Quote:
Originally Posted by Eddie R.
That is exactly it. With the flap regarding non-gay scout leaders, etc. the United Way has severely cut back how much they give to scouting each year.
I don't remember the exact numbers, but it is a small percentage of what they used to give - like it used to be in the hundreds of thousands and now it is around $25K and goes down a little more each year.
I don't know how much BSA pays when someone is lost (particularly if it is a non-scout age kid just there with daddy like a couple of years ago) or when there is a fire, but I know some of it comes from BSA. The Great SL Council hasn't allowed campfires at their camps the past couple of years because they are still paying for that fire in the Uintas (I don't know if it is because they are literally paying or the insurance company required it).
Another thing I missed, the Council sometimes picks up some nice gadgets that benefit individual troops. GSL Counsil picked up some trackers that troops can check out when going backpacking. Same technology as they use to track falcons and nice to know you can take a trip and not lose any kids.
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I have no problem with the Scouts having fundraisers. I'm sure there are many good and noble things they do with the funds. My problem is with the implementation of this particular fundraiser - at least it's implementation in the GSL Council (other councils implement Friends of Scouting in completely different ways).
High Council Representative is called by Priesthood to serve on some district or area scouting board. The High Council Rep brings the Friends of Scouting assignment back to the Stake. The Stake Priesident the propagates the assignment through Priesthood channels to the Bishop. The Bishop then propogates the assignment through Priesthood channels to a counselor or to someone in the YM presidency who may in turn propagate it to others. The funds are collected and returned to the Bishopric who returns them up the line to the Stake Presidency/High Council who returns them up the line and so forth. Each ward isn't sending its funds directly to the BSA - it's being propagated back up through Priesthood channels.
It's possible to do all kinds of strained hair splitting along the lines of " I'm not calling you and setting you apart but I am asking you do to this assignment but it's not a Priesthood even though I am your Priesthood leader". That line of thinking bothers me a lot. It's similar to the hair splitting that people do with "He's speaking as a prophet", "Oops, now he's speaking as a man", "Whoa, he just started speaking as a prophet again". The assignment is either a Priesthood assignment or it's not. If it's not a Priesthood assignment it shouldn't be coming through Priesthood channels. If it is, then I question why we have a Priesthood assignment to raise funds with no Priesthood accountability over the disbursement of those funds.
I suppose if you abstract the situation, I have a problem with the coupling of the church and Scouting in general, but that is a topic for another day. I'm sure Friends of Scouting is all for a good cause; however, the lines in this situation are just too blurry for my taste.
Cheers,
BFM