Scouts Welcome Atheists a Century after Baden-Powell Demonised Them

To the founder, Lord Baden-Powell, it was as much a peril for a young man to avoid as gambling, drunkenness, swearing or the wiles of the opposite sex.

The Telegraph reports:

But more than a century after the Scouting movement was founded, it is finally preparing to recognise atheism on a par with Christianity and other religions.

The association is consulting its members on plans to draft an alternative oath without references to God, allowing atheists to become full members and Scout group leaders for the first time.

It follows accusation of discrimination and intolerance after an 11-year-old boy was barred from full membership because he said he did not believe in God.

George Pratt was told he could not join 1st Midsomer Norton Scout Group in Somerset, after saying he felt unable to make the traditional promise to do his best to do his “duty to God and to the Queen, to help other people and to keep the Scout Law”…

But although atheists who decline to swear the oath are allowed to become “associate” members and even help run Scout groups as helpers, they are barred from becoming full members or leaders.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph today, the chief executive of the Scout Association, Derek Twine, argues that the current rules simply force people to become “hypocritical or dishonest” by taking the promise against their own beliefs.

Describing the move as an “historic change”, he adds: “All bodies have to stay fresh and current, while remaining true to their founding principles.”

He goes on: “Let me be quite clear and reassure readers of all backgrounds: the original Scout Promise will remain untouched, but for those who have no faith, there would be a new alternative.”

The shift in policy comes in marked contrast to the stance adopted by Baden-Powell. In his book of advice for boys, “Rovering for Success”, Baden-Powell ranked atheism alongside gambling, excessive drinking, smoking and even syphilis as a danger to be avoided.

Likening organisations for atheists as “sects”, he spoke of adherents as “enemies of the worst sort” and warned against “very offensive” attacks on religious belief.

“If you are really to make your way to success – ie happiness – you must not only avoid being sucked in by irreligious humbugs, but you must have a religious basis to your life,” he wrote.

Yesterday Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said: “This is a move in the right direction.

“By adjusting their promise to include people without a religious belief, the Scouts will bring themselves in line with the reality of 21st century Britain, where more than two thirds of young people say they have no religious belief.”

Yesterday George Pratt’s father Nick said: “It’s good news, we will wait and see what transpires but if they let George back in that will be mission accomplished.”

 

Archbishop Chaput Discusses Secularism

Woolworths and Rosaries

I was at Woolies yesterday looking for a new pair of jean (the only pair I had was just too faded) and I saw what I thought to be rosaries! Woolworths selling sacramentals?! Not quite.

On closer inspection, they seemed to be nothing more than fashion accessories. They had plain crosses and the division of decades wasn’t right either.

Some of the crosses fell off and were lying around.

They must be selling I suppose. Commercialism.

Until someone complains about the crosses…

 

‘Secular’ Grounds for Supporting Israel

Kairos Journal

From John Hagee to John Piper, Christians are weighing in on whether the promises of God in Genesis warrant special support for the state of Israel. While this is a fascinating discussion with powerful implications, one need not settle this issue before deciding to stand with Israel against its foes. For there is a “secular” argument for supporting this nation, a case grounded in Western Civilization and the broad biblical notions upon which it rests.

Israel’s safety is not a narrowly Christian or Jewish concern, any more than Western support of Japan over China in the Cold War was a narrowly Buddhist or Shinto concern. The overriding issue is preservation of democratic ideals, including religious liberty and the right to free expression, in an ideologically hostile region.

Space here permits only the leanest outline of this argument, which appears in the Kairos Journal booklet, Israel and Legitimacy: Modern Achievement vs Islamic Prejudice:

1. Islam predominates overwhelmingly in the region (including the West Bank). Her scripture denigrates Jews racially¹ and prescribes their subjugation. This attitude is reflected, for example, in the constitutive documents of Hezbollah and Hamas² and would seem to make conflict intractable.

2. Israel is the only genuine “parliamentary democracy” in the region,³ with its leaders accountable to the people through the many parties that represent them, and the military strictly accountable to these elected leaders.

