Lutherans' Missouri Synod announces scout policy

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The 2.3-million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is allowing its 6,200 individual congregations to decide for themselves whether to sponsor troops with the Boy Scouts of America.

Missouri Synod President Matthew C. Harrison released a letter on Monday advising congregations to make their own decisions. The letter followed the Boy Scouts of America announcement in May on a change of policy to admit gay youth to scouting programs.

Harrison said in the letter that the church had signed an agreement with the Boy Scouts allowing the church to remove from troops boys who advocate what the Synod calls "a moral view that is inconsistent with the church."

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is based in St. Louis.

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October 8, 2013