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Air Date: September 30, 2013
Host: Vic Eliason
Guest: John Stemberger
John Stemberger is Chairman of the Board for Trail Life USA, a new alternative to the Boy Scouts. John is an Eagle Scout and has served as a Scoutmaster. He is the founder of the OnMyHonor.net movement. He is also an Orlando attorney and serves as president of the Florida Family Policy Council. John was involved in the case of Rifqa Bary, the Muslim teenager from Columbus, Ohio, who fled to Florida after she was threatened to be killed for not renouncing her faith after her conversion to Christianity from Islam.
In July of 2012 John spoke with a friend who held a high position within the Boy Scouts. He asked his friend about the membership standards and where the organization stood. His friend assured him that they had done a two-year study and that the policy was “locked down” and open expressions of homosexuality would not be allowed.
6 months later John found out that the Boy Scouts were opening up this issue again so he called his friend back and the response was that there’s a whole new team, and lawyers were telling him that the Scouts had to do this. There was also concern from an openly homosexual Episcopal priest who said that they’re allowed to be fully ordained ministers and bishops yet they’re not allowed to be Scout Masters in the troops they charter.
John believes that the Boy Scouts caved on their own principles because they lusted after acceptance of the cultural elites. Hence, the point they violated within their own code was the principle of bravery. He contends that the delegates have been picked by professionals and its these professionals that have taken over the Boy Scouts.
John’s response has been to form Trail Life USA. This is a Christian scouting organization (not a church program) where adults involved must be Christian but any boy of any faith can join. Trail Life USA has a motto that is directly from Colossians and a statement of faith based upon the Nicene Creed that is clear on human sexuality as God’s design between one man and one woman in the context of marriage.
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