Brad Davidson. the father of two Eagle Scouts and a silver award Girl Scout, wrote this Comment of the Day to defend the re-named Boy Scouts of America. now “Scouting America,” from a critical post here from May, 2024. Despite the criticism, I was very pleased to see his passionate, well-argued rebuttal. As I noted in the original essay, Jack Marshall Sr. regarded the organization as his savior, because the Boy Scouts gave him structure and a support network when he was a fatherless only-child growing up in Kentucky during the Depression. Dad would have been crushed if he had lived long enough to watch the Bot Scouts staggering under the terrible publicity it suffered in the wake of its child molestation scandal and the subsequent lawsuits that drove it into bankruptcy.

Since Brad mentions it more than once, I must pause briefly to to defend my use of the term “rot” to describe the Scouts ( I never used the terms “ethics rot,” “ethical tot” or “moral rot.”) I hold that any organization that has many episodes of adults in authority criminally molesting children under its auspices—and the Scouts had almost 93,000 claims across all 50 states and the District of Columbia when the organization went into Chapter 11—by definition has allowed its culture to fall apart in metaphorical chunks. The Boy Scouts induced families to entrust its sons to their care, and then did not adequately execute that care. Such widespread criminal activity cannot exist without an organization’s leadership engaging in contrived ignorance. The fact that other organizations were equally negligent is not a defense.

Here is Brad Davidson’s Comment of the Day on the post, “More Re-Branding Ethics: ‘“’What is This ‘Boy Scouts’ of Which You Speak?’” I combined his comment on EA with a subsequent email he sent me off-site, with his permission.

***

You have made some claims about Scouting that are just that–claims, not based in reality. “Decades of ethical rot” is a claim, and I see no proof, other than you hate the name change.

I was a Cub Scout and then a Boy Scout (and then Scouts BSA) leader for 12 years, and have 2 sons who are Eagle Scouts. My daughter was in Girl Scouts, and I was a leader for that group as well but took a back seat to two women who really ran the group. My role was more of the “get ’em outdoors” role for the girls.

First, I am not sure what the “ethical rot” entails. Was it un-banning homosexual scoutmasters and scouts? Scouting is not the place for sexual education nor sexual encounters; we don’t care what you do outside of scouting, provided it is legal and has no influence on your scouting experience. This is the real world, scouting goes up to 18, and there are times when boys or adults get in legal trouble, and we had to make a judgement call–but again, if it involved sex, other than criminal sexual activity, none of it is our business. “Morally straight” gives us an opportunity to talk about personal relationships in general, but we are guys who take kids camping, not sexual educators.

Second, GSA and BSA are not related organizations. They actually compete, and from my point of view, don’t like each other. Scouting America (the new name) is part of an international scouting movement; it was not founded here in America, nor is it headquartered here. The global scout movement is overwhelmingly co-ed. We were one of the ONLY scouting organizations that had limits on female participation. We ended this in large part because, frankly, it’s hard for families to join and have the girls not involved. My daughter did a LOT of homework at scout meetings, and wished she could have gone camping instead of selling cookies.

Third, we are not idiots. The idea that camping with adolescents would be co-ed is patently insane. The number of mean-spirited and frankly disgusting comments about “pregnancy merit badges” that were provided by ex-scouts (or claimed ex-scouts) when girls were allowed into the “core” program was shocking, and reflected a desire (I believe) to find a “woke enemy” within scouting that would justify these ridiculous assumptions. We are not naive. We do not have co-ed scouts share tents, or even campouts. Also, the change is not at all as shocking as people make it out to be. Girls have been involved in aspects of Scouting for 50 years, nearly half the lifespan of scouting in America–Sea Scouts, Venture Crews, and cub scouts have been co-ed for a long time. The challenge is with adolescents, and there we still focus on single-sex groups and experiences, which are frankly better for the kids.

Fourth, I’m not sure how Scouting could have handled the sexual abuse scandals differently. They happened; they also were happening, at the same time (pre-1986), in literally every organization where youth were served. There isn’t a church, school, sport, or other large organization that wasn’t overmatched by what we understood abuse to be at the time. None of us knew how manipulative predators are, nor was the legal framework ready to deal with respected adults being accused of horrific acts. Scouting’s main sin, and it’s a big one, was not contacting authorities when abuse was found; they had a failure to protect, and they have owned it. In owning their culpability, which is ethical, they have given the impression they were uniquely horrible. Again, their crime was underestimating the manipulative long-game of predators, and believing, in their hubris, that they could handle these things internally. They couldn’t. They shouldn’t have.

