Girl Scouts

Abbey has been expressing an interest in joining the Girl Scouts. I was a little hesitant because I am familiar with the fact that the Boy Scouts are a religious organization, and I'm not too keen on having my daughter preached at while making arts and crafts. So, I look on the website and I see that their creed is to "Serve God and Country". As an anti-nationalist atheist this set off some alarms, but I figure what the hell. I'll give 'em a call.

I call the Girl Scouts and I speak to a woman named Susan. I ask her if the Girl Scouts are a religious organization. She promptly says no. She then explains that in the creed they can replace God with any deity that they want. I tell her that I'm an atheist. She thinks about it for a second and then says "Gee. I don't know how they'd do that one. At any rate, they won't make her say anything that you aren't comfortable with." She then tells me that it sounds like a good opportunity for the girls to meet those with other ideas. I explain that she's six, and has no opinion on the matter currently, but that when she does have one, I want to make sure that whatever it is it won't be a problem. She says it definitely won't.

This actually sets my mind at ease. I get that there maybe aren't a lot of atheists joining the girl scouts, and they may not know right off hand how to do the creed. No problem. Their willingness to work with me was much appreciated.

Then she asks me why I'm an atheist. I tell her that there are a lot of reasons. She takes that as her cue to tell me all about her faith. Here we go, I think. You had me, and now you're losing me. Turns out that she's a Buddhist, and she spends the next forty minutes telling me about the energy that resides within all of us. Now I have to keep her out of the Girl Scouts because of crazy Buddhists? Fuck.

I'm just kidding. This crazy lady was hilarious and made me feel really good about putting Abbey in the Girl Scouts.