Girl Guides membership - our daughter cannot join?

banana1975

We are not a religious family but my daughter wanted to start Rainbows with her friends.

We have always said to her you can be your own god, she tells the leader this and they giggle, but she then tells them she makes her own destiny!!! This at 7...:rotfl:

ellie1788

im an assistant guide leader and we would never tell a girl she couldn't join just because she didn't have a belief in god. The brownies also mention god in their promise and songs from what i remember, so i dont see why she shouldn't be allowed to move from brownies to guides.

Person_one

Mojisola wrote: »

Scouts also include god in their promise.

Yeah, but I imagine they're far less likely to get all fussy about it like this.

They generally just want to put up tents and stuff.

valk_scot

Person_one wrote: »

Find a scout troop that accepts girls, she'll have far more fun and the chances are the people involved will be less up themselves and more aware of the real point of these groups, which is to make friends, mostly have fun and learn a few useful tricks along the way.

Yeah, I'd go with this one too. My DD dropped her Brownie pack and their pamper parties and girly crafts like a hot cake when we found a Cub & Scout group in the next village that took girls. Proper camping in tents, axes, fires, knives, woodcraft, sailing.....she never looked back, lol. There's quite a few girls there and they're all of one mind...sporty and active and with a strong determination to outdo the boys at ever activity!

We are vaguely religeous in a sort of hippy way btw so the promise wasn't a problem. But if the parents request the line about God can just be skipped, the child just doesn't say that line along with the others. I did ask what would happen if a family was a rabid anti-Royalist one, Scout Leader said it was enough to promise to try to be a decent human being and serve the community in his book.

barbiedoll

It's really quite shocking to me that in this day and age, an organisation that is meant to teach girls and young women the values of friendship, leadership, teamwork and mentoring, is still insisting on religious worship/belief as a criteria for becoming a member. They're basically saying that your daughter cannot join if she is open and honest about her lack of religious belief, but if she lies and says that she is a Christian/Sikh/Muslim/Buddist, they will welcome her with open arms. Would you really want your daughter to join an organisation which sets such a poor example to young people?

Your daughter could always tell them that she's a Bright. We're an organised group of atheists who campaign against atheist/humanist discrimination, have a look at the site.....

http://www.the-brights.net/

Grrrrr.....I'm very cross about this. Your daughter is lucky that I'm not her mum. I'd be shouting from the village rooftops that the Guides discriminate against honest, intelligent kids! :mad::mad:

poet123

barbiedoll wrote: »

It's really quite shocking to me that in this day and age, an organisation that is meant to teach girls and young women the values of friendship, leadership, teamwork and mentoring, is still insisting on religious worship/belief as a criteria for becoming a member. They're basically saying that your daughter cannot join if she is open and honest about her lack of religious belief, but if she lies and says that she is a Christian/Sikh/Muslim/Buddist, they will welcome her with open arms. Would you really want your daughter to join an organisation which sets such a poor example to young people?

Your daughter could always tell them that she's a Bright. We're an organised group of atheists who campaign against atheist/humanist discrimination, have a look at the site.....

http://www.the-brights.net/

Grrrrr.....I'm very cross about this. Your daughter is lucky that I'm not her mum. I'd be shouting from the village rooftops that the Guides discriminate against honest, intelligent kids! :mad::mad:

So is anyone welcome to join the brights?

FunWithFlags

Would it be possible for your daughter to just say she got confused and does believe if she really wants to go to Guides epecially if it's the only type of group in the area? Maybe she could say that she was confused by the question and thought it meant she wasn't religious because she doesn't go to church but that actually she does believe in god but just isn't a church goer?

It's a bit of a lie but as long as she understands and feels comfortable saying it and you feel comfortable too, the leader will be none the wiser and will be happy and your daughter will be able to go to Guides and be happy.

SmallL

Im female but was in scouts from the age of 10-16, i absolutely loved it, no prejudice to the fact im not religious and was the only ethnic minority (Half english/asian).
And as others have said there was alot of tent putting up, and none of those rubbish pop-up or slide the pole in types, proper canvas heavy ones!

thorsoak

OK - I accept that I am going to be flamed for this post - so flippin' what? Personally, I am not particularly religious, I do call myself a Christian - probably not a particularly good one - but I do find myself feeling sad that Christianity is being knocked by one and all - yet heaven forfend that anyone should criticise a muslim/pagan/carrot worshipper for their faith!

Someone said that the elderly (70s, I see to remember) Guide leader is a cra**py jobsworth - honestly - you think it fine to say something like that? The lady concerned is probably genuine in her faith, she would have joined the Guiding Association when her religion was acceptable and accepted. Now it is decried and disrespected.

I call that sad.

Person_one

thorsoak wrote: »

OK - I accept that I am going to be flamed for this post - so flippin' what? Personally, I am not particularly religious, I do call myself a Christian - probably not a particularly good one - but I do find myself feeling sad that Christianity is being knocked by one and all - yet heaven forfend that anyone should criticise a muslim/pagan/carrot worshipper for their faith!

Someone said that the elderly (70s, I see to remember) Guide leader is a cra**py jobsworth - honestly - you think it fine to say something like that? The lady concerned is probably genuine in her faith, she would have joined the Guiding Association when her religion was acceptable and accepted. Now it is decried and disrespected.

I call that sad.

Seeing as the guides are happy to accept people of all religions but not a little girl with no religion, I'm not sure why you think this is about Christianity?

Your comments aren't particularly shocking either, someone says "Why is it ok to attack Christianity when you wouldn't dare criticise another religion" roughly every 2.8 seconds, and that's just on this forum!