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With the Boy Scouts of America set to vote on a policy that would allow openly gay youths to participate, activists ramp up the volume on their protests.

After years of emotional debate, the Boy Scouts of America are considering a proposal at their annual meeting to allow gay youths to participate openly in the popular organization for the first time.

The exclusion of gay Scouts has been the subject of much wrangling and soul searching in the century-old organization -- from local troops and councils to online petitions to national board meetings. The dispute was even heard by the Supreme Court, which said 13 years ago that as a private membership organization the BSA was free to decide who it would admit.

Here is a rundown of what is at stake in the vote, which is scheduled to take place Thursday among the 1,400 delegates of the National Council gathered in Grapevine, Texas.

What would the new membership policy look like?

The proposal would lift the organization’s ban on openly gay youth participants, but it would continue to bar gay adults from being Scout leaders.

Subject to gut-wrenching debate over morality and rights, the proposal would impact more than 100,000 scouting units, such as Cub Scout packs and Boy Scout troops, that involve nearly 3 million youths and more than 1 million adults. Generations of Scouts have weighed in on the issue in private and in public, with partisans on both sides threatening to withdraw from participating depending on how it is resolved.

Why is the scouting organization considering this change now?

BSA leaders won’t say exactly why now, but more than a decade after the Supreme Court said the organization was on solid legal ground in excluding gays, the debate quite simply won’t go away. Last summer, the Boy Scouts reaffirmed their anti-gay policy, after a two-year examination by a committee. Since then, some local chapters have been pushing for a reconsideration.

Meanwhile issues related to gay rights -- such as gay marriage and adoption -- are gaining wider public acceptance, and lobbying campaigns by Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian who was ousted from her role as den mother last year, and Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout who was raised by two lesbian mothers, kept the debate in the public eye. Activists have also pressured corporate sponsors, many of which have non-discrimination clauses tied to their giving, to withdraw funding unless the policy is changed.

Stephen B. Thornton / Stephen B. Thornton for NBC News

Pack 215 Cub Scouts recite the Pledge of Allegiance at their pack meeting at Eagle Heights Baptist Church on Tuesday in Harrison, Ark. The church's pastor has said it will not stay on as sponsor if the policy is changed.

Who is for the proposal, and who is against?

It’s unclear exactly how many scouts and councils -- which oversee the scouting units -- are on each side of the debate, and we’ll have to wait for the results of the secret ballot to see which side is victorious. Some councils have publicly said they will not continue if gay youths are allowed, while others have called for gay adults to be included too.

Religion looms large over the debate. The Scouts explicitly invoke God in their membership guidelines, and more than 70 percent of Boy Scout units are sponsored by religious groups. One of the Southern Baptist Church leaders, Dr. Frank Page, last week implored the Boy Scouts not to change the policy. But The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints – the BSA's biggest charter partner-- has given tacit endorsement to the plan; the National Catholic Council on Scouting has yet to take a position.

Even Barack Obama and Mitt Romney weighed in on the debate during the presidential race. Perhaps one of the most important voices, BSA President Wayne Perry on Wednesday wrote an op-ed in USA TODAY supporting the inclusion of gay boys.

Under the proposal, what would happen to an Eagle Scout who is gay and wants to volunteer as an adult? That wouldn’t be allowed?

That is the big criticism of this policy in more progressive quarters: That life-long, successful scouts essentially will be banned from the organization on their 18th birthday because they are gay. Conservatives also note the tension inherent in the policy, saying it could be a slippery slope: They believe allowing gay youths would undermine the legal underpinnings of the Supreme Court decision, ultimately leading to gay adult volunteers being admitted into the organization.

Will individual local troops be allowed to exclude gay youths if they have moral objections?

In short, no. Here is how Deron Smith, spokesperson for the BSA puts it: “If passed, no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” This has led some parents and Scout leaders who object to homosexuality to consider alternatives to Scouting, for fear that the resolution might pass.

If gays are allowed, will parents be able to object, for example, to their son sharing a tent with a gay Scout?

