Friday, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

When I was a kid my brothers and I participated in both the Cub Scouts and the Boy Scouts. I don’t have many memories of the Cub Scouts, except a few fleeting visions of snacks and den mothers. But the Boy Scouts are a great memory for me. I actively participated for about four years. I didn’t achieve any great heights, but loved the experiences of camping and fun at our weekly meetings. I was fortunate to have terrific scout leaders, including my father. My brother Donald climbed the ladder higher than me, including participation in something the scouts call “Order of the Arrow.” I never knew what this was, except that it was elite and they talked about secret things that I was not allowed to know.

Even after all these years, and despite my less than passionate participation, I do remember the values that were central to being a Boy Scout. Part of what we had to memorize was the Scout Law, which consisted of a dozen essential principles that define the good Boy Scout.

We were called to be:

Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedience, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent

Looking at this list, it wasn’t a big leap for me because growing up in a religious family (Roman Catholic) these values were utterly consistent with what I was hearing on Sunday. In fact we were commanded to live every one of these characteristics. There was really no distinction between what I was taught in my church and what I was told in the Boy Scouts handbook.

What this indicates, even among the most cynical, is that there seems to be a well-established tradition of the characteristics that make up a functional society. People who are trustworthy, friendly, cheerful and reverent, for instance, or people who make society function well. In each one we have gorged on the celebration of the individual and our “rights” to be who we desire to be, it turns out to be a destructive indulgence. Living in close proximity to others demands that we abide by these laws that were stated so simply by the Boy Scouts of America.

And perhaps there is a simpler way to describe this approach to human loving: “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”

Or perhaps it can be expressed, “love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

However it is expressed, from the profound theological language of the Bible, with a sweet simplicity from the Boy Scout handbook, society needs to follow such rules as these if we are going to survive together.

- You have never washed your uniform

- You of applied to receive the “autopsy" merit badge

- During your knot tying test you made a noose

- After learning to start a campfire at a scout meeting, you immediately burn down a neighbor’s garage

- For your cooking merit badge you barbecued roadkill squirrel

- An elderly woman asks you to help her across the street and you lead her into oncoming traffic and laugh

- When you are asked to clean up the campsite you give the Scout leader the finger

- You post videos on Youtube of other Scouts using the latrine

- When your Boy Scout troop is sent to help victims of a flood, you go off on your own and loot evacuated homes

- Instead of a standard issue Boy Scout knife, you carry a 5 inch switchblade