UK Scouts Admitting Atheists

The Boy Scouts of America continues to defend its discrimination against gays and atheists, but the Scout Association in Britain (where Scouting originated) has dropped its required pledge of loyalty to "God and to the Queen" for alternative options that allows atheists to be admitted.

The Times reports:

Under new guidelines issued to Scout leaders, Muslim Scouts — as well as Beavers and Cubs, the groups to which younger boys belong — can pledge their duty to Allah and Hindu Scouts to their Dharma. Atheists can promise to live life in “good moral standing”. In addition, children who are not British but live here can promise to do their duty to “the country in which I am now living” instead of promising allegiance to the Queen.

For republican recruits, there is the option of pledging “duty to the state and the laws of the state”. Members whose beliefs are not covered by any of the published alternatives can use other forms of wording agreed between their parents and the leader of their Scout group.

“Scouting is available to all faiths and, therefore, must take account of the different religious obligations of its members,” the new guidelines state. “To meet these circumstances, there are different forms of the Beaver Scout, Cub Scout and Scout promise that can be made, allowing for the individual’s obligations while upholding the essential spirit of the promise.

So, the new guidelines allow for the admission of more boys with more diverse cultural or religious backgrounds. Predictably, there are people who are upset at this notion of inclusiveness:

The changes have horrified some prominent former Scouts. Stephen Pound, the Labour MP and chairman of the all-party parliamentary Scout group, called the changes “profoundly retrograde, uncalled for and potentially extremely divisive”. ... “Scouting is the biggest international youth organisation and what we are now doing is removing one of the central tenets of internationalism, uniformity and common ethos that we all had. The point about the promise is that you do your duty to God and the Queen. The minute you start to change that, you create divisions within scouting because there is no single, all-encompassing ethos.”

For some strange reason, though, non-Christians in Britain — like Muslims and Sikhs — actually welcome the change. But what do they know? Perhaps Pound is right and Scouting should remain an exclusively Christian club that discriminates against all those who are "unfit" because they can't in good conscience take the same religious loyalty oath as traditional Christians do. It doesn't matter what the quality of their character is, all that matters is whether they are willing to mindlessly repeat a loyalty oath.

Wow, that sounds like an exciting and productive organization, doesn't it?

Update: It turns out that the above news article was incorrect: atheists still aren't allowed into the Boy Scouts in Britain.

Read More:

• Boy Scouts of America
• Religious Intolerance & Bigotry