The Schism of Youth Scouting Programs in America

When the Boy Scouts decided to admit openly gay youths in 2013, a group of dissenting leaders struck out on their own and formed Trail Life USA, an "unapologetically Christian" scouting organization. The schism raised a question: Is there a right way to get kids outdoors?

- Patrick Doyle, illustrations by Tim McDonagh

THE BOYS WERE NOT INVITED.

Boy Scout Troop 452 has been meeting at Concord United Methodist Church in Beaver Falls,Pennsylvania, as long as there’s been a troop, nearly 70 years. But this isn’t the usual weekly gathering of the boys and their scoutmaster, Richard Greathouse. This meeting is just for their parents.

It’s the fall of 2013 and Greathouse, a 37-year-old electrician with glasses and a goatee, moves toward the front of the room. He’s not a big talker, but the boys like him and the parents have trusted him for the 16 years he’s been leading the group. As he calls the room to order, the parents quiet around him. The other leaders of the group know what’s coming, but the parents have no idea why they’ve been summoned here tonight.

Scouting in Beaver Falls, a small community 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, has gone more or less unchanged since a group of young men founded Troop 452 in the waning days of World War II. Generations of boys have grown up following the same path: They smile and march yearly in the town parade for the opening day of Little League, they serve pancakes at the Maple Syrup Festival, they camp and hike in the woods, work their way up to Eagle Scout, and then go forth to jobs, wives, and homes, and raise their sons in the same tradition. Some of 452’s members, in fact, are grandsons of the chartering members. The grandfather of Greathouse’s wife was an original member.