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CNN host Soledad O'Brien on Wednesday told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins that he could be "on the wrong side of history" after he defended the Boy Scouts' ban on LGBT members by suggesting that homosexuals were more likely to be pedophiles.

As the Boy Scouts of American national board was set to decide if local organizations would be allowed to include gay members on Wednesday, O'Brien asked Perkins if there was "a possibility that you're wrong" because "historically there have been core values that in retrospect turned out to be flawed?"

"You're comparing immutable characteristics with characteristics that are not immutable," Perkins explained. "In part, their policy has been to protect boys, to create obviously not a perfect environment, but one that is in line with what the parents want, to ensure their children are safe when they go out in these scouting activities."

O'Brien wondered "why it would make a difference to open up scouting to people who are gay" because the Boy Scouts had already released 14,500 pages of so-called "perversion files" showing years of sexual abuse on minors that had been covered up by the organization.

"Why would I let a man who is attracted to other males go camping with my boys?" Perkins argued.

"A pedophile has sex with children," O'Brien pointed out. "Are you saying that someone who's gay is a pedophile?"

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Dr. Richard Land, who is in charge of addressing social, moral, and ethical concerns as president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, says that dropping the ban on gay members and LGBT leaders will be a "catastrophe" for the Boy Scouts of America because excluding homosexuals represents the "heart and soul of scouting."

"What they've said to us and to other religious leaders is, 'We're doing this under pressure and we're going to give people, basically, what amounts to a local option,'" Land explained to CNN on Tuesday. "You can't have a local option of a core conviction."

"Yes, we live in a democracy and people can make this choice, but if they do, it's going to be a catastrophe because Baptist scouts and Catholic scouts and Mormon scouts and Methodist scouts, many of them are going to vote with their feet and they're going to leave the scouts," he added. "What they're doing is to appease their left coast and right coast appendages, they're cutting out the heart and soul of scouting in the rest of the country."

CNN host Brooke Baldwin noted that the Southern Baptist Convention had given local churches the option for the first time in 2000 of dropping the ban on women pastors.

"I hear you laugh," Baldwin said. "How is that different?"

"Well, we have about 45,000 churches, and we have about a hundred that have women pastors," Land replied. "So, I think the Convention has expressed its will. Our confession of faith is not binding on any particular Southern Baptist, but it's an expression of what we believe the Bible teaches, and the vast majority of Southern Baptist uphold that. What the scouts are doing is going back on a core value, and they're saying a core value is a local option."

"Are you saying that not allowing gay members is the heart and soul of scouting?" CNN host John Berman wondered.

"The scouts have said for themselves for over a hundred years that traditional morality is at the core value of scouting, teaching them to be morally straight," Land insisted. "And now, they're going to make it a local option under pressure from corporations and from some scout groups. A core value is not a local option."

"And let me say one other thing that nobody wants to talk about, and that is that homosexuals, by definition, are attracted to people of the same sex," he continued. "Now, I'm not accusing homosexuals of being pedophiles, but I'm accusing homosexuals of being what they say they are: attracted to males. How many people that are listening to me would allow their teenaged girls to go on camp outs and engaging in camping activities with heterosexual males?"

Baldwin pointed out that "homosexuals are no more pedophiles that heterosexuals."

"I didn't say that," Land shot back, pointing his finger at the camera. "I'm saying heterosexual males would not be allowed to be Girl Scout masters. Why? Because they're attracted to girls, to young women. In the same way, homosexual males -- I'm not talking about pedophiles -- homosexual means attracted to the same sex. Do parents really want to allow their teenaged boys to go on camp outs with men who are attracted to the same sex?"

"This verges on being beyond the realm of the rational, and it's going to lead to human tragedy. And the human tragedy is going to be, sadly, boys and men who are going to end up in relationships that are going to be tragic."

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Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins is defending the Boy Scouts of America's policy banning gay members by saying the organization wanted to "make good citizens" by encouraging scouts to be "morally straight."

