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After 100 Years, Are The Boy Scouts Still Relevant?

Today, February 8th, marks the centennial of Boy Scouts in America. Over the past century, more than 110 million boys, young men, moms and dads have been members of the BSA. However, with such a momentous celebration at-hand, the Boy Scouts, in many ways, are a struggling organization. At a time when shows like "Man Vs Wild" and "Survivorman" are experiencing immense popularity and global awareness of the environment is at a high, wouldn't it make sense that an organization like the Boy Scouts would see a surge in enrollment? After all, the scouting program specializes in promoting survival skills and enjoyment of the outdoors as its biggest recruiting tools for boys and young men.

But in the past decade, enrollment numbers have seen continuous annual plunges. Not as many boys are interested in the program and fewer parents are making the choice to enroll their sons in Scouting. The published enrollment numbers that the BSA share show that membership has dropped year after year, a tough pill to swallow for any organization, and the BSA has been accused on several occasions that their rolls have been inflated to enhance appearances. Even if you ignore those rumors and accept the BSA's numbers, with just 2.8 million members, Scouting is half of what it was in 1972 when enrollment peaked. That means that Boy Scout membership in the US is down by 11% in the past decade and Cub Scouts have seen their membership drop by 23% during the same time.

While some of this can be attributed to more choices for kids - from soccer to chess club to year-round basketball clinics - and busier schedules for both children and their parents, those are still tremendous declines. Plus, the Scouting program has been dogged by allegations of discrimination - mainly in cases brought by gays and atheists. It's been a tough road lately, with some questioning why Scouting hasn't changed more to adjust to a new social climate. But is the drop in Scouting membership due to the materiality of its programs or to other factors? It's impossible to say, but, perhaps, there is a larger question at hand: As Scouting celebrates its 100th anniversary this month, are the Boy Scouts of America still relevant?

THE CASE IN FAVOR OF SCOUTING

The benefit of any program can be measured by those who rise to its top. And, for Scouting, the top is the rank of Eagle Scout - an accomplishment that caps years of work, progressive leadership responsibilities, civic awareness, community volunteerism, dozens of merit badges based on learning specialized skills and (in most cases) countless nights spent camping in forests and wilderness. It is a long road and a difficult one, but - if a boy sticks with it and accomplishes his goal - the reward is great. He has been tested and challenged over and over in a way that not only gives him a greater understanding of his place in his community, but a better understanding of who he is and what he is capable of achieving. Over the history of the Boy Scouts of America, just under two million boys have become Eagle Scouts, a rank that is awarded for life. The list of Eagle Scouts is impressive; it includes a president (and several presidential candidates), representatives and senators, astronauts, many very successful businessmen, a couple of filmmakers, and some guy that does a lot of dirty jobs.

But what about the millions of other boys in both the Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs who never make Eagle Scout? Do they get anything out of the program? The argument can be made that - as long as you are involved, you get something out of it. The skills taught in weekly meetings or earned on campouts stay with boys forever. From Lifesaving to Citizenship, Scouts gain a deeper understanding of skills that will affect them for the rest of their lives. And in the case of some skills, like First Aid and Emergency Preparedness, Scouting is a unique opportunity to gain know-how that boys might not get anywhere else. In fact, from youthful Cub Scouts to seasoned Boy Scouts, boys are consistently showcased in newspapers and the TV news for saving the lives of family, friends or strangers, simply because they knew how to "be prepared" in a life-threatening emergency.

Scouting places a very high value on community involvement and scouts take that commitment very seriously, volunteering for a wide range of projects - improving public land and property, serving food banks, and assisting the elderly, impoverished and the unfortunate, among others. Scouting For Food, a project that collects food for local food banks, contributes not only food, but nearly a hundred million service hours across the United States every year. The Order of the Arrow, the Boy Scouts honor camping society, has hosted an event called "Five Sites, Five Weeks, Five Thousand Arrowmen" where a thousand Order of the Arrow scouts descend upon one of five national parks to improve, clean and work on conservation and fire-prevention projects. All told, volunteer Scouting hours probably total more than any other group in the United States - more than 2 million hours a year by a conservative estimate.

Boy Scouts - and to a lesser extent, Cub Scouts - spend countless nights exploring and camping in the nation's forests and parks. Environmental responsibility plays a large role in the program's curriculum and campsite locations are left in the same situation as they found them, under "Leave No Trace" camping rules, if not improved upon by the group. Camping, especially for urban youth, is a rarity, if not unheard of. Scouting provides a conduit for getting boys - urban or otherwise - out away from couches, Xboxes, cable tv and computer monitors into the outdoors. With all the technology surrounding today's youth, it's not difficult to imagine a childhood where the outdoors plays a substantially reduced role. Yet, Scouting is the antithesis of a sedentary life, introducing day-long hikes, cooking over an open fire, and survival skills. The argument can be made that these skills aren't necessarily important on a daily basis, but because they are immensely valuable in a crisis or dangerous situations - and because they really aren't taught anywhere else - the fact that Scouting still teaches them makes the program more relevant than ever.

