Boy Scouts plan uncommon hike to celebrate scouting's 97th birthday

[fgoodwin]

Boy Scouts plan uncommon hike to celebrate scouting's 97th birthday

 

http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17747008

 

01/25/2007

Midland Reporter-Telegram

 

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to church they'll go.

 

On Feb. 3, Boy Scout Pack 84 and Troop 84 will set off on an unlikely hike to celebrate scouting's 97th birthday.

 

That's when they'll set off on a nearly two-mile hike with stops at six Midland churches. And at each, clergy will teach the boys about one or two of the Ten Commandments.

 

"They are going to spend five minutes or less on each commandment," Brad Connel, field director of Boy Scouts of America, Buffalo Trail Council, said.

 

For instance, he said, at the troop's first stop --First Presbyterian Church, they'll discuss No. 1: "I am the Lord thy God and you shall have no other gods before me," while at the second stop, North A Street Church of Christ, they'll go over Nos. 2 and 3: "Don't worship idols," "Don't take the Lord's name in vain."

 

"Discussions go in order of where the hike is going to be going," he said. Other stops include First Christian Church, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, St. Ann's Catholic Church and First Baptist Church.

 

Of course, "Thou Shall Hike" is not nestled among moral imperatives like "Don't covet," and "Thou shall not kill," but Boy Scout mom Liz Thornton thinks it's a good idea, anyway.

 

"This gives us an opportunity to also be physically fit and also talk about the commandments," Thornton said.

 

Thornton is a den mother whose sons Mitchell Thornton, 16, Jason Thornton, 14 and Lance Thornton, 8 , are among those in the pack and troop.

 

"It reinforces what we're teaching kids in church," she said.

 

However, Connel said organizers planned destinations at many different types of churches so that Scouts can focus more on serving a higher power than on just one particular creed.

 

"I just think that it brings awareness to the public and community and Scouts that there are different churches and different denominations and we all have the one common goal of reverence to God ... and reverence to a higher power," he said.

 

"As Boy Scouts, we believe that everybody should believe in a higher power."

 

Jason Thornton, however, is looking forward to a different aspect of the hike.

 

""I think it would be fun because you can meet all of your friends and see what churches are out there," he said. And the patch he'll get afterward, he said, "is really good, too."

 

--

On the Net: http://www.buffalotrailbsa.org

[local1400]

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, " I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not hike in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:12