This is a real concern among some parents, as evidenced by its inclusion on the BSA’s internal survey on the issue. But Scouting leaders haven’t addressed the matter directly. Instead, they refer generally to maintaining a “supportive and safe environment for young people.” The organization has created a task force to make sure the policy could be implemented smoothly, and they are looking into how other organizations have handled these issues.

If it passes, will this proposal end the infighting, or is this just the beginning?

The BSA may hope this vote will end the debate, but more likely, it will touch off a whole new one. Some troops may disband. Those affiliated with Southern Baptist churches, for example, could lose their charters. And more liberal Scout leaders will lobby to have gay adults included as well -- an issue that is not going to fade anytime soon.

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the possibility of a change in the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

Related:

• Scouts await decision on gay membership
• Boy Scouts consider ending ban on gay members, leaders
• Scouts propose allowing gay scouts, but banning leaders
• Mormon church OK with ending Scouts' ban on gay youth

Stephen B. Thornton for NBC News

Pack 215 Cub Scouts recite the Pledge of Allegiance after posting the colors at their pack meeting in the family life center at Eagle Heights Baptist Church on Tuesday in Harrison, Ark.

Cub Scout Pack 215 in rural Arkansas is waiting for a vote that could mean big changes for their tiny outfit.

That’s because of a decision being made Thursday at the national Boy Scouts of America annual meeting that will have ramifications for their pack and other Scout units across the country: whether or not to end its controversial policy banning gay Scouts.

The 1,400 delegates of the National Council will vote on the policy at the BSA meeting in Grapevine, Texas.

More than 70 percent of Boy Scout units are sponsored by a religious group, some that do not want to allow gay youth to join. One is Pack 215, chartered by the Eagle Heights Baptist Church in Harrison, Ark. The church’s pastor has said it will not stay on as sponsor if the policy is changed.

“This would be inconsistent with the biblical values and the essence upon which we operate our ministries,” said Pastor Jay Scribner, who said he would work with the pack to help it decide next steps should the policy change.

Scribner said the decision to pull sponsorship would come “with a heavy heart, but at the same time, with firm biblical convictions.”

The pack first learned of its potential fate in February from Scribner at the yearly Scout Sunday service, after the Boy Scouts initial announcement that it was thinking to include gay adult leaders as well as youth. After a vigorous public debate over the possible change in the longstanding membership guidelines, the private youth organization shelved the decision until the national meeting Thursday.

Stephen B. Thornton for NBC News

Pack 215 Cub Scout Dylan Heimer takes off in a soccer-dribbling contest pitting scouts against parents at their pack meeting Tuesday at Eagle Heights Baptist Church in Harrison, Ark.

 “We are faced with a very hard decision,” Pack 215’s Cubmaster, Carol Gilley, said last week. “This has been weighing heavy on my mind for a long time ... I finally told myself God is bigger than this problem so I'm just giving it over to God and I pray, I pray about it -- that things stay the way they are.”

Some councils, which oversee the Scouting units, have publicly said they will not continue if gay youth are allowed, while others have called for not only youth but adults to be included. Some have also urged a local option – similar to what was done when blacks and women were first allowed in the BSA – that would let each charter partner decide.

For Gilley and others in her pack, talking about homosexuality with their children is a non-starter. Gilley said they refer to the debate as “the issue” around the boys rather than using the word “gay,” and pack secretary, January Studyvin said she is dreading having a “gut-wrenching conversation” with son Daylon, about the fate of the pack.

“We’re a small pack, and our Scout family is just not Scouts it’s an extension of our family … all of our children our close to the other parents,” Studyvin said. “We want to try to keep it going and making it work … keep it going at a personal level … no official awards, no official uniform. But (it) keeps them together and keeps them doing something … we have a lot of boys in our pack that this is all they do.”

Eagle Heights Baptist Church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Church. One of the SBC leaders, Dr. Frank Page, last week implored the Boy Scouts not to change the policy. But The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints – the BSA's biggest charter partner-- has given tacit endorsement to the plan; the National Catholic Council on Scouting has yet to take a position. The United Methodist Church did not respond to a NBC News' request for comment.

But BSA spokesman Deron Smith said the proposal was “in line” with the beliefs of most of BSA's major religious chartered groups.

