Did anyone notice what one word was completely missing from the article?

I won't engage in blanket attacks on the Catholic Church. Some, not all, priests abused boys, and I will never engage in witch hunts that paint everyone with the same brush. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Most priests are good guys. But now all are under a microscope of suspicion and thought guilty first. Now it's okay to do a Kavanaugh on all these guys?

I do think the current Pope is way too leftist and there are plenty of Catholics who are very unhappy with him.

Thank you Rush. That’s my take. I’m Catholic, and my wife, daughter and I all had 12 years of Catholic education. None of us have had a single hint of suspicion of any priest that we have come across in our lifetimes that could sexually abuse anyone. It was always possible, but usually when there’s fire, you see smoke.

In fact, my dad was close with the Redemptorist order, which are missionaries. They had a retreat house near where we lived, and at any holiday, any priests at this retreat house (some from other parts of the world) would come to our house to celebrate. That’s also how I learned to tend bar at age 8. So I’ve had a ton of interaction with priests. They were all good men in my book. None were perfect, all were sinners, but no abusers to my knowledge.

As for the state of affairs in the Catholic Church, we are in a crisis with liberal reformists, and a loss of Catholic (vs generic Christian) identity. And this pope is no friend of traditional Catholic identity if it interferes with liberal, socialist inclinations. We are in a crisis for our soul.

I’ve recently joined the Knights of Columbus. I’m not into all of it, but we’ll see where this goes.

I bet good money I am far in better shape than you. I am a vegetarian, and I walk 6 miles a day for excercise. I am mentally awake, and morally straight. I try to help my students as much as I can. I gave a C- to a woman because she was 0.01 points away from from being flunked, and I couldn’t flunk her because she was so close. I had to flunk two guys who were supposed to graduate. I didn’t want to do so, but had to. It was up to them to learn, not me. But once I did it I hated myself so much all I could do was go home to drink.

Normally when I drink the rules are no more than one drink an hour, no more than three a night, and of course 8 hours bottle to throttle. After flunking two guys who were both going to graduate the only rule was keep the fucking glass full. The second time I’ve hidden from myself in a bottle, and the first was because I had to flunk a graduating senior.

I don’t need the damn Boy Scouts to figure out how to lead a good life. I figured that stuff all on my own.  What you guys will never get is some people don’t fit into your little fucking boxes and do just fine despite.  Wisdom is the ability to see beyond the lens of your own experience, something I doubt any of you will ever be able to do. And I truly and honestly pity you for it. Being able to see eye to eye with someone truly different from you is one of life’s Greatest pleasures.

Hey douchebag, asechrest was being nice and giving you the last line of the Boy Scout Oath.  You in turn chose to be your typical pompous asshole, only to further enlighten us on your pathetically weak mental status and why you had to turn to the drinking to hide from the results of doing what you felt was the right thing.

Feel free to once again threaten to not come back.  That’s your typical MO and you sound like a broken record. I’m sure two or three people will fawn over you not to leave, giving you the positive feedback you must not get in your real life.  The rest of us could not give a shit.

I was about to "LIKE" your post, but I couldn't because I didn't like the contents.  I liked the explanation and the real world effects the idiots are having on the BSA.

I would be happy if we had an organization that catered to the kids you mention.  Disabled and "special needs" kids should have a place where they can learn about the outdoors and a little bit about self sufficiency.  But it shouldn't be at the expense of the kids that want the BSA experience.  There could even be a merit badge about helping those special needs kids.

Spot on. My brother and I have had the same discussion. He’s about as compassionate and giving as can be, and being 8 years younger he’s not quite as jaded as me.

A separate troop for special needs sounds perfect, provided you could find the volunteers to work it.

As for girls:

Nice to know the Boy Scouts facilitated your academic misconduct.

Lighten up, Francis.

The issue isn't about whether or not Boy Scouts can recruit - it is a change in our environment that means people aren't interested in doing adventure things.  We have become timid because it's scary and a significant portion want to insist that everyone become timid with them...because they're scared.

Nobody will replace the Boy Scouts. 

On the other hand, this is mainly about the national organization.  Most or at least many local councils are independent of the national organization other than "license" to conduct scouting operations in their area.  Local councils are largely run responsibly, the problem seems to be at the top.

I’m not so sure about the independence of the local councils. My brother is a scout leader in Illinois, and he is extremely frustrated about the requirement that they accept all boys regardless of condition. He said over 50% of his troop is under some medication, and he’s required to hold and dispense this medication to them multiple times a day. Another boy is autistic and has bouts of shitting his pants. His parents think my brother is a caregiver, not a Scoutmaster.

When I was in Scouts we went on 20 mile hikes, went to summer camp in Northern Wisconsin for hiking, canoeing, swimming, fishing, wilderness survival, and other things. Most of that is no longer possible in the BSA. They even had to tell the parents to stop having the kids bring folding chairs to every camp out. Remember the days of carrying everything you need in one backpack?  Not anymore. Worse is that the normal, adventure-sealing boys don’t want to deal with the hassles of having their fun mitigated by the lowest common denominator, so membership is down. He’s waiting to see his two boys make Eagle and then he’s done.

And I have reason to believe my brother’s experience is not just anecdotal. I flew a Warbird into the BSA AirCamp in Rockford this year. The level of special needs Scouts was utterly stunning.  I had more
Than one Scoutmaster or leader say “Joey wants to know about...” instead of having the kid ask me himself.

I felt so sorry for my brother after that day. It’s not the same Boy Scouts that I knew when I was a member.

Great article.