These days it seems “religious”-based organizations that seek to demonize our community are making more progress damaging their own credibility. Few others demonstrate this better than the Boy Scouts of America. Just last week Douglas Smith Jr., with nearly 40 years of service for the Boy Scouts, pleaded guilty to receiving and/or distributing child pornography.

Investigators found 520 images and video clips depicting males under the age of 18 – including prepubescent males under the age of 12. The clincher: Smith was architect to an Internet training program designed to teach adult leaders and parents how protect youth from sexual abuse.

Already under investigation for inflating enrollment information by tens of thousands to increase grant money from organizations such as United Way, their claim that they teach traditional American values seems, well, laughable. And to brand homosexuality as immoral and claim gays and lesbians are not appropriate role models for America’s youth makes you wonder just what is their understanding of morality?

It has become increasingly difficult to place faith in organizations that profess any sort of religious-based moral authority. Never will you find more hypocrisy than in religion – well except maybe politics, but it’s a close call.

Take Bishop Brom, for example. Following his apology to the McCusker family a few weeks ago, he left two messages on James Hartline’s answering machine to clarify that he still supported “their” position (to refuse Catholic funeral services to the McCuskers), to which Hartline turned over to the San Diego Union-Tribune. This proved to the McCusker family, the GLBT community and the Catholics of San Diego the lack of sincerity and remorse found in his apology. And Hartline, of all people: a radical, supposed “ex-gay” Catholic that’s right up there with the Jerry Falwells and Fred Phelpses, who have made it their life’s work to demonize and discriminate against the GLBT community.

But should this really surprise us when Pope John Paul II, former leader of the Catholic Church, was equally conservative and exclusionary towards gays? While he is honored and loved by many, you can’t help but look at the legacy he leaves behind and notice his unequivocal opposition to homosexuals and contraception, as well as his slow response to the sex scandal within the church.

When cities around the U.S. began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples last year, the pope came forward and urged public authorities to stop approving same-sex marriage, saying they “degrade” the true sense of marriage between a man and a woman. Describing same-sex marriage as “a new ideology of evil” that is insidiously threatening to society; the pope represents an old ideology of intolerance unwilling to reach out to the gay and lesbian community.

Most reprehensible was his position on contraception, insisting abstinence and marital fidelity are the only means of stopping the spread of AIDS. With many in the Catholic Church finally beginning to budge on condom use to protect against HIV/AIDS, the pope precluded much needed progress by reaffirming the church’s outdated and unrealistic stance on contraception.

Africa, with the largest AIDS population in the world, is also home to the fastest growing number of Catholics. The church must realize the devastating consequences its attachment to cultural and religious tradition has on society.

A little too reminiscent of the recent Boy Scouts scandal, the Catholic Church’s history of sexual abuse still plagues them. Can a new pope restore the people’s faith in the church? Will he be able to unite a church divided between those conservative and moderate?

For those of faith, we don’t mean to crucify religion. The Boy Scouts, Bishop Brom and others give religion a bad rap. Just as religious leaders become increasingly conservative, more are opening their doors to gays and lesbians, supporting same-sex marriage and teaching the importance of tolerance, if not acceptance. It’s easy to lose faith these days, but here in San Diego we’ve seen how religious institutions have supported us, such as St. Paul’s Cathedral, the seat of San Diego’s Episcopal Diocese, and the Metropolitan Community Church. And if there is one thing we all can have faith in, it’s our own ability to create community despite those who stand against us.