publicly renounce BSA policies may undermine the BSA’s support base and push resources to non-bigoted groups, which could in turn cause the BSA’s base to overthrow the leadership.

Belief is really all that matters, not facts.  You are talking about a quasi-religious organization.  It doesn’t matter how many scientific studies or popular surveys or anything else you throw at them.  To them being gay is immoral and no one is going to change their minds.  A tiny subset of Eagle Scouts or popular media pieces or even the court of public opinion are not likely to sway a strongly held belief.  It would have to come from within. 

I wouldn’t expect anything for a few dozen years at minimum.  Beliefs like this don’t change fast.  They change with generations.

My question, though, is:  Is it illegal for them to exclude homosexuals?  I know there are various laws about it for jobs but for clubs and volunteers I have no idea.

In discussing this with other adult leaders, one of the dads pointed out that the LDS and the Catholic church between them sponsor about half the local organizations in the country. Rumor is that the LDS has threatened to withdraw all of its troops and packs if policies excluding gay leaders and scouts are rescinded. That would be a pretty devastating blow to an organization that has already been seeing declining participation over the last 20 years.

It’s tough to admit, especially for an atheist like me, but the BSA was, for decades, an unquestionably Christian organization. And these conservative religious sponsors still hold inordinate influence over the national organization, even as the rest of the country moves on.

The numbers just don’t add up.

You’re assuming that the same number were awarded annually in 1972 as are awarded in 2012. We’ve gained more than 100,000,000 in those 40 years.

Also, the spokesman’s statement that 50,000 Eagles are awarded a year is very dubious – that would mean that there have been 2 million Eagles in the last 40 years. The Scouts were founded in 1910. The 2 millionth Eagle Scouts was awarded in 2010. The Scouts are rapidly losing members. The numbers just don’t add up. 

All who curse their father or mother must be put to death.  They are guilty of a capital offense.  (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)

I’m not surprised that the BSA is trying to ignore this, but it doesn’t make this protest irrelevant.  Returning the physical item is still a very powerful statement, and if it makes a young Boy Scout think, “Hey, if this Eagle Scout thinks being mean to gay people is wrong, then maybe it really is wrong, even if [insert bad influence] says it’s O.K. to treat them poorly,” then it’s a huge deal even if the BSA never changes its official policy.

STOP.

How about you don’t put words into other people’s mouths?

Secondly, can we be adults and admit that every group of christians cherry pick the bible. Hell, the first two stories are contradictory stories of the creation of the planet.  We ignore parts we find inconvenient (shell fish, mixed fibers), make up parts that aren’t in the bible (arguably hell), and change what different parts mean. To claim the bible in infallible is to claim your interpretation of the bible is infallible, which is basicly to claim you are God yourself, and unerring. 

Whether ultimately the genetic link is proven may be an open question, but if you know any gay people who “decided” to be gay one day, you know at least one more than most people do.