Badges mean nothing in themselves, but they mark a certain achievement and they are a link between the rich and the poor. For when one girl sees a badge on a sister Scout's arm, if that girl has won the same badge, it at once awakens an interest and sympathy between them.

My first encounters with faith came about the time I was a Boy Scout, at about 14 or 15. I made the logical deduction that they operate the same way; I treated my faith like earning a merit badge, and everything about Christianity was about earning merit badges.

Badges mean nothing in themselves but they mark a certain achievement and they are a link between the rich and the poor. For when one girl sees a badge on a sister Scout's arm if that girl has won the same badge it at once awakens an interest and sympathy between them.