The Daily Universe (my college newspaper) recently published a front-page article discussing the relevancy of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). As an Eagle Scout myself, the article got me thinking about my own involvement with BSA, as well as some of the things that I’ve subsequently come to see as objectionable about the organization.
One of the most common criticisms leveled at the Boy Scouts is that the organization is outdated. This seems painfully obvious to me. Of course ideas like honesty or hard work that scouting tries to instill may always be relevant. However, scouting’s method for teaching these ideas is simply absurd. Things like merit badges and the recitation of pledges, oaths, and slogans are completely foreign to most people’s experience. I’d also argue that they’re useless. One of the people the Daily Universe quoted made a good point: why do we need an orienteering merit badge if we all have access to a GPS? Taking this argument one step further, even if our iPhones are missing or out of battery power, are we really going to pull out a compass and map? For that matter, how many times will we find ourselves lost in a place that has no people, signs, or even roads? I don’t think I’ve ever been in that situation, and I can’t imagine why I would be.
Other aspects of scouting seem even more ridiculous. For example, the uniforms. I genuinely have no idea why BSA has stuck to what looks like something little boys would use to play army in the 19th century, unless it’s to humiliate the scouts. Seriously, what’s with the neckerchief? And (short) shorts with tall green and red socks? Is this really the best they can do?
Of course, while there are a bunch of silly outdated aspects of scouting, the real problem is much more insidious. At best, BSA sees a very narrow, homogenous version of the United States. That vision doesn’t include, for example, atheists, agnostics, or homosexuals. At worst, however, BSA combines this flagrant discrimination with hyper-conservative jingoism that uses faux-military structures to indoctrinate young children. Pledges and oaths aren’t just outdated in a pedagogical sense, but actually require children to submit unthinkingly to powers they likely don’t understand. When these activities are combined with religion (as is the case in the LDS church, among others), the results amount to coerced spirituality.
While I’m obviously no fan of the Boy Scouts of America, I am also in the paradoxical position of having to admit that sometimes I also had a lot of fun as a scout. Going to scout camps I had the chance to canoe, shoot rifles and bows and arrows, go climbing, and visit a number of places I wouldn’t otherwise have seen. When I was a teenager my parents sent me to the National Boy Scout Jamboree, which was fun and educational (during that trip we also visited Washington D.C. and other nearby cities). Our weekly activities were also memorable. For example, one time we went to the hospital, where our leader let us touch a human brain.
The question, then, is if the many negative aspects are enough to outweigh the positive opportunities that the program affords. This is a hard question to answer. If I could go back I would not participate in what I see as an offensive institution. Yet, I’d also be loath to surrender some of the experiences I had. I also think that some of the activites we did actually accomplished good things. My Eagle Scout project, for example, probably did benefit someone (even if I did it for all the wrong reasons). I certainly wouldn’t want to undo that.
The answer, I think, is that BSA is obsolete, but some of the activities it provides aren’t. Consequently, those organizations that are currently affiliated with BSA should sever that affiliation and fill the resulting void with other youth programs. In the LDS church participation in scouting is more or less obligatory, as I assume it is in other organizations. All that energy that LDS members put into scouting could very easily be diverted into more productive and relevant activities. If this doesn’t happen organizations like churches run the risk of having their policies and beliefs defined by outside parties. For example, I’d hate to think that I’m required to believe in the BSA’s particular brand of intolerance, yet if I am all but forced to participate (as LDS young men are) that’s essentially what happens.
Ultimately, I don’t think that scouting provides any opportunities that can’t be had from church and community involvement instead. Things like the Eagle Scout award didn’t end up giving me great employment and educational opportunities (as I was led to believe), because most people in the U.S. seem to have written scouting off as an outdated eccentricity. As I’ve moved beyond my teen years and experienced more of the world, I’ve realized that the narrow vision scouting projects isn’t very realistic or desirable. Instead, the Boy Scouts don’t represent America, but rather a desperate clinging to objectionable parts of American’s history.
