Church Re-evaluating Relationship with BSA

[billbillbillbill]

Like the past 5 years, I was at scout camp this year; our new YM president (who has two boys in the program) refused to walk half a mile up a hill to go to a night time presentation. But the next day was talking about - rather than going to scout camp next year, taking the boys on a “50 miler” because it would be “cheaper.” So a guy who cannot walk up a hill one night wants me to trust my boys with him on a 50 miler next summer all over the matter of a few bucks? No thanks. I don’t want my boys to have to perform CPR on him, or carry him to an emergency helicopter (although that would be an awesome story.) So what happens to the summer adventure program when these goofballs don’t have a ready-made structured camping experience available to provide to the youth? I’ve assumed that it would have to be done at a stake level, because so many wards would muff it.
At least that’s take on the situation.

I know my parent's stake does a stake summer scout camp every couple of years with their own merit badge councilors and program which has been successful. The Salt Lake Tribune talked to the Utah councils and said they are independent of the national BSA and their camps are too so possibly the existing scout camps in Utah could be independent or become church run similar to the Heber Valley Girls camp. I know Hinckley Scout Ranch already has a program for Young Women offered there.

[jvquarterback]

Well I'd be happy if the church dropped scouting regardless of the recent decisions. As a youth I despised scouting - partly the uniform but mostly the Lord of the Flies style youth leadership we had. My wife says the reason I've had to work with the young men in scouting for 15 years is because of how much I hated it as a kid.

For the past 13 years I've forced the other leaders to let the boys actually decide and plan their activities and it's made all the difference. No mandated overnight trips every month and kids who don't want to go to scout camp plan another, much cheaper (and much more fun) activity.

My number one reason for wanting the end of LDS church sponsored scouting is the decreased meeting times for adults. If the church ditches scouting I will jump for joy every time I hear about a roundtable, rechartering, or friends of scouting that I won't have to participate in.

[nuk13]

It looks to me like the homosexuals and liberals are clawing to dominate the rest of us and they are using force and shame to do it. They have the supreme court and other factions of government on their side. You can only take so much. The scouts made their choice and the church will make theirs.

The Baptists are not going to like this either. I don't know how the Methodists and Catholics will take it. It's a sad day.

[Schmoe]

Good riddance to the BSA. It's a hollow shell of what it used to/was meant to be. The founders of scouting must be rolling in their graves. How can we teach young men to stand up for something when the organization and the very leaders they're supposed to look up to won't? I think that we'll see membership numbers cut in half pretty quickly and the BSA will then die a slow death. RIP.

[Ddawg]

I have fond memories of Scouting trips in my Ward troop. Our Scoutmaster drove us to our camping site, dropped us off, and drove to a hotel where he spent the night. He showed up the next day about 10am - with his breakfast in a bag from a fast food chain. Us boys? We had a great time. All the guys had paper routes and mowed lawns - they used the money to buy pot. They had their canteens filled with cheap wine they stole from their non-members parents homes. So, all Friday night, they played poker, smoked pot, and drank cheap wine. There were about 3 of us that were too scared to join in. I was one of those 3 wussies. We huddled in our tent and listened to the kewl crowd whoop it up - wanting to be included - but glad we weren't. Scouting was an interesting experience.

[scott715]

Were you there with no adult leaders? I can't believe that would happen.

[Ddawg]

Were you there with no adult leaders? I can't believe that would happen.

No, we had an adult leader. He drove us to our campsite, dropped us off, and drove to a hotel. He came back the next morning around 10 am.

[scott715]

No supervision at the camp? What if something happened like an injury? That leader would have been in big trouble.

[Ddawg]

No supervision at the camp? What if something happened like an injury? That leader would have been in big trouble.

Very true. That's why no one in the troop ever told their parents what was going on. There were about 10-12 of us at any given time. No one ever ever ratted out our Scoutmaster - he was well liked. He could not have cared less about camping - but he was cool. We also didn't do any camp cooking while he was Scoutmaster. He always brought us fast food breakfast in a bag when he showed up. He lasted about 2 years until he moved out of the ward. As I recall, not many merit badges were earned during that time.

[Mars]

One thing I am blown away by is the amount of people critical of the church's support of the BSA. Maybe I have been living under a rock but so many in my ward and others can't wait for the split to happen.

Well, consider the budget split between LDS boys and LDS girls. If you said that the boys got 95%, and the girls 5%, you might be overstating the girls' amount...