have the Boy Scouts been taken over by Wingnuts?

[pstokely]

like the Southern Baptists

[barbaraann]

1. Here is the Seattle area - yes.

On the other hand, I have to say that I have never seen a Unitarian Church with a Boy Scout troop but many right wing churches have troops.

[Tanketra]

2. "Taken over" is a little imprecise

Essentially, they've ALWAYS been wingnuts.

Scouting has had the religious, uber-patriotic, starched-shirt creamy middle inside the camping-and-tying-knots Twinkie from the very beginning. But for some reason we just prefer to ignore that, probably because most people only deal with the local levels, which don't seem out-of-place because, of course, they're local.

[JaySherman]

3. Being an Eagle Scout, I can say YES

Unfortunately, it is very conservative, with a lot of repubs running the show. It's sad too, because the Scouts do a lot of great things for kids, like taking them off the streets, teaching them outdoors and leadership skills. I tried going to work for BSA, because I know some good people in the organization who could help me find work, but way too damn many freepers for me. I just can't be down with the overemphasis on religion, fervent jingoism, and outright homophobia.

[WindRavenX]

4. They do good things

I dropped out of the Girl scouts for the same reason. I refused to say "to serve God" in the line of the GS pledge.
Because I was an atheist, I was not welcome. Very sad. Never mind that I worked damn hard to help people...
The people running both the Girl scouts and the Boy scouts ignore the fact that just because you aren't a religious/patriotic zealot, you can still positively contribute to society.
It's quite sad.

[JaySherman]

5. When I did my screening

they made me sign a paper saying that I believed in God and was against homosexuality. I should have stopped right there, but I was desperate for a job. After a couple interviews, I decided it wasn't for me. Now I'm still desperate for a job, but that's another story ;)


Yet strangely, they didn't drug test me. Makes one wonder...

[WindRavenX]

6. Dude...

I've would've written: "Homosexuals and atheists are patriots and citizens too!" And then just leave the paper there.
I know that as a private organization they can exclude whoever the hell they want, but it's still frustrating that they exclude people like that. If they excluded blacks you think people would still think the BSOA was kosher? Hell no. But there isn't a damn difference between discriminating race from beliefs/ sexual orientation. It's all discrimination-and it's wrong.

[JaySherman]

7. I've gotten into the discrimination argument with my parents many times

I'm with you on it. My parents and I have agreed to disagree.

As for signing the paper, sometimes you overlook things when you're broke and desperate for real job. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't go through with it though.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. My experience with a Scout master BMW salesman.

Several years ago my hubby won a company-leased car in a saleman contest. We didn't win the car, just the use of it for a short period of time. But we did get to pick the car.

The BMW saleman was a scoutmaster and when he saw our son, he went on about what a wonderful experience the Boy Scouts provides for his son and mentioned the many places their troop has traveled to. Then he proceeded to talk shop, and what I remember most was how he pointed to our old car in the parking lot and used it as an example of "junk" as in "driving that junk."

Well, the leased car is gone, and I'm still driving that junk and getting good mileage for it as well. Maybe there's a conspicious consumption purchase in my near future, but it won't be a BMW nor will it be purchased from a Scout Master.

[Sephirstein]

8. Strange question...

Only in the USA and some of the more socially conservative nations in Asia and the Middle East. Scouts Canada, for instance, is far from being wing-nut, let alone even conservative.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi JaySherman!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[noonwitch]

11. Yes

My uncle, who is somewhat conservative, took his kids out of Boy Scouts because the local troop was teaching the kids to fire guns (.22s).
I was a Girl Scout in the 70s. I never gave much thought to the God language, because my family took us to church and I was just a kid. I do know as an adult (but not at the time) that one of my leaders is gay. She was also a gym teacher at the junior high. Most of the adults knew she was gay and never expressed a problem with it and this is in a very conservative community. It was the 70s, however.

[Lexingtonian]

12. It's always been conservative

When Baden-Powell founded the U.S. version, it was a knock off of youth organizations in Europe which were part of their nationalist movements. Over time most of them were or became preparatory organizations for military service, e.g. the Hitler Youth and the Komsomolski.

Baden-Powell was, amusingly enough, notorious as gay and/or pedophile. The BSA does not seem interested in that aspect of its history for some reason.

These days the BSA is controlled by conservative churches through their donations and activism. These churches- I am only sure of the LDS, not of the Baptists- see Scouts as a pedagogical/indoctrination opportunity in the communities in which they have substantial presence.

So there's something to the idea that Boy Scouts is something of a conspiracy of provincial moralism and simpletonish (i.e. conservative) outlook. Having been one in elementary school, to look back on it is to see how touchingly naive and trusting an affair all of it was. It was all Eisenhower era adults engaged in a shared delusion of trust in God, Government, and Country- during Watergate's aftermath, in a quasi-Mayberry blue collar white suburb no less.