Girls Can Now Join Boy Scouts?!

Girls can join Boy Scouts. That the latest news on the Boy Scouts. Yes, girls have their own organization, Girl Scouts, but of course, that’s not enough. It brings to mind a very significant question. How did Boy Scouts begin? It started in England with the first publication of Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys. In 1900, he was a war hero during the South African War and had written a field manual for soldiers. He was inspired to write a similar manual for boys that taught camping, observation, deduction, lifesaving, patriotism, chivalry, morality, good deeds, and more. It exploded in demand among boys. Later, when Chicago Publisher, William Boyce, was lost in a fog, he was rescued and navigated to safety by an anonymous English boy scout. This event spurred him to start the American version of Boy Scouts.

Can girls participate in activities like this? I'm sure they can but should they? Are they smart enough? Of course. Ability isn’t the issue. As believers, we should look at the world around us through the clear lens of the Bible. What do I think about girls joining Boy Scouts? I think it’s a silly issue but has ramifications that will keep coming. It’s not merely a matter of convenience for families and that Boy Scouts’ enrollment has dropped significantly. Women have had too much time on their hands to worry about things they can’t have and don’t need. This is not an issue of equal pay for equal work for equal skill in the work place. Girl Scouts is designed for the needs of girls, just as Boy Scouts was designed for the needs of boys. There is a deeper issue here.

The deeper issue is the continued blurred lines in gender and gender roles. Rather than being proud of how God made us and living to the fullest in our gender, our society suffers greatly from lack of contentment. Do gender roles matter? Absolutely. As a Christian woman, I need to know God’s design for my life. So, do you. The Bible speaks specifically to certain roles. I need to know what it says and so do you. It speaks specifically to how women should act and behave. You might say, “What about Gal. 3:23? There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The context is salvation, not gender roles. (Another time, we can discuss gender roles.)

When my son, Chandler, was two, we were in a restaurant, and he noticed when two beautiful women came in. Proudly, he stood up in his chair and yelled across the room, “Hey, girls, look over here! I’m a boy!” At his young age, he recognized the difference. If men and women would embrace how God made them, and follow hard after His pattern, the Christian world would have a much more convincing testimony of the gospel. Our differences in design and our differences in role assignments do not mean we are not equal in value. We are both made in the image of God with different and beautiful purposes to fulfill in a complementary way.