The Boy Scouts’ Bankruptcy Is Not Just Financial. It’s Moral

The Federalist ^ | 01/02/2019 | Alfred Siewers

[wbill]

At the time, I thought I could continue as Cubmaster in our pack's little bubble of tradition

Locally, at least, we've held that together. Good people running the troop, the district leadership is hands-off, and we've insulated ourselves from all the sex-foolishness.

However, I'm not under any illusions that it will continue. It's pretty likely WBill Jr. will get - probably already HAS gotten - what he needs out of the BSA. I'm hoping that it will hold together until we're done.

It would be nice to have a lasting legacy, but I doubt it. My grandkids, almost certainly, won't even know what a boy scout is.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Oh yes, for sure, exact same thing is happening there.

[Romulus]

Ruined by addiction to corporate donations and by the board members that came with them. Conservatives need to learn that unrestrained capitalism is a liberal phenomenon. They then need to decide if they really are conservative at all.

[2nd Amendment]

As they say when you get a new fag scout leader “Be Prepared!”

[Chuckster]

In the late 1990s, I put my own sons through the program but it was already in steep decline. Boys weren't even allowed to carry a pocketknife and the mothers went everywhere with them. It was more like helicopter parent scouting.

That's sad. I was in Scouting in the late fifties and early sixties. It was, of course, a completely different world.

[Bob434]

I will bet that donations to the BSA severely dropped off after they allowed gay scout masters- political correctness has once again destroyed yet another organization-

[GOP_Party_Animal]

My grandkids, almost certainly, won't even know what a boy scout is.

Yes, so sad. I am ordering Pinewood Derby trophies this week but will also order Arrow of Light plaques for the 5th graders in my pack. My oldest has one of those, but it just hit me that my younger sons will never get one.

[Bookshelf]

The author: He is also reader and warden at Holy Protection Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

I’ll take odds that the author is a convert from the failed Episcopal Church.

[lowbridge]

Bump

[cnsmom]

I agree I was a Girl Scout leader and we spent most of our funds on food, felt, glue and craft supplies Joining the PC movement is pointless and only weakens the country.

[Liz]

The noted songwriter, Irving Berlin, assigned all the royalties from his popular song, ‘God Bless America’ to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Over the decades it has earned millions for the Scouts.

Berlin said it was not just a song but “an expression of my feeling toward the country to which I owe what I have and what I am.”

He lived in abject poverty in NY after escaping Russian pogroms. He was self-taught and went on to write hundreds of songs......some of them still popular today.

God Bless America quickly became a second National Anthem.In 1954, Berlin received a special Congressional Gold Medal from President Dwight D. Eisenhower for contributing the song. (WIKI)

[Lurkinanloomin]

My son’s Arrow of Light plaque hangs in our bathroom.
It has a Robert E. Lee Council badge on it.
They changed the name to Heart of Virginia Council just after my son left Scouting.

[upchuck]

Another American tradition trashed by the progressives.

God is not mocked. He always wins eventually.

[fwdude]

I guess Dad was prescient, because he told them needed to find another place to meet. He said the direction they were going wasn’t good or Christian, and we wanted no association with them at all.

Some of the traditions and sub-groups are highly Mason-ish, like The Order of the Arrow. And I say that as a member.

There is nothing Christian about the OA.

[DoodleBob]

The key to the author's axe to be ground is found herein:

Scouts were never a perfect organization...They had quasi-Masonic aspects in Order of the Arrow ceremonies and “great Scoutmaster in the sky” language at camp chapel, emerging from an odd crucible of Teddy Roosevelt-style nationalist progressivism and British Empire civics of the early 20th century. Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book” also inspired Cub Scout ranks...Our family’s relationship with regular Scouting ended around the time our younger son in fifth grade ran to get his copy of Boys Life magazine in the mail only to throw it aside because it was featuring girls, as if photoshopped into Norman Rockwell Scouting art. He lost his enthusiasm, our eldest lost his home troop, and dad didn’t want to send money to a national organization adrift.

Really? OA was never a Secret Organization - all parents can see anything they want to see if they inquire. As for the things "lost" (which, I agree, are not in line with Scouting's core competency of forming men), they strike me as having more to do with laxity on the writer's part. What about fighting for what is good and right?

Dr. Siewers is SOOOOOOO concerned about the morality of Scouting, but he hasn't a problem working for Princeton, a place not well-known for defending the West. I guess that's ok for him...but Scouting, well, they are DIFFERENT. / sarc

I get it....Scouting has lost some of its focus. But, to paraphrase Churchill, Scouting is the worst organization focused on forming boys into men, except for all the others. If people fought for Scouting like Deplorables fought for Trump, I suspect we'd have a success story on our hands.

[VideoDoctor]

The Boy Scouts’ Bankruptcy Is Not Just Financial. It’s Moral

"YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW"

[RinaseaofDs]

The author works for Princeton? Then this was an assignment, not an opinion piece.

Single parent families. That’s what’s killing Scouting. Period. Been a leader now for 12 years. Oddly, it’s the single parent volunteers that get it that have been my most valuable.

Most outsiders confuse Scouting with a religion. It isn’t. It’s a place for kids to gracefully fail and learn something in the process. A game with a purpose. Full stop.

Everyone tends to see whatever’s missing in society in the demise of Scouting. The demise in family structure IS the demise in Scouting. Nothing scientific required here.

[tbw2]

Conservative Boy Scout Alternatives
https://wehavekids.com/youth-programs/Conservative-Boy-Scout-Alternatives

[\/\/ayne]

We made paper puppets out of grocery store bags.

Royal Rangers has a puppet merit badge for the very youngest age. I had to tell my class "Boys, that was the worst paper puppet performance I have ever seen. But you passed!" (They could see I was laughing.) Another fun way to torture the boys was to tell them I would give a prize to whoever memorized the Ranger Code perfectly. The prize was a framed copy of the Ranger Code for their room!

I've retired from Royal Rangers but they are still up to their old ways!

[Alberta's Child]

The BSA was in decline long before that gay scoutmaster nonsense. If anything, the homosexualization/feminization of the BSA was an act of desperation by a dying organization.

Nothing more needs to be said ...