I shared this “sermon” as the inspirational message during a Scouting interfaith worship service. The service was part of an adult leader training called Wood Badge that I recently attended. It was delivered to an almost entirely white audience and was intended to show how work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion align with the Scout Law – and intended to challenge them to actively engage in Scouting DEI work.

I’ve often wondered about the twelve words chosen for the Scout Law – particularly words like Friendly, Courteous and Kind, which seem to be synonyms.

Are they redundant?  Are they interconnected?  Has our modern English lost some nuance originally found in the words 100 years ago? 

I couldn’t find an online dictionary with definitions from a century years ago. … Read the rest