The Boy Scouts of America has decided to become homosexual friendly. What this means is that if your son is in the Boy Scouts he can be paired with an active and public homosexual for the weekend.  Also, the Boy Scouts recently made your sons more accessible to adult sodomites by making it policy that adult homosexual troop leaders can take your sons out in the remote woods for a weekend of outdoor activities. The Girl Scouts have long been an issue in their relationship with Planned Parenthood and their exclusion of mothers in many Girl Scouts events. The Boy Scouts still have access to over 2.6 million boys and the Girl Scouts are still shaping the minds of 2.3 million girls. Many of these are Christian children.

I would encourage Christian leaders who are taking a “wait and see” attitude to the homosexual scouting organizations to read the column “what is next for the LBGT movement” by Urvashi Vaid, Lisa Duggan, Tamara Metz and Amber Hollibaugh. In the article, the leaders of the homosexual movement clearly state their desire to make war on God-given institutions and sacraments. For example the homosexual leaders say “… What next? Disestablish marriage. Get the state out of the business. Abolish the legal category.” Also, the homosexual lobby is creating well-funded grants to attack Religious Liberty throughout the United States and the world. There are millions of dollars pouring into organizations specifically to wage cultural war upon places like Africa.  The homosexual lobby has a plan, and it is to minimize if not remove orthodox Christianity influence from the public square.  It is to make war on religious liberty, and remove the First Amendment rights of conservative Christians.  Yet many Christian leaders do not protect even the little ones from this continued assault on the Lord’s children.  Many of these homosexual organizations want to reach into Catholic parishes and Christian churches to gain access to young people through Scouting.

And here enters a solution, what I have named soft secession and what Rod Dreher the senior editor of The American Conservative defines as the Benedict Option. To maintain your embattled Christian culture, you must leave fallen organizations and create viable alternatives. Due to the hard work of many believing Christian men and women there are now many viable scouting options. Up here in the Redoubt I see many different organizations sponsoring many different types of scouting options. I needed to do some research on which organization my family would participate in and I thought to share.

Thankfully we have some church leaders and leaders of the Boy Scouts of America that have shown a bit of a backbone in the face of the continued militant homosexual advances. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Christian sect that boasts the largest sponsorship of BSA troops released a statement in JUL2015 which said they may terminate their affiliation with the Boy Scouts. Their church leaders are working through the issue. The First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, S.C., sent a letter to parents last week announcing it would no longer sponsor a scout troop, ending a nearly 50-year relationship, reports WBTV of Charlotte, N.C. Father John De Celles of Saint Raymond of Peñafort in Springfield was one of the first Catholic priests to severed ties with the Boy Scout troop and Cub Scout pack in December. He showed great courage and humility. His parish Saint Raymond will instead sponsor units of a new organization — Trail Life USA.

After Father De Celles action, several Catholic priests and Bishops have started to allow other scouting organizations to partner with their parishes and churches. For example Msgr. James Hart, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller, Texas. He posted a letter to parishioners cutting ties with BSA. One of the largest is Bishop David D. Kagan of the Diocese of Bismark of North Dakota who forbid all parishes and schools in his diocese from partnering with the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts of America just last month. In his letter explaining his decision, he provided three alternatives for scouting for Catholic institutions under this authority. I believe these are a good place to start.

Christian scouting for boys

Trail Life USA. This appears to be the proper successor to the Boy Scouts and is an interdenominational Christian scouting organization. They accept Catholic, Protestants and Mormon leadership. Boys can come from any religion as long as they understand they are joining a Christian organization. Trail Life USA can trace its roots to OnMyHonor.net run by John Stemberger a lifelong member of the Boy Scouts of America fighting to keep the Orthodox Christian character of the Boy Scouts. They lost. When that happen John Stemberger figured out a way to implement his own form of soft secession, he joined forces with other Christian scouting organizations and created Faith Based Boys. In May of 2013, they asked American Heritage Girls (AHG) a Christian alternative to the Girl Scouts for advice. This demonstrates wisdom and humility. AHG had worked for decades to create Christian alternatives for scouting.

