Scouting for God

Each year, PrayPub (the outside agency that develops most of the religious education materials and awards) publishes the lists of BSA councils and awards presented:

http://www.praypub.org/god_country/pray_usage.htm

For those in Circle Ten, my council, with 57,000 youth … here are our numbers for the protestant programs:

• 122 God & Me – 1^st thru 3^rd grade
• 116 God & Family – 4^th & 5^th
• 20 God & Church – 6^th thru 8^th
• 10 God & Life – 9^th thru 12^th
• 3 Four Star (all of the above)
• 17 Adult Awards

Of course, this doesn’t tell the whole story.  These numbers are only of the Christian-Protestant awards, not the Catholic, Jewish or other recognized faiths.  Still, there are a lot of protestants in Texas and only 288 recognitions for Scouts and Scouters.

Here are a few other observations:

• It is gratifying to see relatively flat numbers in the first two programs, implying perhaps folks continuing in the program as their Cub Scout progresses.
• It is equally disappointing to see the fall-off for Boy Scouts with the latter two programs.
• Only three Scouts received the “Four Star,” meaning all four awards, presumably three of the ten God & Life recipients.
• Only 17 Adults were recognized, which begs the question … who is teaching the Scouts? Teaching a course certainly doesn’t merit the award, but one would presume that there are far more than seventeen Christian-minded and actively-serving adults. But the adult award is only by nomination and the requirements are relatively steep in most of the faith traditions, usually 5+ years of active service in both the BSA and their home church or ministry.  Still, seventeen seems low.

What do you think?  Please leave your comments below.