In a letter earlier this week, Perkins had blasted UPS CEO D. Scott Davis after the shipping company decided to stop funding the Boy Scouts over its anti-LGBT stance.

"Apparently, the company isn't interested in true diversity but in strong-arming anyone who disagrees with their extreme agenda -- including a century-old youth development program, whose only crime is instilling character into millions of American boys," a statement on FRC's website said. "As for their longstanding policy on homosexuality, the Boy Scouts are doing what every parent would want them to: putting children's safety first."

CNN host John Berman on Friday, invited Perkins, who founded the designated hate group, to explain why his organization was boycotting UPS.

"Well, the Boy Scouts for over 100 years, as part of their moral code, has challenged boys to be straight and to be upstanding citizens," Perkins opined. "That's their code, morally straight, that they not engage in sexual behavior, that they keep themselves morally conditioned and mentally sharp, and that's been their code."

"What have you is you have a few corporations, major corporations, who are saying, look, unless you abandon a century old value set, we're not going to give you money," he continued. "And the -- some things don't change with time. The Boy Scouts are one that have laid down a marker and said we will continue with what's worked for our boys. We're going to continue to produce young men who make good citizens."

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An assistant scout master in Long Island is facing child pornography charges after hundreds of photos of children as young as 5 years old were found on his computer.

The Nassau County District Attorney's Office said on Thursday that Edward Orenchuk III was arrested and 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 NBC News.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice alleged that Orenchuk had posted a number of the photos on the Internet in September and October, allowing investigators to trace the images to his home. She said that Orenchuk had admitted having the photos on his computer after officers began searching his residence.

The Boy Scouts of America said that Orenchuk, who was an Eagle Scout, had been dismissed from his position as assistant scout master of Troop 243.

"The behavior in these allegations runs counter to everything for which the Boy Scouts of America stands," the organization told WABC. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to anyone who may be a victim of this type of behavior."

Orenchuk has also been removed from the work schedule at the Garden City Public Library, where he worked as a page. He is being held on $400,000 bond. Prosecutors insisted that a high bail was necessary because of Orenchuk's access to children. His father said that he hoped to use his house as collateral to free his son, WCBS-TV reported.

In October, lawyers for victims released 14,500 pages of so-called "perversion files" that they said proved the Boy Scouts of America had covered up sexual abuse on minors.

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The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday said that they had denied a gay California teen Eagle Scout honors because he had not lived up to the principle of "duty to God" with his sexual orientation.

The Scoutmaster for Troop 212 in Moraga decided that Ryan Andresen was "no longer eligible for membership in Scouting" after they learned he was gay, even though he had completed all of his requirements for Eagle Scout, including building a "tolerance wall" to honor those that had been bullied like himself.

"I want everyone to know that [the Eagle award] should be based on accomplishment, not your sexual orientation," Ryan Andresen's mother, Karen, told NBC News. "Ryan entered Scouts when he was six years old and in no way knew what he was."

"I think right now the scoutmaster is sending Ryan the message that he’s not a valued human being and I want Ryan to know that he is valued … and that people care about him," she added.

Karen Andresen said that the Eagle Scout decision was "a total shock" because the scoutmaster was aware that her son had come out in July and had said nothing.

The Boy Scouts of America have a longstanding policy of banning gay leaders and Scouts.

"[Ryan] notified his unit leadership and Eagle Scout Counselor that he does not agree to Scouting’s principle of 'Duty to God' and does not meet Scouting’s membership standard on sexual orientation," Boy Scouts spokesperson Deron Smith explained to NBC News in a statement. "While the BSA did not proactively ask for this information, based on his statements and after discussion with his family he is being informed that he is no longer eligible for membership in Scouting."

Karen Andresen created a Change.org petition calling on the Boy Scouts to award Ryan with the Eagle Scout honor that he earned. The petition had received over 132,000 signatures by Friday morning.

(h/t: Towelroad)