The Daily Signal - Here's Where to Take Your Kids When Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts Go Woke

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

This is the daily interview edition of The Daily Signal Podcast for Thursday, September 20, 2023. Managing Editor Tyler O'Neil sat down with Patti Garibay, founder and executive director of American Heritage Girls, to talk about scouting, and why American Heritage Girls provides a Christian alternative to the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Tyler O'Neill, managing editor at The Daily Signal. I am honored to be joined by Patty Garibay, who is the founder and executive director of American Heritage Girls. So glad to have you with me. It's a pleasure to be with you, Tyler. Thanks for having me. So, Patty, I just want to talk a little bit about why American Heritage Girls exist, what it is. You know, a lot of people are very familiar with the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts, but they may not know that there are more, shall we say, faithful. options out there to the original animating spirit of both of those scouting groups. Oh, I love the way you said that, Tyler, the emanating spirit. Yes, we are a Christ-centered character development program that serves girls at ages 5 to 18. We come alongside the church who says, I want this program for youth. I want it for the girls in our community, in our church. We want to have something that they're doing life together, that they have excellent models and mentors in the adult volunteers. And we also want them to be able to,

to be prepared the girls for influencing the next generation. And I think that's very important to today's culture. And why? So it's interesting, I am an Eagle Scout myself, and I've been really disheartened to see the way that the Boy Scouts have been going in this past decade. But why did American Heritage Girl start back in 1995? And I think there's a partnership with Trail Life USA. Would you talk briefly about the issues that led to these new organizations?

Yes, absolutely. A matter of fact, the Girl Scouts USA had been going in the wrong direction, but little to my knowledge, as a serving leader. So this was sort of hidden in many ways that had been going on since the 70s. I learned about in 1993, and that's when the Girl Scouts changed the Girl Scout promise to no longer mandate an oath to God. Well, when you kick God out of a character development program, what are you going to set the stone on, right?

it's going to be the shifting sands of cultural winds. And that can be crazy. And so we've lost all of that really stable foundation that Juliette Gordon Lowe, the founders of Girl Scouts, had said. And I started to wonder, why would they do this? Okay. So then there became a time of research and development. And I started to uncover crazy things that the Girl Scouts were standing for. And again, this is back in the early 90s.

They were very much pro-abortion at that time, very much pro-home. with sexuality, and they were teaching the kids and indoctrinating them with this curricula through the girl handbooks and even through their magazines and all the other things that accompanied. So that was something I was trying to change. I thought that a voice of reason would set them straight, that they had opened a Pandora's box that they did not realize they opened. Well, they fully knew. And so that year and a half of sort of fighting and trying to self-correct the Girl Scouts USA and being accused of being Don Quixote, fighting windmills. I finally gave up and realized that the Lord was really calling me to do something different,

and that was to start something new. And sometimes we can't just curse the darkness. We have to light a candle. And we've got to start to be part of the solution rather than the problem. And I think that's where, you know, the populace comes together. And we, we as parents, say we care enough about our kids that we're going to do something new and different that will help them and their peers. Now, I just thought this would just be a little gig for my daughter that would last a four years and we call it a day and I get on with my life, right?

Well, here we are 28 years later. My daughter is not only a leader, but my granddaughter is now an American heritage girl. But that's what God does when he calls you. Yeah, so you mentioned, you know, the support of abortion, homosexuality back in the 90s. I mean, if I remember rightly, that was when the homosexual movement, you know, Nambla was around.

And, like, I think they might still exist, but they're nowhere near, you know, what they used to be. You know, how have you seen those issues sort of percolate and continue and arguably worsen in the past few decades? I cannot believe. I mean, they've come out of the closet with this. As I mentioned, the agenda was hidden from me as a leader.

I wasn't just a leader of one troop, but three troops, and I was also a delegate. So I bled green. So I should have known some of this stuff rather than finding it out on the evening news. But since then, they've come. out of the closet with this. Matter of fact, there's a pride patch for the girls to be able to earn. There's also a camp culture code that tells the campers and the leaders that you cannot, you have to use the proper pronouns of whoever that camp counselor might be, whether it be, I mean, we're not even allowed to say male or female, according to this camp culture code.

And here's the thing, McKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos, ex-wife, gave the Girl Scouts a record donation, the largest in their history of $85 million. And this was for them to use for DEI purposes. So here we have it right there in the camp culture code. We have it also in the curriculum and these pride patches. And the thing that bothers me the most, Tyler, about the pride patch. As I remember as a Girl Scout leader, the girls would choose their badges by its design. Honestly, they want, you know what?

