Today’s big news is that the Girl Guides have dropped God from their official oath. The wording of the Girl Guide Promise, pledged by any girl joining the organisation, has been changed from “I promise that I will do my best to love my God” to “I promise that I will do my best to be true to myself and develop my beliefs”. The Chief Guide Gill Slocombe hailed the new Promise as more inclusive, stating that "Guiding believes in having one Promise that is a clear statement of our core values for all our members to commit to. We hope that our new Promise will allow all girls – of all faiths and none – to understand and feel proud of their commitment." The National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association have welcomed the change, and why should they not?
However, some disapproving commentators are ready to offer reasons why this new Promise isn’t so great. The main concerns are over “loss of the sense of tradition and history”, as God has featured in the oath since the founding of the Guides in 1910. Not surprisingly, the Church of England appealed to the Guides to keep God in the pledge when the change was still under consideration. Now that the new Promise has been revealed, there have even been worries that the British society has now said goodbye to Christianity completely. Or at least is about to do so. The new wording has also raised concerns over the increasingly individualistic nature of our society: it has been described as an egoistic “self-help manual” that encourages girls to become spoiled, selfish brats. The new Promise has also been accused of reducing all beliefs to the same level (Cristina Odone at the Telegraph compares it to equating crystal-gazing with prayer), and thus opening the door to “Satanists and anarchists”.
Before (once again) predicting the end of the world as we know it, let’s look at some facts. First of all, the Promise has been re-worded 10 times before, so this one is not exactly a unique occurrence. The decision to change the Promise now was made after Girl Guides consulted 44,000 people, a quite considerable number. The results of this consultation showed that the main concern over the existing Promise concerned the “love of God” statement, and a wish for a more inclusive oath was expressed by many. As for the loss of the Christian values of the nation, the Guides was never an exclusively Christian (not to mention Anglican) organisation, but was founded by the lieutenant-general Robert Baden-Powell as a reflection of his experiences in the military. The Girl Guides have furthermore always accepted members of any religious orientation.
Today, the organisation has around 550,000 members that come from a variety of belief backgrounds. The assumption that the Guides is a Christian organisation is quite outdated, and has even caused problems. Earlier this year, a Girl Guides group in Sussex was barred from convening in the St. Leonard’s Church in Hove because it was not attending enough religious services. The group leader was understandably upset about the Vicar’s decision to ask the girls to quit using the church hall after 86 years of cooperation: “I think the vicar is completely out of touch. Half the girls are of a different faith and we also have a Muslim youngster, so a high proportion of the group are not even Anglican.” Changing the Promise into a secular form could indeed be a wish of the girls themselves. A Girl Guides study in 2012 found that 70% of girls aged 7 to 21 across the UK thought that religious belief should be personal, and should not affect public issues such as education or politics. The new Promise to “do my best to be true to myself and develop my beliefs” is therefore very suitable for the modern Girl Guide: one is allowed to hold on to her personal beliefs, but not forced to mix it with scouting activities.
How about the fears that secular pledges will lead to animal sacrifice badges (for the little Satanists) and pushing grannies under buses, rather than helping them over the road? Now, where have we heard that before? Sounds awfully like the “next you can marry your dog” type of arguments against same-sex marriage. But, as with gay marriage, unfortunately for those betting on the slippery slope from “being true to myself” to “where’s my ritual knife?” the evidence is not on their side. Canadian Girl Guides removed God from their Promise in 2010. No reports of outbreaks of nihilism or anarchy there. Australian Girl Guides followed suit in 2012, by dropping both God and the Queen from their Promise. Even then the Guides down-under did not start to gather in graveyards. And, if the Boy Scouts of America will survive allowing openly gay members, the Girl Guides of the UK will probably continue just fine without pledging love for God.
While the new Promise might not be the greatest victory for secularism, it is nevertheless a positive development. A nationwide organisation aimed at children should not require any faith. Scouting activities do not necessitate a deity, and so should be accessible to all kids regardless of their beliefs. And if you seriously wish your daughter to pledge fealty to a supreme being in order to take part in scouting fun, never fear, as the Promise still includes the Queen.
