Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site mtx5a.UUCP
Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtx5c!mtx5d!mtx5a!mat
From: mat@mtx5a.UUCP (Mark Terribile)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion,net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: A Scout's Duty to God
Message-ID: <1120@mtx5a.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 17-Nov-85 02:09:37 EST
Article-I.D.: mtx5a.1120
Posted: Sun Nov 17 02:09:37 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Nov-85 22:01:28 EST
References: <1238@mhuxt.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 71
Xref: lsuc net.politics:2017 net.religion:550 net.religion.christian:333

>> We recently have been treated to an interesting situation
>> where a Boy Scout was a candidate for Life Scout (which I 
>> think is the rank just below Eagle Scout) and would not 
>> affirm a belief in God.  He was denied the promotion,
>> although he qualified in every other way. . .
>
>     Discriminatory policies are discriminatory policies, even when
>you aren't the discriminatee, Bob.
> 
>> < quote from Boy Scout Handbook here >
>
>> Should they stand their ground about what is written on page 492 and
>> damn the financial consequences ?  Surely the People for the Amercan Way
>> and the ACLU types won't lose the advantage here to blast the 
>> Boy Scouts . . .
>						. . ..  But the boy scouts
>is not about religion.  Sure there is some lip service to it ("a scout is
>courteous, kind, ...., clean, and reverent."), but scouting is mostly 
>about boys getting together and hiking, camping and canoeing, and
>learning a little about a lot of subjects.  Such training is valuable
>for to any kid, believers and non-believers alike. . . .
>    And if they hadn't changed it, I'd have been cheering for the ACLU
>to stop the federal goverment from coercing me into supporting the  
>BSA's discriminatory policies. . .
>funding.)  I just love helping to pay for people to get together and
>exclude my kind.
>-- 
>Jeff Sonntag
>ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j
>    "What would Captain Kirk say?"
>
A bit of history here:

	Boy Scouting, as conceived and implemented by Sir Robert Stephen
Baden-Powell, did NOT specifically involve religion.  The early Scouting
movement grew widely in popularity; perhaps it was a relief from the
traditional British insularity.  At any rate, after it had come in for wide
attention before anyone realized that religion was being neglected.

	At this time, religion was a living thing; it was part of people's
lives and a vital part of the training of their children.  It was not the
collection of dusty sermons that apparently inspires Jeff Sonntag to decry
it as worthless.  Parents, politicians, educators, and clergymen banded
together to bring Scouting into this part of life.

	Scouting (R.S.B-P.) responded by acknowledging the importance of
one's relationship with the divine in one's life.  ``To do my duty/To
God and my country'' acknowledges this:  we have the right and the duty
to obey a higher authority than any we may set up when we believe that
such authority exists.

	Reverence does not always imply belief in God, nor the converse.
One can have a reverence for life, or for nature.  Reverence is simply
the feeling that there are things which are intrinsically beyond the
rightful scope of our actions.  Some would deny this; technology makes
it easy, as the possible scope of our actions increases we have to
aske more questions and take responsibility for more of the answers.

	Note that ``reverent'' is the last point of the Scout Law.  Note
also that after more than a decade, this former Scout remembers the
whole of the law; he does not really live up to it.

A Scout is	Trustworthy,		Loyal,			Helpful,
		Friendly,		Courteous,		Kind, 
		Obedient,		Cheerful,		Thrifty,
		Brave,			Clean,		    and Reverent.
-- 

	from Mole End			Mark Terribile
		(scrape .. dig )	mtx5b!mat
    ,..      .,,       ,,,   ..,***_*.