Mormon Church to Pull 400,000 Kids From Boy Scouts as Organization Faces Wave of Sex Abuse Lawsuits

[mystery-ak]

Mormon Church to Pull 400,000 Kids From Boy Scouts as Organization Faces Wave of Sex Abuse Lawsuits
By BRADY McCOMBS and DAVID CRARY / AP 10:13 AM EST

(KAYSVILLE, Utah) — For decades, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was one of Boy Scouts of America’s greatest allies and the largest sponsor of troops. But on Jan. 1, the Utah-based faith will deliver the latest blow to the struggling organization when it pulls out more than 400,000 young people and moves them into a new global program of its own.

The change brings excitement and some melancholy for members of the faith and may push the Boy Scouts closer to the brink of bankruptcy as it faces a new wave of sex abuse lawsuits.

Losing the church will mean about an 18% drop in Boy Scout youth membership compared with last year’s numbers and mark the first time since the World War II era that the figure will fall below 2 million. At its peak in the 1970s, more than 4 million boys were Scouts.

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[dfwgator]

Get Woke, Go Broke

[Bigun]

I am a member of the Church and a long-time Boy Scout leader who turned in his credentials to the bishop the day after the BSA announced that they would be allowing gay leaders in the organization.  I was far from the only one.

[SZonian]

This is going to hit the BSA pretty good and is part of the reason BSA opened up for girls.
The LDS had announced their decision a couple of years back as a result of the BSA's persistence in seeking lgtbq acceptance/memberships.
LDS scouting was a huge revenue stream for BSA as the LDS registered and paid for every youth of scouting age, regardless of participation.
So there was a lot of "free" money for the BSA from ghost membership dues.
LDS are switching over to their youth religious program and many other denominations have started Trail Life to offset the BSA.
The LDS were/are not immune from the sex abuse allegations either. Practically every organization that chartered Troops had predators.

[PeteS in CA]

As @SZonian, posted, this change has been in the works for a couple of years. It will hit BSA pretty hard, and I don't think accepting girls as members is going to fill the void of the departure of LDS troops. Trail Life is not affiliated with any particular denomination.

There are, last I checked, two Trail Life troops in Silicon Valley. One is the former BSA troop in which my son earned Eagle rank over 15 years ago. It was a pretty demanding troop, as BSA troops went, but due to excellent adult leaders and parents, and hard-working boys, the troop had an unusually high number of boys earn Eagle rank. In Trail Life that troop has the same troop number it did in BSA.

[Absalom]

When you abandon the core principles that gave you life; you are, in effect, dead.
Today it's the Boy Scouts; recently it was the Church of Rome.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Bye bye Boy Scouts.  You lost your way.

If you know boys you wish to establish a solid foundation of character, send them to Trail Life USA.

I donate regularly.  https://www.traillifeusa.com/

[kevindavis007]

Gotta give credit in where credit is due to the Church of the LDS. They stick to the core principles unlike other Churches.

[PeteS in CA]

Gotta give credit in where credit is due to the Church of the LDS. They stick to the core principles unlike other Churches.

Really? The troop in which my son earned Eagle rank was sponsored by a church. Way back before the cave by BSA, when BSA was being sued, that church decided what they would do should BSA lose. They would leave BSA. BSA won, but then caved without cause. So that church's BSA troop became instead a Trail Life troop. Both Trail Life troops in Silicon Valley are sponsored by churches, and Trail Life has a Christian emphasis.