Do Boy Scouts recite the oath at each meeting?

August 23, 2021 7:14 PM

The Boy Scout oath starts "On my honor, I will do my best/To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law..." Does this get recited at the beginning of weekly meetings?

When I was in Boy Scouts decades ago, I think we recited this oath at the beginning of each weekly meeting; but my memory is hazy. Do Boy Scout troops recite the oath at the start of each meeting these days?

I ask because of the "duty to God..." thing. A child I know may be going to Boy Scouts soon. Looking around online, it seems like the national Boy Scouts are fine with people of different religions joining up, and the God referred to doesn't need to be the Christian God. But it also seems like some belief in a higher power is required; thus, atheists and agnostics not really welcome. So in addition to knowing about how the oath is used, I'd be interested in knowing if individual troops welcoming atheists and agnostics is a thing.

posted by mistersix to Society & Culture (19 answers total)

There has to be *a* God, or higher power.

The Oath is one of a few things to choose from for open wing or closing a meeting. But yeah, "Duty to God" is still part of the program, and it still trips up a lot of very thoughtful, good people.

Some units are a little...soft on this, and might accept really loose definitions of Higher Power. But it's still on the books.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:20 PM on August 23, 2021 [4 favorites]

This kind of thing varies REALLY widely from troop to troop. My younger brother’s troop, in a fairly liberal area, couldn’t care less about the kids’ religious beliefs and they definitely didn’t recite the oath at each meeting. My brother is a pretty outspoken atheist in fact.

I’m sure there are troops that are still pretty far on the other end of the spectrum, though. It tends to be a reflection of the religious climate in the surrounding community.
posted by mekily at 8:11 PM on August 23, 2021 [4 favorites]

Yeah, it very much depends on the local community and which religion(s) are affiliated with the scouts. Here in Utah the scouts are basically an arm of the Mormon church, and even Christians who aren't Mormons aren't particularly welcome.
posted by mmoncur at 8:29 PM on August 23, 2021 [2 favorites]

For interest - here is a page from UK scouting on the scout promise - and its variants. - the quick take here is that all kinds of variations about which god or no god are supported. But the inclusion of the Queen is considered a mandatory deal breaker!
posted by rongorongo at 11:41 PM on August 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

I know you’re asking about Boy Scouts, but thought you might be interested to know that the Girl Scout Promise — which is recited at the start of each meeting — also mentions serving God. The Girl Scout website has a literal asterisk next to the word “God” in the Promise and says members can substitute in with something according to their spiritual beliefs. I’m a troop leader and one of our girls substitutes with “family.”
posted by kittydelsol at 4:12 AM on August 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

The Mormans separated themselves from the BSA as of a couple years ago.
posted by LoveHam at 4:35 AM on August 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

@rongorongo I recently enrolled my son in Cubs in the UK, and was reassured to see that on the website (I was never allowed to be in Brownies/Guides as a kid because of the religion thing).

However, when he was "invested" it was the full Christian promise with no mention of any other options. But as far as I know they don't recite it every week, just at the investiture ceremony.
posted by altolinguistic at 4:42 AM on August 24, 2021

Seconding that it really varies by troop and area. Both of my nephews are currently active in Scouting, I don't know if they recite the oath every meeting but from talking to them and my BIL it sounds like their unit takes a pretty loose/liberal view on the whole religious bit.
posted by photo guy at 6:40 AM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

We said it every meeting and didn't talk about the god part
posted by little onion at 6:43 AM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you look at the application for being a scout you must agree to abide by the "Declaration of Religious Principle" I would think this would exclude anyone that is atheist.

https://troop139.com/page_reverent.shtml


Many years ago when I was of scouting age the were scouting groups in just about every school. I think this declaration is why you only find them associated with churches now. this is why you
posted by tman99 at 7:15 AM on August 24, 2021

My son's cub scout pack says the oath every meeting but it's understood that "God" may mean any higher power for which a scout may feel reverence, including humanity. Any religion-related activities take place with families at home and are optional. I haven't found anything written down that explicitly states the scouts are fine with atheists but in practice our group is 100% OK with us being there. I know this varies widely depending on the group.
posted by beandip at 7:17 AM on August 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

You may want to consider OSG (Scouting for all) as an alternative.
posted by elmay at 8:25 AM on August 24, 2021

My child says:

As a Girl Scout, I promised to “serve my beliefs and my country” at every meeting.

If you decide that Boy Scouts is not right for the child you know, Campfire Scouts is one alternative.

posted by mbrubeck at 9:44 AM on August 24, 2021

When I was in a Boy Scout Post, also decades ago, we not only didn't recite the oath, our post had all three g's: girls, godless, and gays. (We were very proud of our post and many of us identified as more than one of those g's.) So there's going to be a lot of variation between troops and posts and it's worth talking it over with one before joining or choosing one of the alternatives.
posted by blueberry monster at 10:04 AM on August 24, 2021

I have sat on a bunch of Eagle Scout Board of Review panels, and someone always asks the boys about "Duty to God."

To be honest, most of them hesitate, and then they get quickly walked through recognizing that maybe they are not the most powerful force in the universe, and maybe there's Something Greater Than Themselves out there.

That always satisfies the requirement. *shrug*
posted by wenestvedt at 2:13 PM on August 24, 2021 [4 favorites]

As others have said this varies by troop. I'm not just being redundant, I wanted to add for the benefit of your acquaintance who is considering joining that this is true about everything else in the program as well. Do they do lots of fun camping? Do they participate in regional/national jamboree stuff? Do they go to Philmont? Do they do things safely? Do [xyz group] feel comfortable in the troop?

All depends so much on local leadership. Talk to the parents and kids already involved, see what they say.
posted by Wretch729 at 2:13 PM on August 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

We say it every meeting in my son's troop meetings and my daughter's pack meetings. Technically under scout rules a scout should have some sort of spirituality but in our public school pack we leave all religious requirements up to parents. In my son's troop that is chartered to a church, it mostly comes in the form of a non denominational prayer before meals. I've known families in scouting for years where I have no clue their religion, if they have one.

When I was a scout, I was somewhat agnostic and probably just code-switched my way through it.
posted by drezdn at 3:28 PM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

It really depends on a unit by unit basis how it is handled.
posted by drezdn at 3:32 PM on August 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Just some more data points:

Our troop says it most of the time, along with the pledge of allegiance. My 5th grader still doesn't have either memorized, despite being a cub scout since kindergarten. (His school doesn't have kids recite the pledge).

Our particular den master is an atheist and said so at a den meeting. The religion badge is done privately and handed out if you said you did something. You don't have to say what it was.

Our troop is not affiliated with a church, but a public school.
posted by pizzazz at 1:58 PM on August 26, 2021