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A long simmering feud between the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts has broked out into the open with the decision by the Boy Scouts to accept females in their ranks. The controversial decision by the Boy Scouts includes a weak and confusing justification. Sacramento Bee: The Boy Scouts of America announced Wednesday that its board of directors had unanimously approved a decision to begin admitting girls into its Cub Scout program and to develop a program that will allow girls to eventually attain the rank of Eagle Scout for the first time ever. “This decision is true to the BSA’s mission and...

The Boy Scouts of America announced on Wednesday that girls will soon be allowed to become Cub Scouts and to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest honor. "We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children," said Michael Surbaugh, chief executive of the Boy Scouts. The scouting board of directors voted unanimously to make the historic change in an organization that has been primarily for boys since its founding more than 100 years ago.

The Boy Scouts of America announced plans on Wednesday to accept girls, marking a historic shift for the century-old organization. The group cited the desire to nurture female leaders as a reason for the decision, pitting it against the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., which operates under a similar mission. “We strive to bring what our organization does best — developing character and leadership for young people — to as many families and youth as possible as we help shape the next generation of leaders,” said Michael Surbaugh, the group’s chief scout executive.

In a historic change, the Boy Scouts are announcing plans to admit girls into the Cub Scouts starting next year and to establish a new program for older girls using the same curriculum as the Boy Scouts. Under the plan announced Wednesday, Cub Scout dens — the smallest unit — will be single-gender, either all-boys or all-girls. The larger Cub Scout packs will have the option to welcome both genders if they choose.

A small group of military veterans knelt during the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of Tuesday night’s Sacramento City Council meeting. The members of the local Veterans for Peace chapter took a knee in the front row of the audience as a group of police cadets and Boy Scouts recited the pledge

The Girls Scouts of the United States of America is accusing the Boy Scouts of America of a "covert campaign to recruit girls into programs run by the Boy Scouts," according to a letter by the Girl Scouts' president. "We were disappointed in the lack of transparency as we learned that you are surreptitiously testing the appeal of a girls' offering to millennial parents," Girl Scouts President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan wrote in her letter to Boy Scouts President Randall Stephenson. "Furthermore, it is inherently dishonest to claim to be a single-gender organization while simultaneously endeavoring upon a coed model." Top...

<p>A former New Jersey Boy Scout came forward to accuse his scoutmaster of abusing him “hundreds of times,” in the 1990s, NJ.com reported.</p> <p>“Every interaction he had with me and my family was for his ultimate goal of molesting me,” Christopher Malcolm, now in his 30s, said outside his attorney’s office in Roseland on Wednesday.</p>

The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday apologized for President’s Trump’s politically charged speech to kids at the youth organization’s gathering this week. “I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent,” Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh wrote on Scoutingwire. “The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition that has been extended to the leader of our nation that has had a Jamboree during his term since 1937. It is...

“I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent,” Michael Surbaugh, whose title is chief Scout executive, wrote in a message posted online. That was a break from the Boy Scouts’ earlier statements about Trump’s speech, issued the day afterward. Those merely noted that the Scouts were “respectful of the wide variety of viewpoints in this country” but made no mention of what Trump actually said. On Thursday, Surbaugh wrote, “We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the...

No knot-tying demonstrations. No wood-carving advice. President Donald Trump went straight to starting a fire in a speech at a national Boy Scout gathering. Parents, former Scouts and others were furious after Trump railed against his enemies, promoted his political agenda and underlined his insistence on loyalty before an audience of tens of thousands of school-age Scouts in West Virginia on Monday night. “Is nothing safe?” Jon Wolfsthal, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter, saying Trump turned the event into a “Nazi Youth rally.”

RUSH: You know the best way to illustrate the reaction here? Trump goes to the Boy Scout National Jamboree yesterday. There’s 30,000 or 40,000 scouts there. They all have parents that send them there, and you know, for the longest time the left hated the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts were rooted in Christian morality, good deeds, manners. The left decided, “We can’t have this! That’s an obstacle in the direction we want to go.” So they started pressuring the Boy Scouts to begin to accept gays and the Girl Scouts to accept lesbians. President Trump addresses Boy Scouts at...

