Girl Scouts and Young Women?

[kjmillig]

I ran across this article at a site called "Bunyion" Cookies or Crumbs: LDS World Rocked by Girl Scouts

It states that the Church will begin using Girls Scouts as part of the Young Women's program. Seeing that I can't find anything else online about it, I'm calling raising the utter nonsense flag.

Anyone heard anything different?

[john doe]

In case you didn't know, The Bunyion is a satire site similar to The Onion. The story is fake.

[NeuroTypical]

Click on "About" at the Bunyon.

The stories here are carefully researched and fact-checked by a team of well-trained baboons, most of whom cannot read.

No, the site never really comes out and admits to being a satire/parody site. But no, we're not relocating church HQ to Missouri because of gay marriage, and BYU will not begin offering a new "masters of relief society" degree.

[miztrniceguy]

Too bad it is a phoney story. As it happens, I wrote a letter to President Monson about 2 weeks ago urging him to prayerfully consider this. It is a shame that we are so involved in Boy Scouts, but if girls want to join a troop it isn't sanctioned. Why must we send our daughters elsewhere?

[Guest]

Doesn't Girl Scouts funnel money to Planned Parenthood, or at least do so by way of the Susan G. Komen Foundation?

[miztrniceguy]

I don't know. But I think our daughters would benefit from the program. My son is just starting Cub Scouts and my daughter (10 1/2) doesn't understand why she can't be in Girl Scouts.

[Dravin]

I don't know. But I think our daughters would benefit from the program. My son is just starting Cub Scouts and my daughter (10 1/2) doesn't understand why she can't be in Girl Scouts.

There is no member prohibition on being in Girl Scouts, so that question is solidly aimed at her parents, so go ahead and tell her why you won't let her be in Girl Scouts (assuming the organization itself isn't refusing her).

[skippy740]

Unless you wanted the Church to pay your registration fees & dues, etc., to the Girl Scouts...

[miztrniceguy]

AT CHURCH, Dravin, like my son. I KNOW the church doesn't prohibit it. but the church doesn't SUPPORT it either. Why isn't incorporated into the Young Women's Program?

[Dravin]

AT CHURCH, Dravin, like my son. I KNOW the church doesn't prohibit it. but the church doesn't SUPPORT it either. Why isn't incorporated into the Young Women's Program?

So because you left out important details you're yelling at me?

[miztrniceguy]

I thought it was clear what I meant.

[Dravin]

I thought it was clear what I meant.

Your post gave no indication that your daughter is wondering why she can't be a Girl Scout as part of Church.

[miztrniceguy]

Is it clear now?

[Dravin]

Doesn't Girl Scouts funnel money to Planned Parenthood, or at least do so by way of the Susan G. Komen Foundation?

My understanding is a local council did promote a Planned Parenthood event, though it sounds like it was an advertising thing as neither money nor scouts were sent to Planned Parenthood, but there is not a national tie between Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood. I don't know how common Parent Parenthood and local council ties are, I'm mostly going off Wiki and the Girl Scout FAQ.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Dravin

[Dravin]

Is it clear now?

Yes, your screaming was rather illuminating.

[Guest]

My friend has her daughters in Girl Scouts. They also get to go to Activity Days. When they're of age, they'll be in YW, which is a pretty awesome program on its own. Why do you feel it needs supplementation?

[estradling75]

My understanding is that the BSA has bent over backwards to let the Church run the Scouting program the way they want to (for good or ill). Something I don't think the Girl Scouts will do

[Just_A_Guy]

As I understand it, contra what the names imply, Girl Scouting isn't really "Boy Scouting, but for girls"--I think the emphasis is less on the outdoors and more on career development. Certainly the rank schemes and merit badges are different.

And my understanding is that GSUSA is beholden to ideologies and interests that would find the Church's vision for its young women to be frankly repugnant.

[NeuroTypical]

My daughters were in Girl Scouts for a while (until all the leadership moved or had to get jobs and the troop disbanded). It was a wonderful experience - they had a blast and learned a lot and made friends and had experiences and won patches, etc etc.

