Many would have seen the news item of a few days ago describing a radical change to the Girl Guides. They are dumping God and Queen for some reason, and basically renouncing the very foundation of the group. In the name of trendiness, openness and relativism it seems, they have dumped these century-old foundation stones from the organisation.
The old Guide Promise says this:
“I promise that I will do my best:
To do my duty to God, to serve the Queen and my country;
To help other people; and
To keep the Guide Law.”
The new Guide Promise says this:
“I promise that I will do my best:
To be true to myself and develop my beliefs
To serve my community and Australia
And live by the Guide Law.”
There is no question that the founder of both the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides would be shocked by all this. In 1908 Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts, and with his wife and sister he founded the Girl Guides in 1910. God was always a basic component of this, so to see him stripped away to make the Girl Guides politically correct is quite appalling.
Of course one simply has to look at the homepage of this organisation to see how far it is moving away from its roots. Splashed all over it are various ads and promotions for this and that UN activities. The homepage features UNICEF and the recent UN Rio climate conference.
Why a globalist, pro-abortion, and secularist UN has such a huge role to play here indicates a group that has long ago lost its way. Its moral and religious bearings seem to have been on the decline for quite some time now. And the Boy Scouts have also been dumping their roots big time as well.
Consider these four paragraphs which I penned back in 1999 about the situation then in Australia:
“Recently the English Scout Association lifted a ban on homosexuals becoming troop leaders. The move has infuriated the family of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouts movement. And well it should. When he established the Scout movement in 1908, Baden-Powell made clear that the Scout movement was to train young men in the Christian faith and biblical values.
“Concerned that the decision to allow homosexuals would affect Australia, I called a leader of the Scouting Association here and was quite surprised by his response. He told me that it is illegal to discriminate against gays; that the Scouts are taught to be law abiding, so they cannot exclude gays; that times are changing – these are the 1990s, and we live in a multicultural, pluralistic society, and cannot be exclusive. When I pressed him about changes to Baden-Powell’s original intentions, he dismissed this concern by saying that the Bible is not clear about homosexuality, that churches disagree on the issue, and we cannot really say it is wrong. He also said that about 15 years ago the Scouts motto to serve God, Queen and country was changed to ‘my God’ to allow for Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, etc.
“The secularisation of the scouts and the corresponding compromise on clear-cut moral issues is to be pitied. Of even more concern is the response of its leadership. It is no wonder that things are in such a mess, when people who should be promoting the interests of our youth are instead more concerned to push for special rights for minority groups and taking the easy (and dead-wrong) path of political correctness.
“I am reminded of the words of Christ who said: ‘If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea’ (Matthew 18:6).”
So the rot has been setting in for quite some time now it appears. Anything to strip God out of a young person’s life, along with any moral absolutes and universal values. So now instead of God and Queen, we have this watered-down and anaemic bit of advice: “I promise that I will do my best: To be true to myself and develop my beliefs.”
True to myself? And what if self is in fact a self-centred little tyrant which puts Numero Uno ahead of everyone else? Sound a bit strong? Not at all – that is simply the biblical description of every single boy and girl – and man and woman – on the planet.
Apart from Christ coming into our lives, rescuing us from our sin and selfishness, we are all just dirty rotten scoundrels. That is why God was such a vital component of the scouting movement. The founders knew perfectly well that none of the good works of scouts could even be possible without God.
But now the Girl Guides has dumped the vision and intention of their founders to “go with the times” and embrace secularism, relativism, and the PC agenda it seems. At least a few others have been concerned about this as well. NSW MLC Fred Nile put out a press release stating in part:
“The Girl Guides’ leadership have completely ignored the facts – over 80% of Australians believe in God – Christians, Jews and Muslims. In the 1999 Referendum, the overwhelming majority of Australians, of all religions and ethnic backgrounds, voted to retain Queen Elizabeth II as the Queen of Australia and rejected the republic.
“I was disgusted to see the Girl Guides, in a special ceremony, were removing the Queen’s portrait from their meeting halls. They should be ashamed of themselves for this act of disloyalty. I urge the families of Girl Guide members to complain to their executive and Director and threaten to boycott the Girl Guides until they reverse this shameful, disloyal and atheistic policy.”
Yes quite so. But it seems today nothing is immune from the secularising crusaders and the moral relativists. Whether it is the militant homosexual lobby, or the atheist brigades, they are working overtime to destroy all faith-based organisations and replace them with ones remade in their own radical image.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-05/girl-guides-drop-queen-god-from-promise/4113022
http://www.girlguides.org.au/About-Us/history-of-guiding.html
http://www.girlguides.org.au/
http://www.cdp.org.au/component/jnews/mailing/view/listid-3/mailingid-1663/listype-1.html
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