The Boy Scouts of America is considering declaring bankruptcy, according to a Wall Street Journal report.I remember going to a state-level jamboree when I was ten or eleven, and being struck by all the Americana of the thing. There were hundreds of other boys in uniforms with American flags on the shoulders, and all sorts of knots and woodcraft, and the smell of pine wood fires by day and night. There was an astronaut who came not just to speak but to spend the day wandering around and meeting the boys, giving us a sense of what we as Americans might aspire to do if we worked hard. There were fireworks one night, and patriotic music.
The Wednesday report comes in the wake of sinking membership and multiple controversies surrounding the 108-year-old organization, including sex abuse allegations and its controversial decision to change its program name from Boy Scouts to Scouts BSA and allow girls into that program....
As the organization has made decisions deemed to be more inclusive, such as allowing openly gay scouts in 2013 and scoutmasters in 2015 as well as the 2018 decision to allow girls, membership has continued to decline sharply, from over 4 million members at its peak to a claimed 2.3 million members at present.... Those numbers will likely continue to decline....
Additionally, the Boy Scouts have come under criticism of late for keeping records of sex abuse perpetrated by scoutmasters — called the “perversion files” — under wraps for decades instead of revealing them to the public.
It was one of two moments in my life when I felt the most patriotic, the other one coming many years later under fire in Iraq. I was there, I don't doubt in part, because of the impact made on me by the Boy Scout Handbook of my era. "Be always ready with your armor on," it said without irony, and, "Maintain the honor of your country with your life."
Somewhere between then and now, a lot of people decided to change the Boy Scouts from what it was to what it is. It looks likely to die of what has been done to it. With it will pass away one of the glories of my youth, one of the last institutions that shaped young men to seek high things like honor, duty, love of America, and the strength and skill to walk the Wild.
The march through the institutions, phase n.
ReplyDelete1. Identify a respected institution.
ReplyDelete2. kill it.
3. gut it.
4. wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.
There will be other places and organizations to fill this need with memberships from one to thousands. The Boy Scouts simply organized what every father should teach his son.
ReplyDeleteA friend of Baden-Powell's we should know
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Russell_Burnham
It is clear why they kept the lid on the sexual attacks -allowing homosexuals to be Boy scout leaders is no different than allowing heterosexual men to be Girl scout leaders-except they have a PC protection racket going on. Too risky to call them out.
For Catholic youth, the very worthy successor is the Troops of St. George. Founded by Taylor Marshall, no more need be said!
ReplyDeletehttps://troopsofsaintgeorge.org/
That sounds fantastic, Dad29. Too bad they didn't exist ten years ago when my son was starting out.
ReplyDeleteI think the announcement of the death of the Boy Scouts is premature. It's not that I'm not greatly concerned, but I also know that at the local level, scouting is very much like it's been since we were kids, depending on the specific personality of the troop of course. Some in our area are "Eagle mills", designed to satisfy those who seek the esteemed rank on their college applications, but nothing more. Some are high adventure, some - like ours- are a little bit of everything, but by and large, haven't been affected by any of this nonsense. The biggest concern in my book is the departure of the LDS members. They represent around 20% of the organization, and are often the people who are the organizers and doers. It really hurts to lose them. Perhaps their departure will get National to come to it's senses. I'm sure they didn't really think the LDS would pull that trigger, but they stood by their principals and did.
The troop we were involved in during my son’s youth was just a little country troop. The older scouts were allowed to plan the adventures, and tended to bite off more than they could chew; sometimes a lot more. That’s part of learning, and it was then up to the old men to help them find their way out.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the effect on some younger scouts was dismay at being led into one punishing debacle after another. But others began to learn their limits, both how to accept them and how to transcend them.
I wonder if anything is being done to try to reclaim the Boy Scouts. Anyone know?
ReplyDeleteWhen LDS pulled out of Boy Scouts of A a year or so ago, rendered official right about jan 2019... this was not unexpected.
ReplyDeleteLook up how much money LDS pulls in from tithings and you can gauge how much they are worth economically. Hint: it overrides the Vatican's income funds at least in terms of tithing.
When such a large organization unilaterally declares the BSA no longer valid, that means almost ALL the members pull, first funding, then socially and philosophically.
Perhaps their departure will get National to come to it's senses. I'm sure they didn't really think the LDS would pull that trigger, but they stood by their principals and did.
ReplyDeleteLDS, unlike other Mormons, are unified stronger than the Vatican's policy on homosexual priests, not to conflate two different subject matters.
In other words, when the Leader/Prophet/President of the LDS a year ago announced they would pull out, this policy was already De jure. It becomes De facto come jan 2019 because the LDS organizations transition to their own version of scouting. Which is not difficult since a large proportion of scout volunteers are LDS priests, the lay men and family patriarchs.
As a theodemocracy or a theo republic, this unification is perhaps misunderstood on several levels by secular and private organizations in the US. That is because they have forgotten the Mormon Extermination order, the War of 1857 (years before the Civil War), and various other shenanigans that minorities facing persecution and extinction remember but the All We In Victory mainstream crowd do not remember.
The only other comparable group that functions like the LDS as an in group are Jews. Less than 2% of a country's population, yet with enormous financial, social, and political "influence".
ReplyDeleteThe Family Proclamation issued by some LDS leader (which one might as well think of it as the CEO of a corporation that has 99% ownership of stocks), was considered scripture, policy, and de facto position of the entire church. This Family Proclamation directly contradicted BSA policies of homosexual scout masters and volunteers.
If the BSA thought the LDS would refuse to pull the trigger... how about people go back to Utah War of 1857 and ask President Buchanan if he thought the Mormon traitors would refuse to pull the trigger, and also ask Abraham Lincoln.
Americans have a hard time figuring out their own history from the public indoctrination, let alone anybody else's history on Earth.
Back in 2015, BSA decided to allow gay troop leaders. At the time, that sparked a significant debate within the church, but Mormon leaders decided to stay because the BSA said religious groups could pick troop leaders in line with their faith.
ReplyDeleteThat is not entirely accurate.
The LDS was caught with a little problem. Most of the preparation for leaving BSA was already done by 2015-2016. What they were waiting for was the death of the previous President. Minor church organization can be changed, but not major changes without the approval of the CEO/leader. When the leader is about to expire and is too tired to say much of anything...
The quorum of 12, or the Council of 12, does most of the work when the President (too confusing with so many presidents in one org) is incapacitated. The work was done but the authorization required the approval of the new leader.
Thus there was a "debate" but it was done by lower echelon members and cultural talking heads. The internal going ons... those are not released to the general public or even the line members.
The LDS org has been historically the most difficult American institution to infiltrate and hijack, regardless of whether it was commies, marxists, pedos, occult priests, lucifer worshippers, or the FBI. While not impossible to pull shenanigans, an entire country once waged a war to wipe them out and failed. And this was not a weak arse country at the time.