With Boy Scout leaders preparing to vote Thursday on whether to accept openly gay Scouts, protesters on both sides are descending upon the suburb of Grapevine, Tex.

People from various perspectives who are interested in the vote outcome – scheduled to be announced around 5 p.m. Dallas-Fort Worth time – will be visible at marches, rallies and likely non-stop press availabilities. Expect to see Scouts and their families, adult leaders and people who have no direct connection with Scouting but are revved up about whether openly gay Scouts affirm or mar Boy Scout values.

On the table: a resolution to end the Scouts’ longtime ban on openly gay members. The existing ban on openly gay adult leaders would remain.

What you likely won’t see: the people making the decision. That’s because the names of the 1,400-member National Council – leaders from around the country -- are kept confidential. The majority of people voting have not made their names, nor how they plan to vote, public.

Scouts hold signs at the "Save Our Scouts" Prayer Vigil and Rally at the Boy Scouts of America National Headquarters in Irving, Tex., on Feb. 6, 2013. The Boy Scouts of America is asking local leaders from across the country to decide whether its membership policy should be overhauled to allow openly gay boys. (Richard W. Rodriguez - AP) The Catholic Church, one of the country’s largest sponsors of Boy Scout troops, is “hopeful” about remaining with the Scouts — even if its governing board later this week votes to welcome openly gay scouts, a new letter appears to say.

In a May 19 letter to the group Scouts for Equality, Bishop Robert Guglielmone of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting says “with regard to a possible BSA membership change, we will continue to uphold the truths of the Church’s teaching and strive to maintain our ties with the BSA,” Guglielmone wrote. “The Catholic Church in the United States has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the BSA, and I hope that relationship can continue.”

Marion Kaucic participates in a candlelight vigil at Friendship Square in Moscow, Idaho, on Monday, April 15, 2013. Local runners held the vigil and a 2.62-mile run in support of those injured in the bombings at the Boston Marathon. (Geoff Crimmins/AP Photo/Moscow-Pullman Daily News ) (Geoff Crimmins - AP)

As news reports out of Boston continue to evolve from Monday’s bombing, religious and nonreligious leaders and activists contemplated the existence of evil and good.

Social media sites lit up Monday with prayers flowing in for the victims of Monday’s bombing at the Boston Marathon.

It’s official: Judaism isn’t a religion. Or, it isn’t only a religion. 

That’s the argument of some leading Jewish educators, who say American Jews need to look hard at their beliefs and practices and embrace their reality. Which is that Jews strongly identify as Jewish, but that identity is in many ways a non-religious one.

Getting Jews to take seriously this non-religious religious thing is the new goal of groups like the Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning, which on Sunday will put on the Washington area’s largest annual Jewish educational event. As many as 800 people are expected to come for a whirlwind of classes on Jewish life, including those on comedy, cooking, the environment, Israeli politics and medical ethics, among dozens of others. (Full disclosure: I’m presenting one of the classes, on religion and journalism). 

Sure, lots of people think of Judaism and already think non-religion — “Seinfeld,” lox and bagels, you know the deal. But Partnership CEO James Hyman says Americans “trivialize” non-religious aspects of religion. We talk about it, but we don’t take it seriously. 

The argument of Jewish leaders like Hyman is that non-religious aspects of religion are important and deep. Things like Jewish drumming or Jewish genetics can help people form strong connections to one another and offer important avenues into Jewish values.

 A program like this reflects the Jewish community’s knowledge that many American Jews are slipping from its organized aspects. Jews are likely to hold tightly to their identity as members of the Jewish community, but when compared with almost every other faith group, they rank near the bottom on most measures of religiousness: belief in God, importance of religion in one’s life, attendance of religious services, frequency of prayer.

But there is a new generation of Jewish leaders such as Hyman who are working to embrace the people they call “free-range Jews.” Such people, they say, don’t want to join anything or commit to specific beliefs, but they very much want to be Jewish and explore what that means.

“We have a very broad definition of what it means to be Jewish,” Hyman said.

I’m looking forward to meeting some of these free-range Jews on Sunday and will report back!