3. As Franklin Roosevelt observed a century and a half after America’s founding, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy is education.”⁴ Because Israel is the educational leader in the region, she offers the best promise for enduring fraternity with the democratic nations of the earth.⁵

4. The Israeli populace, outnumbered 14 to 1 by its immediate neighbors, sustains the region’s only journalistic powerhouse. Here alone does the expression “free press” ring true. There are more than 40 print newspapers in Israel, with more than 20 of them appearing daily—and contentiously so.⁶

5. Israelis have distinguished themselves as stewards of the land. As John Kennedy put it, “I first saw Palestine in 1939. There the neglect and ruin left by centuries of Ottoman misrule were slowly being transformed by miracles of labor and sacrifice. But Palestine was still a land of promise in 1939, rather than a land of fulfillment. I returned in 1951 to see the grandeur of Israel.”⁷

6. Israel “has more scientists and engineers per capita than any other country,” and the fruit of their research and technology is a blessing to nations of every ethnicity and conviction.⁸

7. Israel relies upon the knowledge, resourcefulness, and initiative of its women to keep it strong and fruitful—in the marketplace, journalism, the military, the corporate boardroom, the university, and the halls of government—and educates them equally and fully to that end. This is unique in the region.⁹

8. Though its record is not spotless, the Israeli Defense Forces train their soldiers in the “Purity of Arms,” characteristic of the Western just war tradition: “The soldier shall not employ his weaponry and power in order to harm non-combatants or prisoners of war, and shall do all he can to avoid harming their lives, bodies, honor and property.”¹⁰ Terrorism is condemned and not condoned, celebrated, or even rewarded, as it is in the neighborhood.¹¹

9. As England’s chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, has put it, “Today there are 82 Christian nations and 56 Muslim ones, but only one Jewish one: in a country . . . one quarter of one per cent of the land mass of the Arab world.”¹² With the annihilation of one-third the Jews on earth in WWII, it is important that the Diaspora Jewish people have a place to stand, and a place to flee from persecution around the world. In this connection, over 200,000 Russians¹³ and around 100,000 Ethiopians¹⁴ have emigrated to Israel in recent decades, the latter through special operations named Moses, Sheba, Joseph, and Solomon.

10. Declarations of the Palestinian refugees’ “right of return” to Israel mask deeper realities — that, before the 1948 conflict, many “West Bank” Arabs (Muslim and Christian alike) opposed Jewish settlement on duly-purchased land (almost 800 square miles);¹⁵ that many of those who left did so voluntarily, trusting they could return once Israel was destroyed by the Muslim nations which invaded the day after her founding;¹⁶ that of the surrounding Arab nations, only Jordan has granted their brother Arabs a path to citizenship;¹⁷ that Jewish refugees from Arab lands have forfeited tens of billions of dollars worth of property, without receiving apologies or compensation;¹⁸ that repatriation of the Palestinians and their families would mean demographic suicide for Israel,¹⁹ whose Jews would then face the same difficulties they do in other Muslim-majority nations where they might abide.

From the beginning, Israel has lived under dire circumstances, and today is no different. So it is vital to recognize that there is a cultural and political kinship with the Israelis that calls us to stand against those who would cripple or destroy her. This does not mean endorsing all she does; it does mean rejecting the specious claims of moral equivalency employed to compromise or neutralize her sovereignty.

Footnotes:

1	For example, Qur’an 5:60.
2	For instance, the Hamas Covenant blames WWI and WWII on the Jews, and credits them with founding such nefarious “secret societies” as Rotary and Lions (Article 22); it also rejects all “peaceful initiatives and conferences” concerning the status of the Palestinians, who have unquestioned right to all the land in question (Articles 11 and 13).
3	For instance, the CIA World Factbook designates Jordan, to the east, a “constitutional monarchy” and Syria, to the northeast, a “republic under an authoritarian regime.” Though Egypt is designated a “republic,” it seems, in the wake of the “Arab Spring,” that the army has the upper hand when it pleases.
4	Franklin Roosevelt, “Message for American Education Week,” The American Presidency Project Website, September 27, 1938, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15545#axzz1yvUvQJvd (accessed June 26, 2012).
5	In unfortunate contrast, as a writer for the Economist has observed, “The Middle East has a bad reputation when it comes to books; nowhere else do so few people read them.” See “Revolution between Hard Covers,” The Economist Website, January 28, 2012, http://www.economist.com/node/21543588 (accessed May 16, 2012).
6	Half again as many as one finds in metropolitan Chicago, whose population is roughly the same as Israel’s.
7	“Speech by Senator John F. Kennedy, Zionists of America Convention, Statler Hilton Hotel, New York, NY,” August 26, 1960, The American Presidency Project Website,http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=74217#axzz1jLMDZqNh (accessed May 4, 2012).
8	For instance, the Weizmann Institute of Science conducts cutting-edge medical research on the causes of Batten disease, “a rare but fatal neurodegenerative disorder that begins in childhood.”
9	Muslim women, whose literacy rate is well below that of their husbands (e.g., in Egypt, 59% versus 83%), are better known in literature for their writings of protest and lament (e.g., Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Cruel and Usual Punishment by Nonie Darwish; A God Who Hates by Wafa Sultan; The Trouble with Islam Today by Irshad Manji). And these Muslim women have been joined in their cause by such European writers as Italy’s Oriana Fallaci (The Rage and the Pride) and Norway’s Asne Seierstad (The Bookseller of Kabul).
10	From orientation packet for the Machtzavim-IDF Educational Leadership School in Jerusalem. See also “The Spirit of the IDF: The Ethical Code of the Israel Defense Forces,” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/IDF_ethics.html (accessed May 4, 2012).
11	Christopher Schult, Britta Sandberg, and Ansgar Mertin, “Life Insurance for Palestinian Suicide Bombers: Arab Bank Pays Out Blood Money,” Spiegel Website, February 9, 2007, http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,465438,00.html (accessed May 4, 2012).
12	Jonathan Sacks, “Israel Rightfully Belongs to the Jews,” in Israel: Opposing Viewpoints, ed. Myra Immell (Detroit: Greenhaven, 2011) 53-54.
13	Ofira Seliktar, “The Changing Political Economy of Israel: From Agricultural Pioneers to the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the Middle East,” in Israel’s First Fifty Years, ed. Robert O Freedman (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000), 211.
14	Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud El-Alami, The Palestine-Israeli Conflict, rev. ed. (Oxford: One World, 2003), 73.
15	[A]fter 1908 . . . a consistent activity against Jewish settlement started . . . which was undertaken mainly by two Arab newspapers: al-Filastin and al-Karmil. They were both owned by Palestinian Christians . See Anthony O’Mahony, “Palestinian Christians: Religion, Politics and Society, c. 1800-1948,” in Palestinian Christians: Religion, Politics and Society in the Holy Land, ed. Anthony O’Mahony (London: Melisende, 1999), 46.
16	Syria’s prime minister Khaled al-Azm, reflected on the situation: “Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return.” See James Ciment, Palestine/Israel: The Long Conflict (New York: Facts on File, 1997), 35.
17	Ciment, 38-39.
18	Richard L. Cravatts, “There Is No Right of Return,” in Israel: Opposing Viewpoints, ed. Myra Immell (Detroit: Greenhaven, 2011), 83.
19	Rashid Khalidi, “Truth, Justice and Reconciliation: Elements of a Solution to the Palestinian Refugee Issue,” in The Palestinian Exodus: 1948-1998 (Reading: Ithaca, 1999), 229.

HT:  Fr David MacGregor

Archbishop Vincent Nichols: Secularists are Holding Back the Faithful

We started blogging this morning with the post, Britain has gone from God-fearing to God-jeering (here). Well still with Britain:

The Archbishop of Westminster has said that intolerance is preventing believers from making “some of the best contributions” to the common good in Britain.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols has that secularists are holding back the faithful.

Speaking after an official state visit to the Holy See, Archbishop Vincent Nichols said that secularists, “with a kind of stubbornness, with a dogmatism, want to isolate faith and privatise it”, adding: “It is often that kind of intolerance of the reality of faith which is holding back some of the best contributions that can be made to the common good.”

His comments followed a speech to the Vatican by Cabinet Minister Baroness Warsi, who said that Britain was under threat from a rising tide of “militant secularisation”.

Baroness Warsi, who was leading an official visit to Rome, said that Britain had “got to the stage where aggressive secularism is being imposed by stealth, leaving us with the ironic situation where, to stave off intolerance against minorities, we end up being intolerant towards religion itself”.

She said that the most worrying part of “this militant secularisation” is that at “its core and in its instincts it is deeply intolerant”.

Baroness Warsi, Britain’s first Muslim female Cabinet Minister, led a ministerial delegation to the Vatican to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See.

Archbishop Nichols said that the visit marked the highest point in the modern history of diplomatic relations between Britain and the Holy See…

More here.

 

Churches of Holy Land Protest New Taxes in Israel

Heads of Christian churches expressed their deep concern on new changes aimed at taxation of churches’ real estate, writes Nouvelles d`Arménie.

Although former changes failed to be implemented, the Israel did not hide its intention of taxation on various churches’ real estate. The empty churches are also subjected to taxation.

The statement by an unofficial “Church heads of Holy Land of Jerusalem” group of Christian churches, officially recognized by Israel warned of serious consequences in case Israel implements the project.

Among heads of churches in Jerusalem are Armenian Patriarch, Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Latin Patriarch and other churches.

The above was reported on here.

