After a 105-year run, the Mormon Church has announced it will officially be severing ties with the Boy Scouts of America, and the internet is arguing off which entity is better off going solo.
On Tuesday, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints announced that it is ending a “century-old tradition” in breaking with the organization and no longer mandating that all boys in the Mormon congregation become a part of the Boy Scouts, the Washington Post reported. Members of the Mormon Church make up nearly 20 of the organization’s youth membership, and will be able to continue their membership on an individual basis.
The church’s announcement comes less than a week after the Boy Scouts announced it would be changing its name to Scouts BSA to be more inclusive for its first-ever female membership, another decision the Scouts made last year.
While the church did not specify which policies finalized the schism, the church formerly considered to leave the organization in 2015, when the Boy Scouts began allowing individual troops and councils to allow openly gay adult leaders. The Scouts also began admitting openly gay members in 2013, and transgender members last year.
Last year, the church ended its participation in the Boy Scout programs for teenagers. It plans on continuing to enroll 8-13-year-old boys in the Cub and Boy Scouts programs until Dec. 31, 2019, at which time the Mormon Church will be finalizing a new youth program to launch in 2020.
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Across Twitter, critics of both the Mormon Church and the Boy Scouts attacked each institution, claiming that the organization they supported would be better off without the other group.
Some people claiming to be Mormon expressed approval in having the church separate from the scouting group. Others argued that the Boy Scouts, having undergone several changes in the past five years to membership, no longer “exist” anyway.
https://twitter.com/TheMikeCrook/status/994172579391922178
The Mormon Church isn't ending its association with the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts no longer exist.
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) May 9, 2018
If the even Mormon Church can now no longer stand the sight of the Boy Scouts of America after 105 yr loyalty, you know they are finished. Leftist liberalism has killed yet another great American pillar of moral society.
— Aric Cougar (@AricCougar) May 9, 2018
https://twitter.com/laura_stietz/status/994224460667514881
https://twitter.com/CoreyStewartVA/status/994166913969414145
https://twitter.com/johnhawkinsrwn/status/994172187773894656
Others lambasted controversial histories of the Mormon Church, such as its opposition to same-sex marriage, and its patriarchal roots asserting dominance over Mormon women. And some pointed to the hypocrisy of the church being against certain progressive issues but approving of other regressive events.
The Mormon Church has broken ties with the Boy Scouts so they can get back to focusing on their core values of disowning gay children and treating women like baby factories.
— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) May 9, 2018
the mormon church leaving the boyscouts is probably the best thing for the boy scouts, now the boyscouts can flourish and grow as an organization and modernize with the times instead of being anti gay and misogynist
— Stomak (@solidstomak) May 9, 2018
So the Mormon church doesn't like gays ….But yet thinks Boy Scouts should only hang out with other boys alone in the woods 🤔🤔🤔🤔
— Machoking.eth (@jedel20) May 9, 2018
The Mormon Church is more offended by Liberals, LGBTQ youth and girls joining Boy Scouts than a President turning the Boy Scouts jamboree into a Nazi rally. Hmmm…2018.
— nicki 🌊 (@nickiknowsnada) May 9, 2018
Moving on. 🙄 #WednesdayWisdom #Resist
I'm glad the Mormon Church is cutting its ties with Boy Scouts. It's not right to fill little boy's and girl's heads with religion.
— Posey Bardot (@BardotPosey) May 9, 2018
Several supported the Boy Scouts in its future moving forward from the break—no jab at the Mormon Church in sight.
The Mormon church cuts ties with the Boy Scouts who now allow girls to join! No jokes on this yet, just think it’s cool!
— Allie Goertz (@AllieGoertz) May 9, 2018
Well, almost no jab…
https://twitter.com/Kno/status/994179406879907840
And few were kind of relieved that with the church leaving the organization, they could, too.
https://twitter.com/mckaycoppins/status/994033493549158401
At least, in another year and a half, they can.