=  AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON "REVERENCE" IN SCOUTING =
                        
                           by Jim Howes [76264,2124] (CompuServe)


 Whether one agrees or not with the position of the Boy Scouts of America
 that belief in God is an essential part of the Scouting program to build 
 character and  instill  positive values in youth,  a review of treasured
 Scouting memorabilia from the past discloses that historically this view
 has often been presented in Scouting literature,  whenever the Scout Law
 ("A Scout is Reverent") or the Scout Promise  "to do my Duty to God" and
 to "keep myself...morally straight"  are discussed.

 For example, in its  *HANDBOOK FOR BOYS*,  of which over 30,000,000 have
 been printed since 1910,  the Fifth edition  (1948) explained the phrase 
 "morally straight" in the Scout Oath or Promise this way:
 
      "George Washington said  that morality cannot be lasting without
       religion.  A morally straight Scout knows how to love and serve 
       God in the way He wants him to...On Mt. Sinai God gave to Moses
       the  Ten Commandments.  He laid  down certain definite Laws for 
       all.  Not to steal, not to lie, not to abuse your body are some
       of these Laws.  Keeping these Commandments is an important step
       towards being morally straight..." .

 Similarly, the *HANDBOOK* had this to say about "Reverent": 

        "Reverence  is that respect, regard, consideration, courtesy,
         devotion,  and affection you have for some person, place, or
         thing because it is holy.  The Scout shows true reverence in 
         two ways. First, you pray to God, you love God and you serve
         Him. Secondly, in your everyday actions, you help other peo-
         ple, because they are made by God to God's own likeness. 
         
        "The 'unalienable rights'  in our historic Declaration of In-
         dependence, come from God. All your life you will be associ-
         ating with people of other beliefs and customs.   It is your 
         duty to respect these people  for their beliefs and customs, 
         and to live your own."  - (c) BSA, 1948  

 Baden-Powell, the Founder of Scouting,  wrote in his book   *ROVERING TO
 SUCCESS*,  a 1930 handbook for British Rover Scouts, "Religion is essen-
 tial to happiness.  This is not a mere matter of going to church,  know-
 knowing Bible history, or understanding theology.    Religion  ... means
 recognising who and what is God,   secondly, making the best of the life
 that He has given one and doing what He wants of us.  This is mainly do-
 ing something for other people."

 He also warned scouts  (in the book's chapter entitled "Irreligion")  of
 the  "danger of being sucked into this particular rock of atheism".   He
 quoted Abraham Lincoln ("I can see how it might be possible for a man to
 look down upon earth and be an atheist, but I do not see how he can look
 up into the heavens by night and say there is no God" )   as well as the
 Koran ("Seest thou not that all in the heavens and all on the earth ser-
 veth God; the sun, the moon, the stars,  and the mountains and the trees
 and the beasts and many men") and said, "I advocate the understanding of
 Nature as a step, in certain cases, towards gaining religion."

 Commenting on the inspiration he drew from the outdoors,  he wrote:   "I
 love the homely beauty of the English countryside as I do the vast open-
 ness and freedom of the rolling veld in South Africa. I love the rushing
 waters and the nodding forests of Canada;   but I have been more awed by
 the depths  and  heights of the  Himalayas  and by the grandeur of those
 eternal snows lifting their peaked heads high above the world, never de-
 filed by the foot of man, but reaching of all things worldly the nearest
 to the Heavens." He mused that perhaps the reason so many of the world's
 peoples at such high elevations are Buddhists is  "the mountains  almost
 talk you into it.  In the quiet of the night you listen to their voices;
 you are drawn into the brooding immensity all round you. In warm cities,
 where men huddle together, one must have something to cling to--- a per-
 sonal Saviour, a lantern in a sure and kindly hand, comforting voices in
 the dark. But here ...there is a mystic purpose in Nature...".

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