I'm still catholic. I was an altar servant for more then 10 years, starting only at 16; so I knew what I was doing. But I never believed at the church as a whole; I believed in God (not sure, maybe I still do; was always a difficult subject for me) and I liked our perish. Church as the big business it ist, was never my cup of tea; see what Dead_pool later writes, which is very fitting! And I was never told to believe in God; my Mom didn't have much to do with it. But I myself and several other kids when we were little, starting thinking about something like God; not in the way of the churches, but it is for us (it didn't as much time, as it might sound. It was a bit on the playground, between playing soccer and what not). Obviously I have no experience with the US boy scouts, but according to what Mitlov has written they have done exactly that, in case of his son. And I dpon't have a personal problem with them; I just think it's an outdated system. Like: Ooooh, girls are allowed to become Eagle Scouts! It was 2017, welcome to the modern world. Girls are even allowed to work, vote and speak in public. It's nothing that should need a major booya, because it's such an awesome change. It should have been a change a while ago (vice versa the same, by the way.). I did and they all said the same as well. But honestly I don't think you got the point. Because it wasn't this: It was never about claiming to be perfect. It was about that tons of priests or whomever prepares the kids, make the feel like whatever they confess won't be "enough". They make such a big deal out of confession, that to me as a child it felt wrong to only say "I lied and misbehaved and didn't obey my Mom", because apparently confession is this uber-mega-special-thing, where at best you confess, that you started WWIII. Here I actually mainly disagree, depending of the age. In the age of my first communion I already had lots f troubles, but no guild. In the end the bad things I did, were kid stuff like the above. Things, that were off my mind again, once I apologized to my Mom; afterwards I didn't feel the need to confess the, because there were gone (now that I think about it, that was part of the lying: You made things sound worse, compared to what they were). See, for me(!) that wouldn't work. If I screwed something up, I wouldn't feel any better if I couldn't talk about it with the people it effected. If I felt bad for other reasons, but not because I actually did something, I prefer to talk to people I like and sort of befriend (if that person were to be a priest, it was coincidence, but yes, that I have experienced as well!)
These assertions aren't working out well for you as a debating tactic. Half of my family are Irish Catholics, half of my partner's family are Scottish Catholics, and I've had a fair few friends raised as Catholic throughout my life too. Kids have a lot of guilt to confess if they are brought up in a culture of guilt and arbitrary strictures.
So, I was involved in Scouting for about 15 years, 5 of it as Scoutmaster, 5 years as Committee Chair, several years as Cub Scout Den leader. Our Boy Scout Troop was chartered by a United Methodist church for most of my tenure, which was where we met each week. It was chartered by a Baptist church for several years after our original church decided to move across the city. We were of course invited to attend services at both churches, but the only time we felt obligated, and indeed the only time anyone in the Troop actually attended as far as I know, was at the annual Scout day when we were asked to give the congregation a message about Scouting. Our Troop consisted of Catholics, Baptists, Hindus, one Buddhist, and a number of kids with no religious affiliation. We still had a Troop Chaplain (a Scout) and assistant (a leader). They still delivered grace at meetings, and a service on Sunday when we were out camping. Some of them were pretty inspiring, but they were almost entirely spiritual in nature since we had so many different religions represented in our Troop. That's the thing that most people that aren't familiar with the BSA don't understand. Every Troop is different. There is an overall program that is supposed to be followed, and the leader training teaches the Scout leaders how to do that. However, exactly how it is done is entirely up to the Troop Committee and the Chartering Organization. I met some Troops that were entirely a single religion (usually Catholic or Mormon) and did everything hand in hand with the church. I've met other Troops that had no religious affiliations at all, and fulfilled the Reverent portion of the Scout Oath entirely through nature, because it's easy to be reverent in regards to the natural world. I think following Canada's footsteps and making the Scouts co-ed is past due. They've allowed girls in Venture Scouts for a number of years now, so it really isn't anything new. Now however, girls will be able to start earlier and actually work toward Eagle rank (no Scout rank was earned in Venturing). It's a good thing for young women, and well past due since the roles of men and women in our society have become mostly interchangeable. The role of Scouting is supposed to be to prepare the leaders of tomorrow. Since those leaders can be either men or women, Scouting needs to reflect that no matter what the ultra-conservative think.
*Sees it's RT* *Braces for conservative reactionary backlash about the fall of America* Opening line: "This is one of the most insane moments in the history of the human species" Even worse than I expected! I was expecting anti-America, reactionary, subtly pro-Russian rhetoric, but a youth group about outdoorsmanship and civil service going coed...this is somehow a landmark event in thousands of years of human history?! Even if you disagree with the move, I can't see how this is a turning point in human history. And he's super hung up on the fact that it can't possibly be coed because it's called "BSA." Really, is that any more unusual than the YMCA allowing in adult female Jews? But in reality, YMCA community centers haven't been limited to Young Men Christians in quite some time.
