As one organization for girls continues to fade, others stand ready to take its place to teach true character.
Girl Scouts USA is celebrating its 106th anniversary as it proceeds on a path of losing members and parents who no longer trust their young girls to the organization. Patti Garibay of American Heritage Girls has no plans to send the Girl Scouts a birthday card this year.
"As a matter of fact, AHG was founded for the very reason of being an alternative to the Girl Scouts and their marginalization of our Lord's name," Garibay shares. "In American Heritage Girls, each girl says the AHG oath, which is I promise to love God, cherish my family, honor my country and serve in my community."
In contrast, Girl Scouts of the USA:
"... makes no attempt to define or interpret the word 'God' in the Girl Scout Promise. It looks to individual members to establish for themselves the nature of their spiritual beliefs. When making the Girl Scout Promise, individuals may substitute wording appropriate to their own spiritual beliefs for the word 'God.'" (Girl Scouts' 2017 Blue Book of Basic Documents, p. 24)
According to Garibay, the Girl Scouts also has adopted an approach to sex education that promotes promiscuity and normalizes the lesbian lifestyle. The organization also promotes "pluralism and diversity" among its members (2017 Blue Book, p. 23). None of that, says Garibay, is part of the AHG character curriculum.
"When you have a character development program of any sort, it needs to be built on something. There needs to be a foundation," she explains. "And when your foundation is social norms – and the social norms, as we all know, are changing – that is not going to be a foundation that's sustainable. And it's certainly not going to be a foundation based on truth."
That's why American Heritage Girls bases its spiritual and character development programs on the Bible, says the AHG founder. (See AHG Statement of Faith)
Now the Boy Scouts of America – which like the Girl Scouts continues to show diminishing membership – is allowing girls in their ranks. AHG, on the other hand, will continue to maintain an all-girl environment.