The girls like to wear pretty things. Well, that rainbow is very enticing on that pride patch. So I'll tell you, they are manipulating our kids. I believe it's indoctrination. And I still believe there's a lot of families that don't understand it because they really love the tradition of the trefoil rather than the truth of what's going on in that trefoiled organization. Yeah, I think that's powerful the way you said that. Also, you had a relationship with the Boy Scouts, which I didn't know about. I mean, I'm an Eagle Scout.

I got it back in 2007, I believe. But, you know, seeing the Boy Scouts in their recent changes, what was your relationship with them? How did that break down? And, you know, did you ever imagine that American Heritage Girls would be competing with the Boy Scouts for Girl Scouts, right? Or even for the Boy Scouts to be competing with the Girl Scouts. But it is a crazy world.

Well, here's the thing. we were blessed by a memorandum of understanding with the Boy Scouts of America. And imagine you're feeling your ship has come in. I mean, the greatest scouting organization in the world wanted to partner with American Heritage Girls. And that allowed us a lot of enjoyment from weeks at Fillmont to open camps to trainings to national committee meetings and being in Irving a lot. Well, those were great years, 2009, and then in 2013 we had to end that relationship because in those national committee meetings, we started to hear about what was going to go on as far as their membership standards, that they were going to ignore the Dale hearing, the Dale decision that happened in Supreme

Court about them being able to stand for morally straight. And they were going to change that definition and allow for homosexuals to be part of the Boy Scouts of America. And this was greatly disturbing, right? And so our member said, you know, what are you going to do about this? Are you going to create American Heritage Boys? I mean, that seems like a logical thing. And pro-family groups were coming around us to help us with this idea of developing a boys' organization. But our board of directors felt it very strongly that we were not called to start a boys organization.

We're not boys. Boys and girls are different. That we were to resource and to provide all the things that I wish someone had come alongside me to provide. And that's intellectual property and finances and all the things on how to run. A Christ-centered scout-like ministry. And that's basically what we did. And in 2013, helped to develop Trail Life USA, which is now flourishing across the nation in all 50 states, and really enjoying being able to minister to kids and to boys in the way that Scout methods work well.

Yeah. And would you give us just a tease of, you know, what American Heritage Girls is? You know, I don't know if you say Scout Oath, the Scout Law. Like, those are the things that I grew up with. was always a big one. What is the American Heritage Girls in the Trail Life USA version? Well, for the Trail Life USA, I'm not sure, honestly, because we're not, we're close, but we're bookends. But for us, it's, I promise our oath. It's an American Heritage Girl oath, and the girls hold up four fingers to represent each part of that oath. I promise to love God, cherish my family, honor my country, and serve in my community.

Our tagline is faith, service, and fun. So if it's not fun, the kids aren't going to come, right? but faith is central to what we do. This is not about girl power. It is about the Holy Spirit's power in the girl. And so everything stems from the relativity and the relevance of Scripture. And why that's important for everyday life and how to do life together. The girls do all kinds of fun things. They go camping.

They serve in the community. They learn about citizenship in government so that they can be good citizens one day. They also learn about badges. We have over 330 badges that the girls can earn. And these are life skills. And we have story upon story where a girl has earned a badge and it ultimately became her vocation. I like to use the word vocation versus career because I do believe that that needs to be a vocal calling from the Lord. And that's where we're in our sweet spots when we are in his will, even with our selection of, quote, career.

So the girls learn all of that. And you can come in at 5 to 18 any time. It's a glide path to get into the program. You don't have to start at 5 and end at 18. It's in and out. and the girls are able to understand leadership. They learn public speaking. They learn how to be gritty, but with grace.

A matter of fact, that's the title of our leadership curriculum. Girls rooted in truth with grace. So we know truth, but if we're bombastic or rude, it's not going to be heard. But if we do it with grace, like Jesus did, we're going to be able to be heard. And that's really our ultimate goal is for the girls to know who they are and whose they are, that their identity in Christ and that there is a reason to celebrate being a girl. So how do you speak to a culture? You know, I've been covering, you know, the Southern Poverty Law Center for a while.

They're an organization that loves to brand any conservative, you know, we like to joke, you know, if you're to the right of Carl Marx, but they'll put you on a hate map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. And, you know, thankfully they haven't attacked you yet, but some of, you know, heredages, allies, people like Family Research Council who had a mass shooting attempt. an attempted terrorist attack against them. But I think, you know, the SPLC is just the tip of the spear. I wrote a book about it. But they're just the tip of the spear. We see this demonization of anybody who disagrees, particularly with the LGBT agenda, sometimes with, you know, critical race theory, saying, you know,

you're anti-history, you're anti-love, you're all these things. How does American Heritage Girls speak to the culture in that time and equip girls to live in such a hostile environment. It is truly a hostile environment, and girls have to own their own faith, and they have to also know apologetics enough to understand why they believe what they believe, so that they can be in these debate-like situations. Well, today there's not even debate, unfortunately. It's cancel culture, you know, so what does that feel like?

