“The Boy Scouts of America experienced a modest dip in membership in 2013, but not the mass exodus that some social conservatives predicted while it was considering changing its membership policy on gays.
Boy Scouts membership fell by 6 percent last year, leaving it with nearly 2.5 million youth members and 960,000 adult members.”
While I’m sure that some families might have pulled their sons, it probably reflects a lack of new boys joining in sufficient number to replace those leaving. I would think any boys that have been in Boy Scouts form more than a year are probably committed to staying in. I would think that 6 percent is a healthy chunk of whatever percent leave Scouting in a typical year. Perhaps half?
The three generations of our family had a very long serious discussion about this issue. Grandson is one year away from making Eagle. Then last week at their regular meeting their troop leader who has to have been a drill sarge in his former life talked to the entire group and parents who were waiting to pick up their sons about decisions that are made at the corporate level by people who are totally out of touch and make decisions about issues they should stay about. Told the boys that they must always remember to abide by their oath: God, family and country. Long, long speech. I could overhear only part of it while I was waiting for my grandson in a rather distant area.
When my grandson got in the car, the first thing he said after saying hello was “Who is Wendy Davis and you know we can’t buy any Girl Scout cookies any more but it would be helpful if I had your version of why”.
So, being in Texas and involved in politics, I did give him the lowdown on Wendy Davis and why we don’t buy Girl Scout cookies. I would suspect that he and his father, who is a “helper” will try to ride it out for one more year so he can get his Eagle Scout award. I never really expected him to stay with the group beyond that anyway because of his involvement in so many other activities.
But the boys all did get a speech that hopefully they will remember at least in part from their troop leader who is, by the way, the Sunday School teacher for many of them.