3 Reasons Why As An Eagle Scout I Fully Support The LDS Church Leaving The BSA.
My family has been heavily involved in scouting for decades. My older brother worked at scout camp for years and my younger brother met his fiancee while they were both working on the staff at a BSA summer camp this past year. We love the BSA. And I, along with all my brothers, am an Eagle Scout. But none of us are shocked by the announcement that at the end of 2019 the LDS Church will leave the BSA, and all of us support it. Why? Here are three reasons.
1st. Everyone can still get their Eagle.
First, when I talked to my oldest brother, (who is currently a Scoutmaster in Taylorsville, Utah), we realized that with the announcement being so far out any boy can still attain Eagle Rank before the sunset of the program. It takes at minimum 16 months for the "positions of responsibility" requirements to progress from First Class to Eagle. As long as a boy reaches the rank of First Class by August of this year they will have the necessary time to hold positions of responsibility to reach Eagle Rank. So every current scout can reach Eagle through their church troops.
Here is a time table for those who still want to reach eagle.
- By August of 2018 any scout they must have their 1st Class board of review.
- By December of 2018 they must have their Star board of review.
- By June of 2019 they must have their Life board of review.
- By December of 2019 they would qualify for Eagle.
Something else to note: If a young man misses the cut off time, he can always find a local non-LDS troop and join it for the last few requirements.
2nd. Cause vs Effect.
Everything in the news and most everyone would suggest that the church leaving the scouting program was a result of everything the BSA has been doing lately. Everything from accepting girls, to dropping the name Boy and just becoming "Scouts." But I disagree. When discussing these changes with my brother, he pointed out that it was more than likely that the BSA was told by the Church that they were leaving well in advance and all these changes were done to prepare for the fact that the BSA will be losing their largest sponsor in the USA. The more I thought about that, the more sense it made: these changes were not the cause of the LDS church and the BSA parting ways but the effect.
3rd. Discipleship- and addressing the missionary crisis (The heart of the issue).
So if the LDS church is not leaving the BSA because of the controversial things they have done, why then leave it? Simple, it is no longer fulfilling its purpose; preparing the young men of the church to fill missions and be righteous men of God. There is a larger scale problem afoot. The entire YM's and YW's programs of the church and, most importantly, the families are not adequately preparing the youth to be disciples, future leaders, and missionaries. This is why the focus of the church has turned to discipleship and why we are overhauling the entire Young Men's and Young Women's programs, and the Sr Primary programs. These sweeping changes are focusing on discipleship, leadership, and sharing the gospel.
We are witnessing the Church making the steps necessary to help prepare all the youth to be converted to Christ and preparing them to be better missionaries. Too often, Scouts just turns into basketball night, which defeats their goals. Also, Scouting often forces leaders to "fit the gospel in" to a program, rather than a program designed entirely to be the Gospel. I think we are witnessing the beginning of the fulfillment of the request of President Kimball: “I am not asking for more testimony-barren or unworthy missionaries. I am asking that we start earlier and train our missionaries better in every branch and every ward in the world.”
The changes in these programs will ultimately help address a pandemic we are not talking about, less active Return Missionaries.
See, something we don't like to talk about is the fact that missionary effectiveness dropping through the floor (convert baptism are at a 30 year low, missionary effectiveness at a 40, and growth as a percentage at a 50 year low. I personally complied these numbers from conference reports over the past 50 years, click HERE for an article I wrote about this trend). We literally had fewer converts last year than the year President Nelson was called to be an Apostle! To quote President Ballard from a recent MTC fireside "What we are doing is not working!" This lack of success leads missionaries to discouragement, often missionaries who never see success when they come home go less active.
We are witnessing thousands of youth going on their missions earlier than ever before. But at the same time, many are going on their mission with testimonies of the programs, like girls camp, trek, or Young Men's, rather than the actual Gospel. Testimonies built on anything except Christ won't be able to weather the storms of missions or even life?. So many have never read the Book of Mormon cover to cover. If it comes down to learning knots or learning how to be a disciple, I think it is clear that the Church is redoubling its focus on discipleship!
Reread that quote from President Kimball: “I am not asking for more testimony-barren or unworthy missionaries. I am asking that we start earlier and train our missionaries better in every branch and every ward in the world.”
That quote literally could've been included in the announcement of the new programs. We are going to be starting younger, training harder, and preparing young men who will be able to carry the kingdom off triumphantly. The more I realize that the current programs are not preparing the coming generation adequately, the more fully I support the Prophet of God with this announcement of new programs; programs that more adequately prepare our young men for successful missions, and to be life long disciples of Christ.
