Context: I was a Boy Scout for a number of years, making Eagle in 2020 right as COVID was really kicking off.
It was right afterwards, however, that the CSA scandal started popping up everywhere (which thankfully I was never exposed to or involved in during my time), and lately it seems like the organization & movement as a whole has fallen by the sociocultural wayside.
I would say that my time as a Scout did me objective good; I learned a decent amount about first-aid & survival-craft, participated in a number of volunteer & civic projects, and it generally made me a more well-rounded person. However, there’s no denying the impact that something “bigger than the Catholic Church scandal”, as I’ve heard it described, has on an institution such as this.
I’d like to get the community’s opinion, however; were any of you Scouts? How was your experience? What is your opinion of the institution today?
I learned a lot in scouts, but I wasn’t comfortable with the nationalism, pseudo military and Christian overtones.
I just went camping instead.
FWIW, I found that scouting mostly stayed out of religion. There are badges for each religion that you’re encouraged to pursue with your parents and religious leaders so I took it as more encouraging you to follow whatever you believe.
Granted they assume you have a religion
If it makes you feel any better, the Evangelicals had their own version (think of like Christian music but for boy scouts) that explicitly intertwined religion and nationalism into it. Was straight up child indoctrination.
I’m not sure why that would make you feel better lol. That said, I wasn’t molested, and I actually did learn quite a bit about survival etc. and a lot it has stuck with me. So it could have been worse.
What I encountered were a lot of boys with absent fathers. But we did help out elderly people with shopping and a holiday kitchen. But the same groups that make free holiday meals support politicians who want to fuck the poor the other 364 days.
I was a kid asking, “but what about all the other meals these people need?”.