Girls, Don’t Become Boy Scouts
- 7 years ago
Girls, Don’t Become Boy Scouts
While the Boy Scouts have an official policy against atheists and agnostics participating in scouting, the Girl Scouts make it clear
that girls may substitute any words they like for the part of the Girl Scout Pledge in which they promise “to serve God.”
The Girl Scouts have long focused on social justice, diversity and inclusion in their activities.
And as members of the World Association of Girl Guides
and Girl Scouts, a global body, they have provided financial support to organizations like Oxfam, Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders.
In May of this year, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas announced it was cutting ties with
the Girl Scouts, choosing instead to partner with American Heritage Girls, a right-leaning scouting group.
Unlike the Boy Scouts, in which individual troops are overwhelmingly affiliated with churches — a large share are tied to conservative
denominations; an estimated 20 percent of scouts are Mormon, for instance — the Girl Scouts are a secular organization.
Most crucially, it’s a direct attack on the Girl Scouts, a group
that shares some historical roots with the Boy Scouts but has grown into a very different organization, with very different values.
While the Boy Scouts have an official policy against atheists and agnostics participating in scouting, the Girl Scouts make it clear
that girls may substitute any words they like for the part of the Girl Scout Pledge in which they promise “to serve God.”
The Girl Scouts have long focused on social justice, diversity and inclusion in their activities.
And as members of the World Association of Girl Guides
and Girl Scouts, a global body, they have provided financial support to organizations like Oxfam, Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders.
In May of this year, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas announced it was cutting ties with
the Girl Scouts, choosing instead to partner with American Heritage Girls, a right-leaning scouting group.
Unlike the Boy Scouts, in which individual troops are overwhelmingly affiliated with churches — a large share are tied to conservative
denominations; an estimated 20 percent of scouts are Mormon, for instance — the Girl Scouts are a secular organization.
Most crucially, it’s a direct attack on the Girl Scouts, a group
that shares some historical roots with the Boy Scouts but has grown into a very different organization, with very different values.