In Defense of the Girl Scouts
A resent letter: to thin mint or not to thin mint?
This is a resent letter from a couple of years ago (with updates + tweaks!) I’m traveling with my family this week + appreciate your grace. I’m pulling it out from behind the paywall. And hey, if you’re feeling super convicted, feel free to buy some cookies from my daughter Teresa—they ship nationally. ;)
It starts around this time every year. I start to dream of spring, even though there’s two feet of snow piled up in the yard. I think of farmer’s markets; of wearing Sperrys; of not needing to bundle my kids in approximately 800 layers before we venture out the front door.
And I start craving Thin Mints.
I love the bright green boxes. I love the way they taste after they’ve been in the freezer. I love the smiling little preteens at the door, encouraging me to spend an exorbitant amount of money so their troop can go to the waterpark.
And the samoas! The peanut butter patties! The shortbreads! Girl scout cookies are one of my favorite treats, and I honestly look forward to them all year. But the springtime—aka cookie season—is when I start carrying three dollars of cash around in case the girls have a card table at the grocery store.1
So imagine my shock when a few years ago (more than a few—I was in college, I think) I started hearing rumblings about the girl scouts being anti-Catholic. The morality of those beloved Thin Mint cookies was dragged into question. One time, I posted an Instagram story of a peanut butter patties box and had multiple people accusing me of, like, baby murdering.
Here’s something I’ve learned, in our algorithm and clickbait driven society: why-you-should-hate-that-brand stories tend to fly very, very quickly. An I-kinda-sorta-heard-this can go from you to your hairdresser’s cousin’s stepson in an instant. So usually, when someone tells me about how This Company kills people in their spare time or That Company hides slave laborers in their basement or These Companies are bringing about fascism or Those Companies are intentionally poisoning us to support #BigPharma, I politely nod and smile and then Google for myself later.
So I thought I’d break down the Great Cookie Dilemma for you here before breaking down a few things we can learn from the larger situation.
First and foremost, Girl Scouts is a national organization made up of over 100 “councils”. For instance, our local council is the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Wisconsin. Within these councils, you have the various “troops” organized through things like churches and schools. So while you do have one central organization, the Girl Scouts of the USA, you have thousands of troops nestled under hundreds of councils. You tracking me? This is very important to understand as we talk about the issue. Because what it means is this: one troop might do something you find squirmy or even evil, but that doesn’t mean Girl Scouts is doing it.
No, Girl Scouts does not partner with Planned Parenthood.
This is probably the number one rumor that gets tossed around the ole mill. What you need to get here is that the national organization, Girl Scouts of the USA, gives individual troops a wide amount of freedom in terms of their activities and donations. That means technically, a troop is allowed to do something like volunteer at a Planned Parenthood or cohost a conference with them, even though I was only able to find two instances of this ever occurring, and only 17 councils have ever reported having any interaction with Planned Parenthood at all. Girl Scouts itself does not have any kind of relationship with Planned Parenthood and gives them no financial support. This rumor mainly got started because the Girl Scouts once sent ten delegates to a United Nations conference and at the presentation they attended, a brochure was found that was created by Planned Parenthood. The internet did its thang and basically convinced a bunch of people that the girl scouts were distributing this brochure. That story is 100% false.
No, Cookie Sales do not go to WAGGGS.
The Girl Scouts of the USA as an organization technically belongs to the Worldwide Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. WAGGGS has numerous problematic views, including a long track record of supporting contraception, which the Catholic Church isn’t down with. However, girl scouts in America are not official individual members of WAGGGS. Neither their dues nor their cookie fees go to WAGGGS. Your money is not flowing to WAGGGS in any way—they only pay WAGGGS dues through investor donations.
No, official Girl Scout materials don’t promote pro-choice ideas.
It’s very important hear to realize that women’s healthcare can mean a lot of things. Do some of the Girl Scout leadership brochures suggest advocating for women’s healthcare? Absolutely! But some of the examples provided include things like promoting vaccination information, working to end domestic violence, and and helping girls learn more about their reproductive cycles—all incredibly important pieces of information. So the fact that some websites claiming the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood are skipping merrily off into a field holding hands are simply holding up the phrase women’s healthcare as we heart abortion is frustrating, to say the least. It’s falling for the very lie that Planned Parenthood promotes: that women’s healthcare means abortion, abortion, abortion instead of a myriad of under studied and under funded issues. The Girl Scouts used to have materials that promoted the left-leaning group Media Matters, but they have since eliminated those materials.
