Now that seems like a silly question, doesn’t it? I know at our parish there are several girls selling the delightful cookies every year at this time following Mass. How can one turn down these sweet young girls, even if the cookies are not on your diet? (I personally love the Samoas the best). Imagine my surprise when I learned today that this national organization partners with Planned Parenthood who distributes materials teaching that abortions are not all that bad!
Granted, I may be a little late learning about this issue but I really haven’t been spending much time lately reading the news or following the buzz on Google+. Could this really be as bad as it appears or is it just “right wing” propaganda blown out of proportion? I decided to investigate.
First, I came across this video featuring the CEO of the Girl Scouts on the Today show. Yep, it’s true. The Girl Scouts organization does, indeed, partner with Planned Parenthood to “educate” girls on sexual matters.
Wow! As a Catholic I can’t think of a worse organization than Planned Parenthood to be teaching young girls about matters of human sexuality. Birth control, abortion and dealing with “hotness” are all topics taught by Planned Parenthood. Ok, so I dug around some more and found the following information concern this partnership between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood:
HonestGirlScouts.com is a website dedicated to exposing the Girl Scouts’ entanglement with a number of organizations we as Catholics would not want to be affiliated with. I’m often skeptical of sites like this, thinking they are more sensational in their claims than they are factual. However, if you follow the links you’ll see that the claims revealed seem to be credible and, in fact, quite scary.
I also checked out what my Catholic friends on Google+ were posting about this and found links to articles that were enlightening. Here’s a couple of them:
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/01/25/fact-girls-scouts-have-documented-ties-to-planned-parenthood/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/16/say-no-to-girl-scout-cookies/
There are many more. And, of course, there are also many people who are not happy about this negative publicity for the Girl Scouts. They are primarily those who support birth control and the type of sex education that promotes it. They could care less about what the Catholic Church teaches on the topic…they are the pro-choice liberals who generally believe the Church is living in the dark ages. Here are a couple of those links to their opinions to provide another perspective on the matter. Of course, this is not a Catholic perspective, nor is it mine. Nothing like coming out against Girl Scouts, birth control, abortion and Planned Parenthood to get people riled up! Such is life within today’s culture of death:
http://www.athensreport.com/girl-scout-cookie-boycotters-make-me-want-more-cookies/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/103583939320326217147/posts/7DKLxRPokuH
So there you have it. What do you think? Should Catholics allow Girl Scouts to sell cookies in the parish narthex after Mass now that we all know of the national organization’s affiliations? Would we be unfairly punishing these sweet young girls by boycotting their sweet treats on grounds of higher moral principle? Does it matter that most of the profit of the cookies go into the pockets of a very large national organization who fosters relationships with the likes of the nation’s largest abortion provider? Or should we just look the other way and buy a couple of boxes to make the young girls selling them happy? What’s our responsibility as Catholics in this matter? I’d love to know your thoughts.
Update: Read my comment below for information which I understand is sent by the Diocese of Knoxville to those who contact the Diocese concerning the connection between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood.
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