I missed this back in May: the Boy Scouts of America is changing its name to Scouting America “in an effort to emphasize inclusion”.
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Discussion 5 comments
Don't worry. They still exclude non-believers. https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/the-boy-scouts-despite-its-inclusive
Parent of two cubbies here. This fact also makes me uncomfortable and scouts is still a little problematic at times, but, scouts is super parent-run. We were lucky to find a more outdoors oriented pack that has kids do the religious requirements privately at home with parents, so we work through the exercises according to our own non-beliefs and the leaders check the box, and we all move on and do fun stuff like camping.
That article isn't terribly fair or accurate in my experience. My kids have been part of a half dozen troops and I know plenty of atheist families and scouters. In my kids' troops fewer than half of the families seem to be church goers (logistically, it's actually hard as so many camping trips need pickups late Sunday morning). Participation at the once-a-year "Scout Sunday" church service is very low and no one cares.
"God" is still in the scout oath (for now) but no one would care or notice if a scout just omitted it and a few requirements involving religion are designed to be so flexible as to easily include atheists.
I'm a parent of a boy and a girl, I have a kid in each program. I like that it gives them a taste of civic engagement and community.
(Of note and not in this article: Girl Scouts have always allowed boys and members of the LGBTQ+ community to join.)
I'm all for inclusion, and parts of this change feel good.
What I dislike is that it implies that boys are the default, and girls are the exception. Like in high school sports where the football players were the "cats" and the volleyball players were the "lady cats." It's also one of those things where it's cool for girls to do boy things, but taboo for boys to do girl things.
Another thing not noted in the article: both programs are run poorly and feel stretched thin with a reliance on stressed-out parents to keep everything afloat. There's so much competition from all the other activities for kids and recruitment is an issue. A name change is not going to solve this problem.
This is actually a little confusing.
The organization we historically thought of as the Boy Scouts changed its name to Scouting BSA in 2019. The *parent* organization (which includes Cub Scouts, and a couple others) now changed its name to Scouting America
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