With the October 7, 2013, signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, Pres. Harrison and the LCMS plight their troth to "respect the membership standard of the Boy Scouts of America." That BSA membership standard allows boys (11-17) to be scouts regardless of their "sexual orientation or preference alone." The BSA website defines this standard as no longer banning "openly gay youth members," reported, as well, in many news articles.

Pres. Harrison had also previously described this new BSA membership standard of "openly homosexual scouts" as a "crucial moment in history," a "crisis of conscience," "promoting a moral position that we as LCMS Lutherans believe is against the will of God and in opposition to Holy Scripture," "effectively will have superseded the authority of our church teaching," and "perhaps even placing us in legal jeopardy."

With the signed obeisance of the Missouri Synod, congregations who sponsor BSA troops will be on their own (so much for "walking together" as a synod) in future civil or other court cases involving any alleged action taken with a scout member or applicant who only declares himself to be openly homosexual or some other openly non-heterosexual orientation or preference.

Instead of standing firm on the right position, the LCMS has ended up (again) tapdancing to the "Newtown Flip-Flop."