Some justifiable reasons Girl Scouts may bug you:
The Girl Scouts gives troops a very wide degree of freedom in terms of what they do. That means some troops will (and a small number have) done things the Catholic church doesn’t approve of. It’s important to learn about your local troop and the kinds of activities they’re involved in. For instance, there are badges offered for working with causes the Catholic Church wouldn’t support, and it’s good to know if your daughter’s troop is actively working towards those specific badges or not. It’s frustrating that these badges are part of the organization at large, and I get that.
The Girl Scouts may not be actively anti life, but they’re certainly not a pro life organization. I wasn’t able to find Girl Scouts awarding any volunteer hours or badges for pro life activism (that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t, I just personally couldn’t find any in my research).
The Girl Scouts does partner with imperfect organizations, like Doctors Without Borders, which allows abortion in cases of rape. However, Doctors Without Borders provides many, many other important services for the world, and that one policy, evil as it may be, is not quite enough for me personally to disassociate with them as a whole.
The Girl Scouts are members of WAGGGS. No, WAGGGS is not good. Your money isn’t going there, but the simple association may bother you more than it does me.
The Girl Scouts as a larger organization does associate with politicians and figureheads that are pro abortion. But I personally find this argument a bit eye roll inducing. For instance, they feature the Susan G. Komen foundation in one of their official brochures. I mean, yes, the foundation does have a relationship with Planned Parenthood, which is absolute insanity when you look at the science connecting abortions with breast cancer. But being associated with someone who is associated with someone else is not necessarily terms for Thin Mint banishment. Gloria Steinem is pro-choice. She’s also successfully helped women fight real discrimination in the workplace for decades. People are not nearly as black and white as we wish they were, and in our race to shove everyone into the good or evil box we miss complicated truths about the individual human person.
Some have said that Girl Scout cookies taste like garbage. One acquaintance recently referred to peanut butter patties as, I quote, “cardboard”. To be clear, those people are 100% incorrect and should not be listened to on matters of any importance. If you need to cut them out of your lives, I completely understand.
There’s a very understandable desire for Catholics to disengage with brands that go against our beliefs. It’s easy to feel as if the whole flipping world is against our values, and in some ways, it is. I’m glad we’re having more conversations about the poor. I’m not glad that much of the world sees a solid response to that being free hormonal birth control. Y’know?
Sports teams, the government, major corporations—it can feel as if they’re all in a desperate rush to not seem bigoted, and they’re not afraid to throw Catholics under the bus while getting there. Pro-life people are in the minority, and we’re getting smaller, and that’s hard when you see an intrinsic evil and feel that others don’t. I have to wake up every day knowing my daughter is walking forward in a world that thinks the most important part of healthcare she has access to is the ability to end the lives of her future unborn children while discriminating against her body in so many other ways. It’s not pretty out here.
There are times when boycotting a business because of its value systems may be appropriate for you and your family. I’m not telling you what to do here, okay? I got a Starbucks iced latte yesterday. I also don’t buy from Amazon or Old Navy. I’m also typing this on a MacBook. )Apple? I mean, talk about a company that lacks morals.) I shop at Target, which rolled back its DEI efforts, and Costco, which didn’t, so no matter which side of that argument you’re on I’ll tick you off. Ditto my Tesla (good for the environment, or a precursor to fascism? Depends who you ask.) It’s a tightrope, and balancing on it is tricky. I don’t have the easy answers for you. I’d certainly make more money on substack if I did.
At the same time, it’s essential to let the facts guide your opinions, not things you may have heard or random clickbait articles on the internet.
I originally wrote this piece four years ago and it makes me wince to realize how much worse this has gotten—the easy-to-throw-up-online graphics; the deceiving reels; the captions that contain true information but are missing vital context.
It’s also important to find a way to be in the world, not of it. I’m fine saying that Kamala Harris being Vice President showed remarkable progress made by women over the past hundreds of years. I’m also fine saying that her many of her policies made me shudder. In that sense, there are people the Girl Scouts applaud that I cheer for (for some reasons) and boo at (for others).
I regret to inform you that we live in the world. We live in a world whose morals do not align with our faith. I understand the urge to hide our children from that world and keep them in monastery-like bubbles, but if our children are going to be peacemakers, are going to hunger and thirst for righteousness, are going to be lights for all—we may have to engage with that world, slowly but surely.
