IStock Photo 5966365 © jgroup

Today, February 8, 2010, is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Boy Scouts of America.

The BSA currently offers 122 merit badges. Many of them—Hiking, Swimming, Fishing, Canoeing, Backpacking, Orienteering, Wilderness Survival—are distinctly woodsy. Others—Chemistry, Dentistry, Cinematography, Fingerprinting, Nuclear Science, Pulp and Paper, Plumbing, Space Exploration—are more conceptual. Even the simplest-sounding badges can be difficult to earn. A scout interested in Animal Science, for example, might have to manage a flock of egg-producing chickens for up to 5 months. The seeker of the Theater badge could face an equally daunting task. Among the requirements for that skill are to pantomime a scene. “You are at a banquet,” one tableau begins. “The meat is good. You don't like the vegetable. The dessert is ice cream.”

Statistically speaking, it is unlikely that an American will earn his Theater merit badge. According to veteran Scout Steve Henning, Theater is the 16th least popular skill area, ranking just ahead of such duds as bugling and stamp collecting. What is likely, however, is that a United States Congressman will turn out to be a former Boy Scout. In fact, of the 439 male Representatives and Senators currently serving, 200—or 1 in 2.2—used to participate in the program. And 22 of them also attained the rank of Eagle Scout.

The requirements for Eagle Scout are many. Besides taking up positions of leadership and completing a board of review, applicants must earn 21 merit badges. These tend to focus in the areas of physical training and civic engagement. One badge, called Family Life, requires the Scout to host a family meeting that examines finance, technology, domestic crises, sex, and the pains of growing up—all good primers for congressional debate.

The Boy Scouts of America has established a clear and controversial role for itself. Critics call its policies bigoted; proponents call them traditional. Debate has focused especially on the organization’s exclusionary membership requirements, which explicitly ban agnostics, atheists and gays. As the March-April 2001 issue of Scouting magazine puts it, “The BSA does not equate homosexuality with pedophilia, but neither avowed homosexuals nor pedophiles are appropriate role models for Scouting youth.”

In spite of the BSA’s socially conservative bent, its representation in Congress is surprisingly bipartisan. Over half of all the Scouts on Capitol Hill—1 in 1.99—are Democrats. Similarly, the Congressmen involved in the BSA as adult volunteers are split essentially down the middle.

One wonders what merits our representatives have been concealing. Perhaps a few still remember the skills they learned as Boy Scouts: Stalking, Beekeeping, Pigeon Raising, Citrus Fruit Culture, and World Brotherhood.