The Cookie Crumbles-The Girl Scouts go PC.

Everyone knows about the Boy Scouts, now one of the most controversial groups in America. But what about the Girl Scouts? All sugar and spice and everything nice, plus annual cookie sales, right? Not quite.

The Girl Scouts of America have avoided the beleaguered status of the Boy Scouts only because the organization has surrendered to exactly the cultural forces the Boy Scouts are resisting.

The Girl Scouts' leaders hope to make their youthful charges the shock troops of an ongoing feminist revolution.

It's been a long slide for the Girl Scouts. First, as James Davison Hunter points out in his new book The Death of Character, they dropped "loyalty" from their oath in 1972, in favor of "I will do my best to be honest and fair."

In 1975, a Catholic archdiocese cut off all support of the Girl Scouts because of their sex-ed program.

In 1993, the Girl Scouts made "God" optional in the Girl Scout Promise: "On my honor, I will try: To serve God and my country, to help people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout Law."

(The Boy Scouts, meanwhile, have been sued over keeping God obligatory in their oath.)

Today, the Girl Scouts is arguably one of the most politically correct organizations in the country.

Evans's Scouts march predictably leftward on almost everything. The Girl Scouts organization supports the Title IX legislation — which mandates gender equity in sports — in both the nation's capital (in 1998–99, the organization spent $56,800 on lobbying) and in its own literature. The Girl Scout Constitution includes a ringing endorsement of affirmative action in "recruitment, hiring, training, and promoting." Girl Scouts and Girl Scout moms are anti-gun, and were, naturally enough, represented in the anti-gun Million Mom March.

A Senior Scout resource book reads like an insert from YM or Seventeen. Scattered throughout the margins are a semester's worth of themes for after-school specials, including such statistical nuggets as, "One-fifth of girls have used diet pills, more than one in six have forced themselves to vomit, and half have skipped a meal in order to lose weight." Exercises include working through how the Girl Scout Promise and Law relate to such situations as "Supporting a decision to pull a life-support system from a dying relative" and "Ending a pregnancy." Some activities "you can do as a Girl Scout to address contemporary issues" include "organiz[ing] an event to make people aware of gender bias" or "help[ing] organize an Earth Day celebration."

"The core values remain the same, but throughout its history Girl Scouting has evolved to meet the needs and interests of girls today," says Karen Solzak Rice, a spokesman for the Mt. Wilson Vista Council of Arcadia, Calif. "Today's Girl Scout activities help girls grow up strong and give them skills for success in today's world." Girl Scouts now can earn the "Ms. Fix-It" badge for learning how to fix a leak, rewire an electrical appliance, or re-caulk a window, and the "Car Care" badge for checking fluids, filling tires to the proper pressure, and performing safety checks. And badges, which vary from council to council, go way beyond selling cookies. There's a "Domestic Violence Awareness" badge, as well as badges for stress management, for "becoming a teen," and a "Girl Power!" badge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Girls can earn a "Decisions for Your Life" badge for participating in activities relating to teen pregnancy, including carrying around a raw egg for a designated period of time.

Victimization is central to the Girl Scout worldview, as the organization continues to propagate the now discredited notion that the nation's girls are a tribe of desperate Ophelias. Citing a survey from the American Association of University Women that has since been debunked, the Girl Scouts assures girls in its literature that teachers discriminate against them in the classroom, calling on boys more often. The new Girl Scout Research Institute, a clearinghouse of "research and polling information on girls," as National President Connie Matsui describes it, has just released its inaugural study, "Girls Speak Out: Teens Before Their Time," focusing on the supposed crisis of girls. Dr. Whitney Roban, a clinical psychologist at the research institute, advises parents: "You are hurting your daughter by trying to protect her. Sit down with your daughter and watch Dawson's Creek and the MTV Music Awards. Talk about it. It will be very revealing."

So why isn't the Girl Scouts, like the Boy Scouts, being sued and protested against for not allowing lesbian Scout leaders? Because they have them. The Girl Scouts does not have "a discrimination policy," as they like to put it — Girl Scouts doors are open to all, gay Scout leaders and girls.

Girl Scout policy forbids sex on Girl Scouts time. But the book On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on Their Scouting Experience, published in 1997, is filled with coming-of-age stories sparked by gay encounters in the Girl Scouts. Along with an essay entitled "All I Really Need to Know About Being a Lesbian I Learned at Girl Scout Camp," and various stories of "butch" counselors who "wore men's clothes and had slicked back short hair," is testimony to the prevalence of lesbians in Girl Scouting. One writer remembers: "By the time I was a junior counselor, Mic was assistant camp director and her gruff, deep-voiced directives no longer scared me. I didn't know that most of the counselors were lesbians." Others remember how sleepovers and camping trips were opportunities for same-sex sexual experimentation. Girl Scout staffers writing in the book claim that roughly one in three of the Girl Scouts' paid professional staff is lesbian.

The organization itself is not shy about the issue. One resource book for Scouts informs its young readers: "Some girls have sexual attractions or desires for people of the same sex." Meanwhile, the Patriots' Trail Girl Scout Council in Massachusetts held a volunteer workshop this year on sexual orientation, working in tandem with the Gay Lesbian Youth Support project "to educate us about overcoming barriers that may exist in our organization and instilling a culture that is inviting to all girls," according to Mary Jo Kane, spokesman for the council. The Girl Scout council developed a mentoring program "for lesbian women and girls dealing with sexual identity." Says Kane, "I can only imagine the energy and leadership that would be unleashed — in society — if we spent our time and resources encouraging our girls — and everyone — to be visible, authentic, and bring 100 percent of themselves to all their experiences."

