
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 24, 1993                   TAG: 9310240105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS                                LENGTH: Medium

GIRL SCOUTS ALLOW `GOD' SUBSTITUTES IN OFFICIAL PLEDGE

Girl Scouts will be allowed to pledge service to "God," "Allah," "The Creator," or to anyone else they please, under a measure adopted Saturday at the organization's national convention.

The measure, which takes effect immediately, keeps the Girl Scout promise's official wording except for allowing Scouts to substitute for "God" another word or words they consider more appropriate to their spiritual beliefs. It was adopted by a 1,560-375 vote.

The Girl Scout promise states: "On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law."

The group's leaders said the change acknowledges growing religious and ethnic diversity among the nation's 2.6 million Girl Scouts.

"The important thing is that the spiritual principles which continue to be the fundamental of Girl Scouting recognize that there are some religious groups, such as Buddhists and Hindus, as well as other cultural groups, such as American Indians, that believe in a spiritual motivating force, but use words other than `God,' " said national president B. LaRae Orullian.

"It's a very strong statement that Girl Scouts continue to be on the cutting edge, and this is a continuing effort to show that we do have strength in diversity and that we are an inclusive organization," Orullian said.

Debate over the proposal lasted about three hours.

A related proposal, calling for review of the wording of the promise and the Girl Scout Law, easily passed on a show-of-hands vote. The Girl Scout Law is a code of behavior.

The Girl Scouts were founded in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low. The preamble to the group's constitution lays out a spiritual motivating force but has never defined that force in Judeo-Christian terms.

The Girl Scout pledge has been revised several times, but the reference to God has been a constant.

by CNB