There is a much better choice…American Heritage Girls. Any Catholic Church run or sponsored GSA troop should immediately change their affiliation to this group if they wish to be faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church and not in any way, through fundraisers, or advertising, promote that the Catholic faithful encourage GSA ideals or curriculum.
Our situation was with a local group that was not offered by our parish. We did the research, looked at the curriculum, discussed this with local leadership and group leaders, and decided, based on the results that it was not conducive to raising our children in the faith.
I checked out their website. The closest troop to us is too far away for us to do anything with. I doubt too many parents would jump over to AHG which seems to still be in its fledgling state, but would rather stick with the troop even if it moved to a nearby meeting place (should the parish or archdiocese dump the GSUSA). Remember, our troop is run by members of our parish and if the troop does not conform to or promote the basic tenets of our faith, its our own fault, not the fault of the GSUSA. Like the BSA, GSUSA has local councils that offer support and training. Unlike the BSA, GSUSA is more grassroots, less nationally directed.
GSUSA spokeswoman Michelle Tompkins said, “Each [local] council is a separate 501c3 organization with its own board of directors that is responsible for delivering the programming and membership to Girl Scouts. We can’t stress enough that Girl Scouts is a grassroots volunteer organization that is run mostly by parents in each community.
The local volunteers, many in Catholic churches across the country, control what programming the girls receive. Parents, many of whom serve as troop volunteers, are actively engaged in those activities and well aware of what their girls are doing. The notion that a small band of individuals from a faraway place ‘control’ everything the girls see and do is simply fantasy.”
As you know, GSUSA does not promote lechery, abortions, etc to the girls. Because you took the time to research an alternative group to your local GS troop, I’m curious what occurred in your local troop that made you think about switching? What did the leaders do with or say to the girls that made you want to pull your daughter and find an alternative? What about your parish troop? Was your parish troop too secular as well? One of great things about our troop is that if parents find something lacking in the troop, they step forward and lead a program for the girls. For example, we had a mom who was a nurse step forward and teach first aid and safety. Another mom who worked as an office manager talked to the girls about money and savings. Maybe if you thought your troop was too secular, you could have come up with a supplementary program that would have addressed your concern. I’m sure your troop leaders would have loved the fact that you wanted to step up and help the troop. Too many people want to just enroll their kids and then not volunteer to help leaving ALL the work to the leaders. Again, if your GSUSA troop was not conforming and promoting Catholic ideals, it was the fault of your troop leaders & the parents. **Switching to AHG would not have made your troop any less secular or anymore religious than your troop could have been with GS. **
On another note, I am encouraged that our parish will officially accept without reservation openly gay boys into our program (although I don’t think we would have excluded them before the ruling). This ruling however will hopefully encourage gay kids to join. Giving our boys the opportunity to work and play with openly homosexual boys as a team is wonderful. They will learn that homosexuals are no less human than the rest of us and are just as worthy of respect and trust as anyone else. Learning to treat all of God’s children equally will go a long way in defeating the hatred and bigotry we see around us. As our boys grow in scouts with the knowledge through direct experience that homosexual boys are no different than anyone else, the idea that homosexual boys cant continue in scouting as adult leaders will seem ethically and morally wrong to heterosexual scouts. In time, the homophobia of the BSA will be eradicated from within.
The American culture of today stands more and more against the teachings of the Church, and secular organizations like GSA are following right along in tow.
