Continuing the discussion from Officials consider criminal charges for stupid assholes who destroyed 170-million-yo rock formation:
I somehow had the idea that the BSA stood for appreciation of the great outdoors. It seemed bitterly ironic that these are scouting leaders doing this stuff… But maybe I had it all wrong, and the BSA is really about making the wilds into a nice safe parking lot so no one ever gets hurt.
Remember: This is the action of a few yahoos, not the BSA. Every organization has some members who are going to do really stupid things, including things that violate the principles of the organization. The larger the organization, the sooner it’s likely to happen.
I have my own serious objections to the BSA, but I really don’t see them as being at fault in this case.
I was never a scout, but from what I gather, the scouting experience varies widely not only region to region, but even troop to troop. In Idaho and Utah, it can be mormon bible study with a show of camping once in a while. The views of whoever volunteers to be the troop’s scoutmasters can trump a lot of the spirit of the official BSA scout manuals, although this can work progressively, too (not kicking out a scout if he’s outed, caught with beer and etc…)