Unitarians to Resume Awards for Scouts

BOSTON — The Unitarian Universalist Assn. can once again present religious medals to Boy Scouts.

The association, whose 250,000 members espouse widely varying beliefs including forms of Buddhism and feminist-inspired “Earth-centered spirituality,” has a more liberal view of homosexuality than the Boy Scouts of America.

While the two groups will remain divided on the issue, the association will remove from the Religion in Life award manual any reference to concerns about the Boy Scouts’ “homophobic and discriminatory attitudes.” Instead, it will convey the message in pamphlets mailed with the manual.

“We agreed to delete from our manual the language that the Boy Scouts objected to,” said John Hurley, a spokesman for the Boston-based association of churches.

“But we are still going to be sending this material to Scouts.”

The Boy Scouts teach traditional “family values,” said Scouting spokesman Greg Shields, adding: “An avowed homosexual wouldn’t be a role model for those values.”