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As Partners, Mormons and Scouts Turn Boys Into Men
New York Times ^ | October 17, 2012 | ERIK ECKHOLM

Posted on 10/18/2012 7:46:34 AM PDT by reaganaut1

CEDAR HILLS, Utah — In this hilltop suburb of Salt Lake City, where a vista of white spires signals a concentration of Mormons and their churches, it is a given that every boy will become a Cub Scout at 8 and then a Boy Scout at 11.

With mutual exaltation of God and country and a shared aim of nurturing “morally straight” men with leadership skills and a service ethic, the Mormons and the Boy Scouts seem made for each other, as entwined as a square knot. And in an unusual partnership dating to 1913, the Mormon Church has embraced scouting wholesale, giving it a central role in preparing male youths for their two-year missionary stints and adulthood as lay priests.

Virtually every Mormon church, or ward, has a scout troop. Every Mormon boy is automatically enrolled, and the vast majority participate. An exceptional share — three out of four at Troop 1194, here in Cedar Hills — attain the top rank, Eagle.

“Scouting fits in nicely with our spiritual goals,” said David L. Beck, president of the church’s Young Men organization, in an interview at the Salt Lake City headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “We want our young men to be upstanding citizens and good husbands and fathers.”

The all-in support of the Mormons has, in turn, been a boon for the scouts as they have struggled against a 20 percent decline in membership over the last dozen years and, most recently, faced criticism for failing in the past to prevent the sexual abuse of children.

In 2011, Mormon-sponsored packs and troops accounted for more than one-third of the country’s scout units, and the 421,000 boys they enrolled, from ages 8 to 18, made up 15 percent of the country’s 2.7 million registered scouts.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: boyscouts; mormons
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This is of those NYT stories intended to scare most NYT readers but which brighten my day. I have two boys in Cub Scouts. Parents who want gay men leading their boys on camping trips are welcome to form their own organization.
1 posted on 10/18/2012 7:46:36 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

Liberals don’t want boys to become “men”. They want boys to become liberal limpwrists.


2 posted on 10/18/2012 7:50:59 AM PDT by Proud2BeRight
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To: reaganaut1
Non Mormon kids had a hard time joining the Boy Scouts in many mourum neighborhoods because the Boy Scouts were run by the Mormon church. I do not know if it is still that way.
3 posted on 10/18/2012 7:51:01 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: reaganaut1; reaganaut

You’ve been cloned!


4 posted on 10/18/2012 7:55:49 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (Sorry, gone rogue, gone Galt, gone international. Gone.)
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To: reaganaut1

Promotion of the vile practice of sodomy is to destroy the character of the boys.

The Boy Scouts of America should NEVER allow that insidious behavior which defiles the body to be promoted as “good” to young boys not formed in character yet.

Anyone who is trying to force sodomites into the BSA are ignoring all of history and the fact that when homosexuals founded the boy scout groups in Germany—they would have sexual orgies in the woods with the boys. Homosexuality was the National Vice of Germany in the early 1900’s because of the parents condoning such evil and normalizing the practice in their boys. it is learned behavior as Ancient Greece and Samurai prove.

Homosexuals can not control their base urges, because they are immature by the very fact that they are homosexual, plus they are sexists—haters of half of the population. This unnatural, evil ideology should always be condemned and never elevated for the children.

They will try to infiltrate so they have access to the boys-—it is their MO. They always congregate where they can get to little boys. BSA are wise to protect these vulnerable boys.

People who embrace a vice like sodomy and forcing children to think it is “Good” are trying to create a world like the following. I have no qualms with labeling all homosexualists as EVIL.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/govt-defends-official-suspected-of-child-rape/

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-boyscouts-20120805-m,0,5822319.story


5 posted on 10/18/2012 8:09:00 AM PDT by savagesusie (Right Reason According to Nature = Just Law)
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To: reaganaut1
Lib's want to turn the BSA into Predatory hunting grounds, with the Predators having free license and public endorsement.

All resulting assaults will be excused....

6 posted on 10/18/2012 8:32:53 AM PDT by G Larry (Which of Obama's policies do you think I'd support if he were white?)
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To: reaganaut1

Why is this story mormons and Scouts?
Why isn’t it just Scouts?
There are churches all over the country who work with Scouts, why are mormons highlighted?


7 posted on 10/18/2012 8:36:30 AM PDT by svcw (Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)
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To: svcw
There are churches all over the country who work with Scouts, why are mormons highlighted?

Because it's Utah, not Georgia.

8 posted on 10/18/2012 8:41:04 AM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA; Ignorance on parade.)
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To: okie01

“There are churches all over the country who work with Scouts, why are mormons highlighted?”

