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October 24, 2013 01:21 PM UTC

Shock Pastor: Girl Scout Cookies Promote Lesbianism

  • 30 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

You’ve heard of shock jocks, like the drive-time radio hosts who throw chickens out the radio station's second-story window? If a shock jock is a right-wing pastor, then you’ve got a shock pastor, like Colorado Springs’ Kevin Swanson, who recently cited “decadent homosexual activity” as the cause of Colorado’s floods.

Swanson’s latest shocker: his campaign against Girl Scout cookies. Swanson’s anti-cookie crusade was first reported by Right Wing Watch, which spotlights (and promotes) this kind of stuff. It quoted Swanson on his weekly radio show saying that “the individualism of feminism has been devastating to this country.”

Swanson: “I’d say you ought to say no the Girl Scout cookies too. I don’t want to support lesbianism, I don’t want to support Planned Parenthood, and I don’t want to support abortion, and if that be the case I’m not buying Girl Scout cookies…”

“The vision of the Girl Scouts of America is antithetical to a biblical vision for womanhood, it's antithetical to it… Guys just check it out at the Girl Scouts’ websites and you’re going to find that the people showing up are lesbians, lots and lots of lesbians. Dave, I didn’t realize there were this many lesbians leading this country but they certainly show up in Girl Scout conventions across America…

"In fact, if you want a communist in the White House in the year 2020 you have got to get more daughters raised with the worldview, the independent mindset, the worldview that is presented by the Girl Scouts of America."

As Westword pointed out today, Swanson didn’t change his tune in a Channel 7 interview last night.

Channel 7 asked Swanson to back up his assertion that the Girl Scouts promotes Planned Parenthood, abortion, and lesbianism.

Channel 7 reporter Marc Stewart: How can you make those statements?

Swanson: I just take the data I see on the Internet. I take the associations I see on the Internet. I see the promotion of feminism and lesbianism.

Unfortunately, Channel 7 didn’t show us Swanson’s alleged internet proof—or state as a factual matter, that none exists.

Still, the TV station did report a denial from the Girl Scouts, as well as a counter view from a parent.

Girl Scout parent Susan Sabol: “The meetings have nothing to do with sexuality or reproduction, or reproductive rights. They’re really leaning to be good members of society and the community. It’s very much about being a good person.”

You can argue that, at some point, reporters should ignore shock pastors, who repeatedly blast out outrages on little-known internet radio shows.

But there's actually a lot to be gained from seeing bigots being bigots, and asking them about it, as long as their misinformation is corrected and the facts are clear.

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30 thoughts on “Shock Pastor: Girl Scout Cookies Promote Lesbianism”

  1. Jason, I have a real job, but if I were to spend all my time finding obscure lefties who say crazy things, I could fill a blog with them just like you. I've never heard of this guy. You're giving him a higher profile than he deserves just by mentioning this. What's the point?

    2. If this were an obscure crazy notion from the fringes of right wing loonery, it wouldn't pop up so often.  Google Girl Scouts with Planned Parenthood, abortion, feminism, lesbianism or what have you, and you will find there is a vocal constituency that drives the notion that female empowerment is a byway on the way to a one world order of stalisist fascism.  That same constituency is also known as the Republican base.

      1. Swanson really needs to take a closer look at Sharia Law.  Everything he is advocating is already there. 

        Colorado Springs: Just Pass The Law for God's sake!

        1. Davie, I was thinking the same thing. I can't help but notice that many very conservative groups: the Taliban, extreme Orthodox Jews, the very extreme Mormon groups such as those led by Warren Jeffs, and very conservative Christian groups are very similar in their beliefs around denying women rights and access to any reproductive freedoms.

          And these right wing nuts are the first ones to claim that we are headed to Sharia law.

          1. When I was a kid, on the farm, we had a name for critters like that…bulls. In order to satify some inner weakness, they buy into an ages old excuse for subjecting another human being to bondage and protecting your DNA at the same time.

            Religion gives them the written license, in their mind, to do so.

    3. good point. A focus of mine is trying to get media figures to hold public officials accountable, not necessarily fringe crazies. but when a guy like Swanson crosses the bigotry line, or any line, or act so horribly your jaw drops, he should be called out, too, especially if it's a slow news day. Maybe you don't learn anything from this, but I do when i focus on them, and i hope others do.

