“No scout can ever hope to amount to much until he has learned a reverence for religion.” – Boy Scouts of America, The Official Handbook for Boys, first edition, 1911, p. 249.
Introduction
Not too long ago, it seemed easy to hold worship services that helped everyone rejoice in the presence of God, but today everywhere there seem to be those who don’t want to rejoice. Instead they seem to want to find fault. They feel that they really know the truth, and if their truth does not govern the worship service, they complain, and complain loudly. We live in a fragmented society. Everyone has their own rallying cry, and people don’t seem to be able to get along about anything.
This is a problem for the Boy Scouts, as well as for other broad-based, value-oriented organizations. We say, “a Scout is friendly,” meaning that a Scout is a friend to all and a brother to all other Scouts, but we are advised that brothers in Scouting should not talk about matters of faith with one another, for fear that someone might be offended. We say, “a Scout is reverent,” but the Scout’s reverence to God must be expressed at home with his own congregation, or if the Scout wants to express reverence to God while with his Scout unit, he should do so privately.
At this point, you should be saying to yourself, “That’s not true! We have chapels and chaplains at our camps, and when our Scouts earn religious awards, we celebrate, no matter what church or faith group gave the award.” You’re right. I am overstating the case. But I see a strong tendency in our country to have less and less religious tolerance in this country, and the national tendency is affecting the Boy Scouts.
In spite of all this, I suggest that we can have meaningful interfaith worship at Scout camps. We will always have doctrinal differences, but interfaith worship is still possible. Because we are “brothers” in Scouting, there is something that pulls us together.
Doctrine is important, and interfaith worship is not “everything” in terms of celebrating our individual faiths. However, if we attend worship once a week, and if our Scout unit goes camping once a month, as well as a week of summer camp, thirteen worship services each year will be interfaith, and the other thirty-nine will be at home where Scouts can learn specific doctrines and experience the sacraments and ordinances of their faith. Interfaith worship cannot embody the full richness of any church experience, but Scout interfaith worship can provide a powerful link between Scouts and God.
Principles for Interfaith Worship
How can we worship with people of other faiths when we have so many doctrinal differences? Let me suggest a few things all faiths have in common. When I say “all,” I am speaking of the major living world religions from which Scouting draws its membership. This includes Catholic Christians, Orthodox Christians, most Protestant Christians (including LDS), Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and others. The list does not include the very exclusive “Christian” groups who believe that no one outside their very small group has access to God, it does not include groups that advocate and practice a very primitive form of magic and sacrifice, and it does not include attempts to revive ancient polytheism, especially with an emphasis on hedonism. Those who want to quibble can always find exceptions, but Scouting includes a broad base of people who can worship together, affirming at least these principles:
Devotion to God
First, devotion to God. Awe in the presence of God. Some among us may be firm monotheists while others are less firm, recognizing a variety of names and forms for God, but we can all speak meaningfully of “God” in the singular. All of us understand that the appropriate response to God is “awe” (in the best sense of that word). For all of us prayer and devotion are appropriate responses to the presence of God in our lives.
Morality
Second, an understanding that God wants us to live a life that is “morally straight.” It is important that Scouts who promise to be “morally straight” have a good understanding of what that phrase means. In a worship service, it is appropriate to use the “sermon” or “homily” or “meditation” as a time to speak and teach about topics related to being “morally straight.” We live in a time when much of society seems to feel that “morally straight” is an empty phrase, but people of faith, any faith, will affirm that it is a phrase full of meaning.
Creation
Third, the world was created by God and is God’s
gift to us. Scouts spend much of
their time together outdoors in the midst of trees, wild plants, wild animals,
water, earth and sky. Ralph Hood, a
professor at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, has studied the
psychology of religious experience for about a quarter of a century. In the
course of his studies, he did a series of research studies investigating the
experience the presence of God that young people have when they camp. Although
the studies are complicated, it is clear that many young people experience the
presence of God in a special way at camp. (See especially, Hood, Ralph W., Jr.
“Anticipatory Set and Setting: Stress Incongruities as Elicitors of
Mystical Experience in Solitary Nature Settings,” Journal for the
Scientific Study of Religion, 1978, 17(3), 279-287.)
