Godless Wonder

I remember being a Cub Scout... I didn't make it very far in that organization...

I remember in the Cub Scout manual, there were all these little projects, or tasks you were supposed to complete to get various medals, "advance" to higher levels, or whatever. I remember one in particular, the "religion" one. I wish I had the manual with me now. I remember it said something like.

"If you don't have a religion, pick one."

I remember feeling pretty uncomfortable about that at the time. I mean, "pick one?" Are they serious? And this is aimed at kids who are probably 6 or 7 years old.

RufusAtticus

When the Scout leader was telling us about the religion exercise requirement he said something like "Everyone, has to do a religion exercise whether they're Christian, Jewish, or Muslim." I then asked, "What if your not Christian, Jewish, or Muslim." He responded, apparantly having no clue what I was saying with, "Everyone has to da a religion exercise." :banghead:

Why hasn't a group of godless Boy Scouts gotten together and made up Godless Exercises and offered them to the BSA?

enfant terrible

Does a Richard Simmons tape with soul&gospel music count?

James Hamlin

I'm an Eagle Scout, and I share Gunner's feelings toward the issue. Making the organization completely religiously tolerant should be a goal, but it would be very difficult. It would require that even the Scout Oath be edited:

I just took a look at the list of religious emblems, and this upsets me even more. While there is a Unitarian-Universalist emblem, it is not authorized to be worn on the uniform. Are they descriminating against the church merely because it is tolerant?

Fr.Andrew

(Fr Andrew): Pretty much

(from the article): "The Globe says that last May, the BSA leadership, reacting to the church's "Religion in Life" manual, which contains language defending gay and lesbian civil rights, told the Unitarians not to give out the religious award to Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts condemn homosexuality as immoral and prohibit the participation of gay people in the organization."

Ronin

Fr.Andrew, I've lost track of the BSA stand on their Buddhist group.

Do you have the latest on them?

GunnerJ

How do you know I don't let them know what I think?

Fr.Andrew

(Fr Andrew): Nothing at all. I know there are Buddhist scouts, but that's about it.
My concern lies with the harm that the BSA does gay kids by branding them as not "morally straight"--and excluding them from the scouting experience for something beyond their control.

Ronin

I understand that, Fr. Andrew, but it is my understanding that Buddhists would be accepting of gay kids and would not hold to a 'God' reference.

I was hoping to gather some perspective on how the Scouts handle the Buddhists...I suppose I'll just do some of my own research.

Thanks anyway.

KeithHarwood

When I was a scout many years ago, the oath went :

I promise to do my best to do my duty to God and the King (I said it was a long time ago) and to keep the scout law.

But I am pretty sure that you could drop the `God' if you didn't have one or replace it by the one you did have.

As for the religion badges, I'm pretty sure that you didn't have to be a member of that religion in order to do the badge. There were separate badges for (IIRC) Catholic Christian, Other Christian and Jewish. The religion badges were not compulsary, in fact none were.

(Now I come to think of it, it wasn't even called an oath, it was the scout promise.)