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MELANIE PHILLIPS: An unholy war in the Guides and why we must ALL fight the secular bigots
By Melanie Phillips PUBLISHED: 22:10 GMT, 25 August 2013 | UPDATED: 13:16 GMT, 26 August 2013

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Like a poorly knotted woggle, the attempt by the Girl Guides to rope in the new generation is now steadily unravelling. In June, the Guides announced they were changing the historic promise made by all Guides and Brownies from to love my God to be true to myself and develop my beliefs. They would also drop the pledge to serve my country, which was to be replaced by my community.

According to the Chief Guide, Gill Slocombe, the old promise, which included 'to love my God', put some girls off because they found it 'confusing'. The new formula, she said, would be easier for Guides to make and keep

According to the Chief Guide, Gill Slocombe, the old promise put some girls off because they found it confusing. The new formula, she said, would be easier for Guides to make and keep. The change which comes into force in six days time was received with horror and outrage by Christians, and left many others bemused and uneasy. It seemed to be just a crude and shallow attempt by the Guiding establishment to rebrand itself as modern, by dumping timeless values. Much worse was to follow, though. Guide groups in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, rightly dismayed by the proposed change, announced last week that they would encourage their girls and leaders to continue to use the old promise. In a letter written jointly with a local vicar, they insisted the movement had to keep God at its core. Impeccably fair-minded and inclusive, they also proposed to offer the new promise to anyone who might prefer that form of words. Yet in response, Ms Slocombe said such rebels need to accept this change, and even suggested they could be forced out of the movement altogether if they did not. So much for diversity! For with this not-so-veiled threat, the true intention of the movements leaders has been laid bare. A move they claimed to be more inclusive has turned out to be entirely the opposite.

The change in promise seems to be just a shallow attempt by the Guiding establishment to rebrand itself as modern, by dumping timeless values. Girl Guides from East London, in 1957, pictured

Indeed, it now stands revealed as being actively discriminatory, and far from pulling down any (mythical) barriers to joining the movement, the Guide leaders are actually putting them up. Under the spurious guise of encouraging membership by atheists, or (inexplicably) those with an aversion to serving their country, the Guides are now threatening to expel those who wish to express a religious belief. A belief, moreover, which forms the basis of the Christian values in which the Girl Guide movement is rooted, and on which its identity rests. Yet this movement is now actively discriminating against those who wish to proclaim the continuation of those religious values at its own core. Having dumped God and country altogether, it is now actually forbidding Guides on pain of excommunication to promise to serve anything beyond themselves. Is this not beyond perverse?

Under the spurious guise of encouraging membership by atheists, the Guides are now threatening to expel those who wish to express a religious belief

For there is no reason why the new promise needs to be exclusive of any other. After all, the Scouts apparently intend to offer atheists an alternative promise rather than abandon the existing one. Other institutions have long done something similar to accommodate both believers and non-believers. When you swear to tell the truth in court, for example, or take the oath of allegiance as a new Member of Parliament, you are given the choice to swear on the Bible or to affirm. Just imagine if you were forbidden to give evidence in court or take your seat in Parliament if you insisted on swearing on the Bible! Of course this would be utterly unthinkable. And yet that is precisely what the Guides are now doing. As church leaders have pointed out, this is nothing other than secular totalitarianism. There is thus a weary absence of surprise upon learning that the Guides chief executive, Julia Bentley, formerly headed an abortion and contraception group. For it is hard to think of a background which more powerfully symbolises merciless and doctrinaire individualism. Indeed, to Ms Bentley the Guides are the ultimate feminist organisation but tsk! too middle-class. Thus she revealed herself to be just another politically correct zealot, standing for the secular sectarianism of group rights. For far from serving the whole of society, each such interest group exists to gain power over everyone else and damns anyone who stands in its way. Indeed, this is why political correctness is not remotely liberal at all, but viciously oppressive. It is simply a mechanism for re-ordering the world according to a particular dogma and thus inescapably stifles all dissent. Innately hostile to traditional morality, it paves the way for a secular Inquisition in which todays Torquemadas are the ideologues of such group rights and it is Christians and other religious believers who are the heretics to be silenced by force.

'Political correctness' is not remotely liberal at all, but viciously oppressive. It is simply a mechanism for re-ordering the world according to a particular dogma - and thus inescapably stifles all dissent (file picture)

It is, indeed, the principal weapon of unholy war wielded by the forces of militant secularism, which are intent upon destroying the Judeo-Christian basis of western morality. It supplants traditional morality and the concepts of right and wrong, truth and lies by a creed which says in effect, Whatever is right for you is right. It also seeks to replace patriotism and service to ones country by serving the community. This is yet another slippery concept, which today can simply amount to membership of just such an interest group which is in the business of elbowing out other interest groups in the greedy clamour for entitlements. So the new Guiding promise is all about being true to me, myself and my beliefs, whatever they may happen to be. It represents the antithesis of duty to others. It says, more or less, I promise to serve myself. It is a promise for a narcissistic, self-centred and morally vacuous age.