So we're focusing a lot right now on social-emotional health, with the statistics that are coming out of the CDC and all kinds of U.S. Surgeon General, office, we are seeing an all-time high mental health issues for girls, particularly adolescent girls. The suicide rates are over 50% what they were pre-COVID. And this is in the emergency room. So this is real stuff. It's not just ideation. It is girls trying to kill themselves. And this is a desperation for hopelessness. And they feel like they're helplessness. So American Heritage Girls helps them to understand that God loves them, that their identity is but on rubies. It is, it is so worthwhile. And let's help us discover your purpose and your talents

and how God has wired you to be. It does not have to be in a late, you know, we're back to labels, Tyler. It doesn't have to be in a labeled box. But rather, the Lord has created us each uniquely. So no one's the same. It always blows my mind how unique we all are. And we teach the girls that. And we not only teach them that, but they live it because they're doing life together. They're failing forward together. They have these adult mentors that are speaking into them, which I think every kid needs. They need great parents, but they need a great church, and they need a whole bunch of great adults around them because there's not enough arrows in the quiver today. So we are teaching these girls for a lot of fun activities. They don't even know what's happening, honestly, but at the end of the

day, when they come out of the program, I can't tell you how many alumni I've met in this city of Washington, D.C., where we're at today, that our alumni from H.G. and said, I was in that, now look what I'm doing. I want to influence for the next generation. It's very cool. Yeah, now that's inspiring. You're an explicitly Christian organization, but I mean, it's interesting. There are a lot of potential pitfalls, their strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, I mean, I'm a Christian. I think that it's very important for us to stand for biblical truth. But, you know, you also reach across some interesting aisles. You were telling me that Protestants and Catholics very much welcomed. How has American Heritage Girls navigated some of those issues of doctrine, some of those disagreements,

and stood for the gospel in this interesting culture we have today? You know, it's so important that we major on the majors. What do we have a like rather than focusing on the differences? And I think that's a big problem in today's society. That's why cancel culture has cropped up. We're only looking at the differences rather than the likenesses that we have in humanity itself. We are all human. We should all respect one another.

So the key to all of this is respect. And American Heritage Girls respects faith traditions. So if you are a practicing Catholic and you need to leave camp to go to Mass on Sunday morning, that is respected. If you need to do whatever you're doing on a Wednesday night because you have any of Wednesday night programs at your Protestant church, that is respected. So we talk about the main thing, and the main thing for us is that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and we need him in order to get into heaven. We don't earn heaven, but to be able to know that we have eternal life. And that understanding is the main thing.

So let's talk about the main thing, offer on the main thing, rather than just get into the details. And you know what's really cool about it is that the girls talk. A lot of our troops are mixed troops in that there's Catholics and Protestants, and they talk about the different attributes of their faith. what is wrong with talking about and learning? I mean, I just don't understand what's going on today. Back in my day, they were called rap sessions, and we learned the most about what the world was like and about

through rap sessions, and that was talking. And now it's just, let's cancel it, or they're not in my aisle, I'm not going to, we don't do that. American Heritage Girls really embraces how Jesus was. Jesus was not a person that he separated sin from truth, but he also was very accepting and said, sin no more. That we love you, I love you, my father loves you, but sin no more. That's the key thing.

Yeah, that's well said. I also think, you know, American Heritage Scrolls, those two terms, American Heritage Heritage, how do you stand by and teach American Heritage in a culture that often views it negatively? And do you go further? I'm a Hillsdale grad. So I like the American heritage and the Western heritage. And I think, you know, we can't really understand where we are if we don't see that line from ancient Greece, ancient Israel, you know, through Rome, through the scholastics, through

the founders. So how do you equip girls? How does that American heritage play into the programming? You know, we all have a heritage. We have a family heritage. national heritage, a spiritual heritage. It's not just one heritage, right? But with American heritage girls, what we're training the girls to understand as a Judeo-Christian values upon which our country was founded. And that includes talking about what our founders weren't perfect.

