For more than a decade, the organization now known as Scouting America has compromised on its values. Since it chose to allow homosexual scouts and leaders and ultimately ditch the concept of boyhood altogether, its membership has fallen from nearly three million boys in 2012 to around a million today.
Mark Hancock, CEO of Trail Life USA, says many of those fellows have joined his organization's ranks.
"It's been about a 10-year journey," he tells AFN. "The Boy Scouts are kind of abandoning some of the more traditional values, and every time they take another step, we see growth in Trail Life USA. For over 100 years, they've given us generals and presidents and astronauts and leading citizens, and to decide that they no longer want to specialize in boys – that's a big deal."
Trail Life now has more than 60,000 boys enrolled in more than 1,000 troops across the country. Hancock says the explicitly Christian ministry aims to produce godly and responsible husbands, fathers, and citizens.
"It takes godly men to raise godly men," he states. "Boys in our culture today, they don't have a lot of examples of godly men. One in four boys now doesn't have a father in his household."
With that in mind, Trail Life offers a way for Christian men – leaders who are thoroughly vetted – to pour into the next generation.
"It's men coming together, and they're discovering their tribe; they're finding this brotherhood, this band of brothers in Trail Life – men who share their values and understand that pouring into the next generation is an important thing to do," Hancock accounts.
Trail Life USA was founded in June 2013 when the Boy Scouts of America changed its membership policy to allow gay scouts.
