Parents Told To End Boy Scouts Ties

Wednesday, January 10th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Reform Jewish leaders have recommended that parents withdraw their children from Boy Scout chapters and that synagogues end their sponsorship of Scout troops because of the group's exclusion of gays.

The Boy Scouts of America's stance on gays is ``incompatible with our consistent belief that every individual â€” regardless of his or her sexual orientation â€” is created in the image of God and is deserving of equal treatment,'' the Joint Commission on Social Action said in a Jan. 5 letter to Reform movement congregations.

Congregations also should publicize their reason for cutting ties with the Boy Scouts to help educate the public, the commission said.

The advisory was prompted by a Supreme Court ruling in June that upheld the group's exclusion of gay leaders and members. The Boy Scouts had argued that homosexuality contradicts the group's core values.

In all, Jewish organizations sponsor 277 of the group's 123,935 troops nationwide, a Boy Scouts spokesman said in Wednesday's edition of The New York Times.

The Reform movement, which represents about 1,000 congregations and 40 percent of America's 6 million Jews, ordains openly gay men and women as rabbis.