The Boy Scouts of America has become the Woke Youth Program
I have experienced the best that the Boy Scouts of America can be, but such an experience is no longer possible.
To the BSA, its heritage and members do not matter anymore; all that matters is public relations.
BSA used to make it their first priority to provide young men with the opportunity to develop important skills for life, camping, and leadership, but over the past decade, their dedication to providing a safe space for boys to learn important life lessons has atrophied. In its place, BSA strengthened a dedication to ‘wokeness.’
I joined a troop at the age of 10, and over the next eight years I benefited from a close-knit community of my peers and leaders who invested in me. Thanks to the guidance of the older boys, the newer scouts like myself learned how to budget, cook, build camp, respect God’s nature, and lead. Likewise, the adult leaders guided us as we earned merit badges to develop our mental and physical fitness, badges designed to produce honorable sons and good citizens. Summer camps at the H. Roe Bartle Reservation allowed me to build a broader community and enjoy a broader range of scouting activities. Throughout all of it, there was no pressure to put on an act or impress anyone; Scouting was just a group of boys looking to have fun and enjoy the great outdoors, where the expectations of society were absent.
For those reasons, the program of BSA that allowed me to learn from and build friendships with other boys with similar interests was, I can now say, the one that played the most formative role in my adolescence. Now, however, the BSA has ruined all the opportunities I enjoyed, and instead it aims to satisfy Leftism.
Recent announcements from the BSA show the degree of that commitment.
First, all scouts will be required to earn a diversity merit badge before they are eligible for the rank of Eagle Scout. The New York Times reports,
“The organization was still working on the details of how a scout would earn the diversity and inclusion merit badge. The development of a new badge typically takes years, but [a BSA spokeswoman] said the timeline would be expedited in this case.”
The BSA must hurry, of course, because the Left will not tolerate the lethargy of the traditional process; they demand to be exalted above that. While there are currently few details about the content of the badge, it will likely entail lessons in Critical Race Theory, such as hate for the police, blaming racism for all society’s evils, and atonement for generational sins in the form of venerating the black race.
Second, the BSA endorsed the BLM organization because “this is not a political issue; it is a human rights issue.” BSA explicitly stated, “We believe Black Lives Matter.” Despite being a nationwide organization dedicated to instilling survival and leadership skills in young men, the BSA was quick to voice support for an organization that aims to dismantle Western culture and has no issues with widespread vandalism, theft, and murder.
Naturally, the development of boys into mature, responsible men—men who don’t commit crimes and destroy communities—must take a back seat to the Left’s priorities, lest the BSA earn their scorn. If public relations demand that the BSA undermine its own oath (which participants recite at every meeting) “to do my duty to God and my country, to obey the Scout Law” of being helpful, courteous, kind, and clean, then so be it, even if it means praising individuals who blatantly disrespect God, country, and the Scout Law.
But the BSA have been doing that since 2015, when they announced two key policy changes: that homosexual men could hold leadership positions within troops, and that transgender youth could join the program.
Given the facts that 1] at least 1 in 7 boys is sexually abused before the age of 18, 2] male-targeting pedophiles commit over 7 times more abuses with over 3 times as many targets than female-targeting pedophiles, 3] 80-90% of pedophiles are male, 4] pedophiles “targeting young boys outside the home committed the greatest number of crimes,” 5] pedophiles “insert themselves into situations where they have easy access to children,” and 6] homosexual individuals have higher rates of pedophilia than heterosexual individuals, it is a fair conclusion that ordaining homosexual scout leaders threatens the safe space that BSA meant to create.
But those considerations would upset the Left’s woke agenda, so BSA disregarded them.
The BSA justified their ruling on transgender scouts with the following mock Q and A:
Q: Doesn’t this decision effectively allow girls in the Cub Scout and Boy Scout program?
A: No, transgender boys are considered boys. This is a legal decision that many states have adopted. Although we previously referred to the information documented on a birth certification to verify eligibility, that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently.
However, BSA actually had no problem admitting girls into all levels of their program that was meant for boys. In February 2019, the BSA officially decided to permit young women into all levels of the program and be able to earn the rank of Eagle Scout—girls had been allowed to be Cub Scouts since 2018.
Depending on the region, girls and boys from kindergarten through high school are fully integrated, sharing the same space at meetings, campouts, et cetera. I attended the Heart of America Council’s first integrated adolescent summer camp in 2019 as a leader for my troop, and one of H. Roe Bartle Reservation’s three large campgrounds was reserved for female scouts. While programs were kept separate for the most part, there was no physical barrier preventing any of the boys sneaking over to the girls’ area or vice versa. For the moment, adult leaders are under the guidance to prevent such activity, but there is no reason to believe that such guidance will remain for long.
The introduction of transgender and female youth into Boy Scouts adversely affects boys because it sends the message that they cannot have spaces to create community solely among themselves. BSA used to provide a retreat for boys where they could be discipled by and then disciple other boys in how to be a proper man, but it has become an environment indistinguishable from a school field trip. It is simply common sense that the social dynamic of a group of boys will change when the group becomes more than just boys who want to be boys, and the same is true with girls.
The BSA claims that these recent actions foster an environment where boys can “become the best versions of themselves,” but they do just the opposite. Boys need a place where they can freely be themselves without the societal pressure of mixed-gender environments, and they need masculine authority figures who will embody and teach the Scout Oath and Law. Having a close-knit, homogenous community is important for everyone to have—people need to be around people who are like them.
Scouting used to be a place where young men could find that community, but the BSA destroyed it as a sacrifice for the Left. There is now heterogeneity within troops and campgrounds, which is an obstacle for the development of strong relationships among the very audience for whom the BSA was made: the boys.
This trend will only continue unless concerned individuals act. The solution lies first in writing to BSA officials; they must know that opposition exists before they can decide to change anything. However, that may not be enough. Courageous scouts, leaders, and parents should speak with their wallets. Stop paying dues, stop aiding fundraisers, and leave the organization. That is a momentous request, but the only alternative is to watch while the BSA indoctrinates young men and fails in its mission to give them the program they deserve.
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