Both the Boy Scout Oath with its “do my duty to God” phrase and the Girl Scout Promise with the phrase “to serve God”, place a great importance on a young person’s faith. Why is it then that two secular organizations dedicated to helping young people mature in to young adults are so focused on a the young person’s faith? I am not really sure but I think that it has to do with the idea that the world of secular and the world of faith should not mix is more a common fad than ageless wisdom. 

 

I believe that the idea “religious tolerance means total separation of the secular and faith” is a relative recent phenomenon and that true religious tolerance is more about developing a respect for other religions and in fact when we deny our spiritual side for the sake of tolerance we cut off a great area for growth. 

 

Growing up, I attended a Boy Scout troop that was sponsored by a Catholic School and it was a firmly established rule that as Boy Scouts on a camping trip, we would take time out to do our duty to God by attending Catholic Mass. While my leaders’ dedication to get us to Mass each camping trip impressed me greatly, I was even more impressed that the leaders went out of their way to make sure that the few non-Catholic boys were able to attend a Church service of their choosing. I learned that religious tolerance meant having respect for my own faith but also the faith of others and this was modeled for me in Boy Scouts.

 

As I mentioned before, there are some in our society today who believe that religious faith has no place in Scouting. I believe these people to be a part of what some theologians are calling a “new atheism.” This new atheism is characterized by a great need on the part of these atheists to evangelize and convert people to their way of thinking. It is my true belief that a true atheist has no need to evangelize because he or she truly believes that God does not exist and so there are no consequences. New atheists on the other hand I believe deep down believe in a God but they do not want to follow God for one reason or another and because they believe in God they fear that there will be some sort of divine punishment at the end of time. Their mentality then is an aggressive recruitment so that the punishment will be somehow lighter because they can then use the excuse of “everyone was doing it.” 

 

As scout leaders we have to do what we can to fight this new atheism because atheism never promotes peace and harmony but always conflict for there is no morality without God. 

 

While writing this blog, I cannot help but think of the yearly battle over religious symbols at Christmas time. I believe that it is a more powerful sign of the unity of our country to see different religious symbols in public spaces then no symbols at all. I know personally I have been encouraged to learn more about other faiths by wondering what their symbols stand for and my studies have led me to a greater respect for people of different faiths. 

 

In order to be a holistic person and really to live out the rest of goals of scouting programs, a scout must do his duty to God for there is a humility to admit that we are all brothers and sisters of some divine creator rather than an accidently combination of cosmic dust.