The government should cut ties with Scouting America, but Pete Hegseth's reasons are absurd

Instead of citing real issues like abuse and atheist exclusion, the Secretary of Defense claimed Scouting America isn't doing enough to "cultivate masculine values"

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The U.S. government may finally be ending its relationship with Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, and it’s about damn time.

Unfortunately, because we’re talking about the Trump administration, we have to acknowledge that they’re only doing the right thing because they went so anti-woke, they accidentally looped back around to the other side.

The Boy Scouts of America will soon become Scouting America (image via Facebook)

NPR’s Graham Smith and Tom Bowman reported yesterday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was planning to sever ties with the organization because they “attack boy-friendly spaces,” push “gender confusion,” are now “genderless,” and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The military has provided support to the Scouts for more than 100 years, assistance that was formalized in 1937. But in one memo, Hegseth says, “The organization once endorsed by President Theodore Roosevelt no longer supports the future of American boys.”

The proposal calls for the Pentagon to no longer provide medical and logistical aid to the National Jamboree, which brings in as many as 20,000 scouts to a remote site in West Virginia. It also states that the military will no longer allow Scout troops to meet at military installations in the U.S. and abroad, where many bases have active Scout programs.

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His memo to the House and Senate Armed Services committees argues the Scouts have strayed from their mission to “cultivate masculine values.” It also claims that with international conflicts and a tight budget, sending troops, doctors and vehicles to a 10-day youth event would harm national security by diverting resources from border operations and protecting U.S. territory.

In case you need a reminder, the group once known as the Boy Scouts of America changed its name because, to many Americans, it no longer represented boys learning useful skills and becoming model citizens.

It became a haven for sexual predators; the BSA faced over 82,000 lawsuits from alleged victims. It became known more for who was excluded than who was allowed in; over the course of several years, the BSA finally opened its doors to gay troops (2013), then gay leaders (2015), then trans boys (2017), then girls (2019). None of that, however, reversed the overall declining membership and none of that changed the massive payouts necessary to settle those cases. The group eventually filed for bankruptcy.

In 1972, the BSA had 5 million members. Today, membership is around 1 million.

And yet what Hegseth may be doing is an extremely short-sighted move that will ultimately hurt everyone involved.

The Scouts rely on government support for many of its activities, and the military benefits from recruiting people who achieve the rank of Eagle Scout (who also get higher pay, at least until Hegseth’s initiative kicks in). As one veteran explained to NPR, his military family moved often when he was younger, but the Boy Scouts were always a source of continuity no matter where he was at, easing the transition after each move.

Hegseth doesn’t give a shit about any of that because he’s on a quest to destroy anything in the military that seems unmanly, without taking into account the advice of people who serve and have served practically their entire lives.

At the same time, it’s long overdue for the government to stop being involved with what is ostensibly a religious organization.

The irony is that Hegseth doesn’t want to support the Scouts because they’re not exclusive enough… and yet the reality is that, despite all their changes, the Scouts have consistently banned one group in particular: atheists. We’re forbidden from being troop leaders or members. At least if we’re open about our non-religiosity.

The organization’s Scout Oath includes the phrase “I will do my best to do my duty to God.” The Scout Law includes the goal of being “reverent” to God. If you can’t abide by those, then you’re unable to be a member or leader. The group’s Declaration of Religious Principle states very bluntly that “Scouting America maintains that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God.” Even though Scouting America says the definition of God is up to individuals (similar to Alcoholics Anonymous), the belief is required.

As a private organization, it’s within the group’s rights to do that, but it’s also a reason atheists have balked when public school districts welcomed the BSA into their buildings or the government promoted the organization. If Scouting American wanted to teach kids values like loyalty, kindness, and friendliness, there was never any good reason to continue banning a large swath of people who might want to join.

For what it’s worth, the (unrelated) Girl Scouts have never excluded atheists and they’ve been doing just fine. The sky didn’t fall. Nor would it fall if the BSA took the simple step of saying everyone can join regardless of their faith. Reverence was never a worthy goal to begin with, anyway.

But now it may not matter. Religious groups have largely abandoned Scouting America in favor of their own bigoted alternatives. And now the government may be abandoning the group because it’s not masculine enough. As if kindness and loyalty are values not worth any real boy’s time.

Hegseth is so obsessed with performative masculinity that he’ll burn down anything that doesn’t flatter his own insecurities. He’s not abandoning Scouting America because of their historic failures but because he’s just having another temper tantrum. He’s furious that the Scouts dared to acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ people, and recognized that boys aren’t some one-dimensional caricatures of toughness, and affirmed that girls and trans kids should be able to participate in activities that strengthen character and foster community. But instead of grappling with how the Scouts failed millions of kids through negligence, exclusion, and abuse, he’s chosen the laziest possible narrative: that the Scouts became too woke to deserve the government’s support.

It’s too bad because he accidentally stumbled into doing the right thing. The government should have cut ties with Scouting America years ago. Not for embracing inclusivity, but for clinging to religious litmus tests and enabling predators. It would have been courageous to say the government would no longer work with the group because it was discriminating against non-religious Americans, perhaps even pressuring them to get with the times. Instead, Hegseth turned his anger into yet another culture war stunt.

That means Scouting America is being punished for the dumbest possible reason: After years of dragging their feet, they slowly came around to doing the right things (in most cases)… and now they’re being punished for not keeping their feet firmly planted in the past. The Republican government wants to cut ties with Scouting America because the group is elevating kids—most of them, anyway—rather than degrading them.

It’s a disgraceful thing for Hegseth to do, but disgrace is all he’s brought to the position since he got confirmed.

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