So, my 9 yr old was invited to scouts by a neighbor last night. I let him go despite my better judgement. Long story short, he came home crying because he was asked to say the prayer and the kids gave him a hard time because he said he didn't know how to pray. They also interrogated him on why he wasn't baptized.

WTF! Why can't they keep the religious stuff out of scouting?

So, that's it for scouts. I never liked it anyway and f*ck those a$$holes.

Scouts in Utah is just another arm of the church. Especially in heavily mormon dominated neighborhoods. You should have done your homework before sending your son into the lions den. Now, your son will either become a troop conversion project, or ostracized by the neighborhood, or both. They start discriminating early in Utah.

StillAnon Wrote:
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> They start discriminating early in Utah.

Many people there are raised to have a Neophyte and Lamentation mindset.

Delightsomely Mormon or loathsomely Gentile is the name of their game.

Sorry to hear of the trauma greedo's son had to endure. On a different note, it had me contemplating teaching my 7 year old daughter to say and repeat "Pay lay ale - Oh god, hear the words of my mouth" while slowly holding her hands over head and lowering them to her side if a mormon relative ever asks her to pray. My daughter enjoys a bit of mischief...

That seems a bit drastic and unfair to your kid. I have an eight-year old daughter and I would never use her in that way.

My child has never set foot in an LDS chapel and we live far away from the Utah/Idaho/Arizona mormon population centers. So, if there were social pressure that adversely impacted my daughter - it would be my immediate family members and relatives who have already been forewarned to not proselytize my wife (nevermo) or my daughter who will turn eight in 10 months.

What works for you works for you. My daughter is extremely inquisitive. I would not be able to get her to recite a phrase without getting into a pretty long discussion of what it means, where it is said, what goes on in a temple, and how it might be offensive. And, I would be extremely patient and answer all of her questions at a child-level. In other words, the scenario I previously mentioned (..."oh god hear the words of my mouth....") would only be recited if one of my immediate family members treated her as poorly as those idiot scouts treated greedo's son.

Of course, I have the luxury of not living where mormons are prevalent (although the LDS recently built a chapel less than a mile from my home here in central Texas). So, it would be extremely unlikely that folks in our community to treat my child so callously.

If an idiot family member of mine were to attempt to push the baptismal concept to my daughter without me being present to quash it, I would have no reservation whatsoever for my child to recite back to them mere words that might cause them offense. Similarly, if any religious pressure were ever applied by my family toward my wife or child that caused them any discomfort, I would not think twice about having my child ask why mormon's pray like they do in the temple and why her dad was taught signs, tokens, and some quite gruesome penalties (not to mention the "money changers" in the LDS temple)... why would anyone want to be baptised into that peculiar nonsense.

Scouting may have some benefit left but you've got to stay away from LDS units. First they are nothing close to a real scouting experience. Second, LDS leaders consider scouting "the activity arm of the priesthood."

The Mormon priesthood is inseparable from Scouting in LDS units.

Don't do it. You'll only have poor experiences.

order. The mormon troops now have merit badge mills on weekends and the scouts get 2-4 merit badges for doing nothing. Terrible program.

I'm sorry your son had a run in with cult tactics. Be sure to debrief him so he knows there is absolutely nothing wrong with him, it's just how cults work. Poor kid. Keep him safe and out of harm's reach.

Fuck those assholes in the throat! How dare they treat a guest so thoroughly rudely!

I'm so sorry that your son experienced this rude behavior. There are non-LDS scout troops in Utah if your son/you would like for him to participate in the Boy Scouts. I would suggest that you 'ask around' where you live, or you could call the state Boy Scouts office to inquire about non-LDS troops near you. Best of luck to you :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2016 08:44PM by cinda.

My son went to Cubs but to graduate to scouts would have meant affiliating with a church and we nixed it and he wasn't that interested. Baseball was all important back then.

RB

I work with someone heavy into scouting here in SoCal. If you bring up the Mormon scouts, there is a big eye roll followed by, "Well the Mormon program has little to do with real scouting."

Everybody knows it is just part of the Mormon indoctrination masquerading as scouting.

We participated in non-mormon scouting with our sons, my older son had a really good experience. Mormon troops suck.

I can't imagine asking a visitor to offer a prayer. That strikes me as being rude and offensive. I'm sorry that your son was subjected to such people.

I agree with those who say that you may wish to investigate a non-Mormon troop. I had a great experience with an ELCA Lutheran Girl Scout troop, even though my family were not members of that church or that denomination. The very personable church pastor would pop in every now and then to say hello. He would answer any questions about his church if asked, but did not try to push it otherwise. I have an excellent impression of the ELCA Lutherans to this day.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2016 08:38AM by summer.

Most outside of the Morridor think Mormon scouting is a joke because it's the youth program for boys, while girls aren't allowed to have Girl Scout troops. If someone who isn't Mormon is an Eagle Scout, that's something worthy of respect because it's something one has to actually work for. In Momon "scouts" the Eagle is more of a participation trophy because everyone gets it.

My TBM brother is heavily involved in Scouting in the Midwest. He's had stake-level and regional-level church scouting assignments (callings). And even he had his sons join a nonmormon scout troop. My nephews all got their Eagle Scout awards in nonmormon troops. But of course the local ward had to hold a second court of honor for each of them so they could try to lay claim to what they accomplished outside the church.

Looking back on my days as a scout in Utah, we had an inactive kid who would come here and there. His family was catholic but he still showed up. We were pretty nice to him but I do remember how there was always a little underlying feeling that he wasn't one of us.

There's gotta be non-mormon troops in Utah. I'd totally join one as a leader. They gotta cut that church bullshit.

BTW One thing I can't stand about the mormon troops is that they come to my parents' house to ask for money every year. My parents are well off and sickly so the church thinks they can sucker some money out of them. My mom had gotten out of the hospital and they were hitting her up for money. After her saying no several times, they said they could come by and pick up the check if she was too sick to go to church. I think my mom just hung up the phone.

How is it that the ward my parents are in has lots of money and yet they have no money for scouts/young women? It all just gets shipped off to SLC.

I hope that the scout leader of that troop gets reamed out by someone. No scout should ever feel ostrasized because he didn't know how to do something. At the very least, the adult leader should have stepped in and either offered to help the boy or at least head off the teasing.

i hate working with the scouts. the program is archaic and not relevant to today's kids who rely on technology. Adding the morg in to the mix just dilutes and removes anything that could be considered good about scouts...

Thinking about being a mormon in regards to Scouting, I'll say what I often say about the Olympics having sillier and sillier non-athletic "sporting" events, like chess: "But can it save you from being chased by a bear."