Diverging values push Mormon split with Boy Scouts
Scouts will now include girls, be more welcoming to all
SALT LAKE CITY — For more than a century, the Boy Scouts of America and the Mormon church helped each other expand their organizations and build their brands while molding countless young men through bow knots, pinewood derby races and campouts.
But in the 21st century, the longtime partners began drifting apart. The Mormon church continued expanding into far-off countries where Boy Scouts wasn’t offered and began eyeing its own program. Amid declining membership, the Boy Scouts of America recently opened its arms to openly gay youth members and adult volunteers, transgender boys, and girls while the Mormon religion clung to its opposition of homosexuality and stuck to its traditional gender roles.
On Tuesday, the two sides announced what had become inevitable: They will split permanently starting in 2020.
The memories will live on in Norman Rockwell paintings, the Boy Scouts training complex named after a former Mormon church president and in the pictures from the church’s 2013 extravagant theatrical production commemorating their 100th anniversary together.
But, their futures are now headed in divergent directions.
The Boy Scouts will try to make up for the loss of its largest sponsor through the addition of girls and a welcoming message that all are invited. Last week, the organization said it will change the name of its flagship program next year to Scouts BSA to account for the inclusion of girls.
The organization says its current youth participation is about 2.3 million, down from 2.6 million in 2013 and more than 4 million in peak years of the past.