They were people, just like us. And you and I are not perfect. And that's why we need Christ, right, to be able to help us reach that area and to be able to enter the gates of the holy gates of heaven. But here's the thing. I think it's so important that we understand that this was based on the most beautiful gospel of equality of understanding that each person is uniquely hewn in their mother's womb, which we are unabashedly pro-life. A matter of fact, this year our program, your theme, and we have one every year is called woven, and is talking about being woven in your mother's womb. and this past week on our birthday, 28 years, we celebrated by giving gifts of service throughout the country to pregnancy care centers. So that is a big distinguishing factor for American Heritage Girls and where we were founded from the Girl Scouts USA. But these kind of basic, I would say, tenants of America, they are being brought back through American Heritage Girls because they're

not being taught in the public schools. They're not being taught in social media. They might be taught in the homeschool environment. But we want to undergird that as well for them to understand not that America is perfect, but that America has great potential because of the Holy Spirit's power in it. Yeah, I think some of the most inspiring stories we've been seeing recently are where people who are not Christian are standing up to some of this insanity of the woke left. You have Muslims in Montgomery County and some that I know who are outraged at the LGBT indoctrination. You have many religiously conservative Jews, Orthodox in particular, who are standing up.

And I mean, is there a place like American Heritage Girls is a Christian organization? And as a Christian, I understand, and it's important to stand for when you're a Christian organization to stand for the gospel. Is there an opening for those who are conservative who want to raise their girls in this kind of tradition who might not, you know, might not be Christian, might be Hindu but vaguely, you know, like Vivekram Swami, Hindu but vaguely monotheistic. Is what sort of relationship do you have with non-Christians? Well, really, girl members. Girl membership is open to anyone that believes in God. So we have served girls that are Jewish and Muslim. Their parents are not really part of the mentoring process

because we are explicitly Christ-centered. However, they've put their daughters in for that very reason where they want something because this society is so void of what's right and wrong. I mean, girls need this, and I believe the mental health crisis is a result of not knowing the confusion that exists today. When you live in confusion, it becomes desperate. You become desperate, and you become hopeless.

And so having these parameters, the backyard with offense, is very helpful to humanity. We're wired that way. We need to know right and wrong. So there are some families that have chosen American heritage girls, but we are who we are and we're unexplically, unabashedly, Christ-centered. Yeah. No, that's a strong stance.

Good question. Good answer. Sorry. That's a very good question. But, yeah, I want to hear more about the resources that you mentioned to me earlier. You're trying to equip families to address these really complicated issues of gender and other things. Would you talk about those resources that American Heritage Girls has put out? really would love to, you know, out of bad situations, oftentimes great things come, right? And so during

2019, 2020, you can imagine it was COVID. All the churches were closed. We partner with churches. So American Heritage Girls literally wasn't in operation. So we had to pivot and do a whole lot of online programming to continue to engage girls because they were still forming over the years. Their childhood was not stopped. It was continued. A matter of fact, they needed us more than ever. So what we felt the Lord calling us to is something called raising godly girls. And it was a gift to the nation, I call it. What we've done is we've developed some wonderful resources for parents to deal with the issues confronting today's girls. And we even have a one-minute radio program that's aired on 1400s Christian radio stations across the nation.

More keep coming on because they love this. What it is, it's an issue confronting today's girl, a scriptural antidote, and then a call to action for the family, all within 60 seconds. And then we go and we blog on these. We go deeper on that. And then some of these issues, we've gone really deep and developed free e-books for families to be able to access on our website, American Heritage Girls.org. And you're able to see right on the pop-up, would you like to download the free e-book? Here's the titles that we have, Tyler, Raising Godly Girls' Guide to Fear and Anxiety,

which helps with the mental health issue, which is really confronting girls. 50% have said that they are very, very lonely. and loneliness is the first indicator to suicidal ideation. So you've got to watch that. When your kids are lonely, they need friends and a great place to go as American Heritage Girls' troops because they have like-minded friends, and they are there to help them.

Number two, raising golly girls' guide to gender and identity. Yes, we stepped in that big controversial issue, but it needs to because it's affecting girls more than anyone and anything right now. Girls typically will enter into that, and they will exit. Guys tend to stay into that situation. a little longer. But we need to help the girls to understand, again, what that is, and also how to

manage emotions, because so much of that is around how I feel rather than really who I am. So we've mixed our feelings and our identity, very much so in this whole issue of gender identity and confusion. And then thirdly, what I believe is the antidote to all of this is for our remnant of Christians to understand a biblical worldview. Because, yes, the Lord has something to say on this and all issues. We need to look for it, and we need to understand that there is, you know, this is an eternal word of God. It's not just for a certain time in Israel.

