Courtesy of NPR:
The church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has used the Boy Scouts as its official program for young men for more than 100 years, according to Quin Monson, a political science professor at Brigham Young University.
"The church took the Boy Scout program and decided its values and mission aligned closely enough with that of the church's program for young men that they just wholesale adopted it," says Monson, who is Mormon, the father of a Boy Scout and a former Boy Scout himself. "Basically, if you are a young Mormon male, you join the Boy Scouts."
For me the idea that scouting and the Mormon religion align so closely is almost reason enough to keep your kid out of Boy Scouts.
This father was then asked how the upcoming changes allowing gay scout leaders was impacting his Mormon son:
His reaction was interesting: It's not a concern to him. He's a pretty deep thinker, and a thoughtful kid, but his reaction was, "Well, I don't see why it matters, dad. Why is this such a big deal?"
That's the hard part about all of this, is that it impacts a group of young men who don't necessarily understand why.
If you listen to the audio of this interview, you can hear Mr. Monson become quite choked up while answering that last part. As if the very idea that his son is too young to recognize how wrong it is to allow men who love other men to participate in scouting was incredibly troubling to him.
However what I took from this was that his son was too young to be indoctrinated fully into the homophobia that permeates the Mormon community leaving his mind open and accepting, and that it was his father who was too old and rigid in his thinking to recognize why a church supposedly based on the teachings of Jesus Christ should open its arms and hearts to all people regardless of skin color or sexual orientation.
Perhaps once this new rule pertaining to scout leaders is fully implemented it might help to provide a counterbalance to Mormon indoctrination. And that would be a good thing.
Mormon father upset that his son in the Boy Scouts may not grow up sharing his same prejudices.
5:05 AM
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