re: #89 HappyWarrior

I think the RCC needs to modernize honestly. It’s going to sound weird for me praising the Boy Scouts since I vehemently disagree with their policies on gays and atheists as members but when I had to help register my Dad when he became an assistant den leader, they had tests to make sure adults that would supervise the kids knew what and what was not appropirate. I honestly think it would be helpful to consider allowing priests to marry. Whether the hierachy of the church wants to admit it, when most people hear and think of the Roman Catholic Church, they think pedophilia.

As the token LGF Scouter (Ojoe’s not been around much as of late, AFAIK), National and the councils have done a lot of work towards screening out adults with criminal records and training leaders on how to appropriately put on the program.

When an adult registers as a Scouter, regardless if they’re coming straight from the youth ranks (as I did…got my Eagle by the skin of my teeth ;-P) or are coming in because their kids got in to the program, you have to go through not only a state and federal criminal background check, but the chartering organization has the say on whether they want to approve that person’s registration before it’s forwarded to National. Leaders must also complete a youth protection course upon registration (parents are also strongly recommened to take it as well) and renew every two years.

BSA Youth Protection guidelines: scouting.org