“Some have asserted that the proposed change for youth runs counter to values of and raises concerns among Scouting’s religious chartered organizations,” Smith said. “We are unaware of any major religious chartered organization that believes a youth member simply stating he or she is attracted to the same sex, but not engaging in sexual activity, should make him or her unwelcome in their congregation,” he said.

Ralph Reed, a conservative Christian and lifelong Scout, has helped the BSA arrange conversations with the faith community on the proposal, Smith said.

“We know many have strong religious beliefs about this issue, and the purpose of these discussions was to promote a dialogue based on mutual respect and a shared appreciation of Scouting,” he added.

But he acknowledged that there could be some tough times ahead for the organization founded in 1910.

“Regardless of the results of the vote, the membership policy will not match everyone’s personal preference. The Boy Scouts will undoubtedly face challenges; however, Scouting is bigger than this single issue, and good people can disagree and still work together to accomplish great things for youth,” he said.

But as Pack 215 plans the annual promotion ceremonies for the boys at the end of the month, its future is unclear. If passed, the resolution would take effect Jan. 1, 2014, giving the pack some time to contemplate its next move.

“We're just like one big extended family and we talk and we know for a fact if Boy Scouts decides to change their policy we're going to lose our charter organization,” Gilley said. “We're stressed about that, but what eases my mind about it all ... (is that) we're still going to have this family group.”

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the possibility of a change in the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

Related:

Boy Scouts consider ending ban on gay members, leaders

Scouts propose allowing gay scouts, but banning leaders

Mormon church OK with ending Scouts' ban on gay youth

Tim Sharp/Reuters file

A statue of a Scout stands at the entrance to the Boy Scouts of America headquarters in Irving, Texas.

The Boy Scouts of America said Monday that the Utah Pride Center — a LGBT advocacy group — could not charter a troop, even though the group said it would comply with the youth organization's controversial policy banning gay Scouts and leaders.

The Utah Pride Center submitted its application in late February to sponsor a troop with heterosexual leaders and middle-school age boys several weeks ago, said Valerie Larabee, the center's executive director. She said the bid, which comes ahead of the BSA vote in May on whether it should keep the ban, was not a stunt.

"We feel great concern for youth that may be involved in Scouting right now that are hiding something and we don’t ask our kids when they come to our campus here whether they are gay, straight or anything else," she told NBC News by phone. "We assume that they're here because they think this is a safe place and as a safe place we think that we can offer an incredible opportunity to young people who want to be involved in BSA."

Larabee said they submitted their application to Rick Barnes, the chief executive officer of the Great Salt Lake Council. Barnes referred questions to the BSA headquarters, "since this was a national decision."

When contacted for comment on who had reviewed the application and why it was rejected, the BSA said in a two-sentence statement: "The BSA is engaged in an internal discussion about its membership standards policy and is working to stay focused on Scouting’s mission. Based on the mission of this organization [the Utah Pride Center] we do not believe a chartered partner relationship is beneficial to Scouting.”

Larabee said she knew their file was passed higher within the BSA, but did not know if it reached the national headquarters and said they'd had no response from the organization -- just that their application had been returned without remarks on March 4. The center took it as a denial.

"We are disappointed," she said. "It's almost like they don't even want to acknowledge that we even applied. It's like they just want us to go away." 

A call placed to a Boy Scout leader who The Salt Lake Tribune said would lead the new troop committee, Nile Eatmon, was not immediately returned. Eatmon, a member of the Great Salt Lake Council's executive board, told the newspaper that he didn't see a problem with the center hosting a troop.

"I was surprised. I thought the Pride Center application complied with the Boy Scouts’ policies," Eatmon said. "All the adult members and youth that were submitted with the application were straight."

Faith-based organizations, civic and educational groups often charter Boy Scout units, providing meeting facilities and leadership among other things. More than 70 percent of the Scouting unit in 2012 were chartered to faith-based organizations, and Larabee believed their application may be a first by a LGBT group, although the BSA did not respond to a question about that.

