Tim Wildmon
AFA president
July-August 2013 – Amid all the compromise in the world, such as Boy Scouts of America voting in May to allow openly homosexual boys to be members of the organization, it did my heart good to read about a man of conviction who recently made a public stand for his Christian principles. His name is Matt Birk and he was the center for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, who won the Super Bowl in February.
Members of the Ravens were invited to the White House to be honored by President Obama in June. This is a traditional practice for all championship teams be they college or professional. But after reading a statement from Obama praising Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in America, Birk decided he could not, in good conscience, go with his team to the White House.
Here is what he said: “About five or six weeks ago, our president made a comment in a speech and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood.’ Planned Parenthood performs about 330,000 abortions a year. I am Catholic, I am active in the pro-life movement, and I just felt like I couldn’t deal with that.”
Birk said that while he has “great respect for the office of the president,” he couldn't endorse the president’s support for the country’s top abortion organization in any way.
“I’m very confused by [the president's] statement,” said Birk. “For God to bless a place where they’re ending 330,000 lives a year? I just chose not to attend.”
Obama made the “God bless Planned Parenthood” remark at the conclusion of his speech to a Planned Parenthood conference in April. The speech put Obama in the books as the first sitting president to address the abortion organization, according to Life Site News.
Going back to what the Boy Scouts did, I must say I was really surprised by the vote. This was a vote by adults who have been in Scouts for a long time, and it was 60% in favor of changing the BSA longstanding policy allowing homosexuals into Scouting. The Scout oath is this:
“On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”
This change in policy makes a mockery of this oath. Homosexuality is not “moral.” The book of Romans in the New Testament says males having sex with males is unnatural, immoral and unhealthy. Here, the Boy Scouts of America’s leaders caved to the pressure of the politically correct crowd. I don’t know if it was over money or just hoping the issue would go away, but these adults let down – in monumental fashion – the boys they are responsible for. BSA will survive for some years to come, but they will lose venues such as conservative churches to host them and they will find it harder and harder to recruit new boys to enter Scouting because of this change in policy. This move only hurts the Scouts with conservative parents who share the values the BSA once upheld. But now they have compromised those values and thus signed their own ultimate death warrant.
AFA Journal will be reporting soon the formation of a new organization being founded by former members of BSA who left after this vote was taken. One of the men leading this effort is John Stemberger, president of Florida Family Policy Council and longtime Boy Scout leader. His website is www.onmyhonor.net. Contact John at 406-646-6599 or contact@onmyhonor.net
To conclude on a positive note, I will just say, God bless Matt Birk and his family. I thank him for having the courage to take a stand for his faith and the moral values it represents. That kind of story is like a breath of fresh air in the world we live in today. 
