Aaronic Priesthood, Home Teaching, and the "Two Deep" Rule?

[lsufanatic]

Our ward has a large number of AP holders with either inactive or non-member fathers, meaning that these young men can't be paired up with their father for home teaching as would normally be done. One of the inactive fathers recently raised a fuss that he wasn't comfortable with his son going home teaching with an unrelated adult male. There are other issues in play with the father that make his motives suspect, but I do think he brings up a valid point.

My question is how do your wards/branches handle youth protection issues as they relate to the YM? I am a big believer in the "two-deep leadership" principle taught by BSA and it seems like most leaders observe that with respect to "Scouting" activities, but I often see the principle ignored as it relates to home teaching and other situations that aren't pure scouting (providing rides, etc.). Has anyone ever seen any guidance from Salt Lake on the issue? I've had YM callings in three different wards now and everytime I bring it up people look at me like I have a third arm growing out of my butt! Thoughts?

[Jennarator]

What is the "two Deep" thing-a-ma-jig?"

[MarginOfError]

What is the "two Deep" thing-a-ma-jig?"

The two-deep leadership principle means that an adult should never be in the presence of a youth without another adult present. That is, at least two adults when interacting with youth.

In the BSA, you may be allowed to have two or more youth with one adult for temporary periods of time if circumstances require it, such as transportation or skills instruction. In such cases, the group should stay within public view.

I imagine most people don't worry about this issue with home teaching, but if a parent is uncomfortable with the arrangement, I'm not going to begrudge him that. Protecting youth is serious business.

With home teaching, however, the only time in which the two-deep principle could be violated is during transport. Presumably, there would be an adult present at the home teaching appointment. None of the options to reconcile this are very convenient, but they might include

a) the young man's parent drives him to the appointment

b) the adult enlists another adult (spouse or otherwise) to accompany the drive to the home teaching appointment.

c) each young man is assigned to home teach with two adult leaders

d) two young men are assigned in a companionship with an adult

As it stands right now, the young man's parents bear the bulk of the burden of ensuring that the young man doesn't come in harm's way, as he would only be able to go home teaching with their permission. I don't know of any precedent to state that while home teaching, youth are in the care of the Church in the same way they are at young men activities (speaking about liability, anyway). If the legal liability were to change, you'd probably see more guidelines from the Church about it*.

* That being said, priesthood leaders should not be assigning young men to home teach with men whose records have been annotated.

[Jennarator]

Hm....

Interesting. What if a ward is too small for this to work, like what if there is only one scout?

[Jennarator]

Oh sorry!! I don't mean to get off the subject!

[rameumptom]

Two deep applies to Scouting, not to priesthood functions. It is in place by the BSA, and the Church follows that practice for its BSA activities.

That said, youth are not to be home teachers until they are 14 years of age (Deacons may go with their fathers). This is the process in place for the Church. The HP/Elder's president should prayerfully consider each companionship, and ensure that it is working well. Both the MP leader and the YM president should occasionally interview the youth doing home teaching, to make sure things are going properly with the families AND with them as individuals.

[lsufanatic]

Two deep applies to Scouting, not to priesthood functions. It is in place by the BSA, and the Church follows that practice for its BSA activities.

If this is the case, then I guess the question is should two-deep apply to priesthood functions? I don't think the reasons for BSA's two-deep policy (mainly to protect the youth from inappropriate conduct by adults and to protect adults from baseless allegations from youth or their families) suddenly cease to apply to priesthood functions. Sadly, even priesthood holders can act inappropriately with youth. Additionally, an allegation can be fabricated against a priesthood holder (think of rebellous youth or an anti-LDS parent looking to lash out at the Church) just as easily as it could be fabricated against an adult scout leader.

It just surprises me that there is an apparent assumption by members that nothing bad could possibly happen when we are in the Lord's service, or that avoiding risk is not worth the minor inconvience it would create. IMO it isn't wise to put youth in that situation, and it is asking a lot of the adult priesthood holder to risk his reputation, his resources, and possibly his freedom (all of which could be lost in the instance of an allegation of inappropriate behavior) unnecessarily in performing his priesthood duties.

[rameumptom]

Two deep leadership is a rather new thing. BSA has had it only for a few decades now. Given that the BSA is over a century and the LDS Church is almost 2 centuries old, I'd say that two deep is a legal protection for the organization.

Yes, things occur. However, they actually occur rarely when it comes to home teaching. A man and boy are alone for a few minutes while driving to appointments in a car. That is very different than a man and boy alone on a campout all weekend long.

You are trying to compare apples to oranges. And while there is a risk, I think that the risk is low enough that it doesn't require us to go overboard with protection. We take boys out so they can learn to serve and to perform their AP duties. If 2 deep leadership was ever required, boys would only go out with their own fathers, or not at all. It would make home teaching too cumbersome to have 2 adult males and a youth each time (imagine trying to schedule!).