There is a Scouting America troop at our Church unfortunately. Why they do not switch to one of the Christian alternatives (Trail Life USA or Troops of Saint George) is mind boggling! Needless to say that I did not financially support the Scout’s popcorn fundraiser after Mass yesterday.
There are also alternatives to the Girl Scouts (American Heritage Girls or Frontier Girls).
Should Catholic Christians support Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts USA’s Fundraisers?
- Yes
- No
- I shouldn’t, but I do like those Thin Mints (comment below)
I was in Cub Scouts as a boy, though my den leaders were both females. I signed up, because I thought we’d get to shoot guns, do archery, and go camping! Instead, we did cart wheels, made miniature log cabins out of glue and pretzel sticks, and sale boats out of toothpicks (not all bad), but definitely not what was on the color brochure : )
I did take third place in the rocket races (think pinewood derby, but on a wire). My Dad did most the work though ; ) We waited until the last minute so the red paint wasn’t dry, which is why I ended up racing against the Webelos, even though I was technically a Wolf scout.
I and my kid brother were Cub Scouts in the early 1960s. Our mother was a Den Mother, and our father was the Cubmaster. Only last month, at my brother’s 70th birthday party, a friend of his for 65 years reminisced about his positive experiences in the Cub Scouts. We were all Boy Scouts after that, in the mid-1960s. I can’t address what happened in the Scouts later than that.