I just went down a rabbit trail and discovered that there are almost 38,000 Scouting units associated with LDS churches (412,000 youth), with the next highest being 11,000 associated with the Methodist church (371,000 youth).
http://www.mtbakerbsa.org/news/Echo_201204.pdf

I had no idea that there was such a close relationship between the BSA and the LDS church. Does anyone know how much of the top BSA leadership is comprised of Mormons?

My only direct exposure to BSA was the year my oldest son was a cub scout in a den which met in a nearby Protestant church. I grew up in Utah and certainly noticed that many, if not all, ward houses had a Boy Scout troop - but outside of Utah I haven't known of many boys who are Boy Scouts.

There was a couple in my current Christian church who were extremely conservative and home-schooled their five children - none of whom were ever involved in our church youth group because they weren't "comfortable" around the other kids. The husband and three sons were very involved in scouting and the two oldest sons have become Eagle Scouts. They carried themselves in a rather stiff and superior way which always made me think of the Hitler Youth Corp. whenever they wore their uniforms to church. Last year, I saw the middle son at Dairy Queen and only recognized him after he started talking to me - He was 20-21 years old, had grown his hair out and was wearing a muscle t-shirt - he may have even been sporting a tattoo. I was left thinking that Tyler must now be a black sheep but I was happy that he appears to have broken free from a rigid family and is establishing his own identity.

Your bringing up the Methodist angle reminded me of something.

When I was a teenager, my mom had a friend in the another ward who met in the same building as us. Her son did Scouts with his nevermo friend through a Methodist church. This dismayed his mom because she thought it would be better for him to have Scout leaders who had the PH. Despite the fact thst he was getting a much better & more genuine Scouting experience, that's all his mother could think about.

I didn't know her son hardly because most of the kids in thst particular ward were extremely academically inclined, & so most of them didn't go to Seminary, & were hardly involved with Mutual either. The ward I was in was poor in comparison, & more "religious" & brainwashed, if that makes any sense.

Of course it makes sense.

Poor people are religious because they look forward to a better life in the hereafter.

Rich people are often minimally religious because they are too busy enjoying the good life in the here and now.

The LDS church is also the biggest killer of Boy Scouts. More Boy Scouts die in Mormon units than in any other sponsorship.

cludgie Wrote:
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> The LDS church is also the biggest killer of Boy
> Scouts. More Boy Scouts die in Mormon units than
> in any other sponsorship.

Are you serious?

pamelaf3211 Wrote:
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...
> Are you serious?
Yes. Often when any Boy Scout story about getting lost, getting injured, getting killed makes the news it is a LDS troop. Utah is sometimes referred to as "the Bermuda triangle of scouting."

Ward houses dont sponsor the bsa troops but rather every ward is required to sponsor 3 units, bsa troop, varsity team, and most of the time a venturing crew. This means that there are multiple units per ward house. Alot of times this is a completewaste because I have never seen an lds unit that operates scouting like itwas intended, with the committee fully functioning and running the sshow. Most parents dont really give a rip about scouting and are just happy to have their boys out of the house. Lds units are notoriously underfunded and the stranglehold that the church has on how fundraising is done is stifling. There are lds units that do function well, but I have been involved in lds scouting for the last 12 years in 3 different wards and the programs have sucked in all of them......not enough leaders, untrained leaders, underfunded, no parent involvement, etc etc etc

I was wondering about the level of involvement and commitment because the Methodists have a third of the units as the LDS but have a similar number of kids participating.

One thing I'm curious about is if the boys in a ward are only allowed to attend a unit sponsored by the ward they attend? Assuming they are required to attend the same unit as their ward, it seems that in Mormon dense areas it just wouldn't have much appeal to anyone, kids or adults. Everyone already spends so much time around each other - neighborhood, school and church - so what would be the allure of another activity with the same old people? I wonder if units do better in areas where Mormons are in minority and the Boy Scout program would help build friendships?

Another question - are the Mormon sponsored BSA troops open to outside kids?

I have no idea what it's like now, but there were Nonmo kids in LDS troops in my stake, & there were Mo kids in non-LDS troops.

I grew up in a small Midwest town with very few Mormons. One ward for the entire county. The town had a very good BSA program that I would have loved to be a part of. However, as a TBM I was expected to go to the ward BSA troop. I don't remember ever having more that 5 active kids in the troop. Our troop leaders were just guys called from the ward and never had any experience or real interest in scouting. It was actually embarrassing to go to the jamborees because our troop always stood out as the troop that couldn't do anything right. I also had friends that belonged to other Christian churches who were a part of professionally run youth groups. I think it is a cop out for the church to use Boy Scouts as their official youth group activity. If we had a normal youth program not involving scouts more of the boys probably would have attended. Any way, I'm sure some wards run good troops, but as far as I know most don't.

Penn and Teller did a show on BSA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5I01DF0g1w

It is hilarious but NSFW!

My TBM dad seems to think that LDS will split with BSA within 10 years and start their own clone due to BSA inclusion of gay scouts.

All they do is talk about jesus and have firesides and play basketball

Why should they even call it the boyscouts if all they do is play basketball

There's an incestuous relationship between the LDS church and BSA that I find very troubling.

My never-Mormon DH and son were in scouts, but not Mormon-Scouts.

Basically, the LDS church piggybacks onto scouting to provide its youth program for boys. This is very clever. All of the infrastructure is provided by the national scouting program, including the actual camps. The church gets to exercise control over local scouting units to a very large degree. The LDS church considers boy scouting as preparation for later mission service.

To get an idea how much control they use, you can read their handbook about scouting here:

http://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/scouting-handbook-2012.pdf?lang=eng

Mormons serve on the national executive board of BSA; this was mentioned in articles that appeared when BSA was considering allowing openly gay kids to participate in the program (which they now do). I don't know how many serve, or what percentage they comprise. I do know the church encourages members to serve at all levels of scout leadership (see the link above).

As just one example of how Mormon-led scout troops are different, their groups don't camp out on Sundays (except for national Jamborees). They don't hold meetings or events on Mondays because of Family Home Evening.

Mormon scout troops allow non-LDS kids to join (another opportunity for conversion?) but it's hard to imagine why they would want to. Mormon scouts is a watered down version of true scouting, in terms of mastering skills, outdoor adventure, and community service.

Apparently, the LDS church frowns upon Girl Scouts. They have no connection to that program. I can think of some reasons why, but that is another topic!

There was a woman in my old ward who actually left the cult in the '80s because she & her son took Scouting very seriously, & she thought that the cult should have just left scouting alone.

That's interesting.

It's my impression that in the past more scout troops were sponsored by civic groups and schools (as were DH's and DS's). Today, the majority are sponsored by religious groups.

Here's a breakdown:

http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/operating_orgs.aspx