Scout/cub/beaver groups...religious discrimination

[miga]

.

[Otta]

Does Boy's Brigade still exist? There used to be one at the Church on the corner of Goodrich & Lordship Lane, but I'm going back years. I used to go to one in peckham with loads of lads from the North Peckham and Pelican Estates. Taught me how to look after myself if nothing else.

[pablogrande]

Loving the vanilla equal opportunities policy, not sure my seven year old son is going to be descriminated against due to his marital status or pregnancy, Maybe when he's 8

[uncleglen]

(Otta I think Boy's brigade was actually a movement attached to the methodist church)

I have worked in catholic schools off and on for nearly 20 years and the dogma and brainwashing has got gradually worse with quite a lot of presentations coming from America and they are scary. I agree with miga there should be no funding of faith schools by the state because it is divisive. Students are indoctrinated from birth and will not get a balanced view or an awareness that there are normal, humane gay people in the world etc. until they go to university.

[numbers]

MrBen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Nice public response from Paul O'brien.

>

> I was in the cubs. I learned how to make a bed

> with those military sheet corners. And also how to

> make a fried egg sandwich for old Mrs

> McCorkindale. Both helpful skills still in use

> today.

You made breakfast for Mrs McCorkindale after making her bed? That's a service.

[Pugwash]

Both of my daughters and myself went to the 8th East Dulwich Brownie pack which still meets in Christ Church.

I remember having to make a fire up with alternating wood, paper and coal in someone's house in Barry Road and having to make fairy cakes

cannot remember what my girls had to do for their Home maker badges.

[LadyDeliah]

I wasn't allowed to join the Brownies when I was a kid because I told them I was an atheist and didn't want to swear allegiance to the Queen. Seems there has been little progress in the intervening 40 years.

I joined the Woodcraft Folk instead, which was really good.

[????]

I never joined anything respectable

[uncleglen]

My daughter went to Brownies at Christ Church because her friend was already going there and she asked to go-fortunately it was the nearest pack to us. The brownies were expected to go to something called Church Parade now and again on a Sunday but nothing was ever mentioned about attending church or being religious.

[Markydesade]

Email 1:

I was given your contact details by xxxxxxxxxx who suggested I contact you

regarding the nearest Beaver club to my home in East Dulwich.

My son xxxxxxxx is due to be 7 in a few days time and I believe he would really

enjoy becoming a Beaver with a view to joining the cubs in a year or so?

I wonder if you wouldn't mind letting me know what age you need to be to join

The Beavers & then Cubs as well? I have 2 more sons aged 4 & 5 & think they will

enjoy joining in due course. How much does it cost to join & what uniform do

they need? Lastly, and probably most importantly is there any free spaces in

your club?

Response: We are a Catholic based group and preference is given to children of

the Parish of St. Thomas More, usually attending St. Anthony's school.

That being said there is no direct entry into our Cub Pack for child as

all places are taken by those who have been in our Beaver Colony. We do

not have a Scout Group. As regards xxxxxxxx we would not take him into

the Beavers given his age as that section is fall and subject to a

waiting list.

Below are the contact details of other local groups who may be in a

position to offer xxxxxxxxx a place.

Email 2: What a shame! Sad that children are separated by faith. Am

sure that the love of god* should be a unifying thing rather than a

reason to segregate. Still, thanks for giving me details of other

groups where he will be welcome.

* Written by the same person who above wrote "As an atheist, I guess I was being a tad naive.

My son does believe in god... Although he also believes in Father Christmas!"

Response 2: All I said was preference was given to Catholics within the Parish

attending St. Anthony's, we have non Catholics in the group. As the

school and Parish have provided us with all our facilities for about

the last 50 years, it's only fair that they have some input the group.

This is not unusual in Scouting as there are many faith groups or

closed groups, such as that run by Dulwich College and for a time there

was a solely Vietnamese group in Peckham.

I am surprised that Paul O'Brien feels the need to look into as he was told in a face to face meeting exactly what our criteria is and even asked the County Commissioner to look into formalising our sponsorship agreement.

Had it not been for the parish of St. Thomas More and latterly St. Anthony's School the group may well have disappeared like so many other local groups have. We are a group that is predominately single faith due to where we are based and where we have drawn our leaders and helpers from. We are not a group that is only open to a single faith. I am not even Catholic myself.

[maxxi]

Not sure I'd be too worried about a kid missing out on a group where one of the leader/helper(s) has such a whacky nom-de-forum.

[uncleglen]

School-based groups are not uncommon - at mine 2 of our teachers were the Guide and Scout leaders. I truly worry about 'faith' based groups of any kind- equates to continuation of the brainwashing process imvho

[bawdy-nan]

We had exactly the same experience and I was pretty disgusted at the time. Have to say the attitude displayed by the EXTRAORDINARILY named "Markydesade" is breathtakingly bad.

If this really is the person with responsibility for running a scout/cub/group (or is from the school or the church) I wouldn't let my children near them - not so much for the "tongue in cheek" reference to sexual violence as much as the utter arrogance and self-regard displayed in their posts.