Church members still have the freedom to be involved in scouts. I know many that are planning on it. Also, many senior scout leaders were concerned that the LDS church was watering down the scout program in their wards and that adult leaders were not properly trained. There were also many young men, during my time as an LDS scout leader, who did not want to be part of scouts. They were very difficult to deal with. Now Scout troops can be Scout troops.
You are off base, Bro Goff. (We met one might listening to Gayle)
The programs didn't fail the ym, the adults did by not getting trained and following the program. They resorted to basketball as you mentioned and did not deliver the promise of Scouting, the three aims or use the 8 methods. The men advisors, not being trained, did whatever they liked. The church finally realized that and saw that youth were not being challenged, adults were not implementing a quality program, and boys were falling through the cracks. And the church received no ROI on their investment of millions to the BSA since the adults failed the youth.
Consider these quotes and ponder why the Lord would team his precious priesthood with Scouting for more than 100 years!
President Hinckley:
“I love the Scouting movement. The promise of the Scout Oath and the 12 points of the Scout Law direct young men along the path of being prepared for the 21st century. They provide a solid and powerful magnetic force toward development of a well-rounded and noteworthy character that counts. If every boy in America knew and observed the Scout Oath, we would do away with most of the jails and prisons in this country.” (Scouting and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, Appendix A)
"President Monson sees Scouting as 'a spiritual program, a builder of men,'" Swinton wrote. "He has said: 'If ever there were a time when the principles of Scouting were vitally needed — that time is now. If ever there were a generation who would benefit by keeping physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight — that generation is the present generation.'"
President Benson:
“Ours is not a boy problem; it is a man problem. Our boys want Scouting; we want them to have it. Our problem is leadership. Our great need is to provide the leadership to meet the demands of the boys. Through Scouting we can help them develop real character; we can teach them cooperation; we can help them develop qualities of leadership; we can teach them the value of staying power.”
-President Ezra Taft Benson
The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson
Page 242
Bookcraft
totally agree with yoir comments
These have been my exact same feelings and thoughts for several years!
I could not agree more with your comments.
https://varsityteamvenue.blogspot.com/2018/05/mormons-should-be-ashamed-of-themselves.html
I whole heartedly agree with you. I received my Eagle Scout and was so happy to have gotten it. I also have noticed a difference in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints preparation of our youth. I am also the Sunday School President in my ward and have seen how the church is preparing our youth at a younger age. Last year the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came out with the new Come Follow Me lessons for the youth. Since then we have also seen the Church come out with the Come Follow Me lessons for the adults. Because of the success that Come Follow Me has had in the youth the Church is instilling it into the adults. We are also seeing a change in how we are ministering to our fellow saints. We no longer are satisfied with losing converts to inactivity because we haven't done our part to become, as President Hinckley said, their friends. President Hinckley stated that each convert needed a friend, a calling, and nourishment from the good word of God. This is how we are going to fulfill these responsibilities. We have to have a better youth program and we have to do better at ministering to our current members whether they are active or not. It is our duty to bring back these souls and to give them what was intended for them all along. The love of God. It is our jib to help him in bringing to pass his work. We have to make sacrifices somewhere in order to help our youth become stronger so we don't lose them.
Conversion to christ not to church or programs. Yes. That has always been the goal
please... everything here may be true but the fact is the changes made by BSA trigger the church to drop the program ASAP
who is responsible to teach the kids to be ready spiritually to serve a mission?
the parents, the ym and yw presidencies, seminary, and the church leaders should be interviewing these kids also
so it is not the BSA responsibility
it is ok if the church wants to drop the program but trying to ignore the reason why it is done not
and just to add something else, parents and adults do not want to help
i was a scoutmaster for 3 years and have to wear several hats in order to try to make it work in our branch
no one wanted to get involved
I am a Scoutmaster and agree completely with your comment... but don't see why that is a reason for the LDS to split from BSA.
Your timeline should say 1st Class, Star, Life, Eagle. But I can't take any other issue with your thoughts.
Oops, thanks for the catch!
Great article. I like your insights. One of the reasons is also the one that they stated in their official statement which is that the church is very international now. There are more members outside the united states than inside. The scouting program does cost money and it does not make sense to be paying so much more for youth in the US then youth around the world when the church could make its own program that reaches everybody and unifies the youth around the world.
I have not yet read your other article but One thing to note on the conversion rate to the church is its new strategy in building the church. There is a huge focus right now on members actually being converted and a support system in place for them before baptism. Especially in some parts of the world, this has been a real problem where you have so many new members undertaught and undersupported just fall away from the church or go less active.
Thank you for pointing out some great reasons and I agree with you on all of them.
Agree j.j ...Here in New Zealand it's been a major issue when it comes to converts..members do not know how to fellowship or even know how to be eternal and quality friends...We'll said sir!
Also the church not utilizing the "Scouts" organization to be the Aaronic Priesthood activity vehicle anymore dosen't mean that LDS boys cannot participate in a troop not sponsored by their Ward or Stake. LDS young men could still achieve an Eagle Scout rank award after the speration as as participant in their local city troop.
I do not fully agree with what you have said. While I do agree that the BSA is reacting to the Church pulling out of the program, I do not believe the Church just suddenly decided to go in a different direction. The BSA's policy changes and the Church pulling out are not completely unrelated. The church has had the Duty to God program for years and this has been effective and even works within the Scouting program. The ideological differences are what made the church choose to completely pull out of the BSA. You make really good points, and I agree with a lot of what you say. That's the only thing I take issue with.
Duty to God has been effective? Really? You might want to ask a few boys where they are in the program and what they are working on currently....
The half-baked attempts at Duty to God have been ridiculous.
Agreed. Again this is a training issue. Teach YM leaders how to use the DTG program hand in hand with the BSA. Now, it doesn't really matter.
Sadly, no it doesn't matter anymore. I just hope that the new program will bring out a desire in the YM leaders to make the program work. Its going to be interesting to watch it unfold. And, as a female, I will be there to back them up in any way that I can.
To those three reason I will add, church is a global Church and most of it’s members are outside the US and in most of the countries the Scouting program works completely different and is not associated with the church so focusing and making better programs for YM and YW will be a blessing for all the members around the world.
I am from New Zealand. I was a scout in an organisation outside of the Church. The men who were my scout leaders were passionatly dedicated to the scouting program and it was their life. Years later in NZ I was called into the Young Mens presidency which meant being also involved in the LDS scouting program as a scout master in our local area. I immediately could see a difference in what I had experienced coming through a non-church scouting program. The passion, fire and love of the program was not there within the church based scouting leadership. I was excited to be a scout leader because of my past experience as a scout but I could feel the excitement I had was not shared with my fellow leaders. They did not choose to become scout leaders but were called and like most callings in the church they are of a temporary nature. An LDS scout masters in NZ at that time was not a position that would endure and encompass ones whole lifetime. A few years later the church cut its ties and no longer was involved in scouting in New Zealand and I fully agreed with that. 2018 and I now live in Australia and have been teaching seminary for 3 years. In Australia it is an unpaid calling/position. I love it and know of no program that can give a child a better grounding in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and prepare them for missions and life. I have these kids almost everday school day of the year. There are some parents who understand the value of the seminary program but I wish all parents realized it. I have 1st year seminary students who understand doctrine and principles, love the Book of Mormon, love Jesus Christ and love the experience of seminary. To me this is what will create better missionaries and members of the Church in years to come. I welcome the changes coming in 20/20.
The problem is one fold - parents who don't have a testimony in any program the Church uses is pointless. I have parents who hate Scouting. I have parents who don't make sure their kid gets to Seminary. I have parents who don't make sure their kid gets to Wednesday night activities (not Scouts).
These program support parents and when they don't care, neither does their kid. The problem really isn't the program (especially since the new program will contain a lot of Woodscraft skills [the young women's camp in the US has turned to teaching Woodscraft in addition to what they were also teaching]). It is the parents and the kids -- getting them to buy into the program and put some skin in the game.
So true!!
AN UNENDOWED EAGLE WILL NEVER FLY. NO MATTER HOW MANY MERITS AND BADGE YOU ACQUIRE, IT WONT GAIN YOU A TESTIMONY TO BECOME A BETTER MISSIONARY. YOU MAY LEARN ALL THE KNOTS & ROPES ON HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE JUNGLE, BUT THAT WONT HELP YOU TO SAVE SOULS. I LOVE MY EAGLE AWARD IN MY 20 YEARS IN THE SCOUT, BUT I SURE LOVE MORE MY NAME TAG ON MY WAY TO ETERNITY.