Australian Guides drop God and Queen in search for relevance

The promise made by the Guides in Australia used to be:
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.
It has now been changed to:
“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.”

Brenda Allen, director of Girl Guides Australia said that with the deletion of God and the Queen, the Guides hope “to be seen as more inclusive and a modern, relevant organization and that many more women will like to join us”

There is a spin on the change which implies that younger members will welcome this change while older members will find it controversial. Catholic observers familiar with the controversies over traditional liturgy will be instinctively skeptical about that. It is normally the elderly trendies in an organisation that think that relevance and "inclusivity" are going to attract the young. The young themselves will find these supposed values irrelevant and puzzling.

Young people will be attracted to the idea of serving others, striving for high goals, being loyal to great ideals. Being "true to myself" and "developing my beliefs" put the bar down to a level that is not really worth bothering with.


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