The
pledge says: “I promise that I
will do my best, to love my God, to serve the Queen and my country, to help
other people and to keep the Brownie Guide law.”

Seven
year old
Maddie Willett asked to change the wording when she was due to make her Brownie Promise but the 2nd Crawley Down Brownies refused to do so

The
girl’s
parents, Juliette and Barry, say their daughter now feels like she doesn’t fit
in as all her friends have been able to make their
promises.

Juliette, from
Hawarden Close in the village, cannot understand why the wording could not be
changed.

She said: “We don’t
have a belief in God and our daughter is yet to make a
decision.

“It’s a big decision
for her to make and it would be offensive for an atheist to say they love
God.”

Maddie has been with
the group for about six months and was due to make her promise on July
19.

“It’s a really big
thing to take the Brownie Promise and that’s what has bothered me the most,”
Juliette added.

“The biggest thing
for her is that she feels excluded.”

The couple are keen
for their youngest daughter, Mia, 5, to join the Brownies when she turns seven,
but admit they may face the same obstacle.

Juliette said:
“Maddie wants to stay in the Brownies because a lot of her friends go there, but
she feels very upset that she’s being forced to say a word that she doesn’t want
to.

“We will either let
it go or I will take her out of Brownies, because we are going to hit this
problem again when she comes to Girl Guides and when Mia joins the
Brownies.”

Nobody from the 2nd
Crawley Down group wished to comment this week.

But a Girlguiding UK
spokesman suggested that Maddie should have been allowed to change the
wording.

He said: “Girlguiding
UK does not require girls or young women to follow any particular faith, and not
having a defined faith does not preclude membership.

“Our volunteer
leaders work with girls and young women when they join us to explore the fuller
meaning of the promise and decide if they are ready to make that
promise.

“The promise has
evolved to explicitly include members with different beliefs and another name
can be substituted for God to make the promise more meaningful to each girl or
woman.

“In these cases it is
recommended that our volunteer leaders discuss the wording of the promise with
the girl and an adult with parental
responsibility.”