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And now we can see also that it is about brutally trampling underfoot the beliefs of others. Pinch yourself: this is the Girl Guides we are talking about, for heavens sake! They have now managed to embody the aggressive secularism and hyper-individualism that the retiring Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, talked about yesterday when he told BBC Radios Sunday Programme that British society

was losing the plot. As he said, religious faith underpins the existence of trust. When religion breaks down, trust breaks down. When society becomes secularised, the collapse of trust and the rise of individualism mean the breakdown of social institutions such as the family. Worse than that, by replacing God with an ideology which brooks no dissent, individualism is a mechanism for illiberalism and even tyranny as these groups get their way through tactics of insult, professional ostracism or outright banning. Now, though, some Christians are fighting back. Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, said that he hoped many others would join the rebellion by the Harrogate Guide groups. And now some churches are saying they will deny the Guides the use of church halls, which hitherto hundreds of their groups have used for free. As the Rev Paul Williamson, vicar of St Georges church in Feltham, West London, has said, it would be hypocritical of the Guides to expect to use the churchs premises after abandoning its core beliefs. Thats the spirit! Such responses show that, faced with the kind of secular intolerance that is now in danger of pushing Christianity to the very margins of society, the Church is not altogether on its knees. Churches should deny the Guides use of their premises. Guide groups should offer the old promise, and people should refuse to join those that do not. Only through such mass resistance will the secular zealots who have hijacked the Girl Guides be faced down, and a great institution be restored to the defence of a decent society, rather than hastening its demise.

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Comments (351)
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The girl guides are loosing numbers, so highly paid CEO thinks let's go after a new market ..... Atheists, people who hate their country, narcisists and the me , me ,me generation. How many people fitting that description would actually want to join the girl guides? - Babe , In Belgium, 26/8/2013 15:08 Click to rate Report abuse How exactly are the Guides "middle class"?! I grew up in a coal-mining area where there were several Guides/Brownies/Boys Brigade companies; no-one regarded themselves as anything but working class. - World Citizen , Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 26/8/2013 14:55 Click to rate Report abuse Our Church sponsors:- A Ranger unit, three Guide Companies, Four Brownie Packs and Three Rainbow groups. They are sponsored in the form of free or highly subsidised accommodation (even where some of the groups meet in local schools). The Guides are part of our Church family and the majority of the leaders are drawn from the congregation. Given the Chief Guide's attempt to alienate the Church, can this situation remain, can an atheistic Guide movement realistically be considered part of the Church Family? If we now charge commercial rates for the Guides to use our premises, heating and lighting will the Secular Society reimburse the Guides? The Secular Society is spectacularly unsuccessful at producing its own organisations for the good of society and seems only able to try and undermine those based on religious faiths. I believe this to be wrong in principle and also a rather foolish example of biting the hand that feeds. - MIcroscopist , Ayr, United Kingdom, 26/8/2013 14:53 Click to rate Report abuse England already destroyed itself and its culture with its open border. It is a little too late to be worried about Girl Guide oaths isn't it? - Hashut , Chicongo, United States, 26/8/2013 14:51 Click to rate Report abuse CHRISTIANITY / RELIGION is FINISHED in the UK.....nobody believes in the Bible and its teachings.......PEOPLE only BELIEVE in themselves and what they can get for nothing from other people and the State .......This GOVERNMENT run by two of the biggest ANTI -CHRISTIANS [ namely Cameron and Clegg ] has slowly doctrinated the masses this way in a very short space of time ....especially CLEGG ....and Cameron is not far behind......BOTH are EVIL and people should wise up to that QUICKLY..... - Mart25 I Bolton , Bolton, 26/8/2013 14:50 Click to rate Report abuse Spot on Melanie. Nan, Lincolnshire - yes, non-Christian groups do meet in church halls - but the Guides are now a group that has explicitly rejected Christianity, so yes, it would be hypocritical of them to carry on using church halls. - Isabella_Jackman , Germany, 26/8/2013 14:49 Click to rate Report abuse Sigh.....why has my home country been eroded so much? Is nothing sacred anymore? - catwoman9 , portugal, 26/8/2013 14:40 Rating 48 Rating (0) Rating 19 Rating 49 Rating 71 Rating 46

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I am a girlguide leader and im all for change, but as I have said before whats wrong with, judging each new member on how they should make there promise, I feel that new members should be taught both promises and let them make there own choice which one they feel happy with. That way there is a choice and we might get some new members, I feel that each member should be given a choice and not be forced into anything. katie - kevin , egham surrey, United Kingdom, 26/8/2013 14:40 Click to rate Report abuse Sounds to me like a Left wing apple has got in the barrel - tommy, kernow, United Kingdom, 26/8/2013 9:39 Strange that I never see anyone referring to 'right-wingers'. Probably because, compared to Ms P and the rest on here, 95% of the country would be considered to be 'left wing'. - john , Macclesfield, United Kingdom, 26/8/2013 14:37 Click to rate Report abuse Just because young girls want to learn to raise tents, do nots, track animals and enjoy the great outdoors with their friends, does not mean it has to involve organised religion/imaginary friends of any nomination. Exactly the opposite should be the case as very few religions and certainly none of the three big middle eastern religions(of which christianity is one) is in any way kind to the female half (well actually 52%) of the population or has any respect for it. Your religion/your imaginary friends are just that - yours - to be worshipped in the privacy of your home or in your church/mosque/synagoge/temple/blothus etc. of your choice. No where else and certainly not in a youth organisation for all of society. - scandinavianwoman , London, United Kingdom, 26/8/2013 14:27 Click to rate Report abuse Share this comment The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Rating 15 Rating 11 Rating 6

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