Related: Can a gay Boy Scout share a tent with another boy? Boy Scouts survey members on anti-gay policy

The BSA announced in late January that it may ditch the national policy banning gays, instead leaving that up to local sponsoring organizations to decide. It then pushed back a decision on the policy to May, when some 1,400 members of Scouting's National Council will vote on a resolution that Boy Scouts' officers are crafting.

The membership guidelines have roiled the organization in recent years.

Last July, the BSA said it was sticking with the ban following a confidential two-year review of the policy. That review was announced months after Jennifer Tyrrell was dismissed from her post as leader of her son’s Tiger Cubs den because she is a lesbian, and a few months before California teen Ryan Andresen was denied his Eagle award because he is gay.

Both cases made national headlines for several weeks, and led a few hundred Eagle Scouts to turn in their hard-earned regalia in protest of the ban, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2000.

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the BSA's upcoming decision on the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

Related stories: 

Boy Scouts: We need more time for decision on gay Scouts

After years of heartache, gay Scouts and supporters react warily over proposal to lift ban

'Gravely distressed': Religion looms large over Boy Scouts decision on gays 

'BATTLESTATIONS!': Call-in war waged over Boy Scouts' ban on gays

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Pascal Tessier, 16, center left, a Scout, and his brother Lucien Tessier, 20, who had earned the rank of Eagle Scout, pose for a portrait with their parents, Oliver Tessier, left, and Tracie Felker, at their home in Kensington, Maryland, on Monday. The two Tessier boys enjoyed Cub Scouts, progressed to Boy Scouts, and continued to thrive there even as many in their troop became aware that each boy was gay.

Published at 4:45 a.m. ET: Special prayers have been urged, petitions handed in, phone calls placed and pleas for a delay made, all over a decision on an issue that has rocked one of America’s most popular youth organizations: whether or not gays can join the Boy Scouts.

A decision by national Scout leaders is expected Wednesday. Some fear an unwanted new era, while others are welcoming what they believe is an overdue change that comes amid other recent gains for the LGBT rights movement nationwide.

President Barack Obama has twice weighed in on the issue, earlier this week affirming his support for including gays in the Boy Scouts of America, while former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has called for an end to what he labelled the “war on Scouts.”

“The Boy Scouts are a fundamental part of this nation’s moral bedrock and they are one of our great cultural institutions. We have trusted them to grow and develop our young men for over a century,” Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout and son of a lesbian couple campaigning for gays to be included, said Tuesday. “They’re a big deal, and that is why this proposed change is so critically important.”

Advocates on both sides of the issue have stepped up their campaigns ahead of the BSA's final decision: They’ve encouraged their backers to make their voices heard through a phone-in and email deluge. A conservative group, the Family Research Council, said that it and 41 other groups ran a newspaper ad on Monday asking the BSA not to change the policy, and some conservative religious groups have urged their supporters to join in prayer to ask the board not to accept gays.

Related: 'Gravely distressed': Religion looms large over Boy Scouts decision on gays 

John Makely / NBC News file

Ryan Andresen had recently completed the requirements to earning his Eagle Scout award, including his final project of building a "tolerance wall" for victims of bullying like himself, but his Scoutmaster would not sign off on honoring him with the Boy Scouts' highest ranking because he is gay, his mother said. Here, Ryan holds an Eagle Scout pin that was sent to him from a supporter.

A coalition of Boy Scouts councils representing some 540,000 youth -- or 20 percent of the organization’s 2.6 million active Scouts -- asked the national organization on Monday to delay a decision on ending the controversial policy, saying it was concerned “about the pace at which such actions are being taken,” according to a statement posted on the website of the Utah-based Great Salt Lake Council.   

Roger “Sing” Oldham, spokesman for the conservative Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, said the outpouring of feedback on the issue came as no surprise to him since his group felt the BSA had not allowed opponents of the change to weigh in on the proposal, which was announced just a little more than one week ago and was being reviewed by national leaders.

Oldham said he had spoken with some troop leaders, pastors and parents who have expressed concern about the way forward if gays are allowed, particularly those units that will try to maintain the ban locally as would be permitted under the proposal. For more than two-thirds of Scouting groups affiliated with religious bodies, faith plays a large role in the private youth organization.

“When local chapters begin realizing the financial liability that they face if they exercise the local option then … they’re going to have to say we either fall into step or we have just to end the relationship,” he said. “There’ll be attrition over time and, you know, the Scouts will have permanently altered the face of who they are into the future.”

'Feeling of shame'
Some have said they will even leave the organization over the issue.

Angela Russell, who has an 11-year-old in the Boy Scouts and a 9-year-old in the Cub Scouts, said that if the BSA allows gays, particularly as leaders, they would be “breaking their own highly held codes to be ‘morally straight’ and to commit to such principles via oaths and promises.”

If the ban is lifted, “I must remove my boys from this program. My heart truly aches to think of it,” Russell, of Auburn, Wash., wrote in a letter she emailed to NBC News. “However, to leave them in a program that goes against its own teachings would be worse.”

But another mother, of a Boy Scout and two Cub Scouts, said she had “been torn for years” over the policy since her own mother is a lesbian and allowing gays would be a relief.

“I am very happy about the things my children have learned and the tools they have been given from the program,” Gina Beaudry, 37, of Raleigh, N.C., who will be the Cub Scoutmaster for her sons pack this year, wrote in an email to NBC News. 

“To have this ban lifted would take away some of the feeling of shame I feel for the organization that has been so beneficial to my children. I would hate to see any child or parent not feel like they were welcome in the program.”

Related: After years of heartache, gay Scouts and supporters react warily over proposal to lift ban

The proposed policy change comes just seven months after the BSA said it was sticking with its ban following a confidential two-year review.

That review was announced months after Jennifer Tyrrell was dismissed from her post as leader of her son’s Tiger Cubs den because she is a lesbian, and a few months before California teen Ryan Andresen was denied his Eagle award because he is gay.

Both cases made national headlines, roiling the private youth organization. Some critics pointed to declining membership numbers as a sign that families were being turned off over the issue. The controversy also prompted a few hundred Eagle Scouts to turn in their hard-earned regalia in protest of the ban, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2000.

Wahls believes the Boy Scouts will lift the exclusion of gays and rejects the idea it will cause any “mass exodus.”

“We don’t think that that’s going to be a problem at all and think that this move will definitely bolster Scouting for future generations,” he said, later adding, “Our generation has embraced LGBT rights, and like all things, Scouting should not be playing catch up, it should be blazing the trail.”

Related: 

Gay teen denied Eagle Scout: 'Change is happening' over Boy Scouts anti-gay policy

Eagle Scouts return badges to protest policy banning gays

Boy Scouts: We're keeping policy banning gays 

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the possibility of a change in the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

Dave Kaup / for NBC News

Eagle Scout Addison Jones, 15, holds hands during a hymn with parishioners of the Country Club Congregational United Church of Christ in Kansas City, Mo., on "Scout Sunday."

If prayer can't sway Boy Scouts board members as they vote whether to end the organization's ban on gays, it won't be for lack of trying.

The Boy Scouts of America announcement last week that it may eliminate the exclusion of gays from membership at the national level, leaving the decision to its local units, has drawn a harsh backlash from some of the organization's more religious conservative members, who are "gravely distressed," even as more liberal churches hailed the move.

With more than two-thirds of Scouting groups affiliated with religious bodies, faith plays a large role in the private youth organization.

"I think it’s clear that the Scouts have made a sea change in who they are and that down the road they will be a different organization than they are today,” said Roger “Sing” Oldham, spokesman for the conservative Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, whose leader, Frank S. Page, urged for a prayer to be held among congregations on Sunday that the board members would not allow gays.

“I think there are a lot of parents and students who will make the decision to look for other organizations that are more in line with the principles that they espouse,” he said. 

The Scouts' began National Executive Board and Committee meetings on Monday, and a decision on the gay ban is expected Wednesday.

The Scouting movement has heavy involvement from religious groups, with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the United Methodist Church and the Catholic Church together sponsoring more than 1 million Scouts, according to Boy Scouts data for 2011. Overall, faith-based groups sponsored nearly 70 percent of the more than 100,000 Scouting units that year, compared with civic organizations backing 23 percent and educational outfits 8 percent.

