Saying that the “Boy Scouts of twenty years ago is not the same as it is today,” Father Mathias Thelen of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Brighton has “disassociated” the parish and St. Patrick’s School from the scouting program.
“It’s not the Church who has changed; it’s the Boy Scouts who have changed,” Mathias wrote in the Jan. 22, 2023, Bulletin of St. Pat’s Parish.
Part of the “change” St. Pat’s can’t get behind is the Boy Scouts’ required “Citizenship in Society” merit badge for Eagle Scouts, which, according to the Diocese of Lansing, is “an exploration of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ topics,” which it says includes regular references to celebrating “individuality” and different “identities” that contradict Catholic teaching on human sexuality.
You can read what the Boy Scouts say about the badge by clicking here.
In September, Boy Scouts of America got a $2.46 billion reorganization plan approved by a bankruptcy judge. The plan will allow the Boy Scouts to settle the claims of more than 80,000 men who say they were abused as children by troop leaders.
The move on the part of St. Pat’s — Livingston County’s largest parish — has parallels with that of the Church of Latter Day Saints, which cut ties with Boy Scouts in 2018 after a relationship of over 100 years.
In 2013, the Boy Scouts lifted the ban on openly gay scouts, and in 2015, ended the prohibition on gay troop leaders. The Mormons were “deeply troubled” when BSA lifted its ban on openly gay troop leaders, but “stayed with the organization after receiving assurances it could appoint troop leaders according to its own religious and moral values.” Then, in 2017, the Boy Scouts said it would accept those who self-identify as male, creating room for transgender members.
The final straw, apparently, for the Mormons came in 2018: it cut ties after Boy Scouts started accepting females into its ranks and changed its name to Scouts BSA to reflect the change.
At the time, the LDS Church was the biggest participant in American Scouting with approximately 425,000 Mormon youths — or about 19% of those participating in Cub and Boy Scout programs. The church went on to create its own program for males and females.
