Origins
The BSA version of the Scout Law states in part: "A Scout is reverent. He is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties and respects the convictions of others in matters of custom and religion." The BSA "Declaration of Religious Principle" states that "no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation of God and, therefore, recognizes the religious element in the training of the member, but it is absolutely nonsectarian in its attitude toward that religious training. Its policy is that the home and organization or group with which the member is connected shall give definite attention to religious life."
The first religious recognition program for Scouts began in 1926 when the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles began the Ad Altare Dei for altar boys who were Boy Scouts. The program was expanded nationally in 1939 and the BSA approved the medal for uniform wear.
The first Protestant religious emblem program was established in 1943 by the Lutheran church as Pro Deo Et Patria. The Jewish Ner Tamid program began in 1944 and the God and Country program used by several Protestant denominations followed in 1945. The 1948 handbook was the first to include the religious emblem programs and it described Roman Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Buddhist, Lutheran and the general Protestant program. As of 2007 there are over 35 religious groups represented by over 75 recognized emblems. The knot for the youth emblems was introduced in 1971 and for the adult emblems in 1973.
Read more about this topic: Religious Emblems Programs (Boy Scouts Of America)
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)