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

The first two lines of the Boy Scout oath will be played out across the county this Sunday, as uniformed scouts from Tiger level through Eagle gather to worship together in their respective churches.

“Duty to God is something we have stood by for 90 years and it's still important,“ said Mike Reese, district executive for the Boy Scouts, Flint River Council. “Duty to God is part of our basic oath, and we show this through attendance at church on Scout Sunday,” Reese added.

Duty to God is defined for scouts in their handbook as follows: “Your family and religious leaders teach you to know and love God, and the ways in which God can be served. As a Scout, you do your duty to God by following the wisdom of those teachings in your daily life, and by respecting the rights of others to have their own religious beliefs.”

Scout Sunday is traditionally celebrated in February, Scouting's anniversary month. Boy Scout Troop 209, which is chartered by St. Andrew's-in-the-Pines Episcopal Church in Peachtree City, will worship together and serve up a pancake breakfast for church members, scouts and their families.

Down the road at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, approximately 35 scouts will attend Mass and be awarded their religious emblems, specifically the Light of Christ and Parvuli Dei. Activities such as helping wheel residents from Southland Nursing Home in Peachtree City to Sunday services, or hosting a seniors bingo game, fulfilled one of the boys' service requirements.

But the actual acts of volunteerism go beyond doing a good turn. “It's not so much about what the boys are doing, but how they felt doing it,” noted Eileen Lavoie, a scout leader and coordinator for scouts earning the Catholic emblems. Her son, Andrew, a scout in Troop 181, succeeded in earning the Pius XII emblem, which is the highest level of Catholic award available to scouts.

The spiritual ideals of scouting have always been an integral part of the program. More than half of all scouting units are chartered or supported by churches. From allowing units to use facilities to enlisting the help of ministers and priests to assist in teaching scouts about the tenets of their faith, scouts depend on their local congregations.

All major churches and religious bodies offer a program for scouts to enrich and understand their faith. At the beginning levels of scouting, boys learn about their God by talking with their parents and religious leaders. The requirements grow with the age of the scout.

“The requirements are right on target for the level of the boy,” said scout leader Maria Berger of Pack 279.

From the cross depicted on emblems for Catholic and Protestant scouts to the Talmud inscribed on the emblem for Jewish scouts, boys across the nation are united in their duty to God.

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