community, activism-promotion, parenting, usa, youth-groupThe Boy Scouts of America are an admittedly theist organization. They have “policies which prohibit atheists and agnostics from membership in its Scouting program, and prohibit ‘avowed’ homosexual people from leadership roles in its Scouting program as directly violating its fundamental principles and tenets.” (Wikipedia) The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld this, declaring they are a private association and can choose not to allow non-theists and gays.
Many parents find the activities of the Boy Scouts — outdoor fun like hiking, camping, and rafting; group competitions like raingutter regatta or pine-box derby; the leadership training — to be positive things. The networking which occurs is as useful as it is in any fraternity, club, or military branch.
But they won’t let boys in if they don’t profess a belief in a deity. (Or if they’re gay, which I find equally objectionable but not the topic here.)
For parents who would like their sons to be able to do all the fun Scout things but find these policies untenable, is it better to boycott the BSA in particular and find non-Christian groups, or to join the Scouts and by being a member have a voice in changing the group’s policies?
I would suggest against trying to change the organization from within. It's a group you join voluntarily, so joining with the intention of changing one of their founding principles is disrespectful and most likely futile. Since they preferred losing government sponsorship over stopping to discriminate on the basis of religion and sexual preferences, it's unlikely you'll make a difference.
Instead, I would argue that boycotting them and encouraging other parents in your area to the same so would be ideal. Even if they are Christian, some will agree that the Scouts' discrimination based on religion and sexual orientation is revolting.
If you are looking for alternatives, there are a few secular alternatives:
There's also the SpiralScouts International which is neo-pagan but their website states that children "can be of any religion or no religion at all" and they don't discriminate on the basis of sexual preference either.
YMCA Camps is another alternative. Although they are Christian, they have a policy for diversity.
Disclaimer: I know nothing of these groups from first-hand experience. I strongly advise reading more about each of the above groups before registering your child to one of them. I merely compiled a list of scouting and camping groups who looked nondiscriminatory.
Also of note if you have a daughter, the Girl Scouts of America are secular:
The Girl Scout organization does not endorse or promote any particular philosophy or religious belief. Our movement is secular and is founded on American democratic principles, one of which is freedom of religion. That is why Girl Scouting provides flexibility in speaking the Girl Scout Promise. An individual member may use the word or words for “God” that best reflect her own spiritual beliefs. While we believe the motivating force in Girl Scouting is a spiritual one, we do not attempt to dictate the form or style of a member’s worship. Religion is a private matter for girls and their families to address.
If you don't like any of the above alternatives or if none of those have a chapter in your area, it would seem that the experience varies a lot from troop to troop in the Boy Scouts of America and that the experience has been practically secular on many troops. If what worries you is not their policy but the risk of religion being forced onto your child or children, then you could try to learn more about how religious your local group is. Perhaps, if you're lucky, they're entirely secular.
If your kid does join, there's this non-profit organization that tries to change the Boy Scouts of America to be more inclusive. However, I'm not sure if it's still active: the last update dates back to early 2009.
Because of the parent based, from-the-ground-up, community driven, nature of scouting, when you find the right troop, you can largely ignore what “Scout Central” says. IMO they are irrelevant to the day-to-day scouting experience.
The Scouting experience in the US is very troop/pack specific. From troop to troop you’ll get very large differences in size, the types of activities, and political/religious lean. The closest relationship we had to any kind of religion was the fact that we met at a church. I was lucky to grow up in a troop that was not overtly theist and provided a lot of very cool outdoor activities that I could not have otherwise done. The troop adult leadership was made up of parents of friends of mine– people that were friends of my parents. People I grew up around and to some extent helped raise me and us. Each came from a variety of religious/areligious backgrounds.
I think its more effective to find a troop that meets your needs and avoid the ones that don’t. Scouts have very little interaction and supervision from those outside the troop. Since troop leadership is almost always other parents, it becomes more of a from-the-ground-up, community driven phenomena rather than a top-down, audit-every-troop, organization. Nobody is moving between troops doing purity tests.
Respect is a key component. Do you want religious people joining atheist groups and acting like jerks or simply acting contrary to the organization’s charter? What gives atheists the right to act like a dick? The scouts have the right to define themselves as they like. I was a scout, and I enjoyed it and I got a lot out of it. But what makes the scouting organization so special that it is worth violating their charter?
Rather, get together with like minded people and form another group.
We don’t have to be jerks, really
Edit: I’m providing a wikipedia reference to the Baden-Powell Scouts, which are non-religious and are chartered under the original design of scouting. Baden-Powell Scouts
This isn’t a problem globally within the organization.
While growing up, there were several near all-Jewish troupes in my local area. As anyone who is Jewish can tell you, there are a lot of Atheists among us.
It really depends on the members. This is a classic change-from-within situation.
It sounds bad, but the ideal way is to simply join the group without stating your atheism. They don’t ask. So it is easy. Then, once you reach a high position in the group. Come out. If you see someone higher than you come out, come out too.
That’ll be the end of that.
You’d get little voice in changing policies as a member, and would find that you would lose any immaterial benefits provided by membership (fun, learning, etc.).
My best advice is to take advantage of the same protections offered to Boy Scouts and form your own organization. There is very little the Scouts do that cannot be imitated at a low cost on a small scale (other than the organization: ranks, badges, etc.).
If you would find it unfair for a religious individual to enter an Atheist Scout organization and introduce a theist mandate, then it’s equally unfair for an Atheist to enter a theist Scout organization and remove said mandate. You want these protections in place so no one can hijack your organization. Remove it for Boy Scouts and you have to remove it for all. Then there is little point to a private endeavor, and no freedom to organize.
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