Boy Scouts celebrating 100 years in U.S. -- Religion always an essential element
By Tim Puet
Catholic Times
From its start in America 100 years ago, religion has been a significant part of the Scouting movement.
The 12th and final point of the Scout Law has stated “A Scout is reverent” since 1910, the year the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was founded. As the Scout Handbook puts it, “A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others.”
It’s no accident that the portion on reverence completes the Scout Law, for it’s often been said that obedience to the 12th point ensures that the other 11 have been followed. In addition, reverence was stressed by Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scouting movement.
“Religion is essential to happiness,” he said. “This is not a mere matter of going to church, knowing Bible history, or understanding theology. Religion … means recognizing who and what is God; secondly, making the best of the life that he has given one, and doing what he wants of us. This is mainly doing something for other people.”
“Religion is part of the absolute, fundamental bedrock foundation of Scouting,” said Bob Mazzuca, the BSA’s chief Scout executive, in an interview with Catholic Times during a visit to Columbus on Monday, Jan. 25. “The 12th point of the Scout law recognizes that you can’t grow into a fully formed human being without having a sense of something bigger.
“The Scouting movement has never attempted to define God, but recognizes that it’s very important that a sense of your God be a part of your development. It’s why we have awards programs for all the major religions and stress the faith journey as a part of life’s journey.”
Mazzuca said he believes he is the first Catholic chief Scout executive. He earned the Parvuli Dei medal for Cub Scouts and the Ad Altare Dei medal for Boy Scouts while a Scout himself in San Juan Batista, Calif.
The National Catholic Committee on Scouting, which has been existence since 1934, has awarded the Ad Altare Dei medal since 1939 and the Parvuli Dei since 1959. They are among several Catholic religious awards available to Boy and Girl Scouts and adults.
The first Scout troop formed by a Catholic parish was started in 1910 in St. Paul, Minn. The committee said more than 10,000 Scout packs and troops, with more than 300,000 members, are chartered to parishes, the Knights of Columbus, and other Catholic organizations.
The Catholic Church has the most extensive Scouting awards program, but awards for demonstrating a knowledge of and actively practicing one’s faith also are offered by several Protestant denominations.
Similar honors are available for members of the Jewish (the Ner Tamid and Etz Chaim awards), Muslim (the In the Name of God award), Buddhist (the Unity of Mankind award), Hindu (the Dharma and Karma awards), Baha’i (the Unity of Mankind award), and Zoroastrian (the Good Life award) faiths.
Baden-Powell began Scouting in 1907 as an offshoot of his experiences in the Boer War in South Africa. He and the residents of Mafeking, where he commanded a British garrison, were able to survive a 217-day siege by using the outdoor skills he had learned as a boy. He used boys for many jobs during the siege and learned how eager they were to respond to a challenge.
“If Baden-Powell lived today, he’d be happy to see that at its core, Scouting hasn’t changed in 100 years,” Mazzuca said. “He would see that its fundamental values are still those of integrity, personal responsibility, and character – values we’ve never needed more.
“He’d probably be most intrigued with how communications have evolved. He lived long enough (until 1941) to know about radio and the early experiments with television, but he’d be amazed and probably pleased with the way we obtain information from so many outlets and from things like Facebook and Twitter, which the Scout organization is embracing.”
Mazzuca said one of the biggest issues the Scouting movement must deal with today is the proliferation of available leisure-time options for Scouts and their families.
“First of all, it’s a challenge just to communicate with young parents, who have so many options to decide between for young people,” he said. “With its extensive program covering all types of activities, Scouting has so much to offer. The values a child learns through Scouting are like an insurance policy in that they accrue themselves and provide benefits that steadily increase over one’s lifetime. Recent studies by the Harris polling organization and others have confirmed this tremendous positive impact.”
After Baden-Powell began the Scout movement in 1907, it was brought to the United States in 1909 by William D. Boyce, the owner of publications including the Chicago Saturday Blade, a weekly newspaper which at one time was the largest weekly in the United States, selling more than 500,000 copies, mostly in rural areas through a network of young newsboys.
Boyce became lost in London in 1909 en route to an African safari and was guided to his hotel by a youth who did not identify himself. Boyce wanted to give the boy a tip, but the youth refused, saying he was a Scout and was doing the kind of good deed for others encouraged by the Scouting slogan “Do A Good Turn Daily.”
This intrigued Boyce, who asked for directions to the Scout headquarters and picked up a copy of Baden-Powell’s “Scouting for Boys.” What he read in the book so impressed him that he shortened the length of his safari and soon began promoting Scouting in his newspapers. Boyce was considered very progressive for his era because of his support of labor unions and concern for the welfare of his newsboys, so it’s natural that the concept of Scouting appealed to him.
The turn of the 20th century was a time when Americans first became interested in saving the natural environment because of President Theodore Roosevelt’s support for the concept. Two other men, naturalists Daniel Carter Beard and Ernest Thompson Seton, had founded organizations similar to Boyce’s at about the same time. Beard was from Covington, Ky., just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, and the Interstate 471 bridge spanning the river in the Cincinnati area is named from him.
Beard’s and Seton’s organizations eventually became part of the Boy Scouts under James E. West, the first chief Scout executive, who served in that position until 1943. Beard, Seton, and West are considered the fathers of Scouting in America.
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