Posted on 02/14/2014 5:07:51 PM PST by NKP_Vet
Well, that didn’t take long. On January 1, 2014, the Boys Scouts of America changed their membership policy to allow openly gay youths to be Boy Scouts. Now Pascal Tessier has become the first openly gay Boy Scout to become an Eagle Scout. I know a great many Boy Scouts and Scouting families who are still saying the new policy will change little in their troops or in the Scouting experience. Think again. When Pascal Tessier accepts the award of Eagle Scout he will do so while waving the rainbow flag of the homosexual agenda. As far as the Boy Scouts of America are concerned, homosexuality is now normal and acceptable for their youth members.
(Excerpt) Read more at truthandcharityforum.org ...
As I recall, the Scouts weren’t about sex... of any kind.
There was one dude on here today bragging that his son’s BSA troop is chartered by the Knights of Columbus.
If the troup is sponsored by a Catholic parish it’s the KoC that do all the sponsoring. But the KoC do what the parish priest tells them to do.
There will be merit badges before long.
Is that a problem???
Might be an indicator if the parish priest is too “active” in his support.
0When I was a Scout ,”morally straight” was part of the requirements ;the queers are ruining everything.
Make no mistake,homosexuality is a SINFUL,SELFISH CHOICE by people. It is not good for themselves or society as a whole.
Like abortion it is all about sexual pleasures without responsibility.
The liberals are well on the way to turning the Girl Scouts into the democrat party’s equivalent of the old USSR Komsomol (Leninist Young Communist League).
Now they have breached the Boy Scouts defenses and succeeded in pushing the gay agenda on them, the BSA will also be converted into a political tool to poison the minds of America’s youth with leftist claptrap.
Think of all the new badge opportunities:
climate change
gender studies
gun control
community organizing
green energy
animal rights
mass transit
BSA National office sent an e-mail to the AP earlier this week announcing that it had lost 6% membership in 2013 relative to 2012 - a little higher than the declining trend for the last several years. BSA spokesman Deron Smith wrote that with BSA accepting openly homosexual boys it "allows us to serve more kids." The BSA National Executive Committee's APR 2013 survey report had projected a worst case scenario of a 13% membership loss. Clearly they (~23 members heavily represented by Fortune 500 executives) were happy to accept that projection against a best case scenario of 1% membership gain.
Based upon 2012 membership data, churches charter ~70% of all BSA units, i.e., dens,packs,troops,crews. The 6 denominations with the highest number of chartered units in descending order are ...
1. LDS
2. UMC
3. RCC
4. PCUSA
5. ELCA
6. SBC
Of these 6 denominations, only the SBC stood up against the BSA and its new Membership Standard. Now they are off and running with the new alternative program, Trail Life, since its birth in SEP 2013. Trail Life officials claim they have chartered >500 troops in 46 states across the U.S.
A few smaller denominations registered their dissastisfaction with BSA with the result being some have totally quit BSA, e.g., PCA, and others have left it to the individual parishes to make their own decisions, e.g., LC-MS and CoC.
The UMC, PCUSA, and ELCA have elected to go along with BSA. The UMC appears to be headed to a schism with regard to the matter of homosexuality. The PCUSA and ELCA are both bleeding parish membership because of their leadership openly accepting the homosexual agenda.
The LDS are in lock-step with the BSA. They just celebrated 100 years of involvement with the BSA last year. The LDS use the BSA program as its offical male youth program.
I recall several FR Catholics vigorously proclaiming that Pope Francis would not accept the new Membership Standard in Catholic units. The National Catholic Committee on Scouting has abided by their episcopal leader, the Bishop of the Diocese of Charleston (SC). Their statement last June was that they would continue to study the new Membership Standard with regard to how it would impact the RCC's continued involvement with BSA (which just celebrated its centennial with BSA last year). I have yet to read any further statements.
The RCC has certainly been engaged in a fierce fight with the homosexualists over the last several years, i.e., (1) - Father Dariusz Oko's 2012 report entitled, “With the Pope Against the Homoheresy”, (2) the “Vatileaks” scandal, (3)the premature resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, and (4) the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child.
We've read about Pope Francis's interviews with the press this past year on the issue of homosexuality which have left many of us scratching our heads trying to understand what he meant. The homosexualists at The Advocate seized the initiative and declared Pope Francis its "Man of the Year" for 2013 primarily over his 1 press interview where he said, "... who am I to judge?"
All here on FR know that we are living through especially trying spiritual times. I pray there are enough orthodox Christians left to make a difference, but the culture war in the U.S. is definitely surging in the post-modernists/homosexualists favor.
I appreciate your informative posts regarding the BSA...I will offer some insight to the LDS scouting program that many may not be aware of.
It is a hollow program...meaning, they register and pay the fees for each and every youth of Scouting age that is on each and every ward roster, regardless of participation in the church or Scouts...unlike “conventional” units where the youth pays his own registration fees or the Troop does so, but out of dues collected [each Troop has their own policies regarding this, our Troop pays for Boys Life magazine but the boys pay the registration.]
