Girl Scouts attend Girl Scouts At 100: The Launch of ToGetHerThere at Capitol Hill Cannon House Office Bldg, Caucus Room on February 1, 2012 in Washington, DC
Despite their disguise as cookie-selling, campfire-making, s’mores-eating young girls, the Girl Scouts of the USA are actually a pro-sex, pro-abortion, “radicalized” group seeking to crush Christian ideals and corrupt the country’s youth, at least according to one Indiana legislator.
Rep. Bob Morris sent a contentious letter to Indiana House Republicans over the weekend, asking his colleagues to reconsider signing a resolution recognizing the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts, saying that the organization is “subverted in the name of liberal progressive politics and the destruction of traditional American family values.” The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette broke the story on Monday, after the email, which was only intended for Morris’s fellow Republicans, was leaked.
(MORE: Beyond Pink and Blue: Are Scout Handbooks Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?)
In the letter (read the full text here), Morris states that, “After talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of web-based research, and what I found is disturbing.” He went on to say that the Girl Scouts of the USA and their worldwide partner, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), are affiliated with Planned Parenthood — an organization that has recently been subjected to its fair share of ultra-conservative attacks — despite the fact that, as Morris points out, “You will not find evidence of this on the GSA/WAGGGS website.” (Planned Parenthood of Indiana released a statement saying that it “currently has no formal partnership with the Girl Scouts.”)
Morris concluded that “abundant evidence proves that the agenda of Planned Parenthood includes sexualizing young girls through the Girl Scouts, which is quickly becoming a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood.” Morris does pull together a few sources, such as Denver Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley, who warned parents that “membership in the Girl Scouts could carry the danger of making their daughters more receptive to the pro-abortion agenda.”
But the ills of the Girl Scouts don’t stop there. Morris then stated that the Girl Scouts promote homosexual lifestyles, writing that of the 50 role models the group studies, “only three have a briefly-mentioned religious background – all the rest are feminists, lesbians, or Communists.” Add to this the fact that a boy who identifies as a girl was allowed into a Girl Scouts troop in Colorado, and conservatives have the perfect storm of liberal ideology on their hands.
(MORE: Girl Scouts Introduce New Cookie for 100th Anniversary)
Morris himself states that his two daughters have been active in Girl Scouts for years, and as far as we know they have turned out fine. But in fact, the far right have been recently targeting the Girl Scouts for supporting “radical feminism” and allegedly distributing pamphlets that talk about sex, according to a September 2010 Slate article. While the Girl Scouts have publicly denied these charges, conservatives such Morris haven’t backed down.
As for the Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary, Morris is so far the only Indiana legislator who has refused to sign the resolution. Something tells us that his reasoning isn’t going to gather much support, especially during Girl Scout cookie season.