Air Cadets drop oath requiring a faith in God

HUMANISTS have scored a victor y in their bid to use equalities legislation to stop organisations from asking members to make pledges or take an oath that involves a reference to God.

The Air Cadet organisation with over 35,000 members aged between 13 and 20 is to of fer future cadets the option of a non-religious oath. At present they take an oath that ‘I (full name), hereby solemnly promise on my honour to serve my Unit loyally and to be faithful as a member of the Air Training Corps. I further promise to be a good citizen and to do my duty to God and the Queen, my countr y and my flag.’ The oath is taken at a ceremony presided over by the commanding officer or the padre.

Humanists based their campaign on the argument that the Air Cadets should comply with national and European legislation and with Ministr y of Defence policy on equality and diversity.

Welcoming the news, David Brittain of the UK Armed Forces Humanist Association said: “According to repeated surveys 65 per cent of teenagers or more say they are not religious, and having failed to provide a non-religious path the organisation has excluded significant numbers of young people of good conscience who do not believe in any God and not willing to lie by saying words they don’t believe.”

Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association, Andrew Copson, claimed that the proportion of young people who were not r eligious was growing and that ‘the institutions of our society need to catch up with this demographic fact if they are going to remain relevant and build cohesion between young people of different beliefs’.

The Scouts and Guides were granted exemption from the Equality Act in order to allow them to continue to require members to take a religious oath. Both organisations are consulting members on whether to remove r eligious references from their pledges. Andrew Copson said the British Humanist Association was continuing to engage with the Scouts and Guides on his issue and hoped for a ‘progressive change on ever y front’.

The BHA has won another significant victor y by forcing the Department of Education to publish a list of all groups that have applied to run free schools giving details of their religious affiliation.