The LDS are giving the BSA a lot of “free” money...this is why SLC was consulted personally by Wayne Perry [a mormon]...they knew that unless they had SLC’s approval, they stood to lose million$$$ in “free” registration fees if SLC rejected the policy change and quit the program.
BSA gets the money and don’t have to provide the increased support for Districts or Councils that have a majority of LDS units...they can use that money for other things.
So, although the LDS may be #1 in terms of membership, let’s be clear, those are registrations, not active Scouts.
I would be willing to bet that if you compared each organization and the numbers of ACTIVE Scouts, the LDS would fall down that list quite a bit. I don’t know of any unit that would be willing to pay for registration fees when the boy isn’t even attending services, let alone Scouts.
Thanks for that additional insight, to which I can only add 1 further point. The average LDS troop is smaller than the overall average size of troops - the latest statistic I’ve read stated that number is 14. It was 17 in the 1980-1990s. In BSA’s halcyon days of the 1960s, that number was 30+.
Thanks for that, the information in your post prompted a question...
When you say “Troop”, are those numbers for the actual “Troop”, 12-14 year old only Scouts [Deacons quorum] or are those numbers including all 4 programs; Blazer (11 year old Scouts), Scouts, Varsity [Teachers quorum] and Venturing [Priests quorum]?
Ah, you exceeded my limits of knowledge regarding LDS Scouting. Something I heard along the way and observed at district/council camping events.
Oh, ok. No worries, didn’t mean to stump you. I was just trying to run the information down to its logical conclusion and not deal in assumptions...just curious because most don’t know the LDS run their programs like that.
I’ve seen where all the units were registered independently and then dual registered the boys into Scouts so that they could attend Scouting activities and finish up any advancement.
When I was asked to help an an LDS unit, that is what I did since our total numbers never exceeded 12 in the ward I was helping. There was just no real practical way for the older guys to learn and demonstrate real leadership with any where from 1-4 youth in a group.
I combined them so that they functioned and operated like a conventional unit instead of segregated amongst age groups.
I saw the same in other LDS units when we went as a contingent to summer camp one year...although there was a couple of wards that had some numbers in the 12-14 age group (Scouts), it wasn’t the norm. The lack of experienced youth leadership in those units showed and the adults were kept quite busy.
“which have left many of us scratching our heads trying to understand what he meant”
He meant exactly what he said. If a homosexual is living his life for the Lord, i.e., not engaging in homosexual activity, no one should judge him. Francis’ views are exactly what any other Pope’s views on homosexuality are. It is an intrinsic disorder and engaging in the behavior is a sin.
Catholic parishes are free to cut their associations with the BSA is they so chose or continue to sponsor them. It is left up to the Parish Priest. Some have cut ties with them, some have not.........not yet at least.
Only a matter of time before the BSA is relegated to the ash heap of history.
As you should. I accept the challenge. BSA has the records, they just don't present them to the volunteers at large in an easy way to make comparisons. See below ...
2012 - Overview of Chartered Organizations
The arithmetic I present below is not a perfect presentation. Base upon the data provided, the membership #s are not broken out by program or type unit. So, I just calculated the average # of scouts/unit in the 6 largest denominations and the overall average for all denominations.
Name of Organization Total Units Total Youth #/unit
LDS 37,856 430,557 11.4
UMC 10,868 363,876 33.5
RCC 8,397 273,648 32.6
all Presbyterian 3,597 125,523 34.9
all Lutheran 3,827 116,417 30.4
all Baptist 3,981 108,353 27.2
TOTAL 76,322 1,644,456 21.5
The trend is definitely there. While the LDS have the most # of units, they are definitely smaller than most others.
I don't take issue with what you wrote, but you have to admit the progressives around the globe have been rubbing their hands in glee because they think he is giving them a pass on homosexuality.
Catholic parishes are free to cut their associations with the BSA is they so chose or continue to sponsor them. It is left up to the Parish Priest. Some have cut ties with them, some have not.........not yet at least.
You are correct. A few parishes have elected not to re-new their charters. But the vast majority, at this point, remain engaged with the BSA.
Only a matter of time before the BSA is relegated to the ash heap of history.
It certainly will be a shadow of its former self, but Scouting in post-modern-Christian Europe is still around, as it is in Canada. I imagine BSA's membership numbers will continue to decline but they will eventually flatten out. The adoption of the new Membership Standard will not bring in a surge of new youth members to the "more enlightened" BSA. All I have to do is look at the Episcopal Church. It has been bleeding members at an accelerated rate since 2003 when it consecrated its 1st openly homosexual bishop in the state of NH.
Just waiting to see the other shoe drop when the new BSA National President, former Sec-Def (he who orchestrated the demise of DADT in the DoD which Congress approved in DEC 2010) Robert M. Gates, is elected to a 2-year term in MAY 2014. Many expect the Membership Standard to be revised again on his watch to include open homosexual adult leaders. If not then, it will most assuredly happen on his successor's watch - Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T.
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