-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, Chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is concerned with the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) and the Scouts’ “possible problematic relationships with other organizations.” Rhoades is also concerned about various “problematic” program materials, although specifics details are being withheld.
The GSUSA is “a secular organization that refrains from teaching religious or spiritual beliefs or practices” that tries “to further girls’ leadership.” Therein lies the problem.
The Bishops are just the latest combatants in the War on the Girl Scouts. The first salvo was fired by James Dobson’s Focus on the Family when the Girl Scouts made their religious oath optional for membership. On the political front, Indiana state Rep. Bob Morris, R-Fort Wayne claimed:
A Girl Scouts of America training program last year used the Planned Parenthood sex education pamphlet “Happy, Healthy, and Hot.”
The GSUSA’s response was unequivocal: “No, we did not.”
Morris also claimed that “Planned Parenthood instructional series and pamphlets are part of the core curriculum at GSA training seminars.” GSUSA’s responded that they do “not have a relationship or partnership with Planned Parenthood.”
Indiana Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma mocked Morris by offering Girl Scout cookies, Thin Mints, to his colleagues in House chambers.
The GSUSA does not take a position or develop materials regarding human sexuality, birth control, or abortion. In the words of Rep. Morris: “If you’re not against it, you’re for it.”
CNN contributor Dana Loesch has suggested that conservatives should protest by boycotting Girl Scout cookies. Although I haven’t in the past, in the future I’m going to be buying Girl Scout cookies at every opportunity. I will donate them to the local food bank.
H/T: Steve Benen, David Crary (AP), Rob Boston (AU), Carol Morello (WaPo), Joseph L. Conn (AU).
File this story in the Catholic Church’s “Gotta Keep the Ladies in Line” category:
Vatican reprimands U.S. nuns over “radical feminist themes”
By Wyatt Andrews
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57418254/vatican-reprimands-u.s-nuns-over-radical-feminist-themes/?tag=contentMain;contentBody
Excerpt:
The Vatican is accusing the largest organization of catholic nuns in America of falling out of line with church teachings — while promoting “radical feminist themes”.
The reprimand was aimed at the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a group that represents most of America’s 57,000 catholic sisters. The Vatican praised the nuns for “promoting social justice” but slams them for protesting church doctrine – on women’s ordination and homosexuals. The Vatican also complains the nuns have been “silent” on issues like the right to life and abortion.
The leadership conference said it was “stunned by the conclusions”. Sisters close to the group – including Simone Campbell of the anti poverty group network- say the nuns frequently question church dogma, but have never preached defiance.
Is this a group of radical feminists teaching outside the doctrines of the church?
“Heavens no. That’s ridiculous. There’s no evidence of being unfaithful or being doctrinally out of step with the church . It’s not there,” said Campbell.
The Vatican specifically criticizes the nuns’ leadership conference for public statements that disagree with positions taken by U.S. bishops.”
Most notably, the conference did clash with the bishops on health care reform. The nuns were strongly in favor, the bishops opposed.
Yes, Bron, I read similar articles. His heart wasn’t in it; okay, I suppose I can accept that. It’s certainly not unheard of people sometimes feel they ‘have’ to join a group. When it comes to all his misogynist feelings and statements, public and private, I am in no mood to argue. Religion to me is fascinating and scary at the same time. I have no longer use for it in my own life. My commitment is to do all I can and have time and energy for to track how it affects girls and women, both here and in places as far as Afghanistan, of which I am a bit of an expert as a human rights and women’s rights activist. I found this website about a year ago and enjoy the articles, the comments and the search for kittens in photos. Above all, I enjoy the humor sprinkled throughout the blog’s comments.
Elsie:
the Pope had to join the Hitler Youth, but his heart wasnt in it, or so say the articles I have read.
Summa summarum.
Please, what was the admonition, if there was one???
