“Can I Be A Good Mormon and Hate Scouting?”
“can i be a good mormon and hate scouting”
This was the search that landed someone to my blog. The reader landed on my post from earlier this year “The BSA’s Mormon Problem“. I’m pretty sure nothing in that post helped him with that particular question; in fact, I was kind of shocked when found this search.
For me, my time in Scouting was never forced and I have never really thought about it from the perspective that it could be forced. Sure, there were parents who were reliving their scouting dreams through their sons but for the most part, I assumed everyone around me was there because they liked it. Now, I am not going to claim to have nearly enough knowledge about the Mormon Church to answer this searcher’s question (perhaps someone out there can post a comment about it) but I can certainly say that there is no way someone who feels forced into Scouting can truly get the most out of it.
That is not to say that even the most apathetic Scout can’t gain from the program and there are plenty of avenues within Scouting (although these are somewhat limited in the LDS version of Scouting) to fit the interests of a variety of different young men.
My advice to the young man who conducted this search would be to follow your passion and be yourself (even if that isn’t really an LDS thing to do). Scouting taught me that my path was my own and gave me the tools to travel upon it but if you just aren’t inspired by what Scouting has to offer, go out there and find whatever moves your soul.
The fact the question is even asked is anecdotal evidence of troubling rhetoric in the Mormon Church.
As an avid scouter and strong member of the Mormon church let me offer my response to the reader who posed that question. The First Presidency of the Church has said that Scouting is the activity arm of the church, meaning they feel it is a worthwhile program to help teach youth important skills. I believe that scouting is a worthwhile program and is a great thing for young men to get involved in. However, by no stretch of the imagination is your activity in scouting reflective of your standing in the church. If any church member tries to imply anything to the contrary they are at best misguided. Of course you can be a good Mormon and hate scouting. The Elder’s Quorum President and father of young men in my home ward once said he would rather have his kids be involved in sports than scouts because they can go camping all their lives, but only play sports in high school. Sadly, there are many people in the LDS church that don’t understand the vision of scouting, or, as it appears in your case, the way in which the Church uses scouting. Don’t be troubled by ignorant people treading where they don’t belong.
My answer to the person who asked the question is this: enough members of the church do that you shouldn’t feel bad about it. The number of poor scout leaders I’ve encountered who get assigned to church youth programs predisposed to hate scouts by Bishops who don’t care about the scouting program.
Some boys do feel forced into scouting, and in the church there is considerable pressure to become an eagle scout before your eighteenth birthday, regardless of how active they’ve been in scouting before that. It’s the subject of bishop interviews, random people will want to know the status of your eagle scout project, etc.
My father, who is an amazing scouter and silver-beaver recipient, quickly became the man that ward members would come to to force their children to earn their eagle scout award. He was very good at helping scouts, but the fact that he’d often get calls at 3 a.m. from panicked mothers who don’t think their son can get everything done on time demonstrates the kind of pressure being placed on some of these boys who just don’t care.
My answer in short is: No, hating boy scouting doesn’t make you a bad member. I just think you hate a particularly bad scouting program, leader, or hate the pressure to join scouting from people who know nothing about it, since that often happens in the LDS church.