BBC radio programme "You and Yours" including an interview
with UK scouting Chief scout Peter Duncan from March 13, 2007:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/ram/2007_11_tue.ram
segments with him are from
0:52 - 5:20
29:26 - 52:00
Starting at 46:16
[reading email from Hazel Fuller]
Belief in a god of some kind is an absolute requirement,
isn't it, for membership of the scouting movement? As
an atheist and Humanist, I hope I have a morality that
doesn't rely on a belief in a mystical and unprovable
being, but my children, were they still young enough to
join, would be barred from the excellent things that
scouting promotes. I don't believe that religion
should have a place in the scouting movement; just as
I affirm and accord, so should a non-believer be able
to affirm to moral values as a scout.
What is the position on that? Peter?
Well, you do have to have a faith or a belief system
to be a scout; when you consider it's a world-wide
movement and there's 28 million currently doing it --
in fact there's more Muslim scouts -- the point about,
behind that, really, is that, I think -- and this is
a personal belief -- I think that, a spiritual side to
the question of why we're here and what we're for.
We're not saying you've got to believe in a Christian
god or that kind of god, there is a sense that we
want to explore that territory.
The word "god" is used in the promise though, isn't it?
It is a word in the promise, but the word "god" could be
a generic god. It doesn't have to be a particular god.
And your leader, you know... it's a difficult thing,
and I know it just puts some people off...
...And Hazel may not want her children to be hypocritical.
Yes, but in the sense, if you're, if you're an atheist,
or a Humanist, it's as much as having a religion as not
having a religion in some ways, I mean, their...belief
systems...are difficult things to contend with. But
scouting, or people who are scouts and guilds, it's the
cross-section of humanity. It's, it's, people have
little bits of belief, people have great belief. It
encompasses all of our belief systems.
