The Girl Scouts' big riva: Hans Zeiger describes the growing American Heritage Girl program

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, February 20, 2004 | Hans Zeiger

[JohnHuang2]

The Girl Scouts' big rival

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Posted: February 20, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Hans Zeiger
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

In a column I wrote last week, I criticized the Girl Scouts of the USA for being something of a politically correct, pro-abortion, feminist training corps. Though local Girl Scout troops and councils may not necessarily reflect the moral relativism of the national organization, the fact is the Girl Scouts have ceased to be the consistently uplifting, character-focused bastion they once were.

Many parents have recognized that the Girl Scouts are not the right place for their daughters, and most recently, parents of nine Girl Scouts in Texas withdrew their daughters from their local troop upon learning that the Girl Scouts had awarded a recent Woman of the Year award to a Planned Parenthood executive. The Girl Scout ties to abortion have prompted a Girl Scout cookie boycott by Texas pro-life and Christian organizations.

Before desponding about the death of moral education for American females, consider that the Girl Scouts have a growing rival called the American Heritage Girls. I've known that the American Heritage Girls existed for some time, but I didn't realize how powerful a force they've become until I wrote my last column and received several e-mails from parents and leaders of American Heritage Girl troops around the country.

Kathryn Kristoff, a mother from Plymouth, Mich., wrote to me recounting her experience as a Girl Scout leader who discovered that a Girl Scout leadership manual gave Brownie troops the option of visiting Planned Parenthood to learn about health issues. "Needless to say, we were stunned and realized that we could no longer participate in Girl Scouts," writes Kristoff. A year later, Kristoff and other local mothers founded the first American Heritage Girls troop in Michigan. Kristoff likes to tell people that her troop is a "Christian version of the Girl Scouts."

Indeed, American Heritage Girls is a Christian organization, but it is not beholden to a particular doctrinal statement. It is non-denominational, meetings open in prayer, and it looks more like the original Girl Scouts of 1912 than the Girl Scouts itself does.

The American Heritage Girl Creed says, "As an American Heritage Girl, I will be: Compassionate, Helpful, Honest, Loyal, Persevering, Pure, Resourceful, Respectful, Responsible, Reverent." There wouldn't be much of a difference between the American Heritage Girl Creed and the Girl Scout Law, but in 1972, the Girl Scouts removed loyalty from their Law, claiming it was outmoded and responding in large part due to the pressures of the feminist movement.

The American Heritage Girl Oath – "I promise to love God, cherish my family, honor my country, and serve in my community" – is quite similar to the Girl Scout Promise. But after the Girl Scouts of the USA decided in 1993 to allow atheists as members and leaders and to make "God" optional in the Girl Scout Promise, Patti Garibay, a mother and veteran Girl Scout leader from Cincinnati, tried everything she could to challenge the new policy. In 1995, Garibay realized that the Girl Scouts were not about to give up on political correctness. "The degradation was too deep," she concludes.

Not wanting to give up on the next generation of America females, Garibay came up with the idea for American Heritage Girls. "So often it is easier to curse the darkness than to light a candle," says Garibay. But American Heritage Girls "is a candle in our culturally depraved society."

Today, nine years after American Heritage Girls was founded, Garibay's greater Cincinnati area has several dozen troops and over 1,000 members. Across America, hundreds of troops have been launched and the organization is growing.

I'm convinced that the American Heritage Girls will become the Girl Scouts' big rival within the next few years. Parents and supporters of the Girl Scouts are just now beginning to understand that political correctness has pervaded the Girl Scouts of the USA.

I spend a lot of my time encouraging people to support the Boy Scouts, particularly as they are under attack in the culture wars. But this one's for the girls: If Americans want to combat political correctness in the moral education of young women, supporting the Girl Scouts is the wrong way to go. Instead, we should put our money and time behind American Heritage Girls.

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[JohnHuang2]

Friday, February 20, 2004

Quote of the Day by Made In The USA

[risk]

http://www.ahgonline.org/

[Huber]

Ping!

[ScudEast]

A couple of questions from an interested foreigner.

1) "American Heritage Girls" - is "Heritage" a word that appeals to young people in America? It seems like a bit of an old person word to me. I'm a big fan of things with Heritage in the title but I'm a nostalgic old fart.