  2. Jason,

    Thanks for the update. But, PLEASE, it is not shock jocks that threw chickens out a second story window.  It was a famous episode on  "WKRP" a 70s sitcom set in a radio station in Cinncinati, that can still be seen today and is still funny.

    In that episode, the station owner, not bright, decided to have an on air Thanksgiving promotion.  He advertised  a turkey giveaway.  He hired a helicopter, had a big pr campaign and on the designated day, had the turkeys thrown from the helicopter to the waiting fans below in the parking lot.  Well, it didn't work out.  It was a disaster.

    The last line in the episode is classic:  "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

    Suddenly, that line is very apros for the current fiasco that is ACA health exchanges.

    1. I thought a more cogent point was Swanson's comment on "individualism".  Is he for "collectivism", " authoritarianism"?  Empowering the individual is what this country has been about.  Or does that not apply to women? That doen't make any sense.

      He is something of a crack pot,  we have a lot of them in my part of the state and they get elected to office.  I think it is cause for people who may think of themselves as conservative to see what extreme postions they are supporting with their votes.   I really want the sensible, real conservatives back. They have something to contribute.

      1. I too was confused by pairing communism, a collectivist world view, with independent mindedness. I thought the latter, being a rugged independent minded individual, was extolled as the American way by these folks but I guess when they talk about "people" what they mean is "men".  Women are just here to serve their male overlords.

        Sounds like he sees eye to eye with the Taliban on a lot of things. And I guess independent men equal American patriots and independent women equal communists somehow, in spite of all the collectivism that makes communism anathema to them in the first place. Or maybe they don't even remember why they hate communism. They just know that whatever it is, it's bad. Other bad stuff must be connected with it somehow because bad is bad. 

        I really don't think these people know that words have meanings. They just use the words for things they think are bad to describe anything they disagree with and words for things they think are good to describe….. themselves. 

        They don't like Obama so he's a socialist or communist in spite of the fact that none of his policies support that description. They don't like lesbians so women and girls who don't behave the way they think women ought to behave are lesbians. Etc. If you're bad, in their eyes, all the bad words (their definition), regardless of meaning, apply to you.

        Maybe that's why they have such a casual relationship with verifiable facts. You just need one fact. Liberal (their definition, of course). That justifies any and every negative thing they want to call you or make up about you.

        1. Perhaps listening to Limbaugh and the fluffy Fox blondes keeps them safely in their bubble world and rots their brains.  Thinking that "feminazis" might represent the "individualism of feminism" is actually pathetic.  But I certainly feel no sympathy for anyone who thinks that.  You just have to shake your head and continually out them.  Sadly, this attempt at thinking never really goes away.  It just goes in a hole or gets locked in a closet and hibernates.

  3. I'm confused.  If the girl scouts are a secret conspiracy to infect poor innocent girls with lesbianism, why would they also need to be teaching about abortion?  Maybe Swanson can give me guidance on this. 

    /heavy sarcasm

    1. Elliot, that was a perfectly executed sarcastic statement. No need to make sure we get it. When you tell a joke do you elbow people and ask "Get it, get it"?  If it isn't good enough to get got, an identification label won't help. This was good enough.

      1. I've learned the hard way that posting obvious sarcastic statements on political websites without the /sarcasm identified leads to you eventually getting burned.  So I I place it. 

        3. Maybe true of your side's sites. Here, we're sarcastic all the damn time and everyone gets it. And if a few don't, we don't really care. If getting burned means a few folks don't get it and get mad, so what? 

          I've personally received actual hate mail once or twice in response to letters to the editor which, of course, are under my own name, though not sarcastic as that's not how one gets letters published. But, whether as myself on the letters page or as BlueCat here, if I couldn't stand the heat I wouldn't be hanging out in the kitchen. 

      1. I get your point…but I agree with BC. To the casual observer, it seems to me, it is an elbow…

        take a chance on us, Elliot…some of us are fairly perceptive..and thick skinned.

          2. ". . . political gotcha site like this"  without that "/sarcasm"  notice ???

            Elliot, my young friend, you're learning . . . you're actually learning !!!!

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