Scouting

Since I was 12 years old I have wondered why it is that the LDS Church puts so much focus into scouting. You have to understand I was an active participant in scouting, I earned my eagle scout award and enjoy the activity part of scouting. I enjoy camping, hiking, backpacking, etc... That said, I've never liked scouting. It's not the activities, but the organization that I don't care for. A large portion of that I realize likely has a lot to do with the professional scouters in my own scout district and LDS stake. I saw them as petty tan shirted bureaucrats vying for power and recognition in meaningless little fiefdoms. More often then not, boys found themselves suffering because of the power struggles of these professional scouters as the positioned for recognition.

I grew up a little bit and recognized the reason that The Church used the scouting program because it was a program designed to create trust worthy, confident and competent men. The failures that I saw in the scouting bureaucracy were, for the most part, local problems that didn't reflect on the organization as a whole. However it bothered me that The Church didn't have their own program for this. It had made one of the young women at all. There was the Duty to God program, but it was a joke. I wondered why The Church didn't have their own quality program for the young men and had to use the scouting program instead.

Then when I was about to turn 16 it happened. The Church redid the entire Duty to God program. It was every bit as full featured as the Young Women in Excellence program. I though that finally the scouting program would be deprecated and the Duty to God program would take over as the to primary youth program for young men in The Church. Only, that didn't happen. In fact almost nobody even paid attention to this new program. I got my Duty to God award because this was the program that I had been waiting for, one that focus on goal setting and character development, like scouting, but in a focus designed to cultivate faith as well as character.

Eventually it was a subject that sort of left my mind. I graduated from high school. I moved out on my own, got a job and grew up. However this is an issue that has recently come to mind once again. The reason is this, in the ward I grew up, a place where activity among the young men is 100%, there are a number of men that don't plan on serving missions. These are eagle scouts, some with more then one palm. The focus in the ward is still seriously slanted towards scouting with Duty to God getting little or no attention, not withstanding the fact that the program is now even better then when I was a young man. It's a problem that I'm afraid may exist in many of the part of The Church in general. I'm afraid that as long as the scouting program continues to be an officially support Church program this will continue. We have taught the young men to earn merit badges, but not faith and in so doing have done them a great disservice.