2) (frivolous I'm afraid) - Girl scout cookies - I had heard of these from various American films and always assumed the girls baked them themselves. I heard a rumour that they didn't - is this true?

[garylmoore]

The Boy Scouts have kept their values, the girlscouts have sold out.

[Tax-chick]

1. I think "Heritage" does appeal to youngsters, once it's defined in terms they understand. The success of the "American Girls" dolls (historical figures with books and other accessories) is an example. Children respond positively to traditional values and patriotism, at least in my experience (which includes seven children under 13, at the moment).

Boy Scouts seem to do best when they emphasis the founding principles of the organization - the outdoor skills, self-sufficiency, and patriotism - and explicitly emphasize the history. My husband teaches his Cub Scouts about Lord Baden-Powell and the Boer War, and has them play games based on military skills, and the boys love it. For their campout next month, they're doing an American Frontier program: gold mining, arrowhead making, blacksmithing, tracking, outdoor cooking ...

2. The original Girl Scout cookies were baked by Girl Scouts, back in Oklahoma in the 20's (don't hold me to the date, please). Now they are commercially baked under contract with the GS-USA; names and types are copyrighted so that nobody else can sell Thin Mints or Trefoils.

[babyface00]

If these girls contracted out cookies as good as the Girl Scouts', (and sold them online!), I'd be a huge supporter (figuratively and probably eventually literally).

[Drawsing]

Something not mentioned here is how the Girl Scouts have put up little resistance to the homosexual agenda.

[bluegrass]

When my daughter started school we tried out the Girl Scouts. I attended the orientation meetings for parents. From day one a little voice told me something was a little off about these people. The higher ups were mostly unmarried, very butch women. I'm not saying these women were lesbians, but they looked the part.
We didn't stay with the Girl Scouts too long.

[cyclotic]

I'm a cub scout den leader who loves teaching the boys to be boys and men. We meet at my house, and from day one, the boys gravitated toward the toy guns and swords before and after the meetings. My company is starting to do some military work. A few weeks ago, I brought them a piece of ballistic glass from a Humvee. Last night, I brought them a bomblet grenade designed to crater airstrips. (clearly marked INERT) I'm not sure how I'm going to top that one.

My daughter is a Girl Scout, but we're very careful about what she attends. It's a home school troop, so locally, she's fine. But on the Council level, I'm very distrustful.

Cub Scouts encourage the boys to wear their uniform to church one Sunday. We're doing it this Sunday and will recognize them for their achievements. Since Girl Scouts are a totally secular organization, they do not have a similar activity. Tough. This Sunday is Scout Sunday. All Scouts, boys and girls.

[Lil'freeper]

"Needless to say, we were stunned and realized that we could no longer participate in Girl Scouts,"

That moment, for me, came when I was a Senior scout in a little troop in rural AZ. The program emphasis in those days was firmly focused on career exploration which bored me terribly. I prefered camping.

One day some slick feminist executive-type from the Council drove up from Tucson and informed a Brownie leader (with whom I had long worked teaching her Brownies to camp in the backyard) that she wasn't the "type of role model the Council had in mind for the girls." Yes, the well-coifed urban snot fired a volunteer.

The "fired" leader was a homemaker of modest means, the wife of a cotton farmer, who attended church regularly with her large family, and gave every last spare minute (and $) to her Brownies- exactly the kind of role model young girls should be exposed to.

After that insanity, I vowed that any time or money I felt I owed to the scouting movement would be given to the BSA. It is wonderful that there is now an alternative to GSUSA.

[Tax-chick]

It sounds like your boys are having a wonderful time! Last year one of my sons' Dens went to the local Air National Guard base, and got to see all the munitions and the jets taking off. They were terribly impressed! And we took our kids in uniform to the "Support the Troops" rally.

My daughters are Girl Scouts (I'm a Daisy leader), and we also are careful about what goes on in the program. I'd say the Girl Scouts is an organization which has developed serious flaws, but still functions positively to an extent because most volunteers are decent people with common sense.

The Boy Scouts, on the other hand, is a fundamentally solid organization at the top, although some at the grass-roots level do not support the values of the organization. We've been unpleasantly surprised to find some adults even in our own church groups who think homosexual men should be allowed to be Boy Scout leaders!

[cyclotic]

I'm actually getting more involved than I wanted to. Loving every minute and thoroughly impressed by the entire organization. We live near an Air National Guard Base and are on schedule to be the first group for a tour since 9-11.

