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Boy Scouts' Decision To Welcome Girls Won’t Change Mormon Troops

Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
The LDS Church has been linked to the Boy Scouts of America for over 100 years and remain their top sponsor.

Today the Boy Scouts of America announced that their programs will soon be open to girls. As soon as next year Cub scout packs, which serve kids ages 7 to 11, can be coed, but this won’t change how Mormon Boy Scout troops operate.

A statement from an LDS Church spokesman says that the needs of girls and young women are being met by the youth programs the church currently offers and that “no change will be made.”

 

This is not the first time the church didn’t embrace a decision from Boy Scout officials. In 2015 gay men in same-gender relationships were allowed to become scout leaders. The LDS Church spoke out against the decision and has not made the same allowance.

The Boy Scouts are okay with that. They allow Mormon troops to be operated under Mormon values. But since then there does seem to be a gradual split happening.

 

Earlier this year The LDS Church pulled out from two scouting programs for older teens.

 

Despite that, over 300,000 Mormon boys remain in the scouting program and for now the relationship between the two groups, which has lasted over 100 years, continues.

Lee Hale began listening to KUER while he was teaching English at a Middle School in West Jordan (his one hour commute made for plenty of listening time). Inspired by what he heard he applied for the Kroc Fellowship at NPR headquarters in DC and to his surprise, he got it. Since then he has reported on topics ranging from TSA PreCheck to micro apartments in overcrowded cities to the various ways zoo animals stay cool in the summer heat. But, his primary focus has always been education and he returns to Utah to cover the same schools he was teaching in not long ago. Lee is a graduate of Brigham Young University and is also fascinated with the way religion intersects with the culture and communities of the Beehive State. He hopes to tell stories that accurately reflect the beliefs that Utahns hold dear.
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