Possible Alternatives to the BSA

A few days ago, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) lifted a ban on openly gay youth, a change that will begin January 2014. A ban on gay Scout leaders remains in place.

Don't get me wrong on this. I don't have anything against the move by more than 61 percent of the Boy Scouts national council to approve a resolution overturning the longstanding ban at its annual meeting in Texas nor I am trying to "gain anything from someone else's misfortune". In fact, it could be the right move by the BSA in the right direction.

However, some of my readers who are against the new policy are asking me through email if I know other alternative youth organizations across the ideological spectrum that may need a closer look.

I checked out a few online and they may not be as big as the 103 year old BSA with more than 2.6 million youth members, but they could offer my conservative readers with scouting services of the same vein.

1. The Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBCs) Royal Ambassadors
   
   Founded in 1908, this is a program run by Southern Baptist churches for boys in first through sixth grade.
   
   The SBC's Women's Missionary Union, which oversees the program, estimates that it has about 6,300 adult leaders and 31,000 youth members. Its curriculum shares many features with the Boy Scouts – including camping trips and model race-car competitions – but it also stresses a goal of providing boys with "godly characteristics" and a "biblical worldview."

2. The Assemblies of God's Royal Rangers

   Founded in 1962 by one of the largest Pentecostal denominations, the Royal Rangers have about 81,000 youth members in about 4,000 units, according to church headquarters.
   
   "We provide Christ-like character formation and servant leadership development for boys and young men in a highly relational and fun environment," says the Rangers’ mission statement.

3. The Seventh-day Adventist Church's Pathfinders

   Dating back more than 60 years, the coed Pathfinders program serves about 35,000 boys and girls ages 10-15 in the U.S. and Canada, according to James Black, the church's director of youth ministries for North America.
   
   Black said the program resembles the Boy Scouts in many respects, with an emphasis on camping, plus an array of honors and patches that the youth members can work for.

4. The Calvinist Cadet Corps

   Founded in 1952, with a headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich., this is a non-denominational but staunchly religious scouting-style program.
   
   Office manager Kathy Door, said the corps currently serves about 9,900 boys in 550 clubs in the U.S. and Canada, with strong bases of support in Michigan, Illinois, Iowa and the Pacific Coast.

5. The Knights of Columbus’ Columbian Squires

   This organization for Roman Catholic boys and young men ages 10-18 was founded in 1925 and claims a youth membership of more than 25,000, including some in units in Mexico and the Philippines.
   
   The Squires, says the program’s Web site, "is an athletic team, a youth group, a social club, a cultural and civic improvement association, a management training course, a civil rights organization and a spiritual development program all rolled into one."

6. Navigators USA

   This alternative scouting organization has its roots in a Boy Scout troop based in New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood and sponsored by the Unitarian Church of All Souls.
   
   The troop broke away from the BSA in 2003 out of disagreement with the exclusionary membership policies, and some of the volunteer leaders decided to continue independently as a coed, inclusive movement.

7. SpiralScouts International

   This coed organization originated in 2001 at the Aquarian Tabernacle Church in Index, Wash., which serves a Wiccan community
   
   Though developed on the basis of pagan beliefs and practices, it is open to youth and families of any faith – or no religious affiliation. Its units are known as circles; it also welcomes individual families who are designated as "hearths."