Scouting emphasizes a strong bond between boys and their families. In many cases, this is exemplified by the relationship between boys and their fathers, who are most often volunteers for the program. This traditional arrangement provides an ideal opportunity for boys to step away from their daily routine and not only learn core Scouting skills like orienteering, cooking or first aid, but also skills outside the Scouting curriculum, like negotiating the pitfalls of adolescence and growing to become men. Yes, these are things that boys can learn elsewhere, but Scouting provides a conduit - whether a weekend-long campout, a two-week backpacking trek or just a weekly meeting - where interaction with teenagers and their fathers is mandatory – an occurrence that's sometimes difficult for many families at home.

Then, there are Scouting's values, those twelve points that both brand and identify a Boy Scout as, that squeaky-clean, do-gooder kid: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. For the most part, these are ideals that most of us want to see in our family, friends and neighbors. Scouting has consistently forwarded these values over their 100 year history. Peter Applebome, an editor of The New York Times, once wrote that, as an adult volunteer involved with his son's scouting, he observed that "Scouting's core values ... are wonderful building blocks for a movement and a life. Scouting's genuinely egalitarian goals and instincts are more important now than they've ever been. It's one of the only things that kids do that's genuinely cooperative, not competitive."

THE CASE AGAINST SCOUTING

Any discussion of the Scouts' relevance wouldn't be complete without looking at the main criticisms people have against the program. The bulk of the criticism is centered on discrimination against atheists and agnostics and against homosexuals. Although these aren't the only criticisms, they are the ones that make the most headlines.

The final point of the Scout Law is the dedication to be reverent. Devotion to God is also found in various BSA oaths, from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts, where boys pledge their allegiance and duty to God. Allegiance to, and agreement with, the oaths are checked often along the path of the program, with specific requirements to make sure that boys "live the Scout Oath ... and Scout Law in their everday lives" before being granted certain advancement. Meetings, campouts and other occasions - depending on the local governing body - can include an element of prayer, typically in traditional Judeo-Christian fashion.

While the Scouting organization doesn't define who God is and defers explanation of the relationship between boys and their deity to their families and religious leaders, it doesn't allow much wiggle room for those who do not believe in one of the major religions or minor offshoots. So if you are a believer in Ja, Ra, Zeus, Quetzalcoatal, the flying spaghetti monster or a firm believer in using your Sunday morning for doing nothing more than sleeping in, the Boy Scouts do not have a place for you. (To be fair, Scouting recognizes a significant number of religions and they are inclusive of some non-traditional beliefs, including Wiccans.) The Girl Scouts, an organization with similar membership declines, has found an interesting method for approaching the situationally sticky problem of pledging an oath to God, with a far more nebulous approach, encouraging its participants to replace the word "God" with a term consistent with their personal spiritual beliefs.

Like any case of discrimination, there have been challenges to Scouting's demand for reverence to their prescribed religions and some boys have been expelled from the program for maintaining their atheist or agnostic views. In several instances, the ACLU has taken the case for these boys and - seemingly more often than not - the BSA has allowed these non-believers to rejoin quietly.

Although it's true that the values and stances on both religion and sexuality are based on bedrock principles that has been around since the beginning of the Scouting program, it's thought that much of the current philosophy is based on how heavily the scouting organization relies on the nation's churches for support and structure. From coast to coast, Scout meetings can be found in fellowship halls and recreation rooms of churches and synagogues. Catholics, Jews, Methodists and other faiths all support scouting, but nowhere is Scouting more prevalent than in the Mormon church.

Penn & Teller make the case in season four of their television series, "Bullsh*t", that the Mormon church made a power move in the late 80s to take over the leadership of the Boy Scouts of America. Although there isn't any definitive proof that this is true, Mormons participate in Boy Scouts at a very high rate. While Mormons only make up 2% of the total US population, they account for nearly 20% of all Scouts. The Mormons even have their own specialized division of scouting, LDS Scouting and, until recently, a student could major in Scouting leadership (.pdf of coursework, here) at Mormon-based university, Brigham Young.

It seems the Mormons aren't afraid of throwing their weight around on issues they are concerned with and are on record as saying if the Boy Scouts of America is forced to accept gays as scoutmasters, the LDS Church will withdraw from the organization and take more than 400,000 Scouts with it.

