I wrote this blog in 2018, and it seems especially relevant again. Today, February 18, 2020, the Scouts announced that the organization was filing for bankruptcy. We should mourn the loss of this once great organization, and we should be deeply concerned about what it says about our culture.
The purpose of this corporation shall be to promote, through organization and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in Scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues…
That seems like a clear purpose statement, right?
But on October 11, 2017, the Boy Scouts of America announced its intention to permit girls to join the BSA, beginning with the Cub Scouts in 2018. In the new version, at first Scouts will separate into gender groups to fulfill their merit badges. This shift results in a rebranding, so this week the Boy Scouts of America officially changed its name to Scouts BSA.
Not surprising. The BSA has been following a trend of yielding to the dictates of culture, which for some time has been trending toward mass confusion over gender roles and sexual identity. So, the BSA tipped to the cultural idols in 2013 when its leaders began changing their policies that prohibited homosexual leaders and members. The last brick fell in 2015 when the organization succumbed to the pressure of the LGBT movement and lifted its ban on openly gay leaders and employees.
Suddenly the BSA is surprised that its membership has been on a steady decline since that decision. According to the Associated Press, in 2014 the membership of adults and boys was nearly 1.5 million less than its peak years, and as the slide continues, they have lost nearly 500,000 since 2014.
Why? Because they forgot their purpose. Organizations commonly fall apart when they lose sight of their purpose. It dilutes their effectiveness and strength. And surrendering to the whims of culture is a sure-fire way to do just that.
The BSA was founded in 1910, a time in which manhood was fairly defined for everyone, but it was clearly understood that manhood was not automatic, and it was not the same thing as masculinity. And that without men who share particular values, manhood itself would be in danger of becoming extinct. And when men lose a sense of what it means to be a man, the family suffers, kids suffer, culture suffers, and the country suffers.
Don’t misunderstand. I am not diminishing the value of women, and I firmly agree that girls should be raised with values that foster the same attributes that are nurtured in the Scouts. But by putting the emphasis of Scouting on gender equality instead of raising men with character and values, the BSA has forever lost its purpose. And America has lost a great organization. And along the way, America has lost a voice for manhood.
The timing could not be worse. In the era of #MeToo, more than ever, we need organizations in our nation that will teach boys how to be men of character, how to respect women, how to love well, and how to stand for what is right. The worst that can happen is such organizations capitulate to the gender confusion of our culture.
For boys to learn to be men, they need other men to show them how (Prov. 27:17). How to be distinctively, clearly, manly. Not macho. Manly. As John Eldredge says in Wild at Heart, God made Eve in the garden. But God made Adam in the wilderness, and then put him in the garden (Gen. 2:8). Men smell funny, laugh out loud at stupid jokes, and get dirty just because they can. And from other men, they learn to lead, to be courageous, to make hard choices, and, especially, to grow in values that make them more than masculine, that make them uncompromising, that make them men.
Boys need to bond with men of character, and, sorry ladies, occasionally they need to do it without women around. Perhaps it is ironic that, of all organizations, the BSA seems to lack a grasp of one simple fact: When girls are added to the club, boys will act differently. Suddenly, the goofy gene kicks in, and the boys are a lot more interested in posturing and preening than they are in learning what it means to be a man.
So, the BSA has caved. But that doesn’t change reality. If we want to raise men from boys, if we want to stop the perpetual adolescence and disrespectful machismo of self-entitled American males, we need to pull in mentors whose character and values will shape boys into real men who respect women, lead their families, stand for their country, fight for righteousness, and yield to their God.
As never before, now it is up to the Church.
We need men to rise to the biblical affirmation, “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Cor. 16:13-14, NASB).
Yeah. We need men like that.
Bob,
Your writing is so spot on. I truly believe the absence of a clear male role model in society today continues to create issues with our families. It saddens me so much that BSA has caved to the pressure.
Thanks Sam! With your experience in scouting, I greatly respect your input. It is a symptom of sad days for our nation.
Bob, I thoroughly concur with your assessment of scouting but, being a Brit, I would like to add my pound of flesh. Yes, scouting in America did begin in 1910 however, it drew part of its leadership from the founding of the Boy Scout Association in 1910. On February 8, 1910 the Boy Scouts of America was officially incorporated. It was an amalgamation of three youth movements. First was the “Sons of Daniel Boone” a youth program developed by Dan Beard. Second was the “Woodcraft Indians” by Ernest Thomson Seaton. Third was the “British Boy Scouts Association” a youth program developed by Robert Baden Powell (BP). I have had the good fortune of being born virtually in the same town as BP, namely, Sevenoaks in Kent, England. BP was born about eight miles from Sevenoaks in a small village called Speldhurst. He went to school at Rose Hill, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. His brother lived in my home town of Sevenoaks, or Riverhead to be more precise. While a Scoutmaster with the 3rd. Sevenoaks Scout Group I had on board an Assistant Scoutmaster whose grandfather was on Brownsea Island with BP. With over thirty years and perhaps more in Scouting both with the British Boy Scouts, the Baden Powell Scouts which was a breakaway group following APR (the advanced party report) that wanted to “modernize” Scouting and then also with the Singapore Scout Association and finally the Boy Scouts of America. I have served as a semi-professional in the BSA and received my training and Woodbadge in Singapore. Added to this I am an avid collector of Boy Scout memorabilia with perhaps the largest collection in the U.S. My oldest scout shirt is circa 1909-1910 and I have at least 250 other uniforms from around the world plus books and many other interesting items. I mention this because I have an international knowledge of scouting and I have seen its development and, as Bob has pointed out the beginnings of the demise of Scouting as we know it. BP was asked to review the Boy Brigade and he stated that if the group had the right program it would attract ten time the number of youth. BP was challenged to provide the answer which was “Scouting for Boys.” BP stated clearly that “adults learn by rote but youth learn by doing.” The problem with the Boys Brigade was that it was church and Bible centered. BP, while affirming the nature of the divine be that Christian or Hindu stated clearly that the Boys Brigade had got in wrong. I still occasionally listen to BP since I have the original record in my library circa 1927. BP focused on “joyous outdoor activity” and the “patrol system” which is just another name for a peer group and role modeling.
Let’s take a very clear example of how scouting has deteriorated. When I was very young I became a Wolf Cub, earned my Leaping Wolf and then became a Boy Scout, a patrol leader and finally, a Senior Patrol Leader. APR changed all that to cub scout, scout and scout leader instead of scoutmaster. In the Republic of Singapore this was further changed to “cadet scout” and scout. Why the importance? Because the Wolf Cub was based upon Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book” and Cadet Scout was based upon national service in the Singapore military.
With the latest changes to scouting in America I have no longer renewed my membership of an organization that I have spent just about my whole life with. I cannot accept girls entering what amounts to a male youth program. They have the Girl Scouts to join. The BSA has lost its ideals of serving the youth of America, learning positive role modeling, of learning nature through the great outdoors. As the apostle Paul stated: “Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.” Rom. 1:19
Modernity had provided us with technology that our parents would have considered impossible. It is in this technological culture that youth need to find positive role models, virtue and ethics. Scouting used to be an answer. Sadly this is no longer the case.
Peter David Lee, Th.D., Ph.D.
Peter,
Thanks so much for that excellent historical context for scouting! You give insight into what has actually happened through the years with scouting. I agree that the demise of the BSA, and its original vision, is a symptom of the larger confusion in modernity over who we are in Christ– who God created us to be.