SALT LAKE CITY – August 23, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – A recent poll conducted by Dan Jones and Associates for UtahPolicy.com reveals the majority of Mormons living in Utah would like the LDS Church to cut its ties with the Boy Scouts of America.
The anti-boy scout backlash began in July, when the BSA formally ended a century old ban on allowing homosexuals to serve as scout leaders.
Leaders for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it was “deeply troubled” by the BSA’s decision, and raised the prospect of leaving the Boy Scouts altogether.
According to the UtahPolicy.com poll, 63 percent of LDS church members, both men and women, living in Utah, agree the Church and the BSA should go their separate ways.
Among the poll’s findings:
-Two-thirds of “very active” Utah members of the LDS Church believe their church leaders should separate from the Boy Scouts and start a new male youth organization.
-23 percent of “very active” Utah Mormons want their church to stay in the Boy Scouts.
-13 percent of “very active” Utah church members say they are undecided.
The Mormon church is one of the world’s largest Boy Scout organizers, with hundreds of thousands of boys entering scouting by way of the Church each year.
To read the LDS Church’s official response to the BSA policy change, please click on the link below.
To be honest, the main reason I’d like to see us break away and do our own program is that I’m sick of spending twice as much as necessary for scout gear and being mandated by their restrictions.