In the Scout Oath, youth pledge to do their "duty to God," and the organization holds special celebrations in tandem with churches, such as “Scout Sunday,” just ahead of the Feb. 8 anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts in 1910. This year, "Scout Sunday" was held Feb. 3 in a number of congregations across the country, and people on social media reported troops receiving their religious medals and posted pictures of Scouts in uniform at church. The BSA offers a guide to the church observance on its website.

“Boy Scouts are like baseball and apple pie,” said Rev. Chase Peeples of the gay-friendly Country Club Congregational United Church of Christ in Kansas City, Mo., which honored Scouts on Sunday and displayed on its front lawn a banner with a rainbow background reading, “We welcome ALL Boy Scouts.”

“And because churches have been the sponsoring organizations of most troops, that is why (allowing gays) is such a threat and the backlash has really been so harsh” by religious conservatives, he added.

For some who oppose gays in the Boy Scouts, the decision comes as an about-face just seven months after the organization said it was sticking with the policy following a confidential two-year review of the disputed membership guidelines.

That review was announced months after Jennifer Tyrrell was dismissed from her post as leader of her son’s Tiger Cubs den because she is a lesbian, and a few months before California teen Ryan Andresen was denied his Eagle award because he is gay.

Both cases made national headlines for several weeks, roiling the private youth organization. Some critics pointed to declining membership numbers as a sign that families were being turned off over the issue.

Greg Nelson, scoutmaster of Troop 754, chartered by the First United Methodist Church in St. Charles, Mo., said talk of sexuality had no place in the Scouts. He welcomed the change, saying it would have no impact on his troop, noting: “My boys are ahead of the curve on this, anyway.”

“Scouting does not have a Sexuality Merit Badge. We don't teach youth about their sexuality, and we aren't going to. It is too controversial, and we have a different job,” Nelson, 60, wrote to NBC News in an email. “When sexual issues come up in the troop we tell the boys that sexuality is private. It is not to be discussed in public. Scouting is a public organization. We tell them human intimacy is a gift from God and should be treated reverently and in this case, privately.”

Though the Southern Baptists have issued strong statements appealing the proposal, the Mormon church and the National Catholic Committee on Scouting have declined comment until the Boy Scouts make a final decision.

The United Methodist Men, which has as one of its missions to train youth to be leaders through ministries with the Boy Scouts, told supporters it knew there were “strong and legitimate concerns on both sides of this issue.” The group backed the Boy Scouts in a U.S. Supreme Court case opposing the inclusion of gays, which the BSA won in 2000.

“This is a BSA decision which we did not ask for,” Gilbert C. Hanke, general secretary of the General Commission of the United Methodist Men, wrote in a Jan. 31 statement posted online.

But the organization has endorsed the plan because it “will not change the way Scouting is conducted within our denomination,” he said, noting: “You choose the leaders, you recruit the Scouts, the leadership of your troop and pack reflects the traditions and values of your faith community.”

For some in that community, such an approach was welcome.

Karen Harrington, whose son is an Eagle Scout and whose husband is involved in Scouting through their Mormon-sponsored troops in Okemos, Mich., said she thought the BSA had come up with a “compromise that everyone can live with.”

“It would be wrong to force all Scout troops to accept gay leaders -- especially church-sponsored troops that object because of their religious beliefs,” Harrington, 54, wrote to NBC News. “The right to follow one's religious beliefs cannot be trumped by others' desires to express their sexual preference. There are multiple Scout troops in our little city -- plenty of room for variety of belief and interest.”

But for others, gays have no place in the Scouts.

Jordan E. Clay, a Mormon from Bloomington, Ill., who is an adviser to various local troops supported by his church, said he was saddened by the proposed change. He believed BSA was motivated by a fear of losing corporate sponsorship dollars, as it has in recent years from the likes of Intel and Merck, due to the policy.

“If the BSA abandons the moral and principled position it has defended, it will die on the vine,” Clay, 51, and an Eagle Scout, wrote. “It is only a viable organization today because it stands for something, and several large religious organizations throw their support toward the BSA precisely because it stands for something moral and good.”

