Religious medals

Joseph Connole

Revise

-65

The Scout oath and law taken by all Boy Scouts include a promise to be reverent and to do duty to God. If we insist on Boy Scouts believe in a god, then why are religious medals still only optional? Why isn't earning one's respective religious medal a requirement for Eagle? I suggest that earning one's religious medal be added to the requirements for Eagle Scout.

Idea # 528Boy Scouting

Comments

Karl Shelton 8 months ago

The religious medals have a very wide range of difficulty between age ranges and faiths. For some there would be a distinction of requirements between the middle school aged boy and the high school aged boy.

The ideals in the oath do not require the participation in any organized religious institution.

If we were to include the development/exploration of faith, I believe we would want to have a requirement, perhaps for Star or Life, which would be a faith related item. It could be, take part in a community service which is related to your faith and discuss this with your Scoutmaster. Or it could be learn about your faith and two other faiths and give a brief presentation on the difference.

It could be woven into the Family Life Merit Badge or one of the Citizenships, which would ask you to "research your family faith tradition. In your family meeting share what you have learned with your family." Or, "What is the role of faith in the colonization of America" Or, "Describe the role of religion in both positive and negative global impacts. Describe how you own faith relates to that."

BTW, I am an ordained Christian minister, who has taught to completion many youth of all ages through our own awards and completely believes in their value. As a part of the Bronze and Trust Awards, you bet. Eagle...no.

Joe Connole 8 months ago

I don't disagree that some of the religious medals are difficult to earn. Shouldn't Eagle Scout be something that requires a boy to really try to earn? I was 14 when I earned Eagle Scout; this shouldn't be the case. Scouts shouldn't just be able to mill about for a couple of years and be given the rank of Eagle; especially when most don't stay in until their are at least 18 and give back to scouting as they are charged to do.

As far as the multiple medals based on age is concerned, the only medals that are like that are Protestant religious medals. Even then, God & Church and God & Life cover either High School or Middle School. A Scout who belongs to the Protestant faith, depending on where we would put this requirement (either Star, Life or Eagle) would simply earn the medal associated with his age group. This shouldn't be an issue. This all comes down to how the requirement would be implemented. If we say in our requirements under Eagle Scout, "Earn the medal for your particular faith before earning Eagle Scout", then we are faced with the problem of various medals depending on age. If, however, we tack it to a particular rank and have it say "Earn the medal for your particular faith", then we aren't in danger of having to deal with the various religious medals. At that point, if we stick the requirement at Star, the boy (whatever grade he is in) would see the requirement and complete it.

Thats true, the ideals in the Scout Oath and Law do not require participation in any organzined religous institution. It does require a belief and service towards God. Picking on the Protestant religious medal God and Life, and God and Church they are open to anyone who professes the Christian religion.

If the religious medal suggestion doesn't work for you, then I would most certainly support the inclusion of religion in some other manner into the rank requirements. The requirement dictating community service already includes the notion of Church service. I do like the idea of some how including religion in a merit badge; though not in relation to any of the existing merit badges (if the question of America's religious foundations is used, it should be included in American Heritage.) Create an additional Citizenship merit badge, something like Citizenship in the Church or Citizenship in God.

Requirements for this new merit badge would include requirements like explaining religion, learning about the various world faiths, and a project requiring the Scout to explore his own religion. I would expect it to be a required merit badge.

pcowan 8 months ago

These suggestions are good, but the fact is we are using the faith awards of particular religous bodies. The religious awards program does not belong to the BSA. We are allowed to use it as are the other couple of youth organizations.

As you know each faith develops their own award. Though we do have most of the faiths covered, I have walked into many churches in my time and when told none of these pertain to us, I end up just saying "well, pick one that is closest." This is not the right and proper way to teach the faith of the boy to him.

Requiring a boy to earn religious understanding within and without rank advancement is ok as long as EVERY faith is represented on the chart. Currently, we can't do that.

Karl Shelton 8 months ago

(In response to pcowan) I understand, but we already do that in the Venturing program. One of the 9 of 11 requirements for the Religious Life bronze is to earn the religious medal. An absolute requirement for the TRUST is to earn the award for your faith.

The difference is that Eagle is a more mainstream award and the mark of success in the program. Trust is one of the advanced proficiency awards, definitely a challenging award, but not mainstream. You can be a successful Venturer and not earn it.

(To Joe)I completely agree that Eagle is earned. I am not opposed to hard work. It is the inconsistency of difficulty within the medals with which I would find fault. You could not require the medal to be earned at any specific time other than prior to Eagle because that would discourage a new Scout from pursuing his religious award early; I agree with pcowan, "closest" really doesn't cut it.

Perhaps if the requirement were to be something like, "Do one of the following:
1. Earn a religious award, appropriate for Boy Scout age.
2. Volunteer 25 hours for a faith based organization of your choice.
3. Write a 2500 word essay on your religious beliefs and how they influence your citizenship in family, community and world."

The more I think, the more I think it would fit nicely into the Family Life MB. It puts the topic back into the home or local faith institution, but still emphasizes the importance of faith in our current and future life.

Joe Connole 8 months ago

pcowan, I understand your concern that we are unable to offer a religious medal for every faith. However, I think that for those who do not have a faith award, or for those scouts who do not adhere to any particular faith doctrine, the BSA could come up with a general religious medal. The purpose of this award would not be to take away from the other religious medals, but to offer scouts who do not attend Church or do their faith does not offer a religious medal a chance to earn one.

Karl, I think we need to get away from looking at the Venturing Program, and what it has to offer and saying "Well, Venturing offers it so the Boy Scouts don't need to." The Boy Scout Program is still the mainstream, most popular program aside from Cub Scouts. Even in Boy Scouts we have Venturing Patrols, indicating that just because Venturing has something doesn't mean Boy Scouts can't have the same thing.

Eagle Scout, while "mainstream" is still the highest honor an American boy can earn. However, I do like the suggestions made about how to incorporate religion without requiring the medals outright. Maybe we should include in all the Citizenship merit badges (Family Life included) a mention of religion.

Counci 538 4 months ago

I think there's a decent case for this. I don't necessarily see it as part of any of the Citizenships (but then I think there should only be ONE Citizenship MB with 3 sections to complete). Definitely should look at this as an optional requirement for Family Life MB though. Requirement: Do one of the following A) As a Boy Scout, earn the religious award for your faith or B) blah blah blah....

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