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Christian alternative to Boy Scouts
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Our church just started a new group that’s Trail Life. It’s new this year I believe. You can also do something called Contenders for the Faith. You can do it on your own (DH and DS do) or there are some groups scattered around too).
Do you have Boy’s Brigade in the USA?
That’s quite big in the UK, my nephew attends it. Lovely Christian group that keeps the boys active, goes camping and such.
Trail Life is a new organization. It kicked off Jan 1 – truly God’s hand was on this. The program is terrific! After having my boys go through the traditional scout program, 2 reaching the highest rank, I would say that TLUSA is the closest you’ll find to a true outdoor experience than most others. I looked into some before (wish I could remember their names – boon too long) and they just weren’t anywhere near close.
I am the Point Man for our area, working on trying to get a Troop going here. If you want mroe info, feel free to drop me a line.
You might want to check out Contenders for the Faith. You can find more information at http://www.keepersofthefaith.com/category/ContendersForTheFaithIndex.
Perhaps the OP is simply looking for other options. Both BSA and GSA have made decisions which some members and prospective members are uncomfortable with. We aren’t into scouting personally, but I know of both Trail Life and American Heritage Girls as alternatives to BSA and GSA. Hopefully, you will find a suitable program for your family.
NO. The BSA is NOT a Christian organization. They allow for all faiths that recognize a higher power. And, yes, there are some troops that have a more Christian emphasis based on their Chartering Organization and set-up of that particular troop like the LDS churches.
Also, it’s getting harder and harder to talk about your faith in larger settings, particularly Jesus. We Christians need to not say too much that would offend other beliefs. Yes, we have been told this on numerous occasions w/ various people in higher levels of BSA.
Another point to consider is that a true Christian organization will recognize and respect your choice to keep Sunday a holy time for your family. We have run into too many activities, meetings, trainings, etc that go into Sunday and the family getting a “humf” for wanting to go to church. If they do have a service on Sun am, it’s an all-inclusive, watered-down, touchy-feely short thing.
There’s a difference between allowing Christianity and being Christian.
K
We open every single BSA meeting with a prayer. In Jesus’ name. We have devotionals at campouts. In fact, some of our campouts are actually designed TO work on spirituality and bringing the boys closer to the Lord. We partner WITH our church–the youth program works intimately WITH our Boy Scout organization, which is sponsored by our church. We allow other religions–currently we have a lovely Hindu boy who also attends, a friend of another member. He gets testified to a lot and invited to a lot of other church events. 🙂 But everything we do is in the name of Jesus Christ. We don’t do any Sunday activities, and our local council knows and fully supports this. They make all kinds of adjustments so our boys can participate fully while keeping the Sabbath. This is a God-honoring organization. Maybe you need to come to our troop. 🙂 Boy Scouts help boys be how God wants them to be. I fully believe it is an inspired organization and the world is fortunate to have it. My boys are becoming (and are) better men for their participation. Just because it’s POSSIBLE to water the religious component down, doesn’t mean it’s not there. The religious component to BSA is actually the very foundation of the entire organization. Always has been. It infuses everything we do. I’m grateful God gave us the Scouting program.
I didn’t deny that it *can* be a Christian Troop, but the National organization is not. I would love to have had a troop like yours. It would be wonderufl, but they are rare or hard to find.
Can I ask what Church is Chartering your troop??
The situation you’re in, w/ the blessings you have, are not typical of most Boy Scout troops. I would also take the guess that you’re not in the Northeastern part of the US, New England. I might be wrong, though.
I am grateful for Scouting, too, particularly for one son. It was definitely started w/ the Christian foundation and functioned under that for decades. Unfortunately, the worldly influences and political correctness has also krept into the organization. Unfortunately so, making your situation even more precious.
K
Hi Kerby,
Sadly, we have had the same troubles as you (and we live in New England) and would LOVE to have the experience of Bookworm. Our sons are very involved in Scouts and as we’ve had some difficult situations come up recently we have looked around at alternatives too. We have only found the Calvinist Cadets (typically run at Christian Reformed Churches or some Presbyterian churches) and ALERT Cadets, which seem to be trying to make some progress here in New England. We haven’t switched, but have spoken to some other Christian parents about the possibility of starting a Christian Troop within our BSA Council, which sounds similar to the situation that Bookworm has. I’ll be watching this thread to see what other ideas/options come up.
Laura
Oh, wow, I’m so sorry you are all encountering that issue with Boy Scouts. Our pack/troop is chartered by our church, so there are no activities on Sundays, the kids are encouraged to pursue achievements that help them grow in their faith, and the pack and the troop each have a parent acting as chaplain to chair up religious-based activities.
Most of the leaders in the pack/troop are actively involved in our church, as well. I am so thankful for the experiences my boys have had with BSA. I just served on a panel for the pack to review the work of several boys who worked on a religious award over the course of 8 months. The experiences they shared and the knowledge they gained – wow, it can’t be beat!
An aside – my son went on a skiing weekend with the BSA troop and I am always uncomfortable when I know he won’t be home in time for church. The parents/leaders that went with the boys made sure they had two opportunities to go to church before they came home, and I think every kid on the trip took advantage of the opportunity! I was so thankful for the example those parents/leaders are setting for our boys.
I’m in NH, by the way.
GSA, on the other hand, I am uncomfortable with from the top down. That disappoints me because I was in GSA as a child. We are going to check out an American Heritage Girls group this evening, though. It looks like a very active group and it is chartered by a church in our area.
Jawgee, listening to your experience makes ours seem even worse! We almost always have campouts/outtings over Sunday mornings without a church option, our troop has no chaplain and definitly no “religious-based activities,” except Scout Sunday. Our largest Catholic and Protestant Church in town sponsor a Scout Sunday…but that just means Scouts wear their uniforms to church! This year my oldest son was the ONLY scout in his very large troop to complete the religion award. We definately don’t have the type of Christian parental involvement and influence in our troop that you do. Both my husband and I are involved, but not at any high influencing positions. I would like to say it is only our troop, but I know parents from several other area troops who have similar situations. Maybe it is our area, we are in Eastern Massachusetts…definitely not a hot spot of Christian activity! 🙂 I have found this thread very interesting and it has spurred me on to some renewed action both to look into other area troops and to check out the Trail Life organization. Thanks to the original poster and all the input from others.
My youngest, our only boy is turning 6 soon and our church is currently only running Pioneer Girls. They have done Boys Brigade in the past, so we’re hoping that they open that up again soon. In the meantime, we have been researching Boy Scouts, but came across this recent news clip:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/23/us/boy-scouts-sexual-orientation/
How have those of you in your local boy scout groups handling this news? Thankfully, there is still a ban on homosexual leaders.
I agree with the other posters about Girl Scouts…very different organization. I have heard of some friends around here who are very happy with their BSA group. I have to look into them if Boys Brigade doesn’t happen in the near future…ds is chomping at the bit for his own “program”! He sees his four sisters do tons of activities with our youth group. Poor guy!
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