Unfortunately, “creation” has become a code word for a particular approach to religious doctrine among people who seem to believe that the most important religious truth is the notion that the earth is only a few thousand years old. The interfaith use of the word “creation” does not involve a timeline. “Creatonists” and “Evolutionists” are both welcome in a service of interfaith worship. In interfaith worship, when we speak of “creation,” we are speaking of one of the gifts God has given to us, a gift that all Scouts can experience relatively directly every time they go camping, hiking, or canoeing.
Patriotism
Fourth, a loyalty to our
nation. This is a tricky point,
because God is more important than any nation, and when nations go astray, the
people have a duty under God to bring the nation back into compliance with
God’s will. For example, about a
third of the Hebrew scriptures, which most Christians call the “Old
Testament,” is devoted to stories of people working to bring the nation back
into compliance with God’s will when the nation has gone astray.
Nowhere in the scriptures of any faith do we find the phrase “my
country, right or wrong.”
True patriotism requires
careful thought and intelligent understanding.
That is why BSA requires Scouts who aspire to the rank of Eagle to read
and understand the Constitution and Declaration of Independence (Citizenship in
the Nation Merit Badge).
True patriotism is not the same
as loyalty to the military, and is certainly not the same as loyalty to any
political party, no matter what representatives of the political party may say.
That is why Scouts are not to wear the Scout uniform at any partisan political
gathering. (The author of this statement is retired from the US military and
believes that our nation needs a strong military under civilian authority, but
does not equate that view with patriotism.)
True patriotism sees our nation
as one member of a community of nations, and understands that our nation needs
to work constructively with other nations.
(Thus, BSA requires the Citizenship in the World Merit Badge for the rank
of Eagle.)
Patriotism is affirmed in
various ways in the beliefs of different religions.
From the point of view of Christian scripture, even the worst government
is better than anarchy (Romans 13), but God will judge governments that defy
God’s will (see Revelation 13).
A full exposition of interfaith
approaches to patriotism would take a large and technical volume, but loyalty to
our nation under God is an appropriate topic for Scout interfaith worship
services.
When planning a worship service, we can thank God for our nation, and pray for God’s guidance and protection, but there are two things we should not do. One, don’t put nation above God. Two, don’t take sides in political debates. Boy Scout policy is that when we are in uniform, we don’t discuss politics. The Boy Scouts are neutral in political controversies.
Wisdom
Fifth, “wisdom.”
Wisdom is rare, and it is hard to define, even though it is fairly easy
to recognize. Between three and
five thousand years ago, there grew up an international body of “wisdom
writings” that shared similar values. Probably
the wisdom writing most familiar to most of us is the Biblical book of Proverbs.
Author Stephen R. Covey (The
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Simon & Schuster, 1989) has
made a serious study of ancient wisdom literature and applied it to modern life.
According to Covey, some “wisdom” is not good, helpful, or God inspired.
Pages 119-121 of his Seven Habits book presents various faulty
ways of organizing our lives, along with what we would call “wise” if we
organized our lives around these faulty notions.
He describes true wisdom in a similar table on page 124.
(Click here to see Covey’s description of real wisdom, along with some
comments by the author of this web site. Click here to see Covey’s wisdom
bibliography.)
On page 136, Covey presents a wise life mission statement and discusses how it might be fulfilled. The executive who wrote this mission statement said, “My mission is to live with integrity and to make a difference in the lives of others.” We might hope that every Scout would affirm a similar mission statement.
Is “wisdom” really “religious?” Serious scholars of religion have asked this question, and for a carefully thought-out answer, read “The wisdom of God: dialogue and natural theology,” by Leo D. Lefebure, in The Christian Century, October 26, 1994. The Christian Century magazine is available in most college and university libraries, and the article can also be found on-line here or here. The article is a little technical, but rewards patient reading. Lefebure points out that, for example, in spite of the great differences in belief between Christianity and Buddhism, “the concrete wisdom sayings of the Buddha in the Dhammapada exhibit numerous parallels to the Sermon on the Mount,” and “the Buddha, not unlike Jesus, advised his followers to overcome evil by good, to conquer hate by love, and not to cling to the memory of past injuries.”