Oh, now it goes up. You mean that you thought I was baiting, trolling, playing games with you by pretending to not understand your statement. I wonder what I can do to say I was not playing a game. (if i did unconsciously is another matter). I got from what you said an admonition
to stop doing something. and being not clear what it was, asssumed the worst, and cited it in the form i undersood it and mentioned your name when touching on “showing how we are” as being important to me—–which i thought you had admonished me NOT to do. Long explanation Assumptions made are poor grounds. Answer: Dare to ask. Well, I did and did not get one, as I think you say now you thought I was playing you. NOPE, not at all.
So i asked you to clarify that admonition. Your saying go look at all I’ve written to you, was a patently tough task. A simple explanation of your one sentence seemed far easier for you to achieve since it was freshly said.
To suggest as you did, I took as a brushoff. It’s all true.
That was my honaet take.
Warts and all.
MikeS,
My sincere apologies. When I feel reduced to less than a worm, it hurts. Making you a demigod does give your words eternal weight, and thus devastating effect. But all that is my problem, not yours to handle. And my nursing that hurt instead of addressing it, makes it become worse. So finally it explodes all in my face. Most hurts have little basis in reality, are based often on faulty/incomplete info, and self-demeaning to boot. Troublesome. You betcha.
Now I am now trying to gain some self-esteem so as to not
only have to rely on my role play but who I am actually, a much firmer ground to stand on.
Am pursuing a self re-esteeming program (no affirmations) just staying in the now and noting the small achievements of life.
Fortunately, you did not reply in like, allowing me to regret my words.
BUT, you still, as so often leave me with something I do not understand, just as I still don’t unerstand your first admonition which irritated me initially, and which I paraphrase as “Don’t show your pimples here.”
Now it is the latest: “….merely reacting to the games people play by not playing.”
Í don’t get it. Please explain. Specifics don’t hurt half as much as assumptions about “What did he mean by this”
OTOTOT If´consciously used a devilish technique.
And beneath that warm teddy-bear appearance appears someone who could play the heavy in the drama. Have you been offered such roles?
A missed stardom?
“When I feel reduced to less than a worm, it hurts. Making you a demigod does give your words eternal weight, and thus devastating effect. But all that is my problem, not yours to handle.”
ID707,
You’ve begun to wear on me to the point where I am considering not reading your comments at all. When you first arrived here, if you remember, I welcomed you and even defended you. Since then though roughly 90% of your comments make it all about yourself, rather than even tangentially referring to the topic of the thread. Everything you write is self-referential and quite frankly obtuse. That speaks to your manner of writing which is really difficult to follow. Now some might ascribe that to lack of intelligence, but I don’t.
You are definitely very intelligent, as gleaned from various bits of knowledge you’ve shared, since you exhibit a depth of knowledge in many areas. Harruppan’s indeed, not many people are aware of the potential historical importance of that ancient civilization. I can only conclude then that you’ve adopted your obtuse writing style because your English has deteriorated from years of living abroad, or that you are being purposely passive-aggressive. I suspect it is the latter.
Then too, there is the annoyance at your methodology of trying to suck people into your personal drama, as you are doing here with me. I believe the point I was making was clear in the comments I directed at you and yet you pretend an inability to understand them which elicits further response from me.
That is a game within the definition of “game theory” as laid out by Erich Berne in “The Games People Play”.
I keep pointing out to you that we have few rules here and almost never any censorship of people’s comments, so you can continue to comment as you will. However, that doesn’t mean that I feel constrained to play along with you.
Now, as has been your perceptions, as with some others here, you tend to think you are dealing with some kind of power hierarchy where the “guest bloggers” are the leaders of this pack. It is a false notion and in fact I personally would not be here if it were true. We “guest bloggers” have certain privileges granted by Professor Turley and these privileges devolve into being able to choose the topics we please and write the “guest blogs” we choose. That is the extent of our privileges. Any “authority” that accrues to us comes from the effectiveness of our writing and at some point or another, each of us has missed the mark and been called on it. Obviously, we “guest bloggers” feel a responsibility to the Professor and the blog. That is why we take pains to welcome new contributors and encourage people to express their ideas.
