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To: Paragon Defender
Thank you and yours for helping to protect California from the scourge of gay "marriage".

Also, thanks for the support provided to the Boy Scouts of America. Lots of chapters might have faded away if not for support from the LDS church.

6 posted on 02/11/2011 4:40:02 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

Mormons did not work against Prop 8 in a vacuum, they were the most vocal (PR oriented) and lds scouting has become a recruitment tool for lds membership. It is more about mormonISM than scouting.

First paragraph on the lds scouting website
Information provided on this website was developed in trying to strengthen Aaronic Priesthood-related activity programs for LDS young men in ward, stake, region, and the BSA scouting districts in the Taylorsville area of Salt Lake County, Utah and the Spanish Fork and Salem areas of Utah, County, Utah.

http://www.ldsscouting.org/aboutus/aboutus.html


13 posted on 02/11/2011 5:00:15 PM PST by svcw (God in His own time not ours)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear
Also, thanks for the support provided to the Boy Scouts of America. Lots of chapters might have faded away if not for support from the LDS church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, institutional sponsors of the Boy Scouts of America. Under their agreement with the BSA, the LDS is the ONLY institutional sponsor that is permitted to run its Scouting programs differently than the Boy Scouts of America's program. The LDS program, among other things, incorporates the Aaronic Priesthood and appointment of both adult AND YOUTH leadership by church leadership.

There is little contact between LDS packs/troops and non-LDS packs/troops, or their leaders.

I'd respectfully suggest that few non-LDS Scouting units are kept from 'fading away' by the LDS church. Units that have the LDS church as the chartered organization have the LDS church; those that don't, don't.

During my years as Council Commissioner of one of the largest Boy Scout Councils in the U.S., one of the many issues that caused me difficulty was dealing with LDS units, primarily because of their lack of participation in District and Council activities, their primary loyalty to church leadership, and the fact that the LDS Scouting program followed geographic lines drawn by the church and not those drawn by the Boy Scouts of America. In many Troops, boys earned the rank of First Class having never been on a camping trip. How? It was a mystery to me.

The practical effect of LDS Scouting was to pressure, drag, or force young men to attain (I didn't say 'earn') or to be gifted the rank of Eagle Scout by the age of fourteen or younger, at a rate of two to four times or more than found in non-LDS units. In twenty years as a Scoutmaster, I'd say that out of every 50 fourteen-year-old Eagle Scouts, perhaps two actually had the leadership skills, knowledge, and maturity to have actually completed a meaningful Eagle Scout project. In the other cases, the project was either insignificant, or was the project of a parent or parents, or both.

Having served twice as a National Scout Jamboree Scoutmaster, and once as a World Scout Jamboree Scoutmaster, I've seen fourteen- and fifteen-year-old Eagle Scouts who couldn't tie a square knot, start a fire, or explain how to treat a person with shock - much less lead a patrol or troop of other boys.

At the 2001 National Scout Jamboree, much attention was given to a Utah Boy Scout who had earned every available merit badge.

The young man may have done so, but throughout Fort A.P. Hill, Scoutmasters just shook their heads. The LDS church's treatment of the Scout program has unfortunately given rise to Scout leaders differentiating between "Eagle Scouts" and "Mormon Eagle Scouts."

For those young men who actually earned the rank, it's a pity. For the large percentage that have justifiably given rise to that differentiation, they've been robbed of the benefits of Boy Scouting.

14 posted on 02/11/2011 5:28:59 PM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

Oh okay, so Boy Scouts is a qualification for being Christian?


28 posted on 02/11/2011 8:26:07 PM PST by SgtHooper (The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.)
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