Religious Emblems

[Alassa Eruvande]

I was wondering about the different religious emblems for Cub Scouts. As I am a Catholic, I only have experience with the one for Catholics.

Anyway, do each of the religions who have a program for the religious emblems also have some sort of seperate ceremony to present the emblem? Do they provide a certificate, patch and/or medal?

I ask, because I'm ADL for my son's Bear den and I'm in charge of recording and keeping up with achievements for the den. How do I verify that the cub has actually done the requirements for the religious emblem? No one seems to do the emblems much in our pack, so the people I have asked don't know.

[Eagle92]

Because each faith set their own requirements and process(es) for the award(s) the answer is it depends. I knwo for my Parvuli Dei, it was awarded at Scout Sunday mass. A few non-Catholics received their faith's award at a pack meeting. Also for Parvuli Dei, it was basically child and parent (there was no Light of Christ in my day as TCs were a brand new program), while for Ad Altarie Dei and Pope Pius we had to have a certified counselor and we had the archbishop present the awards at a special mass.

 

best thing to do is look for the medal and/or religous knot that they should be getting.

[ManyHats]

We've done it a few different ways. My son worked with a counselor by himself to get the God and Me (UCC - Protestant). The medal and certificate were presented during church service with a reception afterward. Then his Bear den worked together on the same award with a counselor that kept it as generic Protestant. Those medals and certificates were awarded at our Blue & Gold Banquet, since no specific church was tied to it. This year his den is working on the God and Family with our chartered organization's pastor, so they will be awarded on Scout Sun. at that church.

www.praypub.org is were you can get more info

I think every faith has some sort of workbook that they should be working in.

[Alassa Eruvande]

Well, my son has only done Light of Christ so far, and we got a certificate, patch and medal from the Archdiocese. The purple knot patch came from the pack, after I presented the awards chairman with the certificate from the Archdiocese. The knot wasn't awarded by the Church.

 

I just don't know what the other faiths do to recognize the scout's completion of their program.

[BDPT00]

"Then his Bear den worked together on the same award with a counselor that kept it as generic Protestant. Those medals and certificates were awarded at our Blue & Gold Banquet, since no specific church was tied to it."

*** I see two things here that raise a flag. One is that this isn't a "den activity," and the other is that no church was tied to the award. The awards come from the church; not from Scouts. A den might be all working on it at the same time, but it's a church activity, rather than den.

 

"This year his den is working on the God and Family with our chartered organization's pastor"

*** That's more like it.

BDPT00

[ScoutNut]

The Religious Emblem program is not a BSA program, and the work, at least at the Cub level, is usually done with the family, and approved by a member of their own church. Because the programs are created, run, and owned, by the individual religious institutions, the emblems (usually a medal) are usually presented by the youth's church, at a mass, service, or some other kind of activity determined by the church and the family involved.

 

The purple/silver square knot, and the knot devices that go on it, are BSA awards that recognize Scouts (and Scouters) who have earned a youth religious emblem award from their faith. These are usually awarded at a Pack meeting.

 

Have you given information on the religious emblem program to the boys in your den? Have any of their families told you they were working on an emblem, or asked for help in obtaining booklets or awards?

 

If you want to know which Scouts have earned their religious emblem, you could always just ask them and/or their families. If you require proof before you award them a square knot, or knot device, you could ask for a copy of the completed, and approved, form from the back of their booklet, or ask to see the medal itself.

 

 

 

[Snow_White]

Although each organization may handle it differently, I believe that religions/denominations present the medal (maybe with a certificate, I don't know) upon receiving an application or other documentation that the work has been completed.

 

The purple knot is the BSA's recognition that the religious organization has awarded the emblem.

 

From a practical standpoint... Our pack uses ScoutTrack, so we usually find that parents have entered that the scout has earned the knot. From there, our CM makes some gentle inquiries of the parents about the work performed, presentation of medal, etc... to satisfy himself that the emblem was indeed earned. (In many cases, he finds that the parents did not understand what they were checking off. One of the drawbacks of having parents enter advancement online.)

[Oak Tree]

Our default option is to have the religious organization present the medal, and the Cub Scout gets the knot at a pack meeting.

 

Snow_White - yes, yuck, I don't want parents entering advancement themselves. They so often don't understand what they are checking off. I did have families that would submit their son for a religious award manually through the den leader, and the den leader was unsure if he should question them. I had no such qualms...and since the people in question generally had little clue about advancement, I was pretty confident they had not tracked down some obscure religous workbook ("obscure" meaning that our Scout shop didn't carry it) and completed it. And indeed, they had not.

