Mt. Bethel Church drops charter status with Boy Scouts

Saturday was to have been the 50th birthday celebration for Boy Scout Troop 1011, which was chartered at Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church and has met there ever since.

But the anniversary event was postponed after church leadership decided not to renew its charter with the Boy Scouts of America.

Mt. Bethel Church—renamed after it left the United Methodist Church in a contentious dispute that ended in a court settlement this summer—said the change was being made due to increasing insurance costs.

A spokeswoman for the church said that Mt. Bethel and the troop are working on “a mutual agreement” for the scouts to continue to meet at Mt. Bethel while a new charter organization is brought on board.

“Mt. Bethel and Troop 1011 have a long, fruitful relationship and Mt. Bethel recognizes the value of the troop and acknowledges its history,” Samantha Black said in a statement on behalf of the church. “We have enjoyed a great relationship and the Troop continues to meet on the Mt. Bethel campus.”

The Boy Scouts of America requires troops to be chartered by organizations that must provide insurance for their events and activities.

They’re typically churches and other community organizations that allow troops to meet on their premises.

They also can be third parties. The new chartering organization for Troop 1011 will be the Rotary Club of East Cobb, according to Bob Ott, the troop’s charter representative.

He’s a Mt. Bethel Church member and a former Cobb commissioner who said the timing of the change had nothing to with the church’s new status as an independent church.

“This is totally related to this being the time every year when chartering is done by the Boy Scouts,” he said, adding that he was speaking on behalf of the troop.

Troop 1011, he said, “isn’t being kicked out” and that the charter change will enable the church and the troop to continue “a great partnership.”

Ott said that property and gear belonging to the scouts remain on the Mt. Bethel campus.

East Cobb News has left a message with the Rotary Club of East Cobb seeking comment.

In Mt. Bethel’s legal settlement in Cobb Superior Court, it was required to pay $13.1 million to the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The dispute centered around the Conference’s reassignment of Rev. Dr. Jody Ray, the senior pastor, in the spring of 2021.

Mt. Bethel is among the Methodist churches that in recent years have expressed theological concerns on a number of issues, including ordaining gay clergy and performing same-sex marriages.

Both are currently banned by the UMC, but that is expected to change.

UMC delegates were to have voted on a set of protocols to allow conservative congregations to leave in 2020, but its global conference has been delayed several times due to COVID-19 restrictions and has been rescheduled for 2024.

In 2013, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church cut ties entirely with the Boy Scouts after the latter began permitting openly gay scouts.

Since then, the Boy Scouts also have accepted openly gay scout leaders.

Ott said the issue of gays in the Boy Scouts had no bearing on Mt. Bethel’s decision not to be Troop 1011’s chartering organization.

Troop 1011’s 50th anniversary celebration, initially set for McFarlane Nature Park on Paper Mill Road, is being postponed until it completes the chartering process with the Rotary Club.

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