Scouts need to learn to lead a wise life, and passages from Proverbs and similar religious literature provide an appropriate basis for Scout interfaith worship.
Scripture in Interfaith Worship
So, we have at least five grounds for interfaith worship.
On what do we base the worship? In
other words, do we simply look into the depth of our own individual souls, or is
there a source for worship? There
is a source, and that source is scripture.
All scriptures, of all faiths, have portions that reflect the universal
recognitions of our needs to stand in awe of God and to live a moral life in
society, to thank God for creation, to support our community and nation, and to
live a truly wise life. If we are
people of good will, we can listen to a scripture reading of this nature and
find inspiration and hope, even if the book of scripture is one that we don’t
follow and is one that in other places teaches doctrines with which we disagree.
As a matter of fact, all
scriptures teach doctrines specific to one faith, so some would argue that no
scriptures are useful in interfaith worship. But we need to look deeper into the
nature of scripture. All scriptures
are ancient, and that means that they have “stood the test of time.”
They include wise teachings that are universal in application and can
inspire all of us. We need to be wise in selecting those passages that are
appropriate for interfaith worship.
[For more on Scripture in Interfaith Worship, click here.]
What Shouldn’t We Do in an Interfaith Worship Service?
Leaders of interfaith worship services should avoid talking or singing about beliefs that are not shared by several religions. For example, the resurrection of Christ is a belief that is unique to Christians, and although it is a very important Christian belief, it is not appropriate to include this belief in interfaith prayers, songs, or meditations.
In addition to beliefs that are not shared, there are some beliefs that are common to several religions, but which are interpreted differently. These beliefs should also be avoided. For example, most religions teach some notion of “salvation,” even though they may not like the word “salvation.” Various Christian groups have different notions of “salvation,” and Buddhists have a belief that can be compared with the Christian idea of “salvation,” but which is clearly different from any of the Christian notions. Because of the wide variation in understanding the concept of “salvation,” it is not an appropriate topic for interfaith worship.
This can create a problem for some leaders. There are people who consider “salvation” to be the sum and substance of religion. According to their belief, if a leader does not talk about the eternal salvation of the listeners’ souls, that leader is putting his or her own soul in jeopardy. The only thing to be said is that Scout interfaith worship services must be seen as one element, and only one element, in the Scout’s religious education. The notion of salvation will be a part of the Scout’s religious education at home and in the Scout’s own place of worship.
If the Scout leader feels a holy compulsion to “witness” to a Scout regarding a particular notion of “salvation,” the leader should first consult with the Scout’s parents.
In interpreting the limits on interfaith worship topics, “common sense” needs to be included. For example, “heaven” and “hell” are understood in widely differing ways among various religions. In general, interfaith worship leaders should not teach a particular doctrine of “heaven” or “hell,” but this does not mean that leaders must avoid religious stories that include a notion of “heaven” or “hell.” For example, in the traditional Native American story, “Raven” (which is one of the suggested meditations given on this website), we are told that in the ancient time when the world was dark, Raven flew to what might be considered as “heaven” to steal sunlight. No matter what any of us may think “heaven” is like, we can listen to the Raven story and learn from it.
Likewise, we need to interpret the limits on interfaith worship topics with regard to the leader’s good will. A leader will sometimes present a prayer, song, or meditation with the honest idea that what is being presented is a widely held belief. If it turns out to be presenting a belief that is fairly narrow, others should accept it with good will. This is particularly true with songs, which are often poetry set to music. The interpretation of poetry is subtle, and the leader may not be able to anticipate the way that various religious groups might interpret different words.
It seems likely that few religious skeptics will be visiting this website, but any who are might be shouting at their computer, “What about the idea of God?!!” After all, different religious groups understand the notion of “God” quite differently. Should the leader of interfaith worship avoid using the word “God?” Of course not. When we worship, we worship God, and we cannot avoid that word. Certainly everyone has a different concept of God, and interfaith worship is not the appropriate place for the leader to teach his or her own concept, but with an appeal to “common sense,” we can continue to use the word “God” in interfaith worship. This may lead the Scouts to have discussions among themselves about the notion of “God,” and that would be good.