Many years ago I served as a lay minister and received an unusual patron for counseling, a new move-in to whom I was to have ecclesiastical jurisdiction for a time. Just last year he said, that he “personally would have favored ending the ban on gay adults, but he opposed any further debate after the Scouts’ policy making body upheld the ban.” Gates, as former national defense secretary, was the father of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy allowing gays into the military services. The Associated Press reported, “that the organization’s longstanding ban on participation by openly gay adults is no longer sustainable, and called for change in order to avert potentially destructive legal battles.” This position is not a surprise to those who know Gates. Unfortunately his message this month to the Scouts’ national annual meeting in Atlanta Georgia set the BSA on fire. His honors in the scouting program are just as impressive. Perhaps there has never been a more high profile national president. Gates, past CIA director and national defense secretary, as its national president. A year ago the Boy Scouts of America elected Robert M.
