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MINISTER WARNS OF “ATHEIST IDEOLOGY” AFTER POLISH SCOUTS ALLOWED NOT TO MENTION
GOD IN OATH

Jun 2, 2022 | Education, Politics, Society

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The Polish Scouting Association’s (ZHP) recent decision to allow recruits to
omit the word “God” from their oath has drawn criticism from Catholic clergy and
a minister in Poland’s national-conservative government, who warns that
“attempts are being made to implement atheist ideology”.

Last month, the ZHP – which, with around 100,000 members, is Poland’s largest
scouting organisation – decided at its annual congress to give scouts a choice
between the current oath, in which they swear to “serve God and Poland”, or a
new alternative one that omits mention of God.

“As an organisation, we want to give young people the opportunity to look for
their own path,” wrote the ZHP in a statement. “Establishing a version
that…omits the word ‘God’ will legitimise the accession of people who are not
ready to define their faith, but are still looking for it.”

> “Devastating” decline in religious practice among young Poles, says Catholic
> primate



It noted that the decision had come “after a long discussion” and consultations
with instructors since 2014. “The ZHP is a constantly evolving organisation that
discusses issues that are important to its members” and allows “instructors to
democratically decide on the most important matters”, it wrote.

One instructor in favour of the change was Sub-scoutmaster Adrian Przyczyna, who
told critics that, if they think the new oath “threatens God, then you have a
very weak God”, reports liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

The decision was, however, also met with opposition from within the ZHP. The
organisation’s pastoral council – made up of seven Catholic priests – warned
that the change “can even be perceived as discrimination consisting of open
de-Christianisation…[which] over time will result in the atheisation of members
and not only moral but ideological conflicts”, reports Catholic weekly
Niedziela.

> Poland launches state-funded research centre to “counter Christianophobia”



“We take a negative view of the change, believing that it serves primarily to
remove Christian values[,]…undermine the identity of the Polish scout, and
violate a more than one-hundred-year-old tradition of scouting, which was
clearly oriented towards God and Christian values,” they continued.

The issue was also mentioned by Archbishop Jan Romeo Pawłowski, an official in
the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, who during holy mass in Piekary Śląskie last
week cited it as an example of the dangers of faith being pushed out of public
life.

Yesterday, the critics were joined by a government minister, Jan Dziedziczak,
who serves as a secretary of state in the prime minister’s office. The change
made by the ZHP is a “very sad” and “bad decision”, he told Radio Poznań.

> Threatening church means threatening Poland and cannot be tolerated, says
> Kaczyński



Dziedziczak agreed with the pastoral council that this is part of an effort to
remove Christian values. “There is no such thing as ideological neutrality,” he
said. “Often, under the slogan of ideological neutrality, attempts are made to
implement atheist ideology…to build a world without God.”

He noted that the founder of the scouting movement, Robert Baden-Powell, and the
founders of scouting in Poland, Olga Małkowska and Andrzej Małkowski, regarded
“scouting as inextricably linked with Christian upbringing”.

The ZHP, however, notes that other scouting movements around the world have
introduced optional alternative oaths that do not mention God. One group to do
so, in 2013, was the Scout Association in the UK, originally founded a century
earlier by Baden-Powell.

> Constructing your own ritual: the growing popularity of humanist weddings in
> Poland



Main image credit: Arcadiuš/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)

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Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish
affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO
Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.






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PAULINA OLSZANKA

Solutions journalism project manager
 
 Paulina  is a journalist and writer with a background in anthropology, social
theory & political economy. She has worked for Fairfax Media, the Polish Press
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AGATA GOSTYŃSKA-JAKUBOWSKA

advisory board member

Senior Research Fellow at the Global Europe Centre, University of Kent.

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WERONIKA STRZYŻYŃSKA

contributing editorial assistant 

Weronika Strzyżyńska is currently studying journalism at Goldsmiths as a Scott
Trust Bursary recipient. She  has written on issues immigration and Brexit for
New Statesman and Prospect

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AGNIESZKA WĄDOŁOWSKA

managing editor

Agnieszka Wądołowska is managing editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously
worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie
Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna”

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JULIETTE BRETAN

contributing writer

Juliette Bretan is a freelance journalist covering Polish and Eastern European
current affairs and culture. Her work has featured on the BBC World Service, and
in CityMetric, The Independent, Ozy, New Eastern Europe and Culture.pl.

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DANIEL TILLES

editor-in-chief

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and assistant professor of
history at the Pedagogical University of Krakow. He has written on Polish
affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO
Europe, The Independent and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

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STANLEY BILL

founder, editor-at-large

Stanley Bill is the founder and editor-at-large of Notes from Poland.
He is also Senior Lecturer in Polish Studies and Director of the Polish Studies
Programme at the University of Cambridge, where he works on Polish culture,
politics and history.

Stanley has spent more than ten years living in Poland, mostly based in Kraków
and Bielsko-Biała. He founded Notes from Poland in 2014 as a blog dedicated to
personal impressions, cultural analysis and political commentary. He is
committed to the promotion of deeper knowledge and understanding of Poland.

He is the Chair of the Board of the Notes from Poland Foundation.

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MARIA WILCZEK

deputy editor

Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She also contributes
regularly to The Economist and Al Jazeera, and has also written for The
Times, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza. She was previously
Marjorie Deane fellow at The Economist in London (2018) and a business
consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in Warsaw. Maria is a graduate of the
University of Oxford and a student at the Polish School of Literary Reportage.
 
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BEN KOSCHALKA

assistant editor

Ben Koschalka is a translator and the assistant editor at Notes from Poland.
Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.

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NORMAN DAVIES

advisory board member

UNESCO Professor at the Jagiellonian University and Professor Emeritus at
University College London



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TIMOTHY GARTON ASH

advisory board member

Professor of European Studies at Oxford University

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Professor at the Institute of History of the Jagiellonian University

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Executive Director of Taube Family Foundation

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Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy
of Science, member of the Polish parliaments

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OLGA TOKARCZUK

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Author, winner of 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature 

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SIOBAN DOUCETTE

author

Siobhan Doucette is a historian whose work focuses the opposition movement in
Communist Poland. Her first book, Books Are Weapons: The Polish Opposition Press
and the Overthrow of Communism, is available from University of Pittsburgh
Press. It focuses on the Polish independent publishing movement from 1976 to
1989.  
 

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