Eventually, OnMyHonor.net, Faith Based Boys, TrailHead USA and Frontier Service Corps joined to create Trail Life USA. The former general counsel for the Boy Scouts moved over to Trail Life USA. As of JAN2015, Trail Life USA has 524 active troops in 48 states and over 20,000 members. One reason for its rapid growth is that half of its membership and a lot of its leadership came directly from the Boy Scouts. They have great experience at this. There are troops in all the Redoubt states and two in Northern Idaho. One is sponsored by Candlelight Fellowship in Coeur d’Alene and another is sponsored by First Baptist Church in Sandpoint.

Federation of North-American Explorers (FNE). Another possible option for kids is the “Scouts of Europe” organization which is properly named International Union of Guides and Scouts of Europe which is a faith-based, mainly Catholic, though the organization is open to Protestants troop leaders. This organization has affiliates around the world. The two biggest affiliates are in France and Italy. In the USA, the affiliate is called “Federation of North American Explorers”.  FNE is the North American member of the UIGSE-FSE, covering Canada, the United States.

The FNE is not co-ed, the units are all single gender. The FNE is approved by the Holy See as an international association of the faithful of as an international association of the faithful of Pontifical Right.  This means the Pope encourages Catholics to join this organization.  It is also has official NGO status in Europe.  It has several official associations including one Lutheran, one Orthodox, one Calvinist and one Evangelical.  The program is a traditional program based on Lord Baden-Powell’s original program as implemented by Ven. Jacques Sevin. The identity of the FNE, like that of the home organization, is Catholic. The FNE does admit non-Catholic Christians to their association as long as they understand and accept the Catholic identity of UIGSE-FSE. One issue with the FNE is that it appears to be very slow in approving new troops. There are very few troops in the US at this time, and none in the Redoubt thus this is not really an option for our family at this time.

Knights of Columbus Squires. The Knights of Columbus have their own semi-scouting organization called Columbian Squires. This has also been around for some time. The Knights and the Columbian Squires appear to be focused on service in the church, not outdoor activities.  My children want an outdoor focused scouting group.

Troops of Saint George. This is an organization created by Dr. Taylor Marshall. It originally started as the Scouts of Saint George. However, the vindictive Boy Scouts sued as they claim they own the word “scout.” Thus, Dr. Marshall changed the name to Troops of Saint George. This organization is exclusively Catholic. There is only one troop in Idaho and none in Wyoming or Montana. I think this organization has excellent intentions. However, I do have questions about it.

One is to become the highest rank in the Troops of Saint George a “Tribune” they claim they want to drop your son off in the wilderness with basic equipment and have him find his way home. This sounds needlessly reckless. It is scouting, not the military. Want to join the Special Forces, do that. The other is what is the argument for the Troops of Saint George when you have a Catholic Scouting organization that has gained the status of pontifical right in the FNE? The last question is why Bishop Kagan of North Dakota did not list the Troops of Saint George as a viable alternative to scouting? He made this recommendation last month AUG2015, so it is not like he did not hear of the Troops of Saint George.

Christian Scouting for Girl

American Heritage Girls (AHG). This organization has had great success and is well respected. It is one of the older Christian alternative scouting organizations. It was started by Patti Garibay a lifelong Girl Scout and volunteer. She attempted to work within the GSA when they removed God from their pledge. They dismissed her concerns. Thus, she implemented her form of soft secession and formed AHG. It is a well-run scouting organization and has a lot of respect in the scouting world. They have over 30,000 girls, with over 4,500 women leaders in over 48 states that are members. It accepts Christians of all stripes including Catholic, Protestants and Mormons as leaders.  Girls can come from any faith.

Federation of North-American Explorers (FNE). Has a girl’s organization. The scouting is kept separate except for very large joint events.

Little Flowers. The Little Flowers is like the KoC Columbian Squires a “semi-scouting” group. Its focus appears to be outdoor camping and activities, but indoor arts and crafts. My daughter asked one question. “If I join, will we go camping, hiking and doing things outdoors.”  My daughter right now is camping in our back yard.  She doesn’t mind arts and crafts, as long as they happen outdoors. The Little Flowers appear not to have historically done a lot outdoors focused activities.

While these organizations are starting small, they seem to be having an impact.  Trail Life USA reports that half of its growth come from children who were not involved in scouting before.  This is while nationally, total Boy Scout membership dropped 6 percent in 2013 which is more than the decline of 4 percent in 2012.  An avalanche can start with a single pebble.