Boy Scouts Worried About Declining Membership

Back in November, the NY Times published this article about the Boy Scouts (USA) organizational concern that their ranks are declining.

Let's see.

The declines reflect the difficulties of keeping up with changing times and shifting demographics, as well as of battling a perception that the organization is exclusionary because it bars gay people and atheists, not to mention girls under 13.

A perception that they are exclusionary?

I would say that excluding kids who are different from their "standards" is pretty exclusionary to me.

And might it be that some of the kids they would "accept" into their ranks don't want to be associated with an organization like that?

If you think about it, the only kids in the organization are going to be the ones who are comfortable with keeping out the others.

That sounds pretty exclusionary to me. I'd venture to say it is more than a perception.

The "shifting demographics" are pretty straight forward.
People are growing up and rejecting your message.

The Boy Scouts are clinging to a vision of an America that actually never existed. It seemed like "simpler times" but in reality it was a time when one group suppressed others with fear an intimidation. There are not more gays or more atheists today than there were in those "simpler times." Instead, the rest of society has begun the process of accepting that there is no legitimate reason to exclude them.

Because the organization is dominated by social conservatives religious fanatics, I don't believe the Boy Scouts will ever be able to man up and embrace even the groups they are trying to recruit. There will always be an undercurrent of discrimination and hostility toward "those people."

They are no longer a mainstream organization because they have never represented the values they claim to.

The scandals about sexual abuse of the kids are another topic entirely. Funny (not actually) how they share those values with the Catholic Church, and started addressing the issue only when they could no longer suppress the story.

An even bigger challenge emerged this year as a jury ordered the Scouts to pay $18.5 million in damages to a man who had been abused by a scout leader as a boy. The trial focused renewed attention on the secret files that the Scouts’ national office in Texas has kept for more than 70 years of claims of sexual abuse by troop leaders and volunteers.

And you want a responsible parent to turn their kid over to this organization?