Ex-Scout Leader Warns Parents of Girl Scouts of America's Dangerous Agenda
by Ed Thomas
September 13, 2005
(AgapePress) - The national website for the Girl Scouts of America says the organization has a combined membership of nearly four million that is still growing strong. However, one former troop leader and recruiter says the organization is growing in the wrong direction. October's Girl Scout Convention in Atlanta will mark the 50th anniversary for the scouting organization, and more of what Patti Garibay describes as an ultra-liberal agenda that flows from the top down nationally. She says the upcoming convention being billed as "one of the most important council sessions ever," is a perfect example of influences parents should be concerned about within the Girl Scouts.
Garibay, founder of the Christian-based alternative civic group called American Heritage Girls, is an ex-Girl Scout leader who says she ditched the organization a dozen years ago when an activist agenda took over. She warns of two speakers at the Girl Scouts' October 7-10 convention that have liberal, feminist, and pro-abortion ties.
"Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, who is president of Bennett College for Women, is an anthropologist-feminist and also very much a pro-abortion speaker," Garibay notes. "In addition to that, Kavita Ramdas, who is the president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, will be speaking." The Global Fund, the American Heritage Girls founder asserts, is little more than a veiled international abortion rights group.
The American Heritage Girls founder feels the Girl Scouts' choice of speakers is "totally inappropriate" and notes that the Scouts' own Blue Book of Basic Documents purports that the organization does not take a stand on abortion -- "that they have no official position." Yet, she says, "when they invite two speakers who are so well known for their pro-abortion statures as well as their commitments throughout the country with organizations like Planned Parenthood, you can't help but say the Girl Scouts must be for abortion."
The Girls Scouts exposure of young girls to causes like the ones these speakers champion is part of the reason why Garibay says she founded her alternative group for girls ten years ago, falling back upon the Girl Scouts' "God, flag, and country" roots. She is concerned that many people are still unaware of the secularization of the Girl Scouts and urges parents to investigate the matter for themselves.
Garibay says parents should visit the Girl Scouts of America website and also should do a web search on the two guest speakers before allowing their daughters to join the group or to go to Atlanta as delegates to its 2005 convention.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