Because they had the courage to institutionalize it into their educational curriculum. Most of the time, even in Catholic churches, the BSA is now somewhere to the RIGHT of the congregation leadership, if we are speaking in the general case.

BSA refused to award Eagle to an atheist poofter the other day. Referred to the Law and Oath. Stuck to their principals. Balls.


9 posted on 10/18/2012 8:45:19 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs (Does beheading qualify as 'breaking my back', in the Jeffersonian sense of the expression?)
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To: G Larry
Lib's want to turn the BSA into Predatory hunting grounds, with the Predators having free license and public endorsement. All resulting assaults will be excused....

They really want is to discredit the BSA. But, what is weird is that they think that making an outfit like the BSA look bad, and their lifestyles won't look bad at the same time.

10 posted on 10/18/2012 9:12:37 AM PDT by Slyfox
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To: okie01

So what?
Do mormons have a strangle hold on everything in Utah?
I still wonder why its mormons and Scouts.
Do they change the program, do they prohibit non-mormon boys?
Why isn’t it just the Scouts make men.


11 posted on 10/18/2012 9:22:10 AM PDT by svcw (Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)
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To: Slyfox

The goal of darkness is to destroy the light.

Nothing else matters.


12 posted on 10/18/2012 9:26:57 AM PDT by G Larry (Which of Obama's policies do you think I'd support if he were white?)
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To: svcw; okie01; reaganaut1
Do mormons have a strangle hold on everything in Utah? I still wonder why its mormons and Scouts. Do they change the program, do they prohibit non-mormon boys?

Mormons don't offer much in the way of "youth programs" (other than dance events)...so Boy Scouts becomes to the Mormon church their youth program of sorts.

Non-Mormon boys won't be excluded from being Boy Scouts; but since the Mormon church overseas the selection of BS leaders, you might not be able to be a non-Mormon leader of the troop they oversee.

13 posted on 10/18/2012 9:29:00 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: reaganaut1; RonF; AppauledAtAppeasementConservat; Looking for Diogenes; wisconsinconservative; ...

Scout Ping


14 posted on 10/18/2012 9:42:11 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: Colofornian

My son was a Royal Ranger. Similar to Scouts, through the Assemblies of God. The influences of Royal Rangers still are there in his life. Men have no idea what straightforward, Godly, good men can do for a young boy. They are guiding stars.


15 posted on 10/18/2012 9:47:03 AM PDT by Chickensoup (STOP The Great O-ppression)
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To: Colofornian

My son was a Royal Ranger. Similar to Scouts, through the Assemblies of God. The influences of Royal Rangers still are there in his life. Men have no idea what straightforward, Godly, good men can do for a young boy. They are guiding stars.


16 posted on 10/18/2012 9:47:03 AM PDT by Chickensoup (STOP The Great O-ppression)
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To: reaganaut1; svcw; All
ALL: Given that Lds are less than 2% of the population, Lds Boy Scout leaders have had more than their share of sexual abuse crimes...some of which, per the articles below, were covered up by the Mormon church:

* Boy Scouts sex files now evidence in Oregon lawsuit
* Scout officials, Mormon leaders were warned of abuser, suit says
* Men sue Mormon Church, Boy Scouts in abuse case
* Sacramento News & Review
* Former Oxnard man alleges sex abuse, sues Boy Scouts, Mormon church

17 posted on 10/18/2012 9:48:45 AM PDT by Colofornian
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To: reaganaut1

Keep your boys active. I was a Cub Scout and never went further. I’m now a Scoutmaster, founder of a troop and father to a Life Scout and a First Class. Our troop has a slogan we use. “Developing Leaders in a World of Followers.” I modified that from a comment Rush Limbaugh made one day.


18 posted on 10/18/2012 9:58:36 AM PDT by cyclotic ( Obama's golden halo is really just a rusted hubcap)
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To: Colofornian

It would be an interesting factoid to know many Scouts are not mormon in mormon run troop/packs.


19 posted on 10/18/2012 9:59:51 AM PDT by svcw (Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)
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To: svcw; mountainlion

There are a couple of LDS troops in my town. My understanding is that non-LDS boys are encouraged to join other troops, not the LDS troops. When summer camp rolls around, the LDS troops council-wide rig it so that only LDS troops are present for their one week of the camp.

Still, BSA is a good program for most any boy. My 11-year-old is loving it. I wish that it were as popular now as it was when I was a Scout.


20 posted on 10/18/2012 10:20:41 AM PDT by Rio (Tempis Fugit.)
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