Related
Translate
Previous entry: Turban clinics offer new ties for young Sikhs
Next entry: ORU gets checks for $62 million
Get RNB via RSS
 |
RNB's RSS feed What is this? |
Get RNB via Email
 |
 Subscribe by Email What is this? |
Follow: Twitter
Most Popular
This Week:
- Guyana’s Jonestown suicide site gets plaque
- Gaddafi preaches Islam to Rome beauties
- Scientology practices ‘putting people at risk’
- Recession: Muslim schools in UK under threat of closure
- Muslim terrorist: Psychiatrist’s lap-dancing outings before massacre
- Australian senator tells Parliament of widespread criminal conduct within the Church of Scientology
- When a child dies, faith is no defense
- Muslim terrorists smuggle fatwas promoting Jihad out of secure UK prisons
- Techie Holy water and geeky bishops
- Israel Charges Extremist With Attempted Murder Of Messianic Family
UK: Scout oath claimed to be religious discrimination
More articles on this topic: AtheismThe Scout Association has been reported to the equality watchdog for allegedly discriminating against atheists by making them swear an oath to God.
Ever since Lord Baden-Powell founded the 100-year-old organisation, the promise by scouts to do their duty to God and the Queen has been as much a part of their movement as jamborees, woggles and the three-fingered salute.
Now, however, it has become the latest target of secularists when the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association complained to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
They are furious that the Scout Association is refusing to scrap the pledge required of every new member, which they said was excluding “a growing number of children without belief”.
Members in Britain, where there are nearly half a million scouts, have to promise to “do their best to do their duty to God and to the Queen”, to help other people and to keep Scout law.
To accomodate the movement’s 28 million members around the world, the words can be modified to encompass non-Christian faiths.
The Scout guidelines state: “The phrase ‘to love God’ and ‘duty to God’ implies belief in a supreme being and the acceptance of divine guidance and therefore the word ‘God’ can be replaced by ‘Allah’, ‘my Dharma’ or others as appropriate to suit the faith or religion of the individual concerned.”
But the two secular bodies said in a joint letter to Derek Twine, the chief executive of the Scout Association, that the requirement for members to have a faith should now be made optional.
They said that the Association’s stance was “completely unacceptable” for an organisation “that is so committed to personal development of young people and that claims to foster mutual understanding between different beliefs, which of course should include those of no belief.”
They also criticised it for claiming on its website that it was “inclusive”, and called on it to make ambiguously clear that it was a religious organisation. Scouting leaders said that they had no intention of changing the oath drawn up by Lord Baden-Powell, a “muscular Christian” who believed that faith was an essential element in the development of young people.
Stephen Peck, the Association’s director of programmes and development, said: “It is fundamental to scouting that young people are helped to understand their spirituality. It is in our lifeblood.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission, which was set up in October and which is headed by Trevor Phillips, said it was committed to a vision of fairness, but it was too early to comment on this case.
What You Can Do From Here
|
Read More Articles On These Topics
Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article
Subscribe
Read Another Article
Previous entry: Turban clinics offer new ties for young Sikhs Next entry: ORU gets checks for $62 million
RNB Homepage with latest headlinesFind Related Information
Find Related Books
|
Share This Article
To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:
