End of Duty to God, Personal Progress, Faith In God

Does this mean the Eagle Scouts program is over too?

Does this mean the Eagle Scouts program is over too?

Yup. No more Eagle Scouts. Our ward has had a slew of boys (including my son) finishing their Eagle scout projects this summer, so they can get it before school starts back up.

I have mixed feelings about the church parting ways with scouting. On one hand, I believe the BSA is a total racket and over charged for almost everything. On the other hand, I think it’s a good program that teaches young men a lot of great lessons, especially when it’s implemented right with good leaders. Also, I like that the Eagle Scout award is widely known. Whatever the church replaces scouting with will be completely unknown outside of the church and won’t mean anything to non-LDS folks. I encouraged my son to get his Eagle scout award, but I wouldn’t push him to complete an LDS-focused program. I guess this is why I’m also not as familiar with these other programs and how much importance they play in a typical TBM household.

In light of the things that are being eliminated with no guidance from the church for activities that will replace

them, I have to ask: what is the “take away”? What is your interpretation or inspiration about what you & your family will

do next? It could be:

– be more committed to academics?

– be more active in community activities?

– be more active in athletics?

– maybe nothing will change.

It almost seems like the church is saying: don’t look for this organization to occupy your time. or, give you additional inspiration.

I’m grasping at straws here, trying to make sense of it all with no explanations coming from HQ.

I worry that the flexibility of the program will easily lead to a rubber stamp process. The leaders do whatever is easiest. The youth come to lessons and activities without any curriculum, benchmarks, or real ways to measure growth and achievement. My daughter left her first “New beginnings” class disappointed a few years ago. Two YW spoke on what project they did to earn the Young Women medallion. One painted her room. The other reorganized the contents of the refrigerator. My daughter felt that if that is the culmination of her YW mutual experience than is it worth her time?

I suppose it makes a difference what you are trying to accomplish with the program. If you are more interested in building comraderie and testimonies then I suppose you can have that and feel successful even if whatever achievements given out are akin to a rubber stamp.

Also, I like that the Eagle Scout award is widely known. Whatever the church replaces scouting with will be completely unknown outside of the church and won’t mean anything to non-LDS folks. I encouraged my son to get his Eagle scout award, but I wouldn’t push him to complete an LDS-focused program.

I also have enjoyed that the Boy Scouts is known and respected outside of the church. I have used my work as Bear Den Leader for the citizenship leg of my employer’s success plan

The BSA is currently involved in sex abuse lawsuits which may bankrupt it and also promotion of LGBT and mixed gender troops, neither of which probably goes down well with the LDS.

Having spent more than a decade in YM and most of that time as a ScoutMaster I too have mixed feelings. I have seen my share of Mom’s get their Eagle scout rank via their boys. But I have also seen the program work well for most boys. Most boys really like most of the outdoor activities. Quite a few LIVED for it. Especially living in a city, it is great for kids to get out into nature.

What I am actually most scared about is safety. The BSA has a fairly mature safety program/procedures. Sure they do stupid stuff from time to time like ban laser tag, but most of what is in the safety program is a result of some bad thing happening and them reacting to it. Even the General YM president came to our stake a few years ago and one of the main themes was “the LDS units have a bad track record for safety.” It was evident that LDS troop leaders would ignore the safety guidelines more often than non-LDS. I myself as a youth saw things that I am bothered by now (traveling all night) and my kids have had some cases on high adventure that made me worry.

I worry that the church will not be as safety focused and it will take a few bad accidents and even deaths before they start to be serious on it. And as a scoutmaster I had some comfort that if I followed the BSA rules, they would be fully backing me in court if something bad happened and a parent pulled me into court. I am not sure if I have that under an LDS youth activity group.

The church needs fewer “programs” and not more.

For me I’d say that the church needs better programs, which can mean fewer programs. One other change I’d like to see is transitioning away from the mandatory participation mindset. If a program doesn’t interest you, that’s okay. No need to hold meetings at church where the only goal is to guilt non-participants. No need to hound non-participants through phone calls, emails, and showing up to their door.

But I’d still say that the church needs better programs. My main worry is that whatever ends up replacing Scouts, Duty to God, Personal Progress, Faith in God, etc. will turn out to be little more than MTC-lite. More lectures on doctrines an less activity. Something that has the goal of getting more kids to serve missions rather than a program with the goal of getting kids to make social connections.

I began The Next Mormons this week and so far I am enjoying it. I like the little raised eyebrow “hmm, well I’ll be” moments as I go along. One of the stories Jana Riess tells (related from the interviews) is from an “older” Millennial who recalls girls camp as a young woman. Back then, she says, it was free fun, more like Scout camp and less “spiritually” oriented (which I suppose could be translated less indoctrinating, depending on your point of view). There was the obligatory closing testimony meeting, but otherwise it was swimming, hiking, etc. Now as an adult with children of her own the interviewee laments what girls camp has become, with the aim seeming to be indoctrination (my word) presided over by men as opposed to a fun time spent with other girls and women. Several years ago when I was YMP, the change had already taken place in our area. The YWP, who had only one child who was male and not overly interested in the Scouting part of things, was always on us to have more “spiritual” activities – like the YW do. Even in those TBM days my Jedi mind was strong enough to resist her attempted mind trick because I knew that’s not what boys wanted. I still don’t think it is, and I don’t think it’s what girls really want either, they just don’t know any better (and in fairness we had another YWP after the aforementioned who did understand that but couldn’t get through to the stake that “girls just want to have fun” like the boys). I do see in the church published materials that part of the aim of the new program – and that is what it is (lipstick on a pig) – is to “equalize” the YM and YW programs. I’m honestly all for that, spending on boys far outweighed spending on the girls and that was only partly (but a large part) due to the cost of Scouting. My fear is that the equalization will finally bring what the earlier YWP wanted – faith walks, etc., for boys. Boys also just want to have fun. Just being together with like believers is uplifting for them, no testimony meetings or faith walks needed. Our current stake YMP understands and does that but alas he is being released and his replacement is about as TBM as they come. 😥