Skip to comments.
Mormon church to pull thousands of teens from Boy Scouts of America
Fox News ^
| May 11, 2017
| Fox News
Posted on 05/11/2017 3:16:10 PM PDT by super7man
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 Church," officials said. "These activities are designed to be fun and meaningful and provide opportunities for personal growth and development." The change applies just to the United States and Canada, where the "Varsity" and "Venturing" programs are implemented, according to Mormon officials. Some 280,000 younger boys ages 8-13 will be kept Scouts while the church continues to develop a global scouting-type program. The loss is only a fraction of the 2.3 million youth in Boy Scouts, which has had a close bond with the Utah-based religion for more than 100 years. BOY SCOUTS WILL ALLOW TRANSGENDER CHILDREN INTO PROGRAMS The faith said the decision wasn't triggered by Boy Scouts policy change in 2015 to allow gay troop leaders since Mormon troops were allowed to run their groups to adhere to church teachings. The Mormon church opposes gay marriage and teaches its members that being in a homosexual relationship is a sin. The church has been working on an overarching global program for years.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: boyscouts; bsa; lds; mormon; scouting; scouts; withdraw
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-83 next last
To: cyclotic
My son just earned trail lifes highest award, the Freedom Award. Contratulation to your son. A very proud day. I wish him the best.
61
posted on
05/11/2017 6:27:38 PM PDT
by
super7man
(Madam Defarge, knitting, knitting, always knitting)
To: super7man
Another fine job by Robert Gates...
62
posted on
05/11/2017 7:01:36 PM PDT
by
JudgemAll
(Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucifiedc)
To: Thibodeaux
The BSA program remains an integral part of the Mormon youth program. Of course to the Mormon bashers, that is yet another mortal sin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you see any “mormon bashing” on this thread? If so, please point it out.
63
posted on
05/11/2017 7:15:46 PM PDT
by
Graybeard58
(Bill and Hillary Clinton are the penicillin-resistant syphilis of our political system.)
To: ConjunctionJunction
Thanks. News to me. Our “regular” boy scouts come in at ten and are forced out at 18.
64
posted on
05/11/2017 7:43:47 PM PDT
by
Rio
(Proud resident of the State of Jefferson)
To: ConjunctionJunction
The Venturing curriculum, the rank advancement program, is a mess. It feels thrown together, like the BSA just figured that there was something there for 14 to 18 year olds, and most of them were going to do sports anyway, so let’s just wing it.
Basically, the rank is dependent on organizing small, medium, and large events, service projects, etc. Nothing there is skill based (e.g. if you learn these knots and lashings, you’ll earn this rank, etc.).
Contrast that with Sea Scouts, which is ALL skill based, and mirrors closely what you’d see if you actually went out in the merchant fleet, plus the character and moral education. Apprentice, Ordinary, Able, and Quartermaster are the ranks. Get QM and write your ticket in the maritime trade or military.
It is clear the LDS are looking for something to replace Scouting, but for 5 to 14, they aren’t going to find it. Not something with Eagle Scout on the end of it. Eagle is something the secular world understands and values.
If you go out to the maritime trades, and you listed Sea Scout QM on the CV, your app goes to the top of the pile. The Summit Award, however, isn’t going to provide you the same clout (highest award in Venturing). The Gold Award in Girl Scouts isn’t nearly as well known.
This has more to do with the LDS church and the imbalance in spending between boys and girls than it does Varsity, Venturing, and all the gender based social pressures. LDS is feeling it too, regardless of what Scouting is going through.
I have a Pack, a Troop, a Crew, and a Ship, plus a GS Troop. I’m not LDS, but have many LDS friends.
If these orgs can bide their time, the pendulum is going to start swinging back hard pretty soon. When the retard libs started recognizing attack helicopter as a legitimate gender, Fonzie’s leg grazed my ear as he was flying over the tank.