Which brings mention of the larger complaint of discrimination, that exclusion against both scouts and adult leaders who are homosexual. There has been significant debate in court challenges on this issue, which, for the Scouts, hinges on the phrase of the Scout Oath that obligates a Scout to be "morally straight". While the Supreme Court has sided with the Boy Scouts, allowing that a private organization can include and exclude who it chooses, many feel that - as with marriage and other relationship privileges, the time has come for homosexuals to be accepted in scouting.

In terms of policy, although the BSA stated in 2000 that "Boy Scouting makes no effort to discover the sexual orientation of any person" - essentially a variation on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" - there continue to be dismissals and expulsions of people discovered to be homosexual.

Indeed, Scouting is merely part of a larger debate within our society about homosexuals and their entitlement to equal rights and protections. Still, push-back and demands for acceptance seem to be more present these days, as seen with groups like Scouting for All, an organization dedicated to accepting homosexual and atheist/agnostic scouts and leaders.

For now, the BSA has the right to exclude who it wants, as a private organization. But - and here's the rub - they are a private organization that makes no bones about accepting public funds, using public lands at significant discounts (or no charge at all) and recruit within taxpayer funded schools. This presents a bit of a Pharisaical conundrum in the eyes of many. How can a private organization at odds with so much public opinion be given so many publicly funded benefits?

GET TO THE POINT - ARE THE BOY SCOUTS RELEVANT?

At the 2000 Democratic National Convention, hundreds of delegates booed a group of Boy Scouts as they led the convention in the Pledge of Allegiance. While this show of disapproval must have been heart-felt, it was misguided. The frustration that some have with the Boy Scouts is understandable, but a group of 14 and 16 year old boys doesn't dictate organizational policy. The argument the delegates had was with the BSA administration.

This is the heart of the argument about Scouting's relevancy. While the Scouting program provides plenty of opportunity to boys to develop important and unique skills, hone leadership traits that will pay off outside scouting and help boys to live up to their potential, most of the complaints people lodge against Scouting's relevancy are tied to decisions that the BSA's adult leadership makes. And so we're faced with a decision: should we withhold the potentially outstanding experience of Boy Scouts from our sons because of the unbending rules of the organization's administration?

To make matters more complicated, on the local level, there is often a flexible interpretation of the laws. Homosexual parents and scouts serve Boy Scouts without fear of reprisal (even in America's Bible belt), and atheists simply keep their mouths shut during the scout pledge to God and claims of reverence. Like many issues, at the local level, we're all just people and local administration understands that. At its core, Scouting is a program they believe in and want to share with others, no matter who they are or what they believe. And ultimately, the biggest knocks to Scouting's relevancy don't make much sense. As a parent, I wouldn't expect a heterosexual Catholic leader to proselytize to my son about his religion or his sexuality, any more than I'd think a homosexual atheist would be discussing those subjects with my kids.

I was a Cub Scout, a Boy Scout and I attained the rank of Eagle Scout just days before my eighteenth birthday. I have traveled and camped extensively with the Boy Scouts, including a two-week trek at BSA's high adventure camp, Philmont. I am a member of both Order of the Arrow and Mic-O-Say, a regional honor society. My son is in Cub Scouts and I recently finished my first year as a den leader. The friendships I developed during my years in scouts have become incredibly strong lifelong bonds. To me, Scouting remains one of the more important accomplishments in my life - probably because of its impact to me at such a young age.

As a dad, I see how excited my son gets putting on his uniform and being a part of something bigger than himself. He enjoys learning about the outdoors and things he doesn't get in school. He enjoys the fraternity of it all and looks forward to camping and everything Scouts has to offer. But I struggle with the national organization's inflexibility. Just as in my youth, I'm not much for church and, like many Americans, I have relatives who are gay - for me, a member of my immediate family. But, for now, I have made my choice and believe strongly in Scouting's relevancy.

You? You have to weigh the benefits and drawbacks and make your own choice.

I asked some of my friends from my Scouting experience if they still believed in the Boy Scouts' mission. "Kids are surrounded by plenty of opportunities to make the wrong decisions; to experience the negative. Scouting stacks the deck for a positive experience - adults who are interested in providing kids a safe environment to learn and have fun, exposure to new things, to the outdoors & hopefully a set of experiences that they'll use for the rest of their lives whether that manifests itself in good friends, valuable skills, a first shot at leading a team or just a good memory or two," says Troy Trybom, an Eagle Scout and father in Stilwell, Kansas. "Probably most important to me was that my Dad was there with me through my entire time in Scouting. We spoke about and reminisced about Scouts until the day he passed away. I wouldn't trade my time & memories of scouting for anything."