O-SenseLike their Utah counterparts, Idaho members of the LDS Church do not think their church should stay in the Boy Scouts of America, a new Idaho Politics Weekly poll shows.
The new survey – taken before LDS Church leaders announced the church WOULD remain in the scouts – shows that 54 percent of Idahoans who self-identified themselves as members of the Mormon Church said their church “probably” or “definitely” should not continue the relationship with the Boy Scouts.
Only 24 percent of Idaho Mormons said their church should stay in the scouts, 22 percent didn’t know.
The new poll was conducted by Dan Jones & Associates from Aug. 20-31; 508 adults were interviewed, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.35 percent.
Another poll carried out by Jones for UtahPolicy, within Utah, found that 63 percent of “very active” Mormons wanted out of scouting, only 23 percent said they wanted their church to stay in the church’s Scouting program.
About 60 percent of the Utah population identifies themselves as Mormons. Idaho’s population is more diverse, but members of the LDS Church make up significant blocks of folks living in southern Idaho.
Earlier this summer the national board of the Boy Scouts of America announced that they would open up scout leadership positions to gay men.
However, individual scout troops or local organizations could still decide who could be scout leaders – allowing the LDS Church, which is one of the largest members of the Scouts nationally, to pick non-gay scout leaders if they so chose.
At the time, the LDS Church, headquartered in Salt Lake City, said church leaders would take some time before deciding whether to stay with the scouting program or get out.
Several weeks ago church leaders announced that for now they would remain in Scouting.
But the Utah Jones poll, along with other general statements made at the time by various church members, showed that most Utah Mormons preferred to get out of scouting.
In his Idaho poll, Jones found that among all respondents – Mormons and non-Mormons alike – 35 percent said the LDS Church should stay in scouting, 38 percent said it should get out, and 26 percent didn’t know.
