This is headline news because it’s basically the death of the (former) Boy Scouts as an organization. The new, politically correct, all-inclusive, gender-neutral “Scouts BSA” committed suicide. Good riddance to them.<\/p>\n
The LDS church in the U.S. had already separated itself from two specific programs designed for teenagers. They didn’t say it was because<\/em> of the Scouts recent history of PC decisions overturning traditional Scout values. In fact the then-Boy Scouts had given the church special permission to conduct its scouting operations in harmony with its religious beliefs. But did anybody believe the church’s claim that the programs for teens were merely “inconvenient”?<\/p>\n As of 2020, Mormons will be completely divorced<\/a> from the Scouts BSA and its shifting-with-the-political-winds BS.<\/p>\n It’s obligatory to say here that I believe that the Scouts, a private organization, have a right to make whatever peaceable decisions they wish. As do the Mormons. <\/p>\n But for an outfit that’s supposedly designed to turn boys into men, the Scouts have been aggressively betraying their own mission for decades. They’ve gradually replaced fun but “dangerous” activities with wimpy ones. And lately they’ve made major decisions that seem solely intended to appease the very people who want to demolish the concept of manhood<\/em>.<\/p>\n Think about that: They have denatured themselves attempting to please the very people who most want their historic values and mission obliterated.<\/em> <\/p>\n My friend Furrydoc and her family have been involved in scouting for years. Both their sons are Eagle Scouts and Furrydoc’s husband is a long-time scout leader (blessedly of the sort who still conducts “dangerous” activities). <\/p>\n When the Scouts decided to admit girls, I asked Furrydoc if they were going to quit scouting (especially since, by then, their boys were in college). They were thinking about it, but planned to hang in there for the sake of three other boys who were still aiming to make Eagle.<\/p>\n Now? They’re out.<\/p>\n Scouts’ membership has declined rapidly in the last few years. Perhaps this is merely a sign of changing times. Or perhaps it’s a response to the Scouts’ earlier decisions to forbid interestingly “dangerous” activities. It’s easy to see why they’re now desperate to reinvent and revive themselves. It’s harder to see why they’ve chosen the course of blurring their identity and abandoning their traditions, seemingly without a second thought.<\/p>\n I had lunch with Furrydoc on Saturday, before the latest announcement from the LDS church, but after the BSA name change. We talked about this. “All it would take,” I said, “is for the Mormons to announce ‘we’re quitting and starting our own organization for boys’ and the Scouts are dead. Don’t they realize that?”<\/p>\n Over half of all Scout troops are sponsored by churches (overwhelmingly Protestant). Of course, some of those churches are liberal and will absorb all the PC decisions. <\/p>\n