Unit = Troop (Boy Scouts), Pack (Cub Scouts), Ship (Sea Scouts), Crew (Venture Scouts), Post (Explorer Scouts)
Churches have long provided the location for meetings and storage for gear - it makes sense because churches have space that is not used during the week.
The Mormons turned their entire youth program into Scouting. EVERY Mormon boy is in Scouting, and there is even something called Varsity Scouting that was created to mirror the life path of a Mormon youth. Nobody else uses it except them.
Even better, consider a married woman applying to be a Den Mother. Married to a man, okay, married to a woman in those states where that is possible, not okay. Sure, that’s not bigoted.
My first troop was sponsored by our local civic organization, the second by our synagogue. I am just stunned that Mormons, who don’t have that many members, have such a predominant number of units.
I don’t see the big deal about scouting. I went to one session of something similar, where we were instructed to do some bowling, which I was miserable at. Then we were told to pray, which annoyed me for some reason. I already went to Church once a week, why masquerade as a fun event if it just involves more prayer? A sibling of mine attended a scouting group for several weeks and enjoyed the social side, which I get, but I don’t think the scouting organisation is integral to it. I certainly don’t feel deprived for not going through the hierarchy as a youth.
Hmmm… that doesn’t match my experience, but then again my experience was some 25 years ago. I was involved in a varsity scout group as part of a troop sponsored by the Methodist church. Basically it was just a group of older scouts that did longer back packs, and rock climbing that would have been difficult to do with younger scouts.
The only connection with Mormonism that I saw was when one of our leaders (a Methodist Army Ranger). Took us to a military training camp near Salt lake city to practice our rapelling, and he pointed out that the big statue of Joseph Smith on top of the main Salt lake temple had his back to the church and his hand held out to the First national Bank.
ETA: Looking at pictures of the main temple on google show that I am probably misremembering which statue, where, and of whom, but the gist of the story is correct.
As a Girl Scout leader, Scouting can be an incredible experience if you stick with it. For us, the best things have been sleep away camp - which fosters independence (we’ve used the YMCA camp system with my non Scouting son), the leadership development - my daughter has spent hours being trained to work with younger girls, and some long term planning (the want to use cookie money to take a big trip - that involves saving the money - and it also involves five girls compromising on the trip they want to take - so far, they aren’t there). Our troop values public service (because our leaders value public service) so we’ve done a lot of public service things with the girls (picking up trash, planting a garden for a group home) that they might not do otherwise.
But these are experiences you can get other places (like Y camp), and they aren’t experiences I’m willing to join a hate group in order to give my son. Nor am I willing to have him lie and pledge to do his duty to God which is for him a meaningless statement (my troop in Girl Scouts doesn’t use God when we pledge - which is fine with the Girl Scouts - both troop leaders are UUs with atheist husbands).
And something like that is what triggered the latest news on it - a woman became the Den Mother of her son’s troop when he joined Scouting. She was removed from the position in April, as she is a lesbian and has a female partner.
You guys and gals need to let up on this “hate group” business.
To me a “hate group” is a group where one of the founding principles, one of the main purposes, the reason folks join it in the first place, and virtually every person in the group believes it is okay to hate some other group.
None of which applies to the Scouts IMO.
The Scouts have sorta been taken over by people less than friendly to gay people (though, on the other hand they aren’t calling for their jailing, hanging or being run out of town either).
To hear some people tell it GWB hated pretty much everybody other than rich white people and him and his cronies ran roughshod over those poor folks for 8 years.
Did that make the US Federal government a hate group and every government worker a member of a hate group.
Please, save this hate group label crap for people like the Neo Nazis and the KKK.
I wasn’t allowed to take my shirt off. It was miserable. Maybe that was a restriction imposed on us Mormon boys.. You know a little bit of skin showing and orgies happen everywhere.
This scuttlebutt is however not played out when you look at the facts. The Canadian Boy Scouts have no restriction on gay members yet the Mormon church continues to participate in their program.
If the BSA decided to allow gay members I doubt they’d see any decline in membership on par with what they’ve seen since they fought for their rights to be bigots.
I feel the BSA only needs to accept diversity and they’d be able to grow again rather than dying a slow death over this issue they’ve staked there future on.
No. This is about the Mormon influence and their bigotry.
Is it? Talk to some gay people. Many of them knew from a very young age.
Oh fuck off. They don’t allow gay people in. That’s a much bigger stance than thier statements. You know, actions speak louder than words.
It’s the BSA that made sexuality an issue. They are the ones that made it a deal at all.
The biggest lesson they are teaching is all about sexual orientation. There may be no badges involved, but the lesson is there.
There’s no fucking grey area in this issue. This case is all black and white.
I think the way Algher is trying to change things isn’t all that great (here’s some legitimate gray area, but I think a total boycott is much better), but at least he realizes that he should be working for change. You’re defending the bigots.
Thumbs up to the Girls Scouts. The Boy Scouts might die without the Mormons, and the bigotry might end up killing them anyways. Good riddance.
I understand why the BSA decided to get in bed with the Mormons, but that decision was short-sighted backwards thinking. They only have themselves to blame. Hate group.
The relatively small number of Canadian Mormon scouts means they didn’t bother making a fuss. However, they know they’re the proverbial 800 pound gorilla in U.S. scouting. How many BSA board members are Mormon? Quite a few.
If the BSA relents on the gay issue, will the Mormon Church really pull all 37,000 troops? Maybe, maybe not. They certainly have the financial resources and personnel to create their own program from scratch and virtually gut the BSA in one fell swoop. It’s a risk the BSA board can’t take, and won’t take without the Mormon church’s express consent.
A few Councils have pushed back. Philadelphia / Cradle of Liberty Council used to officially ignore the BSA Bigotry stance, but they got slapped for it. Another Council has this on their website: