The far right’s attempts to start a culture war just keep getting weirder and weirder.
On Monday the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette obtained a letter from Indiana state Rep. Bob Morris (R-Fort Wayne,) in which he warns his Republican colleagues about a “radicalized organization” that promotes homosexuality and abortions: the Girl Scouts of America.
“This past week I was asked to sign a House Resolution recognizing the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts of America,” Morris writes in the letter. “After talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of web-based research, and what I found is disturbing.”
Morris goes on to explain how the Girl Scouts is “quickly becoming a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood” and makes girls “more receptive to the pro-abortion agenda.” Morris also accuses the Girl Scouts of promoting “homosexual lifestyles” and preventing girls from praying or singing Christmas Carols.
Furthermore, according to Morris, 47 of the 50 role models listed in the Girl Scouts education seminar are “feminists, lesbians, or Communists.”
Unfortunately Morris apparently doesn’t know what most Girl Scout-aged children do: that not everything you read on the internet is true.
Ashley Sharp, the spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana, responded to Morris in a statement, saying that the group leaves sex and reproduction questions to parents.
Along the same lines, Kathy Sears — a troop adviser and adult trainer in Maryland — told the Washington Post’s Robert McCartney that “I have never come across anything that’s pro-life or pro-choice in any of our council literature, or any of our national literature.” She made the comments in January, the last time that the right wing made a high profile attack against Girl Scouts.
Finally, if Morris did a little more “web-based research” he might find come across the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, an official church organization that has spent years investigating attacks against the Girl Scouts. The group has set up a website which debunks most of Morris’s attacks as myths.
