RobbyC

I don't think the guys going shirtless around camp was inappropriate at all. As several others said, I always saw going around shirtless as part of the fun summer camp experience.  I am glad to see that most commenters here felt the same way, although I wonder how this has changed over the last 7 years. It does seem to me that I am seeing an increasing condemnation of guys going shirtless in a variety of contexts. Believe it or not, I actually came across a blog post recently that addressed this issue (which is how I wound up stumbling upon this old thread in the first place, looking into the issue after reading the blog post someone had shared).
http://shirtlessfreedom.blogspot.com/2017/05/summer-camp.html
I do hope that we can retain the sort of innocence that I saw when I was younger and more active in scouting, both as a youth and later as a leader. I think that telling young boys that it is "inappropriate" to take off their shirts around camp sends entirely the wrong message.

As to the boys who wanted to sit around the campfire in their boxers, I really don't even see anything wrong with that, either. It is not that strange. I recall similar activities in my dorm in college. The guys just kind of said, "Hey, let's watch a movie in our boxers." and we went, "Yea, that's cool." So, yea, I guess it was planned, but it was not weird or anything. It was a bonding experience.

Besides, don't a lot of camps still have communal showers? Or am I showing my age? (I mean, they did when I went to camp...) It is clearly appropriate to be nude in the shower, so why would it be so inappropriate for the same guys to take off their shirts in front of each other in a casual setting around camp?

I definitely think that hand writing and letter composition are important skills we need to make sure we are not neglecting in instructing the next generation. I would even go so far as to defend cursive.

Watch this TEDx Talk by the eloquent and talented Jake Weidmann, and I think you will begin to understand: