SALT LAKE CITY -- The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-day Saints is the largest sponsor of Boy Scouts of America. However, the church is pulling teenagers from the organization.
The Utah-based religion's announcement Thursday means an estimated 130,000 to 180,000 teenagers ages 14-18 will no longer participate in Boy Scouts starting next year, a significant loss for the Boy Scouts of America.
"In most congregations in the United States and Canada, young men ages 14-18 are not being served well by the Varsity or Venturing programs, which have historically been difficult to implement within the Church," the church said.
South and Central Texas Boy Scout troops have more than 50,000 participants. A spokesman for the Capitol Area Council said there are 439 teens enrolled in LDS-sponsored units. While they make up more than half of all Varsity and Venturing program participants, they account for 1.9 percent of the 22,395 scouts in Central Texas.
"Both are relatively small programs in the larger scale of what we do," Boy Scouts spokesman Charles Mead said.
Mead said affected scouts are still welcome to join a troop that's not sponsored by the Mormon church.
"If you had a young person who is of the LDS faith but still wanted to continue in those programs, we will still be able to do that," he said.
The Boy Scouts, with 2.3 million youth, has been grappling with declining membership in recent years and has enjoyed a close bond with the Mormons for more than a century.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a news release that it will keep some 280,000 younger boys in Boy Scouts while it continues to develop a scouting-type program that it could implement for members around the world.
"As they've stated, they are still a very big supporter of Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts," Scouts spokesman Charles Mead said. "We want to make sure the youth that are still in those scouting programs are getting the best scouting program they can get."
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