Thursday, April 25, 2019

Pedophiles and the Boy Scouts


I was very angry - but not surprised - to read of the extent of the problem of pedophiles in the Boy Scouts of America.

More alarming details have surfaced about how many people were listed in the Boy Scouts of America’s “perversion files,” according to lawyers who demand the full release of thousands of names of alleged offenders in the files. Nearly 200 of them are from New York and New Jersey.

Though allegations came to light Monday night, a victims' rights attorney who compiled an "incomplete" list of former Boy Scout leaders accused of abuse in New York held a press conferences Tuesday to discuss what he claims to be a widespread pattern of abuse. He also asked more victims to come forward.

The victims’ rights attorney, Jeff Anderson, called it a system of denial and cover-ups. He claims the Boy Scouts have files on child abusers within their ranks dating back to the 1940s.

. . .

He said, citing testimony by a professional retained by the BSA to audit the files, that there were 7,819 suspected perpetrators, while the number of victims total 12,