Learning for Life, a recently announced optional Scouting program, will not be adopted by the Great Salt Lake Council, council President Kevin R. Watts says.
And at least two other Scout councils in Utah, the Lake Bonneville Council, Ogden, and the Utah National Parks Council, Provo, also have said they will not participate in the program.Cache Valley Council officials have not announced whether that council will participate. But the council's executive, Neil A. Butterfield, suggested earlier this month that the council wouldn't participate, although he said that decision would be up to the council board.
Controversy over the program, which will be separate from the traditional Boy Scouts of America program, arose after the Bay Area United Way in California announced that it would withhold funding from a local Scout council if the council didn't accept homosexuals as members.
Scouting officials have complained that announcement of the program by the United Way organization in California came before official introduction of the program by BSA. And Scouting officials said the announcement implied that "this new, non-traditional program marked the beginning of a changing era for values associated with Scouting."
However, national Chief Scout Executive Ben Love has said that standards for Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Explorers remain unchanged.
"Standards for membership in the traditional programs of the Boy Scouts of America continue to be based upon the Scout Oath and Law. Eligibility for Learning for Life participants will be based on school enrollment requirements established by school administration," Love said.
Watts said he and eight other members of the Great Salt Lake Council's executive committee decided this week to not use the program, whose curriculum will emphasize self-esteem, ethical behavior, personal and social development, life skills and community service.
"The traditional values outlined in the Cub Scout, Boy Scout, Varsity Scout and Explorer programs have not changed, nor are they in jeopardy of changing. The ideals, values and goals of traditional Scouting are as relevant today as they were at the day of Scouting's inception."
Meanwhile, Elder Jack H. Goaslind, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' First Quorum of the Seventy, president of the church's Young Men program and a member of the Boy Scouts' National Executive Board, said the Scouting program used by the church "has not changed and the standards for membership continue to be based on the Scout Oath and the Scout Law, which we sustain as a church and which build character in our young men."
Elder Goaslind said, "We encourage priesthood leaders and church members to be positive in their support of the Boy Scouts of America as a tool to strengthen young men in the church." (See Church News Page 5 for more information.)
Harvey Mortensen, Lake Bonneville Council executive, said Friday that his council sees no need to use the Learning for Life program, "but that doesn't mean that we don't defend" its use by other councils "who need to use it."
For many years the BSA has reached at-risk youths in inner-city situations by offering the Scouting program through the schools.
Tom Hunsaker, Lake Bonneville Council's public relations representative, said some media releases "would have you believe that the BSA developed a new program so they could finally admit girls, gays and atheists to its membership, when in fact the new subsidiary is designed to keep separate from Scouting any BSA support materials used in settings where the BSA cannot control membership standards - such as in the public schools."
Frank Aydelotte, the Utah National Parks Council's public affairs director, said the National Parks Council "did not adopt the program because we don't need it - 98 percent of available youth in our council area are already involved in Scouting."