More United Way chapters are leaning on the Scouts, and major corporations have been pulling their funding in recent months, United Parcel Service (UPS), Intel and Merck among them. This must worry Scout executives, five of whom make more than $410,000 annually, including Chief Scout Executive Robert J. Mazzuca, who was paid $815,000 in salary in 2011, plus another $166,000 in other compensation. CFO James J. Terry Jr. made $697,000 in 2011, according to the Scouts’ 990 Form, and COO C. Wayne Brock made $568,000.

Boy Scouts learn to start fires by rubbing two sticks together. Now, the national Scout leadership is playing with fire. Scratch that — they’re playing with explosives.

Under consideration for a vote during a board of directors meeting beginning Feb. 4 is a rules change that would overturn the Scouts’ ban on openly homosexual members and leaders.

A press release on Jan. 28 by Scouts spokesman Deron Smith said, “This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, but that the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with their organization’s mission, principles or religious beliefs.”

In other words, sponsoring organizations could now coerce Scout troops to accept openly homosexual men and boys. Scout councils in liberal jurisdictions would lose the national shield. Those who resist would be kicked out of schools and other locales. This “local option” would signal surrender and destroy the Boy Scouts. Without parental trust, the Boy Scouts, founded in 1910 and which have been instrumental in helping millions of boys transition to manhood, would implode like a popped balloon. Does anyone other than left-wing ideologues and America’s enemies think this would be good for America?

The policy change would pose a real and present danger to the boys, as vividly illustrated by the still-simmering scandals involving serial boy molester Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Although homosexual activists try to camouflage the real issue by saying that it’s about pedophilia, not homosexuality, most of the victims were male teens and young men. Now, the Boy Scouts seem to be on the verge of going in the wrong direction.

A 1994 book, “Scouts Dishonor,” by Patrick Boyle, revealed 1,800 cases in which Scout leaders had been dismissed for abusing boys. In 2010, a jury awarded $18.5 million to a man abused by a pedophilic Scoutmaster. Given all this, it’s unfathomable for the Scouts to flirt with the idea of opening their ranks to males attracted to other males. Some of the perpetrators were married, but they obviously had same-sex inclinations, which is the whole point. We don’t allow men — even trustworthy men — to take nubile young girls camping. It’s a common-sense precaution.

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