LAST EDITED ON 06-08-13 AT 03:05 PM (EST)

So, how's the fall out going, you may be wondering? Pretty much as expected. In a Huffington Post piece this week they noted: The Southern Baptist Convention, whose 3,981 Scout troops make it the BSA’s sixth-largest religious sponsor, plans to address the issue at its annual meeting in Houston, June 11-12. There's some misinformation in that (which I will discuss later), but yeah it seems that the convention will be giving the BSA a slap in the face, but it will be up to the individual churches to decide for themselves. Assemblies of God are pretty much guaranteed to be pulling up the stakes. Good riddance.

I even read about two Catholic churches that will be discontinuing their sponsorships, that's kind of a shame but so long. One of those churches, in the Chicago area, sponsors a Cub Pack and a Scout Troop, each with about 10 members. I think that troop is really too small and would benefit by merging with another small troop, get some more diversity going.

Anyway, this isn't the first time Scouting has had a membership controversy. When Robert Baden-Powell founded Scouting he wanted it to be as open to all boys as possible. While it has basis in some basic religious and civic principles, Scouting isn't set up to prefer one religion over another, or to take political positions. In the early days they had to convince Catholic leaders that Scouting wasn't out to promote Protestantism, to convince Jewish and Muslim leaders that Scouting wasn't a Christian plot against them. Scouting spread to Japan in the early days due to Christian organizations like the YMCA, and in time accomodations were made to accept Buddhism (which doesn't have a diety in the same sense as the Abramic religions).

William D. Boyce, founder of the BSA, made it very clear that no boy should be excluded because of race or creed. As you may imagine, a lot of people had a problem with that and for a long time things didn't work out very well on the race issue. In some areas blacks were only allowed to be in black troops, in some areas blacks were outright excluded from joining. White only troops were allowed to exist in places where there could be integrated troops. Politically the BSA really wasn't set up to take a stand, it wasn't until 1974 that the BSA was able to finally take a position against racial segregation. The Southern Baptists howled about that too.

Even today Wicca children can find themselves being expelled from their troop. The BSA doesn't have a policy against Wicca, it's just not one of the recognized religions, so if a sponsor group has a problem with Wicca that's that, politically the BSA can't do much except maybe find another troop that will accept those children.

Anyway, there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about how Scout Troops work. Sponsoring means mainly providing a place where troops and packs can meet. The sponsoring group appoints a representative who has some organizational duties, like having the right of approval over adult leaders of the troop or pack. Once a troop is up and running it pretty much runs itself, the adult leaders in charge. Almost all of the adults involved in Scouting at the troop and pack levels volunteer their time and even pay their own way.

In a well written piece in the Washington Post last weekend some misinformation creeped in, including this whopper: Mormon boys make up about a fifth of all Scouts. There is no way of knowing that. Where are people getting their misinformation? Here:

http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/operating_orgs.aspx

It is information collected and posted by the BSA December 31, 2012, and no I am not saying it is misinformation because it is dated. It's perfectly valid information, but people haven't been making the effort to find out what it really means. Not all of the youths in Mormon sponsored units are necessarilly Mormons. In fact the BSA doesn't even gather information about the individual religious affiliations of anyone, child or adult, associated with Scouting. Nor for that matter information about sexual identity. Check out the application pdf.

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/524-406A.pdf

So, what about those Southern Baptists, what is wrong with The Southern Baptist Convention, whose 3,981 Scout troops make it the BSA’s sixth-largest religious sponsor ...? There's actually no way to know from the factsheet how large a presence there is of Southern Baptist sponsors. Dig around and you find that "Baptist Churches" groups many Baptist Groups together under that one heading. Find the page on Baptist Churches, it mentions there are over 60 different baptist organizations, and lists the top seven. Yes, Southern Baptists are at the top of the list. The next four on the list are African American.

Who wants to break them the news?

Dig around some more on the factsheet and you might actually figure out what units are. A unit is:

A Cub Pack, the program for boys aged 6 to 10 -- A Scout Troop, the program for boys aged 11 to 17 -- Or -- A Venturing Crew, the program for boys and girls aged 14 to 20.

So all those supposed Mormon boys are even necessarilly all of them boys.

1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint: 37,856 units: 430,557 youths.
2. United Methodist Church: 10,868 units: 363,876 youths.
3. Catholic Church: 8,397 units: 273,648 youths.
4. Parent-teacher groups other than PTAs: 3,443 units: 144,219 youths.
5. Presbyterian Church: 3,597 units: 125,523 youths.
6. Lutheran Church: 3,827 units: 116,417 youths.
7. Baptist Churches: 3,981 units: 108,353 youths.
8. Private schools: 2,802 units: 103,254 youths.
9. Groups of citizens: 3,115 units: 100,751 youths.
10. American Legion and Auxiliary: 2,553 units: 68,154 youths.
11. Business/industry: 2,807 units: 66,454 youths.
12. Parent Teacher Associations/ Parent Teacher Organizations: 1,561 units: 65,567 youths.
13. Lions International: 2,271 units: 64,563 youths.
14. Rotary International: 1,333 units: 42,922 youths.
15. Episcopal Church: 1,179 units: 41,407 youths.
16. United Church of Christ, Congregational Church: 1,191 units: 38,225 youths.
17. Christian Church (Disciples of Christ): 1,165 units: 33,941 youths.
18. Community Churches: 1,054 units: 32,311 youths.
19. VFW, Auxiliary, Cootie: 1,084 units: 31,199 youths.
20. Fire departments: 1,176 units: 30,819 youths.
21. Kiwanis International: 889 units: 28,547 youths.
22. Elks Lodge (BPOE): 778 units: 21,967 youths.
23. Community centers: 925 units: 21,258 youths.
24. Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs: 569 units: 19,177 youths.
25. Nonprofit agencies: 603 units: 16,662 youths.
26. Church of Christ: 546 units: 15,430 youths.
27. Playgrounds, recreation centers: 444 units: 11,610 youths.
28. Athletic booster clubs: 389 units: 11,416 youths.
29. Chambers of commerce, business associations: 358 units: 10,553 youths.
30. Homeowners’ associations: 268 units: 9,519 youths.
31. Optimist International: 246 units: 8,804 youths.
32. YWCA, YMCA: 312 units: 8,738 youths.
33. Masons – Eastern Star: 296 units: 8,664 youths.
34. Evangelical/Independent churches: 294 units: 7,899 youths.
35. Church of God: 237 units: 5,241 youths.
36. Church of the Nazarene: 156 units: 4,181 youths.
37. Reformed Church in America: 127 units: 4,077 youths.
38. Jewish synagogues and centers: 156 units: 3,738 youths.
39. Church of the Brethren: 101 units: 2,759 youths.
40. African Methodist Episcopal: 149 units, 2,416 youths.
41. The Salvation Army: 130 units: 2,233 youths.
42. Islam, Muslim, Masjid: 78 units: 2,222 youths.
43. Assemblies of God: 91 units: 2,193 youths.
44. Christian Methodist Episcopal Church: 95 units: 1,970 youths.
45. Community of Christ: 61 units: 1,899 youths.
46. Pentecostal Churches: 107 units: 1,830 youths.
47. Other community organizations: 1,656 units: 45,891 youths.
48. Other churches: 879 units: 23,910 youths.