President Donald Trump brought his bombastic politics to a Boy Scouts event Monday in West Virginia, drawing cheers from the children gathered at the event and prompting comparisons between his rousing rhetoric and Nazi youth rallies from some liberal activists and journalists. The president, the first sitting U.S. commander-in-chief to address the group since George W. Bush, used his speech to slam the "fake news," demand loyalty from administration officials and advocate for the overhaul of federal health care. He spoke to about 40,000 people at the Boy Scouts of America 2017 National Scout Jamboree. "As the scout law says,...

The crowd attending President Trump’s Monday evening speech to the Boy Scouts of America’s National Jamboree appeared to boo former President Barack Obama at one point. “By the way, just a question. Did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?” Trump asked the crowd, which booed in response. “The answer is no, but we’ll be back,” Trump added. While Obama never addressed the gathering in person, he did record a video message to the National Jamboree in 2010, noting the history of the Boy Scouts and the organization’s service to the United States as it marked its 100th anniversary.

Older teenagers will be pulled from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), the Mormon church announced Thursday. The announcement from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints means an estimated 130,000-180,000 teenagers ages 14-18 will no longer participate in Boy Scouts starting next year. The Mormon church is the largest sponsor of Boy Scouts troops in the United States. The Boy Scouts' "Varsity" and "Venturing" programs for older teens had become difficult to implement within the religion, Mormon officials said in a news release. "Instead, Young Men activities will focus on spiritual, social, physical and intellectual outlined by the...

SALT LAKE CITY — The LDS Church, the oldest and largest charter organization of the Boy Scouts of America, will drop Scouting from its Young Men's program for boys ages 14 through 17. Effective Jan. 1, the move will carve about 180,000 Mormon boys from the Varsity and Venturing Scout programs in the United States and Canada, replacing them with activities created for boys in those age groups by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church will continue to sponsor Cub Scouts for boys 8 to 10 and Boy Scout programs for those 11 through 13 in...

OLMSTED FALLS, Ohio (AP) - A former suburban Cleveland Boy Scouts troop leader suspected of raping a teenage boy has been charged with rape, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition. Twenty-eight-year-old Aaron Robertson was arrested last month and terminated from his role as a voluntary, unarmed auxiliary police officer in Olmsted Falls.

Fr. Don Miller, OFM Image: Saint George and the Dragon | Gustave MoreauSaint George Saint of the Day for April 23 (c. 280 – April 23, 303)  Saint George’s Story Saint George is the object of a vast amount of imagination. There is every reason to believe that he was a real martyr who suffered at Lydda in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. The Church adheres to his memory, but not to the legends surrounding his life. That he was willing to pay the supreme price to follow Christ is what the Church believes. And it is...

North Carolina church leaders have told a Boy Scout troop and Cub Scout pack they’re no longer welcome to use their facilities as a home base after the Boy Scouts of America decided in January to allow transgender boys. The Charlotte Observer reports Coddle Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Mooresville booted both Troop 169 and Pack 169. Mooresville is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Charlotte. …

A multi-site megachurch based in North Carolina has decided to sever its ties with the Boy Scouts of America over the youth group's new transgender policy. Manna Church of Fayetteville is planning to stop sponsoring Boy Scout Troop 957 sometime this summer, according to local media outlet WNCN CBS North Carolina. "Church officials at Manna Church have been very tight-lipped about this decision. However, a Cub Scout leader told CBS North Carolina that Manna Church participation with Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts would end this coming summer," reported WNCN. A spokesperson for Manna Church told The Christian Post on Wednesday...

In a moment of historic significance, Joe Maldonado put on a Cub Scout uniform on Tuesday night as he became a member of Pack 20 in Essex County while his mother held back tears — one week after the Boy Scouts of America changed its national policy to allow transgender children to be scouts....