65
posted on
05/11/2017 8:29:29 PM PDT
by
RinaseaofDs
(Truth, in a time of universal deceit, is courage)
To: super7man
I don’t blame them. The Boy Scouts [and the Girl Scouts] have been ruined by a nasty liberal agenda that has nothing to do with scouting and everything to do with perversion.
66
posted on
05/11/2017 11:28:59 PM PDT
by
luvie
(Be still and know that I Am GOD.....Psalm 46:10)
To: super7man
Mormon church to pull thousands of teens from Boy Scouts of America,Well; this shows that there is some right thinking in Mormon leadership after all!
67
posted on
05/12/2017 5:02:15 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: HiTech RedNeck
As originally conceived, BSA had a heavy Christian spiritual component...
Of course; the god part here was a bit difficult to swallow.
GODS is more like it.
68
posted on
05/12/2017 5:05:26 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: HiTech RedNeck
We're gonna need a bigger handbasket!
69
posted on
05/12/2017 5:08:00 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: RinaseaofDs
70
posted on
05/12/2017 5:11:02 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: JoeProBono
L. Ron Hubbard's teeth. He was channeling JS, Jr. before it was hip!
71
posted on
05/12/2017 5:12:54 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: yoe
The Mormons have every right in this still FREE country, to do what they like as long as it is legal. Amen!
72
posted on
05/12/2017 5:13:32 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Responsibility2nd
The BSA Venture program was pretty much established by Mormons to keep older boys in scouting. Scouting is part and parcel of Mormon youth programs. Venture crews also include girls.
There are no 11 year old queers so if there is a disruptive queer wanting to cause problems, a Venture crew is the logical entry point. The Mormons have decided to maintain church membership control and keep the elements of the BSA Venture program
73
posted on
05/12/2017 5:16:35 AM PDT
by
bert
(K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Hillary is Ameritrash, pass it on)
To: Thibodeaux
To start, there are no 11 year old queers, even in church choirs. You know this how?
Hi - first - congratulations on your honesty with your parents. That's awesome. Their reaction is on them. Your honesty and bravery is really important and something to point out to them. My 11 year old came out to us a few weeks ago. My husband is still in the "he's too young to know" phase. He's not homophobic at all, and loves our son dearly, but I think the idea of the hardships my son may face really freak him out. Honestly, when my son told me, my initial thought was "you're so young - how do you know". I didn't voice it only because I have gay friends who have told me how that sounds so dismissive.
74
posted on
05/12/2017 5:18:37 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: teppe
Utah probably has the highest birth rate in the nation!
That ain't the ONLY thing that's high there!
Antidepressant drugs are prescribed in Utah more often than in any other state, at a rate nearly twice the national average.
75
posted on
05/12/2017 5:29:00 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: teppe
I Hate the Mormons pile-onYeah; I get upset at that as well.
Tell me; do YOU agree with the following QUOTES from Mormon Leaders??
Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).
Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).
Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).
Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).
Orson Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses , vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses , 18:172).
President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses , 10:127).
James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).
President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).
More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).
President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).
President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 2, p.196).
76
posted on
05/12/2017 5:31:26 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Graybeard58
If it ain’t Faith Building...
77
posted on
05/12/2017 5:32:55 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: bert
The Mormons have decided to maintain church membership control and keep the elements of the BSA Venture programWhile they are watching the FRONT door...
Responses showed significant emotional distress, dramatic loss of trust in Church leaders,
and a dramatic decline in Church Activity as a result of the policy.
Individual stories help us to understand where and how different LGBT Mormons find hope,
and why discussion about the Church can be so polarizing.
78
posted on
05/12/2017 5:36:50 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: bert
79
posted on
05/12/2017 5:38:09 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Elsie
How many Queer Mormons can dance on the head of a pin?
All of them
80
posted on
05/12/2017 5:39:18 AM PDT
by
bert
(K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... Hillary is Ameritrash, pass it on)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-83 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson