SMS wrote:
Some Guy wrote:

I thought scouting was about out-door stuff, survival, being prepared,
etc.

What do chuch-related activities have to do with any of that?

You cannot be in Boy Scouts if you don't "believe." You have to be
'loyal and reverent to God' but they don't tell you which god to believe
in, and you don't have to believe in a supreme being, and "believe" is
very subjective. It's very much "don't ask, don't tell" for atheists and
agnostics. You can believe in Satan, Buddha, or Barack Obama as god. I
remember the Cubmaster in my son's Cub Scout pack trying to avoid any of
the religious aspects for fear of offending non-believers, until one of
the believers explained to him that "believing" was required by BSA. Our
pack was diverse, with Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, but was
mostly non-believers that simply didn't talk about it.

The sponsoring organization of my son's old pack and previous troop is a
church that used to do good work in the community, including hosting a
county senior lunch program, until the church board changed and someone
got upset that the county would not allow proselytizing of the lunch
program participants. They shut down the program with only a few days
notice. If they knew how many non-believers were in the Cub Scout and
Boy Scout units they sponsor then they'd probably throw them out as well.

I was talking to a leader of a Venture Crew (Boy Scout's Coed
organization for 14-20 year olds) and he said that it's just not going
to happen to separate scouting from religion because the Mormon church
is very powerful in the scouting organization and they oppose it. Ditto
for admitting gays.

There's a misconception that an Eagle Scout project has to be beneficial
to the community. In fact, it's more of a project management
achievement, and it doesn't matter what the project is or if it benefits
society, as long as it's done to completion meeting certain criteria. A
project that benefits a church is acceptable.

It's all rather sad that scouting requires boys to ignore science and
embrace made-up fantasies in order to participate. Actually it just
teaches them, early in life, that they have to lie about certain things.

The U.S. is pretty unique in terms of the way scouting is run. In other
countries it's usually co-ed and non-discriminatory.

For what it is worth, I have been the Scout Master in 3 different
troops. Each sponsored differently.
First on was sponsored by the Lions Club
Second one by the Catholic Church
Third by the local VFW.
Religion was seldom mentioned