 

I don't think a den leader needs to track any of the sub-requirements. Just track it as done when the parents accurately report it as complete.

[Alassa Eruvande]

Yes, it's a family who has asked about the religious emblem. I told them about the different programs and that our particular local scout shop only stocks Catholic and Protestant in the store, but could order whatever they need. Since they are Baptist, which of course is Protestant, I was unsure if there is a separate "Baptist" program, or if it is all rolled up into "Protestant". And then, what sort of documentation is there? I'll probably just have to do a little gentle probing to see if they actually did the RE.

 

Thank goodness we don't let the parents enter their own achievements. This particular family thought that doing 12 random Achievements would get a Bear patch, without realizing you have to do *particular* achievements, ie, One for God, Three for Country, etc.

[ManyHats]

All the boys in this den would have been working on the Protestant version if they did it with their own church. The majority of the work was done with their family at home and reviewed at separate den meetings. They weren't required to go to the religious emblem meetings. To be honest I think my son got more out of the discussions with his den mates than the one on one the year before. Yes I agree this years set up is better, but that wasn't an option last year. Technically the awards come from PRAY not a church. A pastor did review their work and signed off on them.

[Snow_White]

Alassa,

 

ScoutTrack (and I assume the other commercially available software) has the logic built in to track that kind of stuff; it won't show the bear badge as being earned unless the achievements are completed in the right categories.

 

I know there are pro's and con's allowing parents this access (and my own personal opinion varies from time to time), but I won't hijack this thread to talk about it.

[Basementdweller]

The religious emblems probably should never be done as a den. Lets see in our den we have Methodist, Protestants, Catholics and Jews. So explain to me how that is gonna work.

 

 

 

[SSScout]

There are no fewer than 78 religious awards for Cubs, Boy Scouts, Venturers and adults. All are Faith specific and NOT BSA material. The BSA approves the wearing of the award on the Scout uniform, after working with some recognized committee or authority in the faith. BSA does NOT set the rrequirements. The Faith sets the study and requirements. P.R.A.Y is a clearing house that many faiths use to administer the parceling out of the awards, not all awards go thru P.R.A.Y.

See www.praypub.org Some awards go thru specific faith committees only, notably the Islamic ones.

The adult awards are USUALLY awarded on nomination because of the adult's worthy service to Scouting and the faith in question, approved by the faith's liason committee.

The new BSA and Venture Handbook lists the awards and their respective committees. I'm not sure the Cub books list them.

The religious award is the boy and his family's responsibility and should NOT be a Den activity, except under the auspices of the faith's leader. If all the Den is of one faith, and the family approves, and the faith leader, as award counselor, is there, well and good, but no boy should be included OR excluded because of his faith. Hence the concern of making it a Den activity.

When the boy has satisfied his faith's counselor, the award is usually presented by the faith, not the Scout Unit, although that can be done too. The Scout Unit presents the silver and blue square knot, which can be worn thruout the Scout's career and on into adult Scouter time. If a Scout earns the Cub, Boy, and any other appropriate religiious award, he doesn't add square knots, there is a "device", a small pin that is added to the square knot.

I think that's about all.

 

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Awards/~/link.aspx?_id=9D5FA10AEB254061A248D13D459424FE&_z=z is the "official" list of all of 'em.

 

The multitudinous ways humans have devised to honor and worship the creator is truly amazing. Nuf said...

Hope that helped,A/E.

[ScoutNut]

Alassa - Your Baptist Bear would be doing the "God and Me" program. These booklets would be available from your local Scout Shop.

 

Like the "Light of Christ" program your son did, there is an application form at the back of the booklet which must be signed by the Scout's pastor, and used to order the award.

 

Talk to the parents, and let them know that when their son completes the "God and Me" program (it must be completed by the end of 3rd grade), if they give you a COPY of the form signed by their pastor (NOT the original-they must send that in to PRAY to receive the medal), you will get him his square knot.

 

Next year, as a Webelos, your son can work on "Parvuli Dei" and your Baptist Scout can work on "God and Family".

 

[Eagle92]

Actually Parvuli Dei is designed for 3-5 grades, so bears can earn it. FYI Parvuli Dei was the only award available to CS, until the program was expanded to 5 years. Then Light of Christ was create for TC and Wolves.