Girl Scouts
Are WELS girls able to participate in the Girl Scout program as it currently stands as an organization? Please give doctrinal position. Thank you.
The Girl Scouts organization is not an option for WELS girls as long as the Girl Scouts’ Promise and Law are the foundation of the organization. The website of the Girl Scouts currently states: “Everything in Girl Scouting is based on the Girl Scout Promise and Law. The Girl Scout Law includes many of the principles and values common to most faiths. Thus, while a secular organization, Girl Scouts has, since the movement began, encouraged girls to take spiritual journeys via their faiths’ religious recognitions.”
As the Girl Scouts organization allows members to define “God” however they want, it is a group that puts all religions on equal footing and maintains that girls are able to do their duty to the God of their understanding.
This now becomes a first commandment issue (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7). There is only one God: the God of the Bible who has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is only one Savior, Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Only Christians are able to do things that are pleasing to God (John 15:5; Romans 14:23). We will want to belong to organizations that give clear testimony to the truths of the Bible. Scouting is not one of those organizations. The Lutheran Girl Pioneers program, of course, is one in which we can encourage WELS girls to participate.