Of course, since according to JF'inK they are not real pilots and their service to America does not count, I gues we should'nt waste out time going.

Every time I see a F-16 scream over my house, I laugh at these weekend warriors playing pilot and complain about the noise...NOT. I realize that that sound is the price of freedom.

[Tax-chick]

I'm actually getting more involved than I wanted to.

LOL - that seems to happen to everyone! We have 4 sons now ... we'll never get away!

The Guard unit back in Tulsa had recently been deployed to the Middle East for several months. I was very impressed with them, and I've spent most of my life around military pilots - Navy brat, and then Civil Service with the Air Force. The Guard pilots were the real thing ... you don't survive in those planes any other way.

[T Minus Four]

This is very interesting. My 12-year old was a Brownie for a year or so when she was little, but got bored. I was very surprised that in that year, she never learned a single song. My favorite memories of scouting involve belting out all the old camp songs, especially rounds.

Anyway, it seemed that it was very focused on environmental concerns. They were doing some studies called "Mother Earth, Father Sky" or some such. This raised a small concern about interfering with our basic Christian beliefs, but didn't seem to cross the line. What I found curious is that they didn't go outside and do things.

About the time she told me she didn't want to go any more, I began to hear about the GS's feminist agenda, so I gladly let her quit.

[philetus]

No doubt the homo's are trying to infiltrate the American Heritage Girls, as we post.

[magslinger]

Ping.

[ScudEast]

Thanks for you replies :)

Boy Scouts seem to do best when they emphasis the founding principles of the organization - the outdoor skills, self-sufficiency, and patriotism

I think you might be right, I don't think we dwelt much on patriotism when I was in the scouts, although I do remember swearing to do my duty to God and the Queen and raising the flag every meeting so I guess it went in through the pores. We did spend most of our time doing outdoor things which seems to be the point of it. It was one thing that we did when there were no girls which was, looking back, a welcome break from school. We certainly didn't have any talk of parenthood, planned or otherwise from the scout leaders who were all Christians from the local United Reformed Church in whose buildings we met. We had one scout leader whom we suspected of being gay but that didn't really bother any of us kids and we never had it confirmed.

The thought that they now have contraception lessons in scouts bugs me a bit as it's supposed to be a haven from that sort of stuff. However, we had all sorts of visitors, from the chap who showed us how to strip down a Bren gun to the policeman who came in to talk to us about drugs so I guess as long as it doesn't become the focal point of the organisation I don't mind that much. The thing that bugs me more is the thought that a lot of the fun, and frankly dangerous stuff we used to do is now impractical because of health and safety legislation. I have a friend who is a scout leader and he says that half the time they just play sports now because all the activities we used to do need risk assessments etc or are flat out banned. I don't know if it is the same in the US?

[Tax-chick]

Our Boy Scouts are certainly careful about safety, but I haven't heard of any activities being banned. Ours do canoeing, archery, shooting, rock climbing (when they're older) and all that. The Girl Scouts have more limits than the boys, but our family does shooting sports privately, anyway.

I think the Scouts (boys or girls) should avoid anything to do with sex. Both boys and girls should have an environment where they don't have to deal with that, but can just be kids. Anything to do with "personal relationships" belongs in the family, not an organization setting.

The alternative view, however, is that since many families neglect to raise their children with the information they need, and with productive values, institutions have to fill the gap. There's some truth to this ... certainly among the older Girl Scouts (my oldest is 12), I see some very needy girls with no good role models in their families. A Girl Scout leader who teaches them to respect themselves and to be focussed on their goals may be all they have.

[Our man in washington]

I went to the Heritage Girls website and clicked around. I noticed that in some of the pictures, the girls were wearing dresses. Not in most of the pictures, but a few.

I then did an experiment. I then checked the Girl Scout website and all their prominent informational pictures had girls wearing nonfeminine clothing.

Okay, no one should be wearing a dress for a camping trip or for a day cleaning litter out of the stream. But it's interesting that these left-leaning organizations want to eliminate femininity from girls' lives. Any ideas why that is?

(I realize that the modern dogma is that any adult male who notices the attire of children is a pedophile. That's ridiculous. I'm no pedophile, but I think boys and girls should be taught how to be gentlemen and ladies, respectively. And that teaching includes knowing how to dress nicely when the occasion calls for it. Flame away.)