Scouting

[Tails_155]

First and foremost I am here to promote Scouting for All, but also...

Who all here are Eagle Scouts (or your country's version thereof, Kiku, Queen's Scouts, etc.) and therefore proof that atheists (or other "banned" groups) can be Scouts, and one further, Eagle Scouts?

 

[digitalbuddha48]

I didn't know scouts had a religious connotation to it.

Also, I have respect for anyone who was able to achieve the Eagle Scout status (since it requires tons of dedication, hard work, and sacrifice), but to be honest, I always thought scouts were overrated. I dunno maybe it's because I never was one 0.o

 

[Aught3]

I didn't know scouts had a religious connotation to it.

It's heavily dependent on which troop you join. The scout masters set the tone of the group but as a whole the organisation is overtly religious.

 

[digitalbuddha48]

O wow...that's lame.

 

[AntiSkill42]

Sad story: Always wanted to join the scouts, but was raised by a moderate protestant family. And the scouts in my area were all very catholic.

By the time I could have joined anyway I was way too interested in other stuff though.

 

[Tails_155]

o.0 the Boy Scouts of America is primarily funded through the Mormon Church, though dependent on where you are, it can be as secular as it was intended.

You need, to achieve the rank of Eagle, a letter of recommendation from a religious leader or witness, since I was a social churchgoer and part of the Youth Group (I was atheist, and the vice president of it for a while :3, I also got confirmed as an atheist, as far as I gather) I was able to get that knocked out.

Only in the U.S. is Scouting religious, from what I see. My leaders didn't care if a scout was homosexual, atheist, or anything in between as long as they didn't hurt any kids, however if they're gay, they are not allowed to be an adult leader, a "protective" bias that doesn't make much sense granted the frequency of molestations between homosexuals and heterosexuals... but whatever.

 

[ebbixx]

buddha say: "I didn't know scouts had a religious connotation to it."

It's heavily dependent on which troop you join. The scout masters set the tone of the group but as a whole the organisation is overtly religious.

Most troops are sponsored by local churches, at least in many parts of the U.S.

I only made it to First Class, since I disagreed about the "radiant future" of our local community with the merit badge advisor (who was also the Mayor of Tinytown, in addition to managing a small motel) when trying for the Citizenship in the Community badge, which at the time was a required badge to move beyond First Class.

But maybe I was wrong. After all, Tinytown now has chariot races!



And they also have nearly 300 more residents than when I left there in 1973 or so. Granted, most of the ranching families in the area went bankrupt in the late 70s and early 80s and moved to other areas. Some even bought motels, if they managed to get any of the equity out of their ranch properties.

 

[digitalbuddha48]

Damn, I really had no idea. Now that you say that...I hate scouts.

 

[ebbixx]

o.0 the Boy Scouts of America is primarily funded through the Mormon Church, though dependent on where you are, it can be as secular as it was intended.

Sorry, but I'm having a little trouble reconciling these clauses: a) primarily funded through (by) Mormonism and (b) as secular as it was intended?

Granted, the history of scouting I was told was probably massively skewed, given that the first troop was founded by my Mormon dad independent of the church (due to church leaders feeling that scouting was redundant and would take a good part of their labor force away from them as ranch operators) and the second troop was Mormon-sponsored (and also led by my dad) out of what I interpreted as his shaming them into it. Also, since he founded these troops mainly because he thought it would prevent my becoming gay, or at least do something about my "acting gay" it was not exactly a very welcoming institution or one where I felt especially at home. Even though I was really looking forward to getting him to pay for the equipment to earn some of the more interesting science-related badges, before that business with the mayor.

I did, fortunately, come to realize that I could explore astronomy, chemistry, physics, math and other fields quite well without scouting's "help." Also, without underqualified idiots trying to stuff nonsense into my head in order to pass some bizarre set of tests meant, perhaps, to demonstrate knowledge, but used in practice it seemed to reinforce respect for authority, whether authority had earned that respect or not.

Or maybe it was the case of my uncle, also a scout master, who helped bring on one of the many discrimination cases against BSA when he tried to appoint the most involved kid in the program to a leadership position and the kid happened to be African-American. (The issue was that the scout leader, since the troop was church-sponsored, also had to be by church rules the leader of the church's deacons' quorum, at a time when people of African ancestry were prohibited from holding the priesthood, and therefore from becoming deacons at all, much less leading the pack.

I do hope Scouting has gotten better over the past 40 years or so, but I'm kind of glad I only have daughters so there's no chance I'll have to find out firsthand. I have to confess, though, that I couldn't resist the offer to become a lifetime Girl Scout member when that option was offered to me. Of course, shortly after I did that my youngest daughter lost interest entirely.

 

[ImprobableJoe]

Sorry... I got kicked out of the Cub Scouts for fighting. :twisted:

 

[ebbixx]

Sorry... I got kicked out of the Cub Scouts for fighting. :twisted:

And I got kicked out for not fighting. Only a slight exaggeration there.

 

[ImprobableJoe]

And I got kicked out for not fighting. Only a slight exaggeration there.

I can't imagine... there's always someone who needs a swift kick in the junk.

 

[Otokogoroshi]

I was a Brownie. Sorta a girls version of Boy Scouts. I left in a huff because every time we met we made doilies, or dolls or... other dumb girly shit. I wanted to go camping and learn first aid like my brothers who were both Boy Scouts!


Fucking sexist fucks.

 

[ebbixx]

I was a Brownie. Sorta a girls version of Boy Scouts. I left in a huff because every time we met we made doilies, or dolls or... other dumb girly shit. I wanted to go camping and learn first aid like my brothers who were both Boy Scouts!


Fucking sexist fucks.

Agreed. This was my main problem with both programs, though at least my daughter sort of got to do camping (of sorts) when she was in the first few years of the program... Brownies and whatever came after that.... Once I managed to make myself persona non grata with the boys I wound up doing AV stuff for the girls' equivalent (in the Church, it had no connection to scouting at all). That program seemed to consist mainly of propagandizing them using a book titled Fascinating Womanhood which was bluntly a handbook aimed at indocrinating one into becoming a submissive...

 

[nasher168]

In the UK, there is no discrimination whatsoever in Scouts. My Brother is currently in the Beavers (although he will be moving up to Cubs soon). He is starting to show the first signs of disbelief in what the teachers say in assembly.
I also have an atheist friend who is a "Young Leader" in the Scouts-or something like that anyway. They get a Duke of Edinburgh Award for it, that's all I know.
The only criticism of Scouts that I have is that they allowed their uniform to be sold in a shop in Hull that also sells National Front (renamed the BNP) uniforms and Nazi stuff.

 

[Tails_155]

Damn, I really had no idea. Now that you say that...I hate scouts.

Don't hate scouts, hate the leadership for BSA; as a whole, that seems like a fallacy of division, or maybe I'm just reading it that way...

and as far as secular vs. Mormon, in the other comment, most troops don't necessarily follow the idea of hyper-religiosity... at least that I've seen, here in my hometown in KANSAS, there's only one super-religious troop, and there's like 7 troops