Guest Post by Morbo
James Dobson of Focus on the Family just can’t hide his disdain for the Girl Scouts. His propaganda arm, Family News in Focus, attacked them yet again July 31, claiming that girls are leaving the Scouts in droves for a Christian fundamentalist alternative called American Heritage Girls.
Somehow I doubt it. The Girl Scouts have been around since 1912 and aren’t likely to be knocked off by fundamentalists poseurs.
To most people, the Girl Scouts are as American as apple pie. What is Dobson’s beef with the organization, anyway? He claims he’s mad at the Scouts for dropping the word “God” from their oath. But that’s not what happened. The word “God” was merely made optional. Girls can still say the original oath if they want to, and my guess is most do. A non-theistic oath is available for those girls who are non-religious or have some other objection to taking a religious oath.
I think this is all a cover. What’s Dobson is really mad about is that the Girl Scouts teach self-reliance. Through scouting, girls learn valuable skills that enable them to engage the world with confidence. Scouting teaches girls that there is nothing a modern woman cannot achieve.
Such girls are not likely to fall for fundamentalist claptrap — that their true role, determined by the Bible, is to stay home, tend to the house, raise children and defer to their husbands on all important issues. Thus, the Girl Scouts’ sin is not making “God” optional; it’s that they dare to tell girls to dream, aspire and achieve.
Dangerous stuff, indeed.