Posted on 09/06/2013 10:00:51 PM PDT by MacNaughton
Nashville, TN - More than 1,200 former Scoutmasters, Eagle Scouts, parents, church leaders and former Boy Scout of America (BSA) professionals gathered tonight for the 1st inaugural Leadership Convention of a youth character development organization in Nashville. The convention's theme was "Honoring the Legacy ... Raising the Standard." Forty-four (44) states were represented, including Alaska and Hawaii.
The name and visual branding for "Trail Life USA" were unveiled publicly for the 1st time to great applause and excitement by those gathered to launch a Christian alternative to the Boy Scouts of America. Trail Life USA will be an outdoor scouting-like program designed for boys ages 5-17 which will focus on adventure, character and leadership.
The new group will have a strong inclusion policy for youth; all boys are welcome to the program regardless of religion, race, national origin or socio-economic status. However, adult leaders in the program will be Christian and must sign a statement of faith and submit to background checks. Both boys and adults will be required to adhere to a code of conduct. The full membership policy can be read online at http://www.TrailLifeUSA.
The Trail Life USA leadership team includes some highly decorated former BSA members and former professional BSA executives. Among these are:
Rob Green, Trail Life USA's Interim Executive Director. Rob served as a professional BSA executive for 20 years in Florida and South Carolina before resigning after the BSA's membership change in May 2013.
Attorney Richard Mathews Consultant and legal counsel for Trail Life USA. Richard worked for the BSA professionally as the in-house legal counsel for 11 years, culminating as the BSA's General Counsel for the last 7 years.
John Burkitt is considered by many to be 1 of the greatest Boy Scout historians alive today having compared, studied and analyzed every Boy Scout, Cub Scout and Scoutmaster handbook ever published from the original Baden Powell's "Scouting for Boys" to the present. John has served as the primary editor and author of the 1st edition of the Adventuring handbook that will be used in the Trail Life USA program.
Eagle Scout and former Scoutmaster, John Stemberger, Chairman of the Board for Trail Life USA, said "Our vision will be to become the premier national character development organization for young men which produces godly and responsible husbands, fathers, and citizens. Parents are going love the new outdoor adventure program and we are very excited to be part of this next chapter in the history of scouting in America."
On Saturday special guest speakers include former Governor and Fox News Commentator Mike Huckabee and Michael Farris, Chancellor of Patrick Henry College.
More than 30,000 former scoutmasters, Eagle Scouts, parents, and church leaders have contacted the organization about the new program. Chartering new troops will occur in late September 2013 and the program will officially launch on January 1, 2014. For more information churches, parents and former BSA members can visit http://www.TrailLifeUSA.com or contact Info@TrailLifeUSA.com.
Trail Life USA is a Christian adventure, character, and leadership movement for young men. The K-12 program centers on outdoor experiences that build a young man's skills and allow him to grow on a personal level and as a role model and leader for his peers.
From what I can find out no word is coming down from the worthless USCCB. Looks like they are going to pass the buck and leave what to about homosexuals and the Boy Scouts to the individual parishes. So if that’s the case liberal priests will welcome them with open arms and parishes ran by conservative priests will no longer sponsor them. IF this is the case it leaves the Catholic Church wide open for all kinds of lawsuits when a parent sues the parish after some sodomite sexually abuses their son OR a Catholic scout leader tells the kid he is living an immoral lifestyle. The USCCB needs to put out firm guidance and I see no way that parishes can allow openly homosexuality in the scouts that are sponsored by the local parishes. Not only would it make a mockery of the Boy Scout oath, but also of the Holy Bible.
My friend whose Son is in scouts sends his kid to a Catholic church school too, says they are very conservative .
Because Hetrosexual relations was never a part of scouts to begin with it makes it easy to boot homosexual activists without discrimination.
Now what about a boy who joins who says he has two mommies?(say married)
A homosexual specific ban doesnt ban them, and they are free to talk about how great it is to to have two Moms.
Chances are they will join another troop.
I’ve been involved in the Royal Ranger program 17 years now and its highest award - the Gold Medal of Achievement is recognized as equivalent to the Eagle by our armed forces and others.
Sounds like a cereal bar.
It’s evolving, folks!
***
Power of prayer....
This is a side point only tangentially related to the Scouting issue, but in light of the question mark, I wanted to clarify Huckabee’s connections with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Huckabee’s college degree and his one year of seminary were in Southern Baptist institutions. He pastored Immanuel Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, Ark., from 1980 and Beech Street Baptist Church in Texarkana, Ark., from 1986 to 1992, both congregations being members of the Southern Baptist Convention. In 1989, Huckabee was elected president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention, the SBC’s state affiliate organization. In 1993 he was elected lieutenant governor of Arkansas after losing a race the previous year for a US Senate position, and he later became the state's governor.
Back to Scouting... this is a huge development, and getting some of Scouting's top leaders on board, including the BSA’s key lawyer, is a tremendous accomplishment. I definitely wish the new organization well.
Your friend would be wrong. The new membership standard of BSA is clear that we cannot reject homosexual boys.
Thanks for the ping Albion.
I pray the Lord will bless this new organization. It appears they are going about it the right way.
Amen, and amen!
Wow really?
I could have sworn I read something different here months ago but the BSA website seems to confirm what you say.
I’m thinking that our parents committee is going to pull the trigger on Monday to switch to Trail Life USA. Our Charter org will most likely fully support us. I’m sick and disgusted with BSA’s actions but really excited at the same time to be on the ground floor of something this new and cool.
I could have sworn that the BSA said they were letting the locals do what they want regardless of national policy, but I cant find proof of that and the website says ‘shall not discriminate soley...’
and it even says the gay kids can tell the other kid scouts that they are gay, which is the problem.
Scouts should have the DADT policy on gayness.
I am going to ask my friend what loophole he was refering too,
That was before the bait and switch. The original proposal was to enact Local Control, to encourage troops to admit homosexual youth and leaders but not to require it.
After great outcry, they agreed to poll the membership and did an extensive poll of Scouters, scouts parents and Charter Organizations.
The results were overwhelming from most sector to keep the current policy and not allow homosexual boys or leaders. So, when the time came for the delegates to vote, the verbiage was changed to just include boys and not leaders (yet). It passed and the new membership standard you were reading was enacted to require troops to accept homosexual boys into their units.
Allowing the scout kids to state their ‘orientation’ is extreme to me but somehow it has become the dominate social norm.
What is orientation and how is it identified?
Is it identified solely by feelings? That is definitely wrong to allow gay scouts to do ('Your butt really turns me on')
Worse yet the expansion of ‘right to be gay’ has successfully been expanded to their behavior.
Say I love gays but hate their behavior as Falweel used to say? That is legally discrimination.
I find it helpful when I mistaken and I get politely challenged and it causes me to look for proof one way or the other.
Too bad for BSA,
Facebook page removed! ?
I am not a FB user, so I need more of a clue to what you are referring. Though a stab in the dark, the link below may be helpful ...
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