Like millions of American men, I spent a good number of weeknights in my youth donning a goofy uniform and heading off to church. The meetings all began the same way—we would rise from our folding chairs, make an odd gesture with our hands, and say, “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”

The decision this spring of the Mormon church to pull 185,000 older teens out of the Boy Scouts suggests that this quintessential American rite of passage has a very uncertain future. Anyone familiar with the Mormon church and the Boy Scouts will know how unthinkable this move would have been even a few years ago. The Boy Scouts have been a central part of the church’s youth program for 104 years. Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has been on the Boy Scouts of America executive board for 47 years. There are about 2.4 million Boy Scouts in this country; one out of every five belongs to a Mormon-sponsored troop.