Living within the LDS culture, it is interesting to see how the Boy Scouts is integrated right into the fabric of being an LDS deacon, etc.
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Living within the LDS culture, it is interesting to see how the Boy Scouts is integrated right into the fabric of being an LDS deacon, etc.
Jesus in Idaho Falls 
That was always a curious thing to me as well, since I thought scouts were non-denominational. One of my brothers did scouts for a few years, but I never paid much attention to it. I did Girl Scouts from grades 1-4, my mother was our troop leader for grade 4 and I sold the third-most cookies in Anchorage—I had to brave a lot of snow and ice and moose to sell those cookies, tyvm—but I guess the Girl Scouts are organized completely different so that local churches don’t host/sponsor them like they do for Boy Scouts.
My family went to some sort of huge outdoor Boy Scout activity at McChord Air Force Base for my brother when I was in about sixth grade or so. I had no interest in whatever was going on, so I slunk into the shadows next to a building and busted out my Sega Game Gear for some quality time with Mortal Kombat.
An obese woman in Scout leader clothing waddled over to me and told me to put it away. I politely told her that since I was neither a boy nor a scout, I had no inclination to listen to her. She got bossy and threatened to tell my parents. I doubt that would have helped since they were the ones who let me bring the Game Gear in the first place, but I put it away.
After she’d left, I sauntered over to the nearest group of kids and said something very negative about their fat, bossy troop leader, to which one of them replied, “That’s our mother.” “Yeah, that’s our mother,” said the other one. Oh dear.
Looking back, I’d bet 50 bucks that woman and her snotty kids were Mormon. They probably dumped her with a calling in Scouts because they were tired of her bossing around the sisters in the Relief Society or something. If I could go back in time and watch the scene over again, I could probably pick out the garment lines.
When I got into high school, some guys who liked me tried to talk me into joining Boy Scouts. “Girls can join scouts, too!” they declared. I told them how much I’d disliked Girl Scouts and they said Boy Scouts was way better than Girl Scouts. It was tempting, but at age 16 it seemed like my days of being a tomboy really ought to be past.
Thus concludes the entirety of my interaction with and knowledge of Boy Scouts.
We started last June.
https://heartissuesforlds.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/monson-in-scouting-magazine-june-2008/
I knew nothing about the boy scouts, though growing up here in S.E. Idaho.
In three months, my youngest boy, Micaiah, will complete his Tiger Cubs year (“Search, Discover, and Share”) and graduate to Wolf Cubs. I will move from Tiger Cubs den leader II to a Wolf Cubs den leader. I need to fulfill my training at one of the local LDS wards.
having a good time,
et
I hope you have fun with it, Todd. It’s neat that your church is sponsoring a group.
I only have a daughter right now, and my husband’s identical twin brother has so far had 3 girls which is the biological equivalent of the same man having 4 girls in a row, so I’m not holding my breath for a son.
But it’s something I’ll keep in mind if we do happen to have one.
Are you a big seller or shopper? (chuckling)
Our spring boutique fundraiser – http://www.kidk.com/features/calendar/40543562.html
I think the reason that the LDS Church doesn’t officially sanction Girl Scouts is because of their more open view on homosexuality and a few other values that the Church didn’t feel exactly comfortable endorsing.
But that may also be total hearsay.
Yeah, I figured that could be part of it, though the tolerance of homosexuality, atheism, etc. didn’t start happening until the 1990s, and Girl Scouts have been around since 1912. From Wikipedia: “The basic unit is the troop which may or may not be sponsored. In contrast to Boy Scout troop chartered organizations, Girl Scout troop sponsors do not own the troop.” That’s probably the other part of it.
Somebody at FMH commented last month, “Girl Scout troops are chartered differently than Boy Scout troops so it isn’t possible for the Church to sponsor them in the same way. They aren’t allowed the control the BSA gives the Church to adapt its programs. Still the LDS church contributes to GS financially through its various charities, partners with humanitarian efforts, and allows Girl Scouts to use their facilities for meetings and events.”
I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to put my daughter into Scouts. The only thing I know for sure about her future extracurricular activities is that she has to have a black belt in some kind of martial art before she’s allowed to date boys.
Yeah, well… the male LDS hierarchy hasn’t exactly been cutting-edge on women’s issues to begin with.
I doubt they really even noticed that the girls didn’t have anything to do prior to 1990.
Ouch! I wasn’t going to say it, but if you want to…
I think Joseph Smith, Jr. was fairly progressive on women’s issues, if you ignore his questionable polygamy practices. It was the leaders who came after him who botched it. Someday, I’m gonna blog about how I think Joseph Smith could have been a fallen prophet. Someday.