Girl Guides membership - our daughter cannot join?

duchy

emslovesmickey wrote: »

I wonder what the uproar would be if they excluded someone because they were muslim, jew, hindu, or any other religion? The same should be applied if they are excluding somebody who has belief in no higher power.

Don't be so silly -the promise is "To love MY God" all those faiths have a God. Bit stupid to try and railroad this without justification don't you think ? Nothing to do with muslims, jews , wicans etc

I'm glad the guides have moved on -I can remember my patrol losing points because my (other religion than Christianity) Father wouldn't let me attend church parade once a month.

Cat501

I'd tell them I pray to Joe Pesci.

If it's good enough for George Carlin, it's good enough for me

claire16c

milliebear00001 wrote: »

My daughter made her Brownie promise as a non-believer. She was never questioned about her religious beliefs and she didn't blink at the promise she made, despite being fairly vociferous normally about her lack of belief in a supernatural God.

I do think it's a little unusual for a Leader to delve into belief with a Guide - never had it happen before (and I was a Guide myself).

I do accept that a requirement of belonging to the Guides is to make a promise to love 'a supernatural God', but it might be worth reminding this Leader than although she can force a verbal promise, she cannot know the content of one's mind and therefore cannot guarantee any of her members really believe in a supernatural power. Similarly, she would have to accept all Gods as equal - including faith in Wicca/Satan/etc. Buddhists do not technically believe in a supernatural power either...

Is she really going to exclude your daughter, who fulfils every other part of the promise', because of one aspect of it? I don't find that very in keeping with Christian values (although I am not a Christian myself). My local Church has a big sign outside saying 'all welcome' - and see a big part of their community role as reaching out to everyone, including those who do not believe.

I agree.

I went to brownies and I remember saying the love god part at 7 or however old I was, and thinking what a load of rubbish but just said it anyway and then forgot about it.

None of the leaders asked us anything about it, I dont think they were really religious anyway. None of the activities we did were related to a a church or religion. We just played games, did crafts etc!

Id just say you believe in the god of friendship/shopping/pop star whatever if they really push for one!

zaxdog

Brownies and guides were utter pants anyway IMHO! Serving tea and knitting :eek:

I bailed and joined the scouts where my scout leader couldn't have given a toss that I was a Pagan republican.

ALIBOBSY

It can depend on the group concerned. Some brownie/guide/scout groups are directly affiliated with a church. We have a local one that meets in the church school attached to the church we go to. The girls all tend to be ones who go to that school and the church, but I have never heard anyone ask the kids (including DD1 who went for 18 months or so until she became gymnastic mad lol) about their religon although they do attend church parade. TBH there is also a pack about 5 mins away who meet in a local community centre who are not linked to any churches and don't attend any churches.

Given the leaders age and if this is a pack attached to a church it may well be expected that the kids have some belief, but without speaking calmly to the leader concerned to find out exactly what was said and what the situation is (lets face it kids do miss understand sometimes-as we all do, and the leader may well have been caught on the hop so to speak). Until you have spoken to her directly you can't know the exact situation.

If this leader is being awkward you could take it higher, but to be frank as other posters have said if you have to push things to get your daughter included how difficult will it be to fit in or be treated equally. May be worth checking for other local guiding groups who perhaps aren't attached to a church? Or are less religous?

Good luck
Ali x

BTW I am a christian, but absolutely defend anyone right to believe in whatever they believe in and when I was a brownie leader many moons ago it was never discussed.

mikey72

apples1 wrote: »

Our daughter has been to Brownies since age 7 & just moved up to Guides. It's run by different people in a different venue. She loved her first week. This week the leader was talking though the Girl Guides book with her and discussing The Promise she has to say. She asked our daughter which God she believed in and our daughter said she didn't believe in God.

We have now been told by the leader this is a problem if she wants to join guides as she doesn't have to believe in the Christian God but must believe in a God. The Girl Guide website says Guides is open to all girls from all backgrounds.

She would have been happy to recite the promise as she did at Brownies but now the leader has actively asked her and she has told the truth it makes it very hard to now have to pick some obscure God and pretend to have developed a faith. Seems she either has to do that or she cannot join. Subs are paid, uniform bought and she really wants to go!

You don't actually have to do the Promise to be a member though.

WeirdoMagnet

I'm a Brownie Guider and I don't believe in God. Neither does the other Guider in our unit, and we are both quite upfront about it. In fact I knew when I made my Brownie (and Guide) promise many years ago that I didn't believe in God, but just went through the motions, because that was what you had to say.

OP, I would have a chat to the Guider and if you don't get any joy, speak to the District Commissioner.

Seems to be quite a few misconceptions about Girlguiding on this thread - GGUK has half a million members in the UK, whilst Scouting has less than that and takes both girls and boys, so Brownies and Guides are obviously not quite as boring/rubbish as some would like to make out! :rotfl:

Fire_Fox

What about Ceiling Cat and the Lolcat Bible? Or become a Pastafarian and worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deities
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parody_religion
http://www.woodcraft.org.uk/

suejb2

Become a Jedi convert

barbiedoll

poet123 wrote: »

So is anyone welcome to join the brights?

Absolutely! It's for everyone who is disillusioned with religious interference in matters of State, the way that religion is given special status when it is unwarranted, the interference from religion in matters such as OP's, etc etc. All are welcome!