The Boy Scouts of America announced Wednesday it will soon allow girls to join its Cub Scouts program and will develop a new program for older girls to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.
“This decision is true to BSA’s mission and core values outlined in the Scout Oath and Law. The values of Scouting — trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, brave and reverent, for example — are important for both young men and women,” Michael Surbaugh, CEO of the Boy Scouts, said in a statement.
“We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children. We strive to bring what our organization does best – developing character and leadership for young people – to as many families and youth as possible as we help shape the next generation of leaders,” he continued.
The Boy Scouts of America Board of Directors unanimously voted to allow girls to join the Cub Scout program. The organization also said it plans to establish a new program for older girls that will “enable them to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout.”
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Cub Scout packs can welcome children of both genders, but the organization said smaller units, or dens, will be either all boys or all girls.
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#BREAKING: Boy Scouts to begin admitting girls https://t.co/6uyvYUelM9 pic.twitter.com/5PZL0rW8Ce
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) October 11, 2017
The Not Really Boy Scouts have earned yet another progressive merit badge https://t.co/8bUSSyyjQQ
— Todd Erzen (@DeaceOnline) October 11, 2017
Apparently, they have been losing members and money at an accelerating pace over the last few years, probably due to the pro-gay drift.
In 2015, the Chicago Tribune reported that membership had fallen by 7.4% in 2014, and by 6% in 2013, and that a spokesman attributed the decline to the 2013 policy change allowing gay members.
The Dallas Morning News recently reported:
…the Mormon church, the biggest sponsor of troops in the U.S., said it would be starting its own scouting-like program and pulling as many as 185,000 older youths from the Irving-based organization.
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at least one leading Mormon scholar said that the Boy Scouts and the Mormons have been diverging on values in recent years and that the policy on gays was probably one of several contributing factors in the split.
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The loss is only a fraction of the 2.3 million youths in the Boy Scouts of America, but the organization has been grappling with declining membership for years and has enjoyed an unusually close bond with the Mormon church for more than a century because of their shared values. Joining the Boy Scouts is practically automatic among Mormon boys.
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Matthew Bowman, a Mormon scholar and associate professor of history at Henderson State University, said the schism reflects the two organizations’ diverging values, with gays and girls just two such issues.
…Also, Breakpoint reports:
recent years have seen a significant decline in Scouting membership and revenue. In 2014 the Boy Scouts began allowing openly gay boys into Scout troops. The next year, membership fell by about 6 percent, the largest single-year decline in membership in the organization’s history. Between 2013 and 2016 (the last year for which numbers are publicly available), membership has fallen by about 10 percent.
Scouts began accepting gay adult leaders in 2015. Earlier this year, the BSA began accepting transgender boys (girls who identify themselves as boys). The Mormon Church, Scouting’s largest faith-based partner, announced in May it would pull about 185,000 boys out of the program in response to these developments.
Evangelicals have also been exiting the BSA. In 2013, a group of evangelical leaders formed Trail Life USA to provide a safe haven for boys and men who value many aspects of the Boy Scout program, but believe the pro-gay drift has gone too far.
So this move to admit girls into the boy scouts appears to some as a desperate move to raise membership and revenus.
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