What is interesting, however, is that since the mid-1980s Scouting has done exactly what every other organization should have done–they invited people who knew how to prevent predators from infiltrating an organization to tell them what to do, and we do it. Rule 1 is, never allow a child alone with an adult. If USA Swimming, USA Gymnastics, or the Catholic Church had followed a similar rule, we’d be in a much better place, and have spared a lot of youth a lot of pain. We can’t go back, but we can act in an ethical manner going forward. Protecting youth is a bare minimum standard. Again, not sure I see any “moral rot” there, I see bravery and accountability, and an institution that (correctly) believes that it is not more important than the people it serves.

The focus of scouting, still, is, as always, character, citizenship, and fitness. At a time when children live in social media bubbles, “no child left indoors” seems more importat than ever. If we are trying to widen the appeal so that more children can benefit from scouting, I make no apologies and am frankly amazed at the hostility. The fact that you find the name change to be emblematic of “decades of rot” is lazy and uninformed. There are 1.2 million adults serving 1 million youth today, and it’s nearly all volunteer time. America could use a lot more scouting and a lot less hand wringing.

***

The name change, like much of scouting, was ineptly handled; the organization suffers from the people inside not knowing how to talk to the people outside. But denying youth the opportunity to engage in the oldest, and most robust, program for building self-reliance, accountability, and civic spirit is wrong. We are not “letting girls ruin the program”; we are allowing girls to benefit from the same experiences as boys. 

GSA is NOT affiliated with BSA, and runs very differently–I have been involved with both, and while GSA is great, selling cookies is not anywhere near as impactful as learning how to survive in the woods or understand how our government works (if you don’t know what I’m referring to, look up the “Citizenship” merit badges–in the community, in America, in the world are the three key badges). Scouting is an international movement, not founded here nor headquartered here; it is overwhelmingly co-ed throughout the world, and we are simply catching up. 

The real reason girls were let in to the main program is because they quizzed the active scoutmasters if they thought it was a good idea, and we said “yes”. No one thinks co-ed camping for adolescents is a good idea, we don’t do it. But we do think that scouting families shouldn’t have to sideline the girls, like I had to, on the way to spending 12 years heavily engaged in serving youth as a scouter (the name for adult scout participants). 

The sex abuse scandals were real…I think it is highly ethical to take responsibility for what happened, and it is equally ethical to try to prevent further abuse. Scouting is recognized as having taken the bull by the horns and asking for external help; we have better and more advanced youth protection training than any other organization I know, and I can say this with confidence because I am also a youth sports coach and the training for how to recognize grooming behavior (for example) is woefully thin compared to scouts. 

The world, and America, needs youth to feel that they are part of the civic society, and part of the solution. Scouts does this. It’s our overt goal–character, citizenship, and fitness are the three pillars of scouting. No amount of pearl clutching over changes to the program can hide, from those involved, that the program is basically unchanged since Baden-Powell invented the Patrol Method and used it as the core of the Scouting experience. We are not about sexual education; what adults do on their own time, provided it is legal, is not our business. Nor is it our business what scouts do on their off time, although, truth be told, 17 year olds can get in a lot of trouble and we do have meetings if that happens. But we are volunteers, eager to help children become strong adults, and we have no interest in whether someone is gay, or a communist (but not a godless one, that you can’t be), or a girl. Everyone can benefit from scouting. 

My bona fides are not that I am an ethicist; I did, however, do a post doctoral fellowship at the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford Hospital, and I do know what ethics are, broadly speaking. I have also worked as a professional namer for a naming agency (it’s a real job, although a weird one). The name change is fine, from a professional’s POV; how it was rolled out was not. However, how including more youth into the program is “unethical” is beyond me, and stating categorically that scouts has undergone “decades of rot” is lazy unless you can point to specifics. I don’t view un-banning homosexual scoutmasters as ethically suspect; whatever their sex lives, they are not part of the scouting experience, any more than my and my wife’s sex life is. 

Scouting is everyone’s favorite football to kick, but it is the best program, bar none, I have ever found for engaging youth in meaningful, productive, personal growth. No rot I can see except for outsiders bemoaning changes they don’t understand and have virtually no stake in.