Youth Supplement

Sacred bond connects Scouts and Christ

Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein congratulates a Cub Scout during the Religious Emblems Presentation for Scouts on Feb. 11 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. (File photo/Brandon A. Evans)

By Ian Barnstead (Special to The Criterion)

“On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country … .”

It’s the Scout Oath, what every Boy Scout recites at every meeting he attends. If you ask him, he can spout it off faster than he can raise his Scout sign. It is what a Scout lives his life by, his creed.

The values that are sacred to the Scout are similar, if not the same as, those values held sacred by the Christian. Christ calls us all to serve others without regard to ourselves, one of the main precepts of the Boy Scouts. The founding of the Boy Scouts of America is based completely on service.

The Boy Scouts were founded by Lord Robert Baden Powell after he saw how experienced boys in Africa were with the wilderness during the Boer War. In 1907, he created the organization in England.

In 1910, a Chicago publisher, William Boyce, was traveling in London when he became lost in a dense fog. A boy in a uniform helped him find his way. When Boyce offered the boy a tip, he refused. This event inspired Boyce to meet with Baden Powell and the Boy Scouts of America was born.

Besides camping and other activities in the outdoors, everything in the Boy Scouts is connected to service. Advancing through the ranks of the Boy Scouts requires an amount of service for each rank. The Eagle Scout, the ultimate goal of every Boy Scout, requires the candidate to plan and carry out a substantially large service project.

This impression of service to others helps to build up to the main goal of Scouting—leadership. A good leader in the eyes of the Scouts is the same as a good leader in the eyes of Christ. To be a leader, one must put himself last, behind all those he is leading, just as Christ did, just as the saints did, just as the priests and the bishops who lead our Church do. Self-sacrifice is a must for Boy Scouts.

The Boy Scouts create good Christian leaders every day, which can be seen in our community. The prestigious rank of Eagle Scout includes many notable leaders, even Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein.

It is said that a good leader is someone who does everything for the betterment of his people. A good Christian leader leads by a Christ-like example to bring all of us to holiness. It is not a coincidence that the sacred values held dear by the Boy Scouts are the same values Christ commanded us to take up as our own.

(Ian Barnstead is a member of St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis.) †