Vol. 7, No. 3, 1990

Articles on Mormonism

Colleen Ralson

According to the Church News, a Mormon publication, 77 years ago the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints became a sponsoring institution of the Boy Scouts of America and has become the longest continually chartered sponsoring organization.

The LDS Church has the highest number of units among all chartered organizations. The LDS newspaper also reported that General Authorities and other general board members of the Mormon Church continue to serve on national Boy Scouts of America committees.

Mormon Apostle and second counselor to the President and Prophet of the LDS Church, Thomas S. Monson, bragged that, "The Church has not had anyone who has done more for Scouting than President [Ezra Taft] Benson," (Church News, Feb. 3, 1990, p. 11).

The Boy Scouts of America recently hosted a National Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P., at Hill Virginia, where young men of different faiths and different communities gathered. A large LDS sacrament meeting was held at this Jamboree, where 48 LDS priests blessed the bread and water, and 150 LDS deacons (LDS boys 12 years of age and up), passed it out.

Another event, the Scouting for Food drive, had the scouts collecting tons of food. Monson, claimed that by doing so these scouts were taught "important principles of welfare service."

Monson also said that "Scouting should complement the Aaronic Priesthood at all levels" (Ibid).

Monson, speaking about Scouting, went on, "I like the way the Church has coordinated and fully correlated the activities of the young men with the instruction we provide in the Aaronic Priesthood. We don't have a Scoutmaster competing against a deacons quorum adviser, or a priest quorum adviser competing against the Explorer post leader because we have blended them so that it's one boy and one troop, one Church and one program. They serve together; they work together. Every program I've seen from Scouting complements the objectives we are attempting to achieve in the lives of our young men, primarily, helping them strive for exaltation," (Ibid).

The Church News also spoke about a Scout Ranch called Philmont located in Cimmaron, New Mexico, which annually hosts 15,000 to 18,000 scouts.

Philmont sets aside two weeks each summer for LDS Scouts and their families.

In a telephone conversation with Lorraine Moreland, a spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America's national headquarters in Irving, TX, it was learned that the participants in these family seminars are selectively invited by their local scouting council.

General Authorities of the Mormon Church as well as national Boy Scout of America leaders lead these sessions.

The article went on to tell that the instruction at Philmont focused on "...how Scouting can help achieve Aaronic Priesthood objectives of young men magnifying their calling, providing service, receiving temple blessings, serving full-time missions and preparing to become worthy husbands and fathers.

"About 75 percent of the instruction at Philmont focuses on the Aaronic Priesthood and how the Scouting organization can assist in building young men," according to LDS Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone, gener¬al president and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. (Ibid, p. 12).

During the week, while priesthood leaders are in meetings with Church and Boy Scouts of America leaders, there are programs for the rest of the family, such as Family home evening on Monday nights, sacrament services on Sunday and fireside meetings.

Featherstone goes on to state, "It isn't just pure Scouting training isolated from everything else. We talk about the boy, the influence of his family and peer influences within the quorums, and how Scouting can bolster those two,"

Featherstone further explained, "Many of the leaders who attend for the first time have little knowledge of how the national organization of Boy Scouts of America can help local stake and ward units.

"One reason there is so much emphasis placed on Eagle Scouting within the Church is that more than 90 percent of LDS Eagles serve full-time missions, according to Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone, general president of Young Men and a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy," (Ibid).

There it is. They are bold and no longer even the least subtle about it. The Mormons have spelled it out for us. They are using the Scouts to "benefit" and "bolster" Mormonism.