After years of heartache, gay Scouts and supporters react warily over proposal to lift ban

Hanke and Page, of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the BSA had informed them of the proposal two weeks before it was announced publicly. Page said in an online statement he was “gravely distressed” when he first learned about it, and even more so when he learned that the recommendation to the full Scouts’ board had already been formalized.

When asked for comment on how some of the more conservative faiths were responding to the proposed policy change, Boy Scouts spokesman Deron Smith wrote to NBC News in an email: "We recognize, deeply respect and appreciate the sincere religious beliefs about this issue." He also said: "The process of this discussion was an internal dialogue, within the Scouting family, about what would be in the best interest of Scouting."

Jeff Swensen / for NBC News

Rev. Scott Thayer, a Boy Scout chaplain for the Ohio River Valley Council who is a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), supports changing the policy to welcome gays but has curbed his rhetoric at the local level to pastor to everyone, regardless of their stance on the controversial issue, during this emotional time.

Terry Howerton, who started the popular Scouting forum Scouter.com network in the mid-'90s, said there was a lot of “apocalyptic” chatter in the wake of the announcement, but he felt it was coming from outsiders trying to use the issue as a tool in the pop culture wars.

“There are enough current leaders … who I think love Scouting so much and understood that just as much as they would have argued in the past that this issue didn’t really affect their unit, they are kind of coming to the realization that a change in policy also doesn’t really affect their unit,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s what’s great about this compromise, which seems so blatantly obvious.”

Obvious, he noted, because the Boy Scouts underwent similar passionate trials when the organization allowed African-American boys to join and women to serve as leaders –- all by letting the local units decide.

“Racially we went through this, and for women we went through this, and we’re going through the exact same thing with gays,” said Howerton, a 40-year-old entrepreneur from Evanston, Ill., who left the organization about five years ago over the policy but now is thinking of returning if gays are allowed.

Advocates on both sides of the issue have stepped up their campaigns ahead of the final decision: They’ve encouraged their backers to make their voices heard through a phone-in and email deluge, and Scout leaders ousted because they were gay will deliver petitions with more than one million signatures to Boy Scouts headquarters on Monday.

But the Rev. Scott Thayer, a Boy Scout chaplain for the Ohio River Valley Council who has quietly been working within the organization for years to change the policy to welcome gays, said as of late he has tried to stay out of the local conversation so he could “be the pastor for everybody, not just the ones who agree with me,” during this emotional time. (Bob Drury, a leader of the Ohio council to which Tyrrell also belonged, told NBC News that he has received positive and negative reactions to the possible change).

“There are people who are just, you know, hanging black crepe right now for the Scouts, and I don’t think that’s going to happen,” said Thayer, chaplain of Bethany College in West Virginia and a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which allows congregations to decide whether to welcome gays and sponsors some 35,000 youths who participate in the Boy Scouts.

“For the first time in a long time I feel really, really encouraged because of what’s going on,” he said. “I look forward to this year’s U.S. National (Scout) Jamboree and welcoming all kids and all adults who want to be in Scouting regardless of … who they love.”

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the possibility of a change in the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

Related stories: 

• Gay teen denied Eagle Scout: 'Change is happening' over Boy Scouts anti-gay policy
• Eagle Scouts return badges to protest policy banning gays
• Boy Scouts: We're keeping policy banning gays 

The Boy Scouts of America, one of the nation’s largest private youth organizations, is actively considering an end to its decades-long policy of banning gay scouts or scout leaders, according to scouting officials and outsiders familiar with internal discussions.

If adopted by the organization’s board of directors, it would represent a profound change on an issue that has been highly controversial -- one that even went to the US Supreme Court. The new policy, now under discussion, would eliminate the ban from the national organization’s rules, leaving local sponsoring organizations free to decide for themselves whether to admit gay scouts.

“The chartered organizations that oversee and deliver scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with their organization’s mission, principles or religious beliefs,” according to Deron Smith, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts’ national organization.

Individual sponsors and parents “would be able to choose a local unit which best meets the needs of their families,” Smith said.

