“We’re here to honor the legacy of the Boy Scouts of America”
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“Our vision will be to become the premier national character development organization for young men,” Stemberger said, “which produces godly and responsible husbands, fathers, and citizens.”
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Game on.
Would you like to consider hitting the trails with me?
We already began last year to sponsor American Heritage Girls which is a similar alternative to girl scouts. We have several in our church who are hoping to sponsor Trail Life USA.
That’s great, Nord. I would enjoy staying connecting on the outcome of a troop in your area.
Andrew, I would imagine the next step for the social progressives is to bring the BSA to a no discrimination policy for adult gay leaders. For churches who will continue to be chartering organizations, I think it makes them vulnerable to litigation by activists.
Acclaimed science fiction writer, HG Wells, published a book called “The Shape of Things to Come” way back in 1933. The book is written from the perspective of a history book that was (would be) published in the year 2106. While clearly fictional, it offers a speculative glimpse of an alternative reality from our own IF things had gone differently in the 1930s and 1940s. Interestingly, it predicted a world war lasting ten years from 1940 to 1950, the rise of intellectualism, the “problem” of religion and individual freedom interfering with the “State” and it’s ability to exert control over society, and the move to abolish all religion in order to build a Utopian future ruled by benevolent dictators.
Wells was not a prophet or time traveler, but had a clever ability to understand history, current events, progressive thinking and make the connections needed in his analysis to forecast likely trends into the coming decades.
BSA will shortly celebrate its 104th birthday as an official organization. Much has happened to the organization over that century, and we can expect to see more changes in the future.
Recently, ‘scouts for equality’ published a notice that their upcoming strategic plan “intends to focus on three important goals…:
- End discrimination against adult leaders within the BSA.
- Create a safe culture of inclusiveness for all youth through bullying prevention programs and ensuring the new membership policy is implemented consistently across all levels of the BSA.
- Grow an inclusive Boy Scouts of America by increasing membership and creating new inclusive Scouting units.”
This “agenda” isn’t surprising, but it is confirmation that the pressure for further social conformity will not stop, and that curriculum changes will forever redefine BSA’s message on issues like the definition of “family” (Family Life Merit Badge is required for becoming recognized as an Eagle Scout). The curriculum changes begin with redefintion of youth protection training and will expand from there.
So what other news items are happening that could influence the future direction of BSA?
Boy Scouts in the UK (a bastion of post-modern culture) have already removed “God” from their Oath.
Further, reports have arrived of not only removing references to “God” in the Girl Guide’s oath, but also reprimanding a Girl Guide unit for allowing the old oath to continue to be used – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2524321/Girl-Guide-group-told-d…
While the UK group has no direct influence on BSA, the UK has been a bastion of progressiveness, and may signal a glimpse of what will arrive later here.
Trail Life offers an attractive replacement for BSA which enables units to function as a ministry of the local Chartering Organization, reaching into the local neighborhood for outreach, encouraging dads to be involved with their sons for mentoring and discipleship as they grow older. The program is equipped to fulfill these dual roles well with well designed, engaging curriculum, fun activities, advancement and outdoors skill mastery.
The new troop locator is up and running, along with a “connect me to a troop near me” form — http://www.traillifeusa.com/start-a-troop/troop-locator/
Paul F.
Trail Life USA Volunteer, Former BSA Scoutmaster and Eagle Scout
http://traillife113.wordpress.com (Trail Life USA related blog)
http://troop113.wordpress.com (BSA related blog)
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