Allow secular scouts to make an affirmation instead of a religious oath.
Allow secular scouts to make an affirmation instead of a religious oath.
The Issue
Scouting is a much admired and imitated institution in the life of the UK. However, British society had changed greatly since Baden-Powell's day. Today we have children of many faiths wishing to become scouts, and some with no faith. While the movement has adapted to make scouting accessible for children of a non-Christian faith, the requirement to swear an oath to do a duty to God is a barrier to children from a secular background, The removal of this requirement is long overdue, and is the only way in which the Scouting Association can make scouting truly open, inclusive and accessible to all. Not to do so would be discriminatory and exclusive and would undermine the aim avowed in their motto "Scouting for all".
The Issue
Scouting is a much admired and imitated institution in the life of the UK. However, British society had changed greatly since Baden-Powell's day. Today we have children of many faiths wishing to become scouts, and some with no faith. While the movement has adapted to make scouting accessible for children of a non-Christian faith, the requirement to swear an oath to do a duty to God is a barrier to children from a secular background, The removal of this requirement is long overdue, and is the only way in which the Scouting Association can make scouting truly open, inclusive and accessible to all. Not to do so would be discriminatory and exclusive and would undermine the aim avowed in their motto "Scouting for all".
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Petition created on 18 October 2012