That's not the case. It's timeless, the word of God, and how do we bring that into today's talks? And, you know, with the Barner research that's gone on, that has said that so few Christian parents even have a biblical worldview. How in the world are our kids having, the trickle-down effect is very minimal. So we're trying to bring that back. And that ebook is really helpful. And you don't have to, it's okay, parents, if you don't feel like you have a strong biblical

worldview. And by the way, if you go to summit.org, you can take a test and learn about how good is your biblical worldview. I was surprised to see, I just barely scored 90, and I thought I was pretty strong in this. So you might be surprised. But check it out, and then you'll be able to say, you know what, kiddos, I can grow too in this. And that is okay, because the kids love to know that you're vulnerable.

And they'll approach you more when they know that you're going to be real with them. and say, let's learn together. And that's really what these books do. They help to pre, what shall I say? They're preventative in that, let's have that discussion first before somebody else does. And that's so important to parenting, right? So those are wonderful resources, I think, for all your listeners. Well, what have you seen is the most effective response?

Because I think gender ideology is a tremendous threat to, as you're talking about mental health, but on all sorts of levels because we see these detransitioners who come out and they've scarred their bodies, they've changed their bodies in horrific ways to resemble the opposite sex without ever making it there. And then we see the potential of people abusing the system. And I think, you know, those who truly identify as transgender are probably not doing so just to win, you know, sports competitions or just to invade girls' bathrooms. But like, there's still a chance that people will abuse that. And in Loudoun County, Virginia, we saw a young man who claimed to identify as transgender

go and rape a girl in a girl's restroom. And it's like, you know, there are ways perhaps that you can engage with this. But I think at the end of the day, we have to stand on the truth. And the truth is humans are male and female, and we've got to have the highest of compassion for anybody who struggles with these things. But, you know, what have you seen in that messaging, you know, that girls resonate with that people actually listen to that somebody who may have found some resources online and is starting to think, oh, I might be transgender. What actually pierces that fog? One key word you said was online, all right? That is where the grooming is occurring.

And, you know, when you do the checkboxes to see the kid that's going to be most, what shall I say, potential bait for this situation, it's the one that tends to have maybe beyond the spectrum for autism, very highly intelligent oftentimes, and very engaged in social media. And that grooming is where it's happening. And so, first of all, talk about social media to your kiddos, particularly the girls. And we know about the faith Zuckerberg even did. the study himself on Instagram and the dangers of it and how it affects girls. So talk about these things. Limit it.

You are still the parent. And you probably are paying for that cell phone, right? So don't forget that. The girls have no rights to these cell phones. This is something that you've given them so you can control it. Get into their online life. Online life is really scary. I mean, you wouldn't send your kid off to a senior prom and not talk to them about senior prom situations.

right? You would ready them. Why are we allowing our kids to be online without any supervision and afraid to be the bad parent or the helicopter parent because you're checking to see where your daughters have been online? Well, if you're not doing that, you're just plain stupid. You need to be there. So I think all of this is prevention from that. So limit that time on social media. So the grooming cannot occur. And when those messages do come on, talk about emotions. And the power of emotions, particularly during adolescence, that's when these kids are usually going through these surgeries. You know, 15-year-old boys making decisions that they're girls is absolutely absurd when you think about if you even look at the physiology of it all and the hormonal rush and all the crazy things that are

happening. Yeah, it's scary. Adolescence is scary. It doesn't mean you're in the wrong body. It means adolescence is scary. Let's get back to basics here. So I think that having those discussions, and that's what we love to do, is to equip parents. And then when parents are serving in American Heritage Girls, they're learning all of this stuff.

it's part of our trainings, it's part of our help for them. And so they just become better parents and volunteers. Yeah. Well, I think addressing, having a firm root on identity really, really strengthens that. Well, I think we should probably wrap up. It's been fantastic. Where can Americans find American Heritage Girls? Where can they, you know, I think you mentioned the website for the e-books.

How can we follow you here about the important work you're doing? Right. I just spoke about social media, but we are on social media. You can see us on Facebook and Instagram. But in addition, our website is just a plethora of information. American Heritage Girls.org. You can find out how to find a troop for your daughter, how to start a troop at your church, which is really the legacy.

We'd love to see so many troops have long waiting lists. Parents are desperate for this. They really want something that's wholesome and good for their kids, and they want friends for their kids, girls, they do need, they're wired for friendship, and they need that, and they're lonelier than ever. So check us out and let us know how we can help you as a parent and your church to be able to grow in the love of God and to help the next generation be what they need to be. Thank you so much, Patty, and best of luck with what you're doing. Thank you.

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