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PART 2 SECTION 3 |
RRI Team Presentation Thank you for allowing us to speak at your meeting. Helping me is ______________________________, and I am ______________________________. We represent the Religious Recognitions Information Team for our council. We believe that every Girl Scout should know about the religious recognition of her faith, and we are here to talk about these programs. Every time a girl makes the Girl Scout Promise, she is promising to “serve God.” One way she can “serve God” is to participate in the religious recognition program of her faith and to wear that recognition proudly on her uniform. Our role today is to provide information for you to pass on to girls and their families so that they may decide whether or not to participate in the religious recognition program of their faith. We provide information, not religious instruction. Girl Scouting recognizes that religious instruction is the responsibility of parents and religious leaders, but parents first have to know that these programs exist. And as the Girl Scout leader, you are critical in getting information about the religious recognitions to the girls and their families. What exactly are “religious recognitions programs?” They are programs that have been created by the national religious organizations/committees, not by the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.. These programs encourage girls and young women to become more active members in their own religious groups, and they encourage spiritual development by providing specific religious instruction. These programs offer recognitions or pins that are approved for wear on the official Girl Scout uniform. The Preamble to the Girl Scout Constitution states that “the motivating force in Girl Scouting is a spiritual one” and that Girl Scouts are “united by a belief in God.” Besides providing a spiritual component, religious recognitions programs also promote many of the same values that are integral to Girl Scouting and they help develop positive assets in girls and young women. GSUSA commissioned a study, Girl Scouts: Who We Are, What We Think, and the results found that girls who were members of both Girl Scouting and a religious institution made better moral decisions than girls who were members of just one organization. 2-8 |