Look—you don’t have to buy Girl Scout Cookies. I’m not the shortbread police. For further reading, I highly recommend checking out the USCCB’s dialogue with the Girl Scouts and learning more about the group’s 100-year partnership with the Catholic Church.
But in a world that’s extremely political at every turn, I just don’t see the evidence that the girls in green are out there rabidly promoting a culture of death. I see them helping girls learn self-confidence, teaching them how to care about their community, and selling some dang good cookies while they’re at it.
On My Nightstand
Beware the Weepy Influencers: Yes. A note on true intimacy and vulnerability, and what it absolutely isn’t.
On What Women Want: A really interesting read asking a complicated question: why are the only two categories for sex consensual and criminal? Can someone do something they have consent for that is also really, really bad? And when do things cross the line if women are, in fact, vocalizing their willingness? “Some of this (most?), I think, is an unfortunate side effect of all our traditional sexual mores having been discarded in favor of vapid, anything-goes sex positivity with a monomaniacal focus on consent. We barely even have the vocabulary anymore to describe bad or cruel or execrable behavior that is wrong without being rape.” (More information has come out since this was posted that demonstrates Neil Gaiman has engaged in very criminal behavior, but I still think the essay is interesting and worth a read.)
Believe for Your Own Sake, Not for “The West”: Hoo-boy, this one is a winner. If I see one more conservative talking about their conversion without mentioning Jesus but only mentioning things like “civility” and “tradition”, I’m going to scream. “When Christianity as meme comes to replace Christianity as truth, we find ourselves in dangerous theological territory. Or, to put another way, if Christianity weren’t true (or we didn’t, at minimum, truly believe it to be true), ought we to affirm Christianity as a necessary noble lie for a more orderly, or just, or optimistic society? And — if it is merely a noble lie — what’s the point of optimism at all?”
In case you missed these Letters:
Hey, would you do me a quick favor?
Would you mind sharing this newsletter? If you’ve made it this far, I’m guessing you care about faithful feminism. Almost 100% of our growth comes from shares from readers. It would mean so much to me if you could take a second to share this piece on social media or with one other person you think it might resonate with. Thanks s’much!
And these days, they’re so high tech—the girls at our local grocery store took Venmo! What a world, y’all.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been involved with Girl Scouts for 22 years. I will be volunteering at camp this summer for the 21st time. I will be director of said camp for the 18th year! I have three grown daughters who join me as lifetime members and camp volunteers. The vast majority of women I have encountered as volunteers are Christian, and the majority of those Christian women are Catholic!! Whenever I'm asked why I continue to support and, Heaven forbid, volunteer for this satanic organization (yes, I've been told that), I reply 1) I do it for the girls, to raise true leaders with solid values, and 2) I do it because if not me and the other Christians/Catholics involved, what hope is left for GSUSA?
Also, you are correct that individual troops (not even councils) make decisions about their alliances, but even alliances are rare. You see, Girl Scouts are not allowed to raise money or donate money to ANY outside organization. It's a hard and fast rule that CANNOT be broken without penalty of being barred. Only girls working on the Gold Award (the "equivalent" of but much, much harder and in depth than the Eagle Scout) can partner with outside organizations, but they still cannot donate or raise money for them. And only 3% of all Girl Scouts will do the work necessary to obtain this award, so you calculate how many outside organizations benefit from Girl Scouts. How do I know all this for sure????
My oldest daughter (president of her Catholic school's Pro-Life Club) earned her Gold Award by partnering with the Knights of Columbus and a local Lutheran Church to expand the PRO-LIFE PREGNANCY CENTER in our county. She was allowed to hold a carnival to raise money for equipment (she bought a sonogram machine), but she could not give them any money. When there was money leftover (yes, it was a VERY big and well-attended / supported event right here on Maryland's little, tiny Eastern Shore), she used all the extra funds to purchase pregnancy tests, disposable sheets and gowns, etc.
So, there you have it. There are many Catholic volunteers in Girl Scouts who feel that we have an obligation to the Christian values of our founder to instill those values in our girls. No money from any Girl Scout, troop, or council directly goes to an outside organization. There are Girl Scouts, troops, and councils who support pro-life causes. I hope this helps everyone see this organization as something worth supporting, for the sake our girls and their future.
I appreciate any Scouting related piece that doesn't bash other similar organizations especially in today's environment. It's also timely.