‘Godless’ West Doomed to Collapse

And Europe leads the way…

Russia represents the best hope for Europe’s future, according to a prominent official of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“Russia has no future without conscience, morals and normal human relations and without faith,” Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin told a Russian television audience. He said that Russia’s abiding religious faith is the reason why the country represents “the best future” for Europe.

Other European countries, and the US, have lost their moral bearings because they have embraced secularism, the Russian cleric said. “The West is now that same godless system which has collapsed as Communism, it has collapsed as Nazism, and it will collapse as capitalism.”

Schools Ban Gideon Bibles to Avoid Upsetting other Faiths

Ah, let me guess… It can only be in multicultural Britain:

Schools have banned Christians from handing out Bibles to avoid angering other faiths.

The Gideons have become famed for handing out signature red Bibles to young children during school assemblies.

But they have been told to stay away from some classes because it may spark complaints from different faiths.

Abbot Beyne School and Paget High School near Burton On Trent in Staffordshire have made the controversial ban.

Maggie Tate, deputy head teacher of Abbot Beyne, said: ‘The reason we stopped the Gideons coming in is that we are a comprehensive multi-faith school. We felt it was inappropriate to allow one faith group to distribute material in school.’

She said all pupils at Abbot Beyne, Winshill were given moral-themed assemblies and that the school had the highest proportion of pupils in Staffordshire sitting GCSEs in religious education.

Headteacher at Paget High School in Branston, Don Smith, also cited multiculturalism [see, I told you] as the reason behind the decision to abolish the tradition…

The decision has caused outrage among Christians, who have accused the schools of trying to silence Christianity.

Gideons supporter Barry Martin said: ‘We live in a Christian country [I thought it was a Muslim country by now]. I think that if the Gideons want to offer Bibles to children then they should be allowed to do so.

‘Banning them is not right because these schools are trying to silence Christianity and we must fight to defend it [indeed]. Christians make this world a better place.’ [Amen].

Read more here.

But brainwash children with homosexual literature is perfectly acceptable!? What stupid godless people.

Religion May Become Extinct in Nine Nations

The BBC has news on a study that supposedly reveals that religion may become extinct in nine nations:

Half-empty church In the UK, Wales has the highest proportion of religiously “non-affiliated”

A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.

The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.

The team’s mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.

The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.

The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Nonlinear dynamics is invoked to explain a wide range of physical phenomena in which a number of factors play a part.

One of the team, Daniel Abrams of Northwestern University, put forth a similar model in 2003 to put a numerical basis behind the decline of lesser-spoken world languages.

At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the “utility” of speaking one instead of another.

“The idea is pretty simple,” said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.

“It posits that social groups that have more members are going to be more attractive to join, and it posits that social groups have a social status or utility.

“For example in languages, there can be greater utility or status in speaking Spanish instead of [the dying language] Quechuan in Peru, and similarly there’s some kind of status or utility in being a member of a religion or not.”

Dr Wiener continued: “In a large number of modern secular democracies, there’s been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%.”

The team then applied their nonlinear dynamics model, adjusting parameters for the relative social and utilitarian merits of membership of the “non-religious” category.

They found, in a study published online, that those parameters were similar across all the countries studied, suggesting that similar behaviour drives the mathematics in all of them.

And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.

However, Dr Wiener told the conference that the team was working to update the model with a “network structure” more representative of the one at work in the world.

“Obviously we don’t really believe this is the network structure of a modern society, where each person is influenced equally by all the other people in society,” he said.

However, he told BBC News that he thought it was “a suggestive result”.

“It’s interesting that a fairly simple model captures the data, and if those simple ideas are correct, it suggests where this might be going.

“Obviously much more complicated things are going on with any one individual, but maybe a lot of that averages out.”

The only thing I can think is parents are simply no longer instructing their children on the faith they should know…

Megachurches Becoming Gigachurches

Over the last decade, America’s 100 largest churches doubled in size:

In 2000, the 100 largest churches in the United States all had average weekly attendance of 4,000 people or more.

In 2010, only churches with average weekly attendance of 8,000 or more made the 100 largest churches list, according to megachurch researcher John N. Vaughan.

About half the churches on the list (49 percent) are non-denominational.

Sixteen percent are in the Los Angeles area, while 7 percent are in Dallas and 7 percent are in Houston. (Atlanta finishes fourth with 6 percent of the megachurches.)

The title and post hat tip go to First Thoughts.

Consumer Christianity seems to be doing really well. Let’s hope that the rest of the world is not soon polluted too by this fad, modern, innovative and crossless form of ‘church’.