Mormon Church to leave Boy Scouts

[desertvixen]

@DarkAnts, I have noticed the "accident factor", although I'm not living out west right now.

@anachronistic, sadly yes.  Usually at something involving camping or water activities.

[livinginthelight]

So tonight I saw a friend who is an LDS boy scout leader and asked him about all this. It's a little hazy to me because the system is different and I'll explain it to the best of my understanding. 

According to him, it's not as bad as the article initially sounded. Their system is a bit different than the regular scouting program, with boy scouts only going to age 13, then Venturing and Exploring take over. There are different age group brackets, with the boys being sectioned off by age. If I recall correctly, the boys are grouped 11 - 13 (boy scouts), 14 - 16 (Venturing? Exploring?) and 17 - 18 (the other one of Venturing/Exploring) . Or something like that.

He made the additional comment that while Eagle is a goal for them, the biggest goal is preparing the boys for their missions. So they will remain in scouting but they just won't focus on it as much. And they want to start focusing on the girls MORE, so that is a good thing

Anyway, all they are doing is dropping the separate Venturing/Exploring component. They are still doing boy scouts, and boys can participate all the way to Eagle. The LDS leadership will still participate at the council and district levels.

Our troop also had a Venture crew attached. It was struggling. For those who don't know what Venturing is, it's a related but separate outdoor skills training for youth (boys AND girls) ages 14 - 18. I think Venturing and Exploring in general is on the decline. So maybe the LDS decision makes sense.

[Jencendiary]

Of course it's the co-educational component getting thrown in the bushes.

[ADoyle90815]

There have been times when a Boy Scout has somehow gotten lost while on a camping trip even in southern California, and in the majority of those cases, it was a Mormon scout who was part of a church troop who got lost. Another thing I thought when I heard that the church was gradually pulling out of Boy Scouts, is that search and rescue teams are probably relieved.

[CyborgKin]

Fascinating, I didn't know about the boyscouts/LDS connection, or that scouting could be fatal!

Quote

Boy Scouts of American spokeswoman Effie Delimarkos said the organization is saddened about the decision but understands the need for the religion to customize its programming.

Interesting choice of wording.

[livinginthelight]

10 hours ago, Jencendiary said:

Of course it's the co-educational component getting thrown in the bushes.

I should have clarified that Venturing is coeducational in non-LDS troops. I doubt it ever was coeducational for the Mormons.

[lilwriter85]

My cousin worked in administration for BSA in Colorado and New Mexico for close to ten years. He said that the LDS troops were hard to deal with. Many didn't follow BSA rules. Back in 2012, LDS troops were handing campaign info and putting up signs for the Mitt Romney campaign. That caused shitstorm between adminstration and those troops.

[eightykatie]

Here (New England) the scouting program is run through the town, and they meet at the library or the school.  The churches don't seem to have anything to do with it

(caveat: my son is only a cub scout, not a boy scout)

[BiblebeltCath]

Many years ago when we moved, my parents were happy that down the street from our house was a boy in my grade. They figured he could introduce me to people. Before we moved in though, he was killed at a Boy Scout Jamboree. They tried to make a record-setting human pyramid, it collapsed, and a lot of people fell on top of him. It was so tragic. I don't know if he was Mormon.

I do have a Mormon friend who is very involved in Boy Scouts. He's upset by this decision, but pointed out that leading the troop at a church is a calling that is just assigned to people. The people who lead are not necessarily interested in the job at all, or good at it, but they aren't supposed to decline a calling. I'm sure that leads to a lot of problems in quality, safety, and consistency.

He also said that the program for older kids had a lot of problems with funding. The church didn't fund it, and the boys aren't allowed to fund it themselves, so they were supposed to come up with free projects. It sounds like a big mess to me.

[lilwriter85]

On 5/20/2017 at 3:37 PM, BiblebeltCath said:

I do have a Mormon friend who is very involved in Boy Scouts. He's upset by this decision, but pointed out that leading the troop at a church is a calling that is just assigned to people. The people who lead are not necessarily interested in the job at all, or good at it, but they aren't supposed to decline a calling. I'm sure that leads to a lot of problems in quality, safety, and consistency.

I think that is what happened with Mormon blogger Stephanie Nielson's husband. He was called to be a troop leader and it always seemed that he and Stephanie weren't happy about it.  There was another Mormon blogger that I used to follow whose husband was a troop leader and he seemed happy being one.

[ADoyle90815]

On 5/20/2017 at 3:37 PM, BiblebeltCath said:

I do have a Mormon friend who is very involved in Boy Scouts. He's upset by this decision, but pointed out that leading the troop at a church is a calling that is just assigned to people. The people who lead are not necessarily interested in the job at all, or good at it, but they aren't supposed to decline a calling. I'm sure that leads to a lot of problems in quality, safety, and consistency.

I think that one issue is that in non-LDS troops, the adults are there because they actually want to be there, and they have passed a background check first. Adults in LDS troops are there because it was a church calling, and Mormons are taught from childhood that it's a sin to decline a calling, so you frequently find people who really don't want to be there, but they felt they couldn't decline that calling.