Duty To God - Best Practices

[krier32]

Hello all in the Scouting Community!!

 

I am COR for a Boy Scout Troop and a Venture Crew. We are sponsored by a Volunteer Fire Company and not a religious institution. This means that we get boys from many different faiths.

 

Does anyone have any best practices that they use to promote the Scout's Duty to God even though they are not a religious institution. In addition, what do you do to keep it non-denominational as not to offend anyone?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Don

[SeattlePioneer]

Personally I don't care to water down reloigious practices to the point where they become meaningless.

 

 

My bias was to encourage Scouts and/or parents to explain or give examples of their own religious practices and an explanation of what they meant.

 

Anyone in the troop would be welcome to make a statement of their faith in a way that was intended to educate others in the troop.

 

The best example of that was a parent who was the Cantor (if I'm recalling correctly) in his synagogue, and who sometimes gave an opening prayer at a Cour Of Honor first in Hebrew and then in English. As an added treat he would sound his Shofar (rams horn), always fun to hear!

 

Once anyone with a relatively exotic or unusual religious background has had an opportunity to explain their religious tradition, it pretty much defuses the issue after that.

 

For Scout Sunday, we invite any Scout family interested to attend the Chartered Organization"s Sunday Service and anyone who does gets recognized later. But anyone else is equally welcome to schedule Scout Sunday at their own place of worship, invite anyone interested to attend and be recognized as well.(This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

[ScoutNut]

Promote the earning of the Religious Emblems of their faith. You can get a pamphlet titled "Duty to God", from your local Scout Shop, which explains this. It is also available online at BSA National -

 

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/512-879_WB.pdf

 

Utilize the Position of Responsibility of Chaplain Aide. Here is some information on that position, and it's responsibilities -

 

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Media/Relationships/ChaplainRole.aspx

 

 

[SSScout]

All good ideas. If you are a Scout leader(obviously, you are, and an involved COR, at that!) you might consider the "Duty to God" program from PRAY http://www.praypub.org/dutytogod.htm , the organization that administers many of the Scout religious awards, from all faiths. I know a Scouter who used the PRAY patch presentation program as one of his Wood Badge tickets to good effect.

Also, if your Scoutmaster and Crew Advisor suggests to their Scouts that a grace before meals and a meditative period during the day is not a bad idea, that will go a long way to reminding the boys/girls about the promise we ask them to make about doing some duties.

Scoutmaster minute about miracles vs coincidences?

 

And remember, it is not so much trying "not to offend" as "being respectful" (Scout Law) and "tolerant". see http://www.religioustolerance.org

 

 

[qwazse]

Our CO is a church, but they are very aware that young men and women from all over the community are part of thier units. So, they don't impose much. We make it very simple:

1. Say grace before meals.

2. If we're out on a Sunday, have devotions. (5 - 15 minutes)

3. Discourage cussing. (Not only because it is discourteous, but because folks consider that an offense against their God.)

 

Usually it's the chaiplain's aide who picks the devotion in the troop. In the crew, we find a youth volunteer.

 

The goal is to bring each youth's religious sensibilities to the table. (Rather than -- as happens in a lot of institutions -- try to sweep it under the table.)

 

So that's our routine, but there are some other special things ...

- Encourage youth on Scout Sunday/Sabbath they to wear their uniform or ask their clergy to recognize scouts in the worship service.

- Encourage youth to consider service projects at their place of worship.

- For the venturers, when I have the officer's briefing and the topic of discipline comes up, I remind them "I know where each of you go to church, I'm holding you to those values."

 

Obviously as a COR, these would be personal suggestions you offer the SM and Advisor so that they know the VFC is offering them a lot of lattitude -- not requiring them to do anything in particular.

 

Beyond that, you do have the respect the fact that some parents may have chosen your unit because they wanted to be sure somebody else's religion was not "foisted" on their kids.

[BadenP]

krier

 

Seattles post speaks loads why the sacred and the secular have such a hard time working in harmony is due to basic human misunderstanding of what a interfaith celebration is and what it is supposed to offer the participants. It is not supposed to be reading prayers, or Bible passages, or the Koran or any other instrument unique to one faith. Second, it is not a true religious service intended to replace the normal religious services the participants attend.

 

An interfaith celebration is the recognition of a higher being or force at work in the world through various sources like music, literature,poetry, silent meditation, being in nature or listening to the sounds of nature. It is not the promotion of one religion over another or using pieces of anothers faith service/tradition which will bring negative responses like SP's. A troop and crew can use the time listening to the resources mentioned earlier to reflect on their own understanding of what it means to be reverent to them, and their own interpretation of what "God" truly is. Too many so called ecumenical services I have witnessed have been nothing more than a self promoting Christian scripture reading with Christian prayers and hymns, and that is NOT what an ecumenical service is supposed to be.(This message has been edited by BadenP)

[John-in-KC]

For once I agree with Baden P wholeheartedly.

 

Let the families be the cornerstones of faith ... whatever tradition that be.

 

Give youth access to and encourage them to undertake the religious emblems program. Each major faith community has pretty good literature for themselves.

 

Do ask your program principals to survey their units ... you may be rather focused in the faith groupings of youth, or you may be very diverse. The more diverse you are the more a "generic service" risks offending someone.

 

If both units have a strong core of youth leaders, you might sit down with them and see how they want to approach matters.

[SeattlePioneer]

Sorry BadenP, I disagree.

 

 

Having an opportunity to learn about the religious traditions of others is a good way to deepen people understanding of religious faith.

 

To me "duty to God" in Scouting means

 

1) A respect for the religious traditions of your family

 

2) A respect for the religious traditions of other people.

 

 

By giving families the opportunity to explain their own religious traditions if they wish to do so, both of those traditions are honored.

 

I've also found that if families have an opportunity to explain their religious traditions to others, they usually aren't as sensitive about prayers and such that are a part of the unit program.

 

I've had good experience with this as a method. I've never had the negative experience with it that BadenP apparently thinks is inevitable.

 

 

I also like Qwasze' methods:

 

 

[studentscout]

For some of us, our faith is personal and not something that we display for the public, nor do we desire to be part of public display by others. To me my faith is not something I discuss or compare or openly display as a display but rather something I 'live'. I care not to bring anyone else to it nor do I wish for others to attempt to bring me to theirs. I do not understand this desire to display such things publicly. Is a personal faith not sufficient?

[KC9DDI]

studentscout - I'd point out that if your faith is something that you 'live,' it is something that you openly display to everyone every day. I don't think that giving youth the option of describing or discussing their beliefs with their Scouting peers is the same as trying to proselytize or evangelize.

 

It sounds like most of the ideas here involve encouraging Scouts to grow within their own faith, whatever tht might be, and maybe to provide a forum for Scouts to explain and discuss their beliefs and traditions, which I something that I would consider healthy for that age group.

[BadenP]

SP

 

The two so called methods of yours are nothing more than the Golden Rule, not a public proclamation of your faith. As I said in my first post rarely can that which acts to divide us bring us together, the sad reality of religions that were created by humankind.

[studentscout]

KC9DDI, Because I do not pray or openly reveal anything like that about my faith, you or most other persons would only view the unavoidable display of a shy student. Nothing more. Living my faith is something that I experience and no other person can possibly understand its meaning to me or even see its effect on my life. I suggest that this is probably true, despite attempts or opinions otherwise, for everyone else as well. But I also can see that the private messenger a while back was correct and I have probably said too much already. I apologize for inserting myself into this discussion.

[eisely]

Saying grace at mealtimes is an easy way to start.

 

I would consider tying LNT principles to duty to god as well. After all, it is god's house in which we live and we shouldn't be messing it up.

[packsaddle]

Goodie! Another chance to use this quote: "The purpose of religion isn't to bring people together."

This quote from TheScout is almost as good as having him here.

[krier32]

Thanks for the responses. Some excellent take away points and some good resources also.

 

Thank you.