Mormon Church leaving Boy Scouts

[Spring Bass]

This time completely, although they'd already left the organization for scouts over 13:

Quote

Sacramento Bee

SALT LAKE CITY 

The Mormon church said Tuesday it will sever all ties with the Boy Scouts of America at the end of next year and place its remaining 425,000 boys into a gospel-focused youth program it is developing. The move ends a nearly century-old relationship that was based on their shared values.

The announcement by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Boy Scouts didn't come as a complete surprise after the religion last year removed 185,000 boys between the ages of 14 and 18, signaling that an end to the long-time alliance was near.

Joining the Boy Scouts is practically automatic among Mormon boys, and the religion has long been the biggest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in the United States. The Mormon boys who will be leaving represent about 18.5 percent of the 2.3 million youth in the organization.

The Mormon church said in a statement that the move is about creating its own youth program that it can use for its increasingly global membership, but the two organizations' values clearly have been diverging in recent years.

. . . . .

I'd forgotten that they'd already pulled out of Varsity Scouting, so this was a surprise to me. It's a pretty big shift in the organization - the LDS Church was a long-time major sponsor of the Boy Scouts, had major influence on its governing board, and if you grew up Mormon and male in Utah you almost always joined the Boy Scouts (I remember our attendance rolls had the church attendance and boy scout meeting attendance tallies on the same sheet). It's a pretty big chunk of the organization leaving, 425,000 boys out of 2.7 million in the BSA total. 

But I guess it's not super surprising. The church was always a force opposing the inclusion of LGBT scouts and leaders, and they aren't even the first to leave (see the origin of Trail Life USA and American Heritage Girls). Once they pulled out the older boys, it was probably just a matter of time - and I wouldn't be surprised if the Boy Scouts decision to allow girls in simply sped it up a bit. 

Bleh, although it will probably be a smooth transition. The LDS church already has its own youth group stuff aside from scouts, so they can just move it all in-house now (which appears to be what they're doing). 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Allowing females into all BSA programs must be why.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

14 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Allowing females into all BSA programs must be why.

The changes are actually a lot more nuanced than that. The reporting on the inclusion of girls hasn’t been that great. Listen to the first segment of this podcast:

http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2018/05/07/boy-scouts-change-name-welcome-girls-to-program

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

31 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

The changes are actually a lot more nuanced than that. The reporting on the inclusion of girls hasn’t been that great. Listen to the first segment of this podcast:

http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2018/05/07/boy-scouts-change-name-welcome-girls-to-program

My son’s former Cubscout pack has girls.  Boy Scouts opens to girls next year.  We’ve been working with a girl in the Webelos 1 den I’m the assistant leader for.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

My son’s former Cubscout pack has girls.  Boy Scouts opens to girls next year.  We’ve been working with a girl in the Webelos 1 den I’m the assistant leader for.

My understanding is that girls have been allowed to participate for a while, depending on the desires of the local units. The real change that's happening is they're laying down a frame work to allow girls to get the same recognition as the boys, i.e. being able to say they made Eagle Scout on their college applications. The only down side to all of this IMO is that they didn't notify and attempt to coordinate this with the Girl Scouts. The latter seems pretty damn pissed off.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

6 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

My understanding is that girls have been allowed to participate for a while, depending on the desires of the local units. The real change that's happening is they're laying down a frame work to allow girls to get the same recognition as the boys, i.e. being able to say they made Eagle Scout on their college applications. The only down side to all of this IMO is that they didn't notify and attempt to coordinate this with the Girl Scouts. The latter seems pretty damn pissed off.

Yes.  Why would BSA coordinate with GSUSA?  They are completely separate organizations.  There is no relationship between the two.

[Spring Bass]

There isn't, but I can still see why the GSUSA would be angry - it could blatantly turn into a way to poach girls to shore up BSA membership at the expense of the Girl Scouts. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

31 minutes ago, Fall Bass said:

There isn't, but I can still see why the GSUSA would be angry - it could blatantly turn into a way to poach girls to shore up BSA membership at the expense of the Girl Scouts. 

None of the girls in my son’s former cub scout pack were Girl Scouts before they started with us.  We have 7 girls out of a total membership of about 35.  That doesn’t suggest much “poaching” is going on.  It suggests these are girls who want a different program from the one offered by GSUSA.

[Yukle]

16 hours ago, Fall Bass said:

This time completely, although they'd already left the organization for scouts over 13:

I'd forgotten that they'd already pulled out of Varsity Scouting, so this was a surprise to me. It's a pretty big shift in the organization - the LDS Church was a long-time major sponsor of the Boy Scouts, had major influence on its governing board, and if you grew up Mormon and male in Utah you almost always joined the Boy Scouts (I remember our attendance rolls had the church attendance and boy scout meeting attendance tallies on the same sheet). It's a pretty big chunk of the organization leaving, 425,000 boys out of 2.7 million in the BSA total. 

But I guess it's not super surprising. The church was always a force opposing the inclusion of LGBT scouts and leaders, and they aren't even the first to leave (see the origin of Trail Life USA and American Heritage Girls). Once they pulled out the older boys, it was probably just a matter of time - and I wouldn't be surprised if the Boy Scouts decision to allow girls in simply sped it up a bit. 

Bleh, although it will probably be a smooth transition. The LDS church already has its own youth group stuff aside from scouts, so they can just move it all in-house now (which appears to be what they're doing). 

Wait... What?!

Are the Scouts in America exclusively boys?! Why is America so progressive in some things and so behind in others?

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

9 minutes ago, Yukle said:

Wait... What?!

Are the Scouts in America exclusively boys?! Why is America so progressive in some things and so behind in others?

 

No we aren’t and haven’t been for more than 40 years.  Explorer and Venture Scouts have been coed for decades.  BSA is simply opening all its programs to boys and girls.

[Yukle]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

No we aren’t and haven’t been for more than 40 years.  Explorer and Venture Scouts have been coed for decades.  BSA is simply opening all its programs to boys and girls.

Oh, that makes more sense. I was so confused.