City Weekly staff writer Stephen Dark asked for reader input as to why the Boy Scouts have a more intimate relationship with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints than do Girl Scouts [see “Dib dib dob dob,” April 16]. The conversation evolved into a conversation about female equality in the LDS Church.
Commenter Thin Mint got the discussion started with a brief accusation. “Girl Scouts aren’t held in the LDS bosom like the boys because girls are girls,” Thin Mint wrote. “Women don’t really count for much in that religion.”
“That’s absurd!” responded SVB, who then extolled the power and virtue of the allwomen LDS Relief Society. “Women are held in very high esteem in our faith.”
Seeming to have in mind that women are excluded from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, the top power structures in the church, Thin Mint replied, “Men have the power, the priesthood, men write the rules, men run the church, men hold power over their wives, both here on Earth as well as in heaven.”
Mormon, Girl Scouts fan, Salt Lake County Council candidate and former City Weekly editor Holly Mullen added, “[Girl Scouts] are about empowering girls and allowing them to reach their full potential—which may or may not include marriage and childbearing. This doesn’t fit with official LDS views on females.”
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Jesse
Fruhwirth:
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I don't think Girl Scouts not being in the LDS church has anything to with the LDS views of women in the church. The structure of Girl Scouts is one that is not based around a church, which is different than Boy Scouts. When I was a kid, the boys met at the catholic church I was a member of, and the Girl Scout Troop was at our elementary school. The girls that were Catholic earned seperate church awards that we did together, but as a whole, church was not a large part of our Girl Scouting experience. Which was better, because I was able to meet with friends and hang out with classmates because they were my age and they were girls, not because they belonged to the same religion as I did.
The biggest difference is the difference in the attitudes toward God in the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts' programs. The Boy Scouts affirm a belief in God. In Girl Scouts, it's considered optional. Boy Scouts include attributes like "reverent" in their creed. It's about building good, godly men. Girl Scouts believes they can build good women with God being an optional component.
In Boy Scouts, the spiritual is not optional. One cannot become an Eagle Scout without affirming a belief in Deity. This is why the scouting program dovetails nicely with the objectives of our young men's programs.
Thin Mint, like many others, is hung up on the idea of "power." Mormons define power differently than does the rest of the world. Our power consists of responsibility to serve God and humanity, and when we are filled with the desire to do so without motives of pride, ambition or domination, the true power of God operates through us (male OR female) to accomplish His purposes.
As an LDS women I relate to righteous priesthood holders as a colleague, all of us striving to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Christ. I have been fully supported in reaching my full potential, while putting my family first. Actually, I find that righteous men tend to hold good women somewhat in awe, and to rely on their inspiration and counsel. Men who do otherwise haven't figured it out yet.