Fulness of Times

Here are some of my experiences, observations, and perceptions of Scouting. As a young boy, I was in Cub Scouts in Utah. I don't remember much, but do remember my mom was my den mother at least once. I remember having fun and earning badges and arrow points. Fun was the key. We moved to Chile when I was 10, halfway through the North American school year, and before school started in Chile. I don't remember much about the last year of cub scouting, as a Webelos scout, but it was not a Church sponsored unit. The Scout troop I joined in Chile, and later my brother, was a BSA troop. It was not sponsored by any church. I think it was chartered through a North American school's PTA-like association, who had a lot of contacts through the US embassy. We had a cool council patch, Direct Service Around the World council. The troop consisted of boys from age 12 through 17 and from nationalities around the world. As I remember, only Chileans could not officially join, because Chi...

In the short 5-minute drive to work I managed to hear the local breaking news, and had to look up some more information when I got into work. "LDS Church to no longer participate in Varsity, Venture Scouting" is the headline of the article on KSL.com http://www.ksl.com/?sid=44204644&nid=1016&title=lds-church-to-no-longer-participate-in-varsity-venture-scouting The Varsity and Venture ages are 14-15 and 16-17, respectively. According to the article the change, effective January 1, 2018, will "impact approximately 180,000 boys. Which is not a small number, and not an insignificant financial impact on the scout councils. While those boys who want to continue working towards rank advancement in Scouting will be encouraged to join with other units, I would be surprised if even 20% will have the interest to do so, and those who do will probably only do it because they are wanting to achieve the Eagle rank, and are likely close to getting it. This will be a hu...

One of the signs I think will come to pass before the big destructions happen is the Church will withdraw from the Boy Scouts of America. Not because the program of Scouting has failed or diminished, but because those who lead the organization have lost their way, and the organization will no longer fulfill the Church's purpose as the activity arm of the Aaronic Priesthood. A couple years ago one blow happened to start to severe the ties. That was when the Boy Scouts changed its policy to allow gay leaders. They did still allow chartered organizations the freedom to determine if they would allow gay leaders within their own units, and the Boy Scouts would support them and (supposedly) defend them in court if needed. Yesterday the Boy Scouts of America has changed its membership policy. In 2014 the Scouts had changed its policy to allow openly gay youth. Now the policy has changed to allow all transgender youth, any who "identify" as being a boy. http://www.cnn.com...