I don't get all the passion about making an official part of church structure. If you're so hot on it, go join a troop already. (We had to drive across town to the troop we preferred, passing several troops that were not a good fit.)

[applepansy]

25 years ago when I was involved with YW I was shocked at the difference in attitude between the girls who attended YW only and those who attended Girls Scouts too. As a result of my observations I didn't send my daughter to Girl Scouts. The church's program for young women is very good.

If a family wants to add Girl Scouts to their daughter's activities there is nothing in church policy against it.

[applepansy]

AT CHURCH, Dravin, like my son. I KNOW the church doesn't prohibit it. but the church doesn't SUPPORT it either. Why isn't incorporated into the Young Women's Program?

My personal opinion of why the Church doesn't support Girls Scouts for girls is because the Girl Scout organization doesn't support many of the standards the Church is trying to teach young girls.

My opinion is on experience not just because.

[miztrniceguy]

Thanks for the input.

[Guest]

My personal opinion of why the Church doesn't support Girls Scouts for girls is because the Girl Scout organization doesn't support many of the standards the Church is trying to teach young girls.

My opinion is on experience not just because.

This is my opinion as well.

[NeuroTypical]

Yep - Girl Scout Orgs don't support many Church standards. More than that, they avoid discussion totally. When my daughters were participating, there was pretty much a total absence of spiritual things, zero on chastity or purity, or virtue. This was by design, because it was a very diverse group with very diverse mommies and very diverse beliefs. One exception was the thanksgiving feast, masterfully navigated by the troop leader. She had each girl and each mommy talk about what was important to them. About half of the responses were of a spiritual nature, the rest were very much not.

There was a bit more love-and-tolerate-world-community-we're-all-the-same-and-the-UN-is-a-good-thing nonsense than I was comfortable with. But it honestly was such a tiny part of the overall experience, it wasn't worth mentioning.

My daughters had an absolute total blast in Girl Scouts. The emphasis was on building friendships, social activities, goal reaching, community involvement, character building, and learning new things. The absolute best of the worldly things.

[Leah]

I was just mulling over the differences in Boy/Girl Scouts and trying to remember my experiences in GS, oh so many decades ago. My most prominent memory is slicing open my finger.

When my daughter was in grade school (3rd grade?), she joined Blue Birds. She was new at the school, friends were in it...we thought it would be a good thing. She wasn't there long.

At the Christmas party, the kids were downstairs and the parents upstairs. The parents were drinking alcohol. Apparently, I was the only one appalled at the (non)example they were setting. Perhaps they were too sloshed to grasp it? Not to mention the message they were sending by drinking and then driving.

Shortly after that, the troop (or whatever it was called) went on a field trip on a Saturday. The arrival home time came and went. It was winter and snowing. This was before cell phones, so we called the leader's husband. No luck there. We began to become frantic. It was more than three hours past the time they were supposed to be home. The weather was deteriorating and we were afraid they had been in an accident. We called local authorities (small town, rural) to see if any accidents had been reported.

They finally pulled up in the driveway, without a care in the world. Oh, they had decided to stay a "little while" longer because they were having so much fun. According to the leader, this was her MO and all the other parents were just peachy-keen with it, and no phone calls were necessary. WE didn't know about this and if we had, we sure would NOT have agreed to such a plan.

Oh, and she had about 10 girls crammed into her car. Not that there were enough seatbelts to go around, but NONE of the girls were belted in. Our unbreakable family rule was no seat-belt, no go.

We wrote a letter to the "leader", withdrawing our daughter from Blue Birds and our reasons why. We also sent to the local BB hierarchy.

The response of the troop leader was to copy the letter and send it to all the parents involved, ridiculing us. Obviously, there were all a-okay with putting children at risk in the car and elsewhere. She also told us we couldn't quit BB, we were being thrown out because she had polled the parents and they said they didn't want our child there!

The response of the "leadership". Absolutely NO action against the leader. They stated it was so hard to get leaders, they were just grateful to have anybody - responsible or not.

I kind of wish we would have done more...not that there was necessarily anything that could have been done.