It's No Band Camp

Oh those eeevil Girl Scouts and their perverse manifestos of liberalism. Or so goes the American Townhall version of the Church Lady , Rebecca Hegelin, who seems to have made a personal cause of exposing the dangers of feminism. Thankfully, she has a solution for all good Christian parents horrified that their daughters might be exposed to the deadly virus of getting along with the Other. The American Heritage Girls.

No, not these although that's where I free-associated first, courtesy of a bland tv movie stuck in my mental rolodex. The live version (although how much livelier I can't say) of these.

I am a bad, *bad* person, because I pretty much instantaneously Godwinned on the name. It gives off such a comfy, Frauenschaft aura, although the badges are likely less impressive. Trying to be less mean spirited, I have to say that socially conservative Christians certainly have the right to form social organizations where they would enjoy the activities in an environment uncluttered by rampant inclusion. But this one paragraph in Hegelin's enthusiastic advertisement stopped me from believing they intend anything in the way of minding their own children's business.

"The AHG walk in the company of good friends. In 2009, AHG and the Boy Scouts of America created an historic partnership between the two groups—the first alliance between the Boy Scouts and any young women’s organization." (emphasis mine) "As a practical matter, this means that sponsoring churches or schools can offer an appealing combination to families--aligned programs for both boys and girls. Check out the list of additional AHG partners here. It’s a wholesome and dynamic selection."

That means in all the mutual decades of existence, the Boy Scouts of America have never-ever had a partnership with the Girl Scouts of America? But they're now partnered with this preeningly overt Christian organization for the 'proper' socializing of girls? I know the Boy Scouts are a Christian organization as well, but I'm also aware the defense excusing the manifesto is the BSA's religious monoculture will bounce off kids like water off a duck's back. Until it doesn't because Christian morals are good for everyone. What could possibly go wrong?

When I was young, an eon or so ago, the only sort of kids' camp available fell into two categories. Scouts or a separate permanent holiday spot located near Outlook, Saskatchewan. Scouts of either sex not being a steady presence in every community, my parents managed to scrape up enough money one year so I could attend one of the sessions at Outlook.

Wowzers, a real camp. Just like on tv. When I arrived is when it dawned on me the place was overtly Christian and activities were threaded through with religion. I didn't have a bad time, albeit disappointed in lack of 'me and this pen knife' fire-starting and the like, but I was a stubborn little poop pile uninterested in the 'message' being fed to us. Every meal, song sessions, fireside activities; even symbols in crafts classes were Christian-themed.

I went along to get along but also discovered that kids around me were a lot more serious about the believing. Which, ahem, led to enriching an atmosphere of supernatural gullibility so that several of them thought Satan was messing with campers by being the cause of accident-injuries among the camp population. What? It's not my fault so many got upset enough an all-camp 'exercise' class on the common was cancelled after the latest fall and serious sprain occurred.

I was glad to go home to the back forty of the farm and didn't go to camp again. Ever since, I've harboured a dislike of the fact that in many rural and economically challenging situations, the only outlets for such social kid activities all too often comes with the hidden hook of religion and all its socially strictured intersections.

And then those religiously-based organizations whine and complain about groups like the Girl Scouts putting girls first, not their religion, thus *ruining* the unchallenged mores that scooped in so many with nowhere else to go.


h/t Whiskeyfire

What to do with a Girl like Maria Magdalene*

Mother Jones magazine has delved into the lucrative American Christian-run 'corrective' organizations turning life into Hell on Earth for American youths, with emphasis on rendering girls into Stepford zombies, but not ignoring the rending psychological and physical damage done to boys as well.

Incompletely obedient youth touted as criminality to their parents becomes an excuse parlayed into unregulated imprisonment, punishment and torturous indoctrination into a certain interpretation of authority made sancrosanct by a veneer of religion.

I've often wondered how many broken inner children, grown and with children of their own to break, are the invisible mainstays of organizations wanting to move regional theocratic control into imperial state authority over everyone. For every survivor who continues to dissent, how many are silent and obedient, needing to identify with the abuser or fall apart more completely than they are if consciously having to face the idea this wasn't done to save their spirits, but to callously exploit them as resources?

Fewer than historically indoctrinated by state-run theocracies. That's the sad thing. Compared to pre-separation of state and church, this is improvement. The despots running these hellholes have to hide it now, however thinly in some locales. They have to demand anti-regulation. They have to close down and move. They have to make excuses and dismiss survivors and the damage done. They long for the return of theocratic glory days where all of that *work* lying about it won't be needed. Because they know what's really at stake here. Their comfort and bank accounts, the rest be damned. Literally.

I expect this is where someone makes the "No True Christian" jazz hands argument to make it all go away.

*Where the Hills aren't Alive, so much as they Have Eyes.

Two Population Problems. . .

. . . same solution. Heed the patriarchal church and control the women.

In Russia.

MOSCOW -- Russia's Orthodox Church teamed with Conservative parliamentarians Monday to push legislation that would radically restrict abortions in a nation struggling to cope with one of the world's lowest birthrates.

The legislation would ban free abortions at government-run clinics and prohibit the sale of the morning-after pill without a prescription, said Yelena Mizulina, who heads a parliamentary committee on families, women and children.

She added that abortion for a married woman would also require the permission of her spouse, while teenage girls would need their parents' consent. If the legislation is passed, a week's waiting period would also be introduced so women could consider their decision to terminate their pregnancy, Mizulina said.

In the Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate is expected to start plenary debates on the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill next week.

Senate committee on health and demography chair Pia Cayetano said that she is now fine-tuning the committee report and would have it ready for debates by next week.

A separate bill on the protection of the unborn child filed by a number of senators, including those who are against the RH bill, is seen by some quarters as counterweight to the controversial measure.

The committee on youth, women and family relations, also chaired by Cayetano, conducted a public hearing on the protection of the unborn child bill yesterday.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, a staunch critic of the RH bill and one of the authors of the protection of the unborn child bill, argued that the RH bill should remove the provisions on the promotion and distribution of contraceptives by the government.

“It was revealed that a significant number of these contraceptives are abortifacients,” Sotto said after yesterday’s hearing.

He noted that even the so-called morning after pill, considered by many as abortifacient, may be purchased over-the-counter in spite of the claims of authorities to the contrary. Sotto reiterated that abortion is unconstitutional.

The Philippines has a serious population and poverty problem.

With an estimated population of about 94 million people, the Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country. An additional 11 million Filipinos live overseas.

The government has been wrangling over a reproductive health policy for nine years. But the Catlick Church has been stomping its tiny feet and nixing all attempts at rationality. It is opposed to all contraception, despite the people's overwhelming support for it.

But, hey, that's what patriarchal religion does.