The Boy Scouts World Scout Jamboree, which is held every four years and next will be held in West Virginia in 2019, may offer something to Scouts that would have been unthinkable years ago: condoms.
Scouts from around the world will attend the event, which will be guided by the World Scout Committee’s handbook, which offers health and safety guidelines for the event. On page 11 of the handbook, it reads, “The Host Organization must ensure that condoms are readily and easily accessible for all participants and IST (International Service Team) at a number of locations on the site. … When making this information available onsite, consideration shall be given to the various cultures and beliefs present.”
The handbook also writes, “The use of alcohol shall not be permitted on the Jamboree site. Some exceptions may be made for adults in confined areas, in accordance with the host country’s habits.”
As The Blaze notes, an announcement on the event’s page states, “For the first time, a world jamboree will be hosted by three national Scout organizations: Scouts Canada, Asociación de Scouts de México, and the Boy Scouts of America.”
John Stemberger, Florida Family Policy Council president and chairman of the board of Trail Life News, a Christian Scouting group, stated:
In light of the mandatory condom policy, it is not clear how far down the rabbit hole the Boy Scouts will continue to fall. With the addition of condoms and alcohol, the World Jamboree is starting to sound more like a 1960s Woodstock festival rather than a campout that parents would want to send their children to! All of this should be deeply disturbing to the churches that are chartering Boy Scout Troops. These policies present a clear youth protection problem that the BSA absolutely refuses to recognize. The fact that they are requiring that condoms be “readily accessible” and are communicating this to everyone—including youth participants—shows that the BSA is both anticipating and facilitating sexual conduct between minors at this event. These policies are both outrageous and completely irresponsible.