Excerpts from

The New Age Comes to the Girl Scouts of the USA

Lighthouse Trails  - July 7, 2008

See the rest of the newsletter: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletter070708.htm

 

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For nearly one hundred years, since 1912, the Girl Scouts of the USA has existed. By 1920, over 70,000 girls had joined; and there are currently about 3.6 million Girl Scouts and an alumnae of more than 50 million women. The founder, Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low, believed in developing girls "physically, mentally, and spiritually." While there have been many wholesome and practical aspects of the Girl Scouts in the past (teaching cooking, sewing, and outdoor skills), today the Girl Scouts has become a place where potentially millions of girls will be introduced to New Age spirituality. While the organization discourages the use of Christian emphasis in its meetings, it seems to show no reluctance when it comes to New Age spirituality.

For instance, on a 12 page brochure for their upcoming annual National Council Session, to be held in Indianapolis in October, it states: "Channel your inner being. Be one with your mind, body, and soul. Yoga for everyone!" Yet, on their website it states: "Doxology is not an appropriate Girl Scout event song, as it is easily identified as a Christian church song."

References to Yoga can be found in Girl Scout literature and activities, such as the Spring-Summer 2007 issue of Leader Magazine (the official GSUSA publication) where it tells of a Charleston, W.V. GS chapter participating in Yoga. 1 And then there is a program called Fit's Inn where "[g]irls try sports and dance, and even learn yoga." 2 Yoga is also mentioned in a report titled "A Report from the GIRL SCOUT RESEARCH INSTITUTE" in a favorable way (p. 29). 3 Yoga has been promoted by the GSUSA for at least five years. In a 2003 article on the group's main website, the subheading reads Volunteering--From Yoga to PR.4, and another article titled "Become the Best You Can Be" encourages learning "how to meditate" and practicing yoga. 5

While these references and promotions of Yoga are disturbing to say the least, a recently formed partnership between GSUSA and a group called "the Ashland Initiative"6 will take Girl Scouts to a whole new level of New Age spirituality! The Girl Scouts will be incorporating the Ashland Initiative's Coming Into Your Own program, saying the program's aim "is to create a team of adult champions who will model a search for integrated leadership that springs from a deep sense of self-knowledge." The Ashland Institute (located in Ashland, Oregon) is a group that teaches Attunement (metaphysical energy healing) described as "Creative Energy Practice," which "deepens" the "connection with the Source of Life." 7

The Coming Into Your Own is a "personal development program for women" who are going through "transition." An opening quote in the program brochure is from lesbian poet May Sarton (1912-1995); the program works in partnership with an organization called Dialogos, also a proponent and resource for Attunement. A 75 page online book about the Coming Into Your Own program reveals the New Age nature behind the program. Another partner of the Ashland Institute is The Fetzer Institute, where a broad assortment of mystical, New Age resources is offered. Thomas Merton, the Dalai Lama, David Steindl-Rast, and other mystics are touted.

The Ashland Institute lists eleven resources for their participants, the majority of which are other New Age/New Spirituality promoting groups, such as Collective Wisdom Initiative, Co-Intelligent Institute, The Millionth Circle (to "shift planetary consciousness" it says), and The World Cafe.

The Girl Scouts' move to partner with the Ashland Initiative will help create leaders within the GSUSA who will take the New Age agenda to countless girls, and instead of just teaching girls sewing, outdoor skills, and cooking, they will introduce them to meditation and the divinity within, the basic message of the New Age. This is further evidence that today's world has become a mystical New Age society; and much of this has been accomplished by directing efforts toward children.


See another illustration here: Girl Scouts and Mother Earth  


 

The Girl Scouts' new radicalism: "...seventh- and eighth-grade cadettes will participate in an eight-session "Journey" called "aMaze," in which "girls create 'peace kits' and learn how to create more peace in the world, one relationship at a time." ...

 

The "Journey" for the oldest Girl Scouts is called "Your Voice, Your World: The Power of Advocacy." In it, "girls explore the rich and global history of women's advocacy efforts and engages girls to become advocates in their communities." Advocates for what, you might well wonder...... Promoting social activism, emphasizing the power of self, and jumping on the bandwagon of politically correct causes like global warming are further evidence to them of the organization's ever-growing radicalism.

 

The blueprint for this new curriculum came from the Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus-Pine Council, which decided they needed to be "re-founded." To oversee the process, they naturally hired facilitators -- in this case, from the Ashland Institute, a consulting group with a distinctly New Age bent....

 

The literature speaks of female empowerment. It asks, "Could the Girl Scouts help birth the quality of women's leadership that the world so desperately needs today?... She [Tamara Woodbury, executive director of the Cactus-Pine Council] knew the time had come for a feminine approach to leadership in the world. What better place than the Girl Scouts to help land the possibility -- but how to do it in a feminine way?'... So the Arizona Cactus-Pine Council forged ahead to find a place where 'preteens and teens learn to hear and trust their own inner guidance.' .....

 

But getting back to being anti-God, there is the matter of the 'Covenant of the Goddess' It's a Wiccan website which, among other things, describes their awards program. There's the 'Over the Moon Award' for ages 8-11 and the 'Hart and Crescent Award' for ages 12-18. The awards are offered 'to any young person...who is a member of any nature-oriented religion (Wicca, Druid, Asatru, Native American, etc.).'

 

What does this have to with the Girl Scouts? The Girl Scouts recognize these awards, which may be worn on the Girl Scout uniform."


Read the entire article at Lighthouse Trails:

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletter070708.htm

 

Other reports from www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com:

The Oneness Blessing - Pathway to Global Awakening

Brian McLaren Tour Starts Soon | Ken Blanchard Joins "The Secret" Team

Rick Warren Teams Up with New Age Proponent Leonard Sweet

Al Gore and Tony Campolo Address Baptist Organizations

Emergent Manifesto | Deceptive Roots of the Emerging Church

The Re-Think Conference | Deceptive Roots of the Emerging Church

They Like Jesus, But Not the Church | Erwin McManus

The Secret: A New Era for Humankind

Yoga, Mysticism & Moody Bible Institute

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