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported this summer on a vivid example of the "authenticity" of today's Scouts:

For those of us who remember the Girl Scouts as the quiet girls in class who wore their green uniforms on Wednesdays, encountering Katze Ludeke can be quite an eye-opener. She seldom wears her sash for St. Croix Valley Troop 1256, preferring to accessorize with army boots and a lavender bra strap that slides persistently down her bare shoulder. Rather than stitching doilies and tea cozies, the talented seamstress has created her own costume company specializing in "fetish-wear." Instead of going for the Gold Award — the Girl Scout's highest honor — by reading to senior citizens, Ludeke pushed to start her own support group for at-risk teens called Queer Youth Exist. For her Gold Award application . . . Ludeke is submitting her work with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens, with the support of her troop.

The eyes — and ire — of the world may well be on the wrong Scouts. There are currently 2.7 million Girl Scouts in the U.S. That's a lot of liberal feminists to look forward to.

In a speech shortly after becoming executive director, the Girl Scouts' Marty Evans boasted, "We're not your mother's Girl Scout troop." No kidding.

"And it could just be that Mr. Myers will help his young charges to think about some (important) things they might not have otherwise!"

We have had conversations about the right way to live. Whether or not, there is fruit will not be evident until much later.

"For a traditional Christian man, it becomes, in some parts of the country, very, very difficult to find a mate. "

When I was looking for a suitable mate, I went to a few churches. The results were disappointing in the extreme. I saw no difference in the girls. At one church, the pastor was having a very difficult time convincing the girls they didn't have to put out to get dates. They were just as adament that they did have to put out to get boys to date them. I met my wife at a single's club when a friend invited me to go with him.

You asked me what other men think. I forgot to reply to that question. You will have to ask them. But some of the replies by guys on this thread should give you some idea how many men feel.

When I was looking for a suitable mate, I went to a few churches. The results were disappointing in the extreme.

It's an amazing mystery how we find our mates. I honestly believe prayer and God had quite a bit to do with finding mine.

"Please don't get me wrong Mr. Meyers, but perhaps you have been exposed to the ominous part of the world for too long, there is another side. We have a great many young women in our church who display the attiributes you seem to see lacking in the women you encounter. I think it is harmful to generalize in any situation, more so if we do not look at both sides."

I have also seen some of these "Christian" women at work, and heard about them. I will not say that all men and women in the churches have gone down the wrong path, but there are many who have. It is no longer enough for the sake of trust to see the word Christian used about a person or a church. You say that there are good women in your church. In many churches, the opposite is true.

Well, I know that I asked God to send me the right woman. I met my wife a day or two later. I didn't question it. We were married in a week. I proposed to her a day or two after we met. It has lasted over 25 years now.

I am glad you posted this. Little public attention is pointed at the Girl Scouts. Their demise as a moral and truthfull group has been obvious for a long time. I really don't know why.

It must be a lack of leadership. It must be a lack of good role models. It must be that the female gender just does not care or want to rock the boat. It must be that fun is just more fun.

Listen up girls! This is your problem! Fix it please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"in local MIDDLE schools, girls are rushing head over heals to give boys oral sex. We have had two girls get pregnant in 7th grade. In 9th grade (and this is tony suburban New Jersey), we have a group of 9th grade girls who are actively searching out seniors to devirginize their friends, so that they have bragging rights. "

Yeah, these girls will make wonderful girlfriends and mates. (Sarcasm tag here.) These girls are little lolitas and are completely immoral. They don't improve with age.

You use the word, bragging. One poster here is insistant that girls don't do this sort of thing. I think that many people are not aware of what is really going on in our society today.

Oh my God!!! The Sheer horror of it! Are girl scouts taught to fix cars? rewire an electrical appliance???? re-caulk a window?!?!? We must unite in order to stop this un-christian, un-american pushing-of-the- lesbian-agenda!! /sarcasm

Give me a break.......

Oh my God!!! The Sheer horror of it! Are girl scouts taught to fix cars? rewire an electrical appliance???? re-caulk a window?!?!? We must unite in order to stop this un-christian, un-american pushing-of-the- lesbian-agenda!! /sarcasm

Hey there Dobgert. I don't think there one post objecting to teaching girls how to caulk a window (or fix cars). As for the lesbian agenda - well, I would say that's quite a bit different! My daughter is welcome to learn how to caulk a window any day.

Yeah, I gave my daughter both blocks and dolls to play with. Now she's a college sophomore studying electrical engineering and playing varsity tennis and softball. Her relationships with both men and women seem normal.

Interesting the differences she sees in the male and female engineering students. The female students are much more highly socialized, the male ones mostly play with machines when they're not in class.

By now you've probably figured out that Don Myers believes women are the source of all evil and men are their innocent victims. This isn't the first thread like this and it won't be the last. I guess these young girls manage to get pregnant by themselves, forcibly rape these young men, and keep them hostage in apartments in order to live with them. Hatred of a gender makes a person unable to see that it takes two to tango.

This is funny.

When my scout troop when to girlscout camp in the early eighties, the girl scout leaders stayed up all night, got drunk, raided the girl's cabin as a prank, and made us hike three miles the next morning.

After that, I quit. Those women were scary.

The only thing good about the girl scouts, is the cookies.

when I'll realize just how long it is til GS cookie time.

I enjoy GS cookie time too. It's only then that it's semi-allowable for me to express my dislike of the group. Usually conservatives have to keep their beliefs to themselves at work, but when being harrassed by every mother and father pimping their kids' cookies on everyone gives me the chance to tell them why I don't support that cause.

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