The discussion of a potential change in policy is nearing its final stages, according to outside scouting supporters. If approved, the change could be announced as early as next week, after the BSA's national board holds a regularly scheduled meeting.

Only seven months ago, the Boy Scouts affirmed a policy of banning gay members, after a nearly two-year examination of the issue by a committee of volunteers convened by national leaders of the Boy Scouts of America, known as the BSA.

In a statement last July affirming the ban, its national executive board called it “the best policy for the organization.”

But since then, a scouting official said, local chapters have been urging a reconsideration. "We're a grassroots organization. This is a response to what's happening at the local level," the official said.

Two corporate CEOs on BSA’s national board, Randall Stephenson of AT&T and James Turley of Ernst & Young, have also said they would work to end the ban. Stephenson is next in line to be the BSA’s national chairman. During the 2012 presidential campaign, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney said the BSA should admit gay scouts and scout leaders.

About 50 local United Way groups and several corporations and charities have concluded that the ban violates their non-discrimination requirements and have ceased providing financial aid to the Boy Scouts. An official of The Human Rights Campaign, an advocate for gay rights, said HRC planned to downgrade its non-discrimination ratings for corporations that continue to give the BSA financial support.

“It’s an extremely complex issue,” said one Boy Scouts of America official, who explained that other organizations have threatened to withdraw their financial support if the BSA drops the ban.

While the national scouting organization sets broad policies, more than 290 local councils nationwide govern the day-to-day conduct of the more than 116,000 local organizations. Individual scouting troops are sponsored by religious and civic organizations that represent a diversity of views on the issue of allowing gay scouts and leaders.

“The beliefs of the sponsoring organizations are highly diverse,” the official said.

The policy change now under discussion “would allow the religious, civic or educational organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting to determine how to address this issue,” said the BSA's Smith.

“The Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members or parents. Under this proposed policy, the BSA would not require any chartered organization to act in ways inconsistent with that organization’s mission, principles or religious beliefs,” he said.

In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the Boy Scouts had a First Amendment right of free expression when it came to the organization’s belief that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with values stated in the scout oath, requiring scouts to be “morally straight.”

The Scouts have won similar legal battles, with courts finding that the BSA’s right of free association permits it, as a private organization, to reject those it believes do not conform to is values. 

Related: 
Eagle Scouts return badges to protest policy banning gays 
Gay mom upset after dismissal by Boy Scouts 

Nassau County Police Department

Edward Orenchuk III, 23, was arrested Wednesday on accusations of possessing child pornography on his computer.

A New York Boy Scouts leader was arrested Wednesday after authorities found hundreds of images of pornography on his computer involving children as young as five years old, officials said.

Edward Orenchuk III, of Garden City, N.Y., was charged with three counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child as a sexually motivated felony and three counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child, according to the Nassau County District Attorney's Office. 

Investigators observed Orenchuk making multiple images of child pornography available for download online during August and September, and they tracked the source of those images to his home, said Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

Orenchuk himself indicated that he had hundreds of images of child pornography on his computer while his home was being searched, the district attorney's office said. 

Orenchuk was an Eagle Scout who served as an assistant scout master with Troop 243 in Garden City. He was employed as a page at the Garden City Public Library.

The Boy Scouts said Orenchuk was dropped from the organization once they learned of the charges, the Associated Press reported, and a library spokeswoman said Orenchuk has been taken off the library's work schedule..

In mid-October, lawyers published more than 1,200 formerly secret Boy Scouts’ files online detailing accusations of child sex abuse within the organization from 1965 to 1985.

The documents, known as the “ineligible volunteer” files within the organization, were ordered released by the Oregon Supreme Court. Media organizations had sued for the release of the files, part of a 2010 case in which a Portland, Ore., jury decided that the Boy Scouts were negligent in allowing a former assistant Scoutmaster to associate with the organization’s youth after he admitted to molesting 17 boys. 

The files, which can be accessed on www.kellyclarkattorney.com, represent reports of Scouts allegedly abused by more than 1,200 different Scoutmasters and other adult volunteers across the country.

Orenchuk faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. It wasn't immediately clear if Orenchuk, who is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, had a lawyer.

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