Opinion: Why I Will No Longer Support Girl Scouts Comments
It's time for Catholics to carefully and prayerfully consider whether Girl Scouts still fits in the framework of authentically living our faith in the world. Continue Reading
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Girl Scouting is for the girls. They come from various religious backgrounds and it is not our position to change that, just offer them opportunities to further their experiences. I am a Religious Emblems Counselor in our Catholic Diocese and promote the religious programs for all organized faiths. At the beginning of each year, I remind the leaders that it is time to remind the girls to order their individual religious workbooks IF THE GIRLS SO CHOOSE TO DO. And I also visit the new Troops to explain to the girls and their families what these religious programs are about. This is their choice to work for the emblem or not.
All these programs, religious or otherwise are chosen by the girls. We as adults give the girls the opportunities. I am not a camper, yet took my Troop camping several times. I brought other leaders to teach the girls, especially with the campfire cooking. I didn't want them to miss out on the experience because camping is not my thing!
The word "God" in the Girl Scout Promise does not mean "Jesus". I am Catholic and have had girls in my Troop of other faiths, Christian and Jewish.
The ninth part of the Girl Scout Law is "make the world a better place." We are all human and make up organizations. We are not perfect, neither is any organization. I taught my Scouts that if they didn't like something, help change it. Do not only complain, be active and improve the situation, do whatever they can and involve others. Together, hopefully improvements can be made.
Jesus didn't tolerate sin, he didn't condone it and being a follower of Jesus means we aren't to either. If you tolerate it and condone it then you are not following Jesus and his teachings.
You all are obviously not Girl Scout leaders, but maybe you should be so you can filter the information that your girls are receiving. I have been a leader for 5 years, and this is the first I've heard of any of this. We've taught the girls boating safety, water safety, first aid, pet care, and more. We've made lunches for 300 homeless people. They have made friends and worked together and it is rewarding to see them share their successes and learn to lead. Leaders and girls choose the badges they want to work on, and the girls love learning a new skill they wouldn't have otherwise.
I have no idea if any of these opinions are valid or not, but it's never been even remotely hinted at from Council to us leaders. Unless you have a liberal girl scout leader with her own agenda, I don't see how these little girls will remotely see any of this. If someone from PP came & gave a presentation, it's because the leaders chose to have that topic discussed. Parents need to be involved and have a say in what their girls are working on, and not just treat it like an after-school daycare. If you don't like a topic, say so and work with the leaders or be a leader yourself! And if some troop decides to approach these topics, it's not because they have to - it's because they want to.
I'd like to see you try to explain to a sweet little Brownie why you won't buy her cookies. If you don't want them, just politely say no thank you, for pete's sake.
I am a Catholic, but I am not teaching CFF here. Our girls are mixed christian religions, and we do say God in the promise. We as leaders can show young people our faith by our example, and we are doing that by helping them become caring, helpful, self-confident young ladies. Don't ruin the true spirit of girl scouting by implying it's all corrupt. Get involved. You can't tell me that when you see these little girls make cookies and sing to a bunch of senior citizens that all their lives haven't been enriched immeasurably.
I agree with this article except, of course, for the homosexual part of it. It's irrelevant to point out sexual preferences and just a bit bigoted. No one can catch being gay, and I know that for a fact because I have quite a bit of gay friends, yet I am happily married.
As for feminism, well that needs to be nipped in the bud. Feminism is just spreading hatred towards men and denying parenting rights to the father while staunchly supporting abortion.
It's time people start pushing the taboo button and let children know that hatred and murder are NOT okay
This is amazing to think of the girl scouts as such a progressive and secular organization. I am excited to get my daughter involved as soon as possible and had no idea they were so in tune. I figured they were a Jesus loving GOP flag waiving right wing homophobe group like the Mormon boy scouts.
Awesome, I hear they don't even say the pledge!!! Absolutely amazing.!! My daughter is going to have so much fun!!
THERE IS A SOURCE that will connect the dots on the Girl Scouts' relationships with organizations like Planned Parenthood and the United Nations. It is HonestGirlScouts.com and it is run by current and former Girl Scouts, Leaders, Co-leaders, and Lifetime Members. If you had any doubts before, you won't after reading their "Discover" section.
Catholic Girl Scouts, Leaders, and Parents have a "voice" at the national level through the National Catholic Committee for Girl Scouts USA and Camp Fire USA, a member of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry. NCCGSCF/NFCYM is actively engaged with GSUSA. A recent position statement is available at www.nccgscf.org. GSUSA fully supports and encourages girls to grow in their faith (all faiths) through the religious emblems programs. For Catholic girls, information on the national programs is available at the NCCGSCF web site; diocesan scouting committees administer these programs on the local level and may also offer diocesan programs.
Conviction sure does make people bring their claws out doesn't it??? As far as "lucky" is concerned, if you had taken the time to really do your research about GS's and what they have been up to lately you would see the problem isn't really with the fact that GS's is accepting to other Faith's but many many other facts and details and are 110% AGAINST the teachings of the Church.
I, too am a Girl Scout leader. My troop will end at the end of this year, so that I can organize an American Heritage Girls troop. After three years of debating this, I know that it is foolish to think that you can change or influence the Girl Scout organization from the inside. As a troop leader you have NO say in what GSUSA does with the cookie money, whether it'd be for programming, speakers, panels, and organizations they associate with. For all the talk about honoring Juliet "Daisy" Low...she said that one of our duties as Girl Scout leaders was to make our girls "holy" and somehow the word God made it into the oath. Whoever says that the Girl Scouts is a secular organization is correct, it is NOW a secular organization, but it doesn't look like Juliet felt that way... after all what does "holy" have to do with our secular world of today. The GS leadership has made the Girl Scouts secular... they were not meant to be. Ask its founder!
Dear Jennifer,
Thank you so very much for this important information on such a serious issue. Before I read your article I was on the Little Flowers website thinking that this would be such a wonderful "Catholic" type of girl scouts that perhaps I could organize. It looks like our family will be opting for "Little Flowers" over Girl Scouts without a doubt. Just looking at the beautiful badges our daughters can earn for learning about virtues such as self-control, piety, humility etc. through the lives of Saintly women who are true Catholic role models lets me know this is the way to go. I am so sad to hear about the Girl Scouts I was once a brownie. It seems to be that the very secular and Godless world is attacking our most precious treasures from all possible angles. As Catholic or Christian mothers it is our duty to protect our daughters(children) from such attacks on their innocence, purity and love of Our Blessed Lord and his Holy Mother. I for one feel much better running a Catholic Little Flowers group where each meeting is started with a prayer to the Blessed Mother to watch over our "little flowers" and help them all to grow in holiness and love of God!
God Bless you for writing this!
Laurel Bishop