It is with your projected idea of a “hierarchy” of untouchable leaders that you have on occasion lashed out at one or another of us in a passive/aggressive way, trying to hide the action with obscurity. Now I can accept that this is not conscious on your part, but even so, that doesn’t mean I have to treat you with kid gloves. You are no victim here, so why not stop the pretense that you are and rejoin us all in relevant discussion? Just as the discussion here is not all about me, it is not all about you, the content is more important than any of us. That all of us choose on occasion to joke, banter and/or relate personal tragedies and triumphs, is merely what gives depth and emotion to this blog. It also reflects Jonathan Turley’s sense of humor and irony. However, should those personal asides become the bulk of our writing the we become something other than a legal blog concerned with civil liberties and the important issues of the day.
Please understand this comes from me and me alone. It is not an “official
censure” from this blog, because we don’t do that. This is merely my opinion and is not directed at you out of malice and/or disdain. I do not feel negatively towards you, but actually I’m trying to reach out to you because I’m glad you’re here and believe you can play and important role here with your perspective from Europe.
Rafflaw, I second the second on Blouise’s motion!
A friend of mine has coined a phrase: “I am drunk with disgust!”
Blouise,
You hit the nail on the head. The Bishops have overstayed their welcome.
Sitting here in Belgium with family and shared this article with them, which opened the flood gates about the Catholic church and the pope. They are sooooooo sick and tired generally of these woman-haters. It was my mom’s 80 birthday party and she put in her five cents. She said she thinks the current Nazi woman hater already has a white robe and only needs to grow a beard before he joined these sick Taleban in Afghanistan.
And this from a woman who does believe in god.
I stopped buying girl scouts cookies in protest against the anti-gay leadership but umm, anything to thwart the Catholic church, esp. the Nazi pope and his misogynists underlings. Time to say, literally, to go hell!
MikeS,
If you think I am imposing then so be it.
I am a moving target, with much respect for you, but a poor repository of MikeS lore pertaining to me.
But “fuck off” would have been politer.
ID707,
I wasn’t trying to be polite merely reacting to the games people play by not playing.
To quote Nina Simone:
“I’m just a soul whose intentions are good,
Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.”
Dredd, see “Stop the Virgens” — Karen O — a whole opera!
As my shrink says; All things are in the eye of the beholder (betraktarens öga)
And Malisha quotes: “Talmud says “We see things not as they are, but as WE ARE,”
And I say, my frame of reference is not as yours. Help me make the connection.
Shall we remember and help each other? Hopefully.
MikeS,
Thanks for the correction. A clarification would be helpful.
OT BTW, what is the obliglation to replying when addressed by name?
“A clarification would be helpful.”
ID707,
I have every confidence that you have the intelligence to figure it out for yourself by rereading all my comments addressed to you on this subject.
The American public has already held an unofficial inquiry on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The results: Disgust.
Bob Morris is an idiot. He read something on the Internet and without pausing to find out whether it was true or not (and its not) or to try and find out the other side of the story, blindly and blithely believed it wholeheartedly, simply because it agreed with his prejudices.
He’s also my state rep: there are signs for him all over this part of the city. He is likely to remain that, since he has little in the way of any significant present or future opposition. However, I can take solace in one fact: he had to report his campaign contributions for the period since January to present, essentially the period this whole thing erupted. His total number of contributions?
Exactly one. And that was from a PAC. Not a single individual has contributed to him since that outburst.
Essentially, his career as an effective state rep is almost over. He’s always going to be known as the “bozo who dissed the Girls Scouts”.
pete
prefer thin mints
matt
don’t eat the pecan logs
Idealist, did somebody tell me to stop? I didn’t hear anybody telling me to stop. About exposing my personal experiences, there’s nothing here that isn’t either elsewhere on the web or (as in the case of the GS leader of my childhood) nameless and unidentifiable. I mean, I suppose some “Columbo” could find out who Geraldine is, but so what? That candy incident has deniability.
Anyway, some of these threads are fascinating and a lot of the commentators as well, and yourself included, and I’m here for the foreseeable.
What happens if the Boy Scouts start selling cookies?