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Hello, ben. You are, of course, correct that the USSSP provides materials for all religions. The interesting thing to me is that they seem to be, at the same time, testing the extent and enforcability of the BSA's copyrights and trademarks. Go to the official BSA website and you see the same type of materials available. What you will NOT see there is any mention of the USSSP. The only thing I noticed that seems somewhat paradoxical is that, according to caf's link, two of the requirements for a particular badge are: '1. Understanding the nature of God; Jesus and the Holy Spirit', and '6: Understanding Biblical doctrines.' Since Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have enormously different beliefs concerning Christ's nature, and since within Christianity, indeed even within Protestantism, there are many different beliefs concerning Biblical doctrines, one wonders what this has to do with scouting. One can just picture an Episcopalian and a Baptist slugging it out at a jamboree over some Biblical doctrine, each attempting to protect his 'Joyful Servant' badge from the heathen. Many years ago, the Girl Scouts made clear their policy that girl scouting was for all girls, regardless of their religion or lack of religion, and regardless of sexual orientation. In my opinion the BSA would do well to follow suit and concentrate on scouting. It WAS a great organization, but the (relatively) recent policy of religious EMPHASIS (rather than tolerance) has cost it millions of dollars in public funding and, quite frankly, given it a reputation as a haven for bigots, religious and otherwise. The ironic thing is that Lord Baden-Powell conceived the Boy Scouts as a universal alternative to similar but sectarian organizations. By the way, Happy Easter, everybody!
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