Presenting Religeous Emblems

[gwd-scouter]

Since the BSA recognizes as a square knot some of the different religeous awards that can be done by scouts, I've seen the presentations made in many different venues. Some Packs/Troops give out the knots in a Pack meeting or Court of Honor, some do not prefering for the boy to receive the award during their own church recognition and not even mentioning it within the Pack/Troop. Our district honors those Scouts and adults that have earned the emblem during the past year at our District Awards Banquet.

 

How are these emblems recognized in your Packs/Troops/District. And, on a probably more divisive note, should these emblems that currently are not available to all religeons or beliefs even be celebrated during Pack meetings or Courts of Honor?

 

(This message has been edited by gwd-scouter)

[dave.424]

My pack has traditionally recognized boys who've earned their religious emblem at the pack meetings. I feel this is completely appropriate since it is a BSA recognized award and, in particular, is an option for earning the Webelos Badge.

 

I never thought it was even controversial (boy was I naive) until my son attended a recognition service held by the National Capital Area Council's Protestant Committee on Scouting (PoC) and received a ribbon for the pack flag.

 

Our cub master initially reacted in what I thought was a paranoid manner. He responded that he'd this is was appropriate and was worried that by allowing the ribbon to be placed on the pack flag, we'd be endorsing one specific religion / denomination over all others. Never mind that we are sponsored by the Catholic fraternal organization The Knights of Columbus and their name is embalzoned across our pack's flag. He was concerned that this ribbon might even cause the KoC to end their tradition of non-interference in our affairs.

 

After some back and forth between me, the CM and our Committee Chair; he finally decided that it wasn't a problem. I'd consistently stated that the ribbon was not presented by our church, but by a committee of the NCA council. For some reason, he eventually got it. I don't know if it was because I said I planned to bring it up to the committee as a whole and would accept the majority decision. Maybe he didn't want the embarrassment of being singled out as objecting to this. Whatever the reason, my request and position never changed, but he suddenly decided it wasn't a problem.

 

The odd thing was that his own son and another boy were recognized the same night for receiving their emblems (my son had been recognized months earlier) and one den leader read a thank you note from a local church for some of her boys that had helped in their Scout Sunday service.

 

This whole experience motivated me to become involved in our own Baltimore Area Council's PoC. I haven't been able to attend a meeting yet, but plan to make my first meeting next month.

 

[packsaddle]

If the P.R.A.Y. awards are the subject of this topic, they can be earned by ANYONE, male or female, and they are earned through their particular faith, not through BSA.

Therefore, as it was for me decades ago when I earned mine, around here the boy or girl receives it during a church-related service. I received the award during a regular Sunday church service. Just a note: I also received my Eagle in a nearly identical service, not a court of honor. Interesting.

[Beavah]

What packsaddle said is most common around here.

 

Yeh also have to be mindful of what the denominations want. I know our Catholic diocese gives out the Catholic religious awards (all levels - cubs, scouts, venturers, and adults) at an annual scout mass with the bishop. If a boy can't make that there's a procedure for the pastor givin' the award at the local parish. Our Methodist sponsored troop likes to give out their award at a parish service. Just depends, eh? But it's nice to have scouting visible and boys recognized by the broader community, especially when they are unit sponsors.

 

The best troops I know would encourage all their boys to attend the award ceremony for one of their scouts, wherever it was held. A Scout is Reverent, eh? If yeh don't do that, then I'd think a formal mention of the award and recognition of the scout at the next troop COH is a fine thing.

 

Beavah

 

[ScoutNut]

The Religious Emblem itself is NOT a BSA award. All Religious Emblems (weather recognized by BSA or not) should be presented to the Scout by their religious institution at an appropriate service. However, only those emblems/medals from programs recognized by BSA should be worn on the BSA uniform.

 

The Youth Religious Square Knot is a BSA award that recognizes those youth (& adults) who have earned a religious emblem as a youth. It should be awarded to the Scout at an appropriate Unit ceremony (Pack meeting, Troop COH, etc).

 

I would not restrict the square knot to only BSA approved programs. It is simply a recognition of the Scout having earned a religious emblem. I cannot find where it states it must be only from an approved program, just that it be earned as a youth.

 

While the unapproved medal can not be worn on the uniform, if a Scout feels strongly enough about his faith that he earns it's religious emblem, I have no problem with awarding him the BSA square knot to recognize his effort.

 

[John-in-KC]

Case 1:

 

Our Council Protestant Committee runs a program each year. Our district has one site, there are others in other Districts. We use the PRAY curriculum for Protestant God and Country awards family.

 

At the end, we have a couple of big graduation ceremonies at the host church.

 

Packs, Troops, and Crews follow up with square knots at next COH.

 

Case 2:

There are lots of youth who earn their awards on their own (last year Heart of America Council was first in the nation with 777 Protestant awards) . We have had Pastors of parishes and/or Elders (in several cases, an Eagle Scout and Warrior in Mic-o-Say) present the award and the square knot as part of a Troop COH.

 

HTH.

[CalicoPenn]

In my troop, there were three "ceremonies" of recogniont. The first was between the Scout and their own religious institution, where they were generally presented the award at one of the churches own service. The second was at the next Court of Honor, where the religious award knot would be presented. THe third was on Scout Sunday - the troop was sponsored by the men's club of the local community (non-denominational, though mostly protestant) church. On Scout Sunday, no matter what church we went to on a regular basis, all of the members of the Troop attended service, in full uniform, of the community church.

 

I think I've mentioned this before, but the lads on the Troop were truly a diverse bunch when it came to religion. Every year at Scout Sunday, the Pastor of the church would call up all those Scouts who had earned a religious award since the last Scout Sunday, and present a certificate from the church as recognition of the accomplishment - no matter what the faith of the Lad was that earned the award. The Pastor really enjoyed this part of the service, and in recognizing the different faiths that were represented.

 

Calico

[ASM915]

gwd,

I sit on our Councils Relations and Membership Committee/Religious Awards Committee, committee on Catholic Scouting and the Dioceses Committee on Catholic Scouting. As many of you know from my posts on other threads, I'm very tolerant of all religions.

 

In our Council, it seems that the Catholics and the Presbyterians make up most of our award recipients. I know the Catholics run religious award classes over a 5-6 month period. I'm not sure how the Presb. do their programs, but they seem to have it together.

 

As for presentations, the Catholics hold an Awards Mass, this Apr. 22,

at the Diocese cathedral, usually with the bishop. This year we were preempted by a Confirmation, so no bishop. The Boy Scout and Scouter Religious Award recipients and new Catholic Eagle Scouts are presented with their awards and certificates there. The Cub and Webelos Awards are presented on Scout Sunday at their respective parishes.

 

In May our Council holds a Religious Awards Recognition dinner for all Council Scouts, Scouters and Units of all faiths to be recognized by the Council for awards received. Each individual is given a certificate and their knot then. Our Troop then recognizes the scouts again during the next troop COH.

 

For other denominational religious awards for Scouts (like the International Catholic Awareness Award) that are not recognized BSA, we've either had these awards presented at Scout Sunday Masses or the Diocese Mass.

 

david,

Tell the Sm that he should be proud to place any and all ribbons on the Troop flag, but you have to get your Scouts involved in the religious award program first. Not always an easy thing to do. I'm having our 3 crossovers come to the Dioceses Mass as our Troop Color Guard to carry the Troop flag for the opening ceremonies. Hopefully they will get caught up in all the excitement and participate in one of the awards programs in the future.

 

Everyone knows what the "outing" in scouting means. How about the "Sc"? Service to Church (or Covenant for you DanK), or Sacred Commitment.