Sacred Honor

There's a phrase I heard last night in the Century of Honor broadcast put on by the church about scouting. The phrase I'm referring to is one that I'm not sure I understand and I don't think I agree with. Unfortunately, though the phrase is only two words long, those two words have multiple definitions, some stronger than others, making for maybe a dozen or more definitions for the phrase, the most offensive of which I certainly disagree with. The phrase is "sacred honor."

Dictionary.com gives five definitions for the noun honor:

1. honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions: a man of honor.
2. a source of credit or distinction: to be an honor to one's family.
3. high respect, as for worth, merit, or rank: to be held in honor.
4. such respect manifested: a memorial in honor of the dead.
5. high public esteem; fame; glory: He has earned his position of honor.

Of these, the first definition seems to be the best form of honor, and the fifth, the worst. In the eternal scheme of things, fame and public esteem mean nothing, but honesty, fairness, and integrity are of great worth - but can they be called "sacred?" Sacred means:

1. devoted or dedicated to a deity or to some religious purpose; consecrated.
2. entitled to veneration or religious respect by association with divinity or divine things; holy.
3. pertaining to or connected with religion (opposed to secular or profane): sacred music; sacred books.4. reverently dedicated to some person, purpose, or object: a morning hour sacred to study.
5. regarded with reverence: the sacred memory of a dead hero.

 Reading these, I think that when I think of something as being sacred, what I actually mean is holy, which may be what put me off about calling one's honor "sacred." No one's honor is worth being worshipped (unless I have the definition of worship wrong in my mind, too). But one's honor (honesty, fairness, integrity) could be "devoted or dedicated to a deity or to some religious purpose." That is, a person could act honorably for the sake of the glory of God, or as a way to worship Him. I'm pretty sure paladins do something like that.

Still, I'm reluctant to use the phrase "sacred honor" because it's not immediately obvious that the honor is only sacred because it's devoted to God. A person may get the idea that one thinks the honor itself is sacred or holy - as important as God is - and if they define honor as "high public esteem," that puts WAY too much importance on what others think of you.

Some cultures put a very heavy emphasis on honor (I'm not sure what definition they use), so much that having honor is more important than life itself, and if you lose your honor, you might as well be dead. Some have committed suicide because of a loss of honor. I don't think honor's that important. I think that if you lose your honor (for example, by acting dishonorably), that doesn't mean your life is over; it means you dust yourself off and try again.

I'm not sure exactly what the scouts meant when they talked about "sacred honor" last night, but I still think that it's a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, it's important to act with honor, and yes, there are sacred (as opposed to secular) reasons for that. And I suppose that if someone devoted themselves whole-heartedly to the worship of God, then they could see acting with honor as a sacred duty, in which case their "honor" or integrity would be "sacred" or dedicated to God. But still, it's an extremely high standard and I think it's unreasonable to ask that of 18-year-old young men, let alone 12-year-old even younger young men.

Then again, setting extremely high standards may be part of the point of scouting. If, by the end of the scouting program, a boy scout is no better than an average, run-of-the-mill teenager, then we're doing something wrong, and thousands of people are wasting large portions of their lives on a program that is having no significant effect on the recipients. I know that's not the case. I hope no one will be offended when I make this comparison, but I think that the average boy scout is better than the average, non-scouting young man. He has better training, higher standards, more purpose, and greater honor, than many of his peers. Are a scout's standards high enough that he could consider his honor sacred? That's up to the scout, I guess. Is it that important to him? Only he can say. All I can say is that honor is important. Maybe not that important, but it's probably close. If your honor actually is sacred to you, then I guess I really shouldn't say anything, but it's a little too late for that.