When I was in grade school, I was in the Cub Scouts for a few years. This troop, like many in Arizona and Utah, was chartered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church.
The Mormon Church has a very long and close relationship with the Boy Scouts of America. Since 1913, the church has been allowed to charter its own troops and follow its own set of special rules. Every LDS ward is required by the church to establish troops if two or more boys in an age group are eligible. Scouting is literally the official youth activity of the Mormon Church, while no similar activity exists for girls. This is part of the reason 18 percent of all Boy Scouts are LDS and 37 percent of all troops in the U.S. are chartered by the Mormon Church. Ominously, the church also is one of the largest sources of funding for the BSA.
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