Scouting, Volume 69, Number 4, September 1981 Page: 10
98, E1-E24, [16] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The four
churchmen
agree that
Scouting is a
common ground
on which
religions can
meet and share
an interest in
providing
direction for
young people in
their travel
toward
adulthood.
SaBl
nutshell. We get so much help from the BSA in
rearing our boys: the training they give, the
program available to us, the camps, the total
experience.
In our literature we have a little blurb in our
relationship manual that says, "Every ward with
sufficient boys will have a Scout troop." We have
no trouble selling it because the history of our
relationships with the BSA has been such a prof-
itable, positive experience in all these years.
Another thing that really sells this as far as our
local congregation is concerned is the emphasis,
particularly in Cub Scouting, on the family. We're
very concerned about the status of the family in
America now. Scouting has a great influence in
helping families stay together.
Weider: I believe that enthusiasm grows in two
directions: from the Scout up and to the bishops
with his people. The more the bishop identifies
with the program, the healthier the program is
within his diocese. I know that our own bishop has
urged young men to go on for the Ad Altare Dei
and the Pope Pius XII Roman Catholic religious
emblems. This has resulted in an increase in the
number of recipients each year. He is very much
pro-youth and interested in their future.
Davies: I think in my own denomination we've
always had a feeling that we had an obligation to
the citizens of the whole community and not just
concern about our own local congregation, our
own parish. The founder of the Methodist de-
nomination, John Wesley, said one time when he
was criticized for dealing with community affairs
that the world was his parish. We still hope to go
by that. Scouting gives us a very natural vehicle to
do that.
Many of us, I'm sure, have experienced families
with no church relationship whose boys were in a
church's Scouting program. The families were
drawn toward that church simply because they
found someone there who cared about their family
and their son and their particular needs.
Kollin: I think some synagogues or churches will
probably find that Scouting provides a wonderful
means for keeping young people around as they
grow. Scouting gives our young people the options
of reaching out and at the same time maintaining
the ties that they have grown up with. I know this
10
was instrumental when I was a kid. The synagogue
provided Scout troops where Jewish kids, children
of immigrants, learned a lot about American
society that their parents didn't teach them.
Scouting became their school and it became their
American society through that.
Scouting: How do your churches or synagogues
physically manage the Scouting program? Do you
utilize the position of Scouting coordinator?
Backman: We're very centrally organized. I'm the
chairman of the Scouting committee of our
church. On the local level each of our congrega-
tions is asked to charter troops. The bishop who's
in charge of the congregation is held responsible to
see that they do. We have a unique setup in that
almost universally our boys belong to Scouting
because of that. We use that as an activity arm for
their priesthood experience. Our young men
receive their priesthood at 12 years of age and go
up the ladder of increasing responsibility. We find
that Scouting is a great help in doing that. We do
use the Scouting coordinator and have furnished
our own publications to help administer troops on
that level.
In addition the BSA has a "Mormon" relation-
ships director who keeps me aware of my respon-
sibilities and through whom we make our contacts
with the national BSA organization.
Davies: In my particular church we use the Scout-
ing coordinator and we try to see to it that this
person is a member of a church's administrative
organization or board so that there is some official
input, some official communication between the
troop or pack committee and the church's official
governing board.
I would express a little frustration as a Protes-
tant minister. Many councils have a Protestant
Committee on Scouting but no one has the auth-
ority to speak for Protestants in general.
Weider: I think that the Scouting coordinator
should act with the Catholic committee as well as
represent the church to the Scout council, and
Scouting to the parish council. The coordinator
should be a member of the Youth Ministry Pro-
gram of the parish.
Kollin: It's a very different experience because the
synagogue is congregationally oriented. Generally
we haven't had any kind of direct contact between
September 1981 Scouting
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 69, Number 4, September 1981, periodical, September 1981; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353625/m1/10/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.