Boy Scouts of America

The Boys Scouts of America was founded on February 8, 1910. The movement began two years earlier in England, where Sir Robert Baden-Powell founded it. He had been a hero of the South African Boer Wars.

Today the Boy Scouts are the largest voluntary youth group in the world. Its membership exceeds 25 million.

Baden-Powell wrote in a pamphlet "Scouting & Christianity" (1917): "Scouting is nothing less than applied Christianity."

Here is the Scout Oath:

On my honor, I will do my best: To do my duty to God and my

country, and to obey the Scout Law, To help other people at all times. To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally

straight.

Many presidents have praised and addressed the Boy Scouts over the years. President Calvin Coolidge said this to a group of Boy Scouts in 1924:

The three fundamentals of scouthood are reverence for nature ... reverence for law ... and reverence for God. It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Doubters do not achieve. ... No man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is part of an unending plan.

In designing the Scouting program, Baden-Powell drew ideas from the Japanese warrior's bushido code, on educational methods of the African Zulu tribes. on the Victorian "ragged schools" movement, and the educational methods of Montessori.

Controversy

As a result of their strong adherence to traditional Christian morality, the Boy Scouts have come under criticism for their discrimination against children and adults who are homosexual. As stated in a press release from the organization:

The BSA reaffirmed its view that an avowed homosexual cannot serve as a role model for the traditional moral values espoused in the Scout Oath and Law and that these values cannot be subject to local option choices.

This has led to several high profile lawsuits, such as the one brought by the ACLU of San Diego, which proposes that the discriminatory practices of the organization should make them ineligible for the use of public funds or public lands.

Prohibition of homosexual scout leaders is not universal with in the BSA, however. The Massachusetts Minuteman Council, for example, adopted a bylaw in 2001 barring exclusion of anyone on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation. The bylaw, which resembles the U. S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, permits homosexuals to lead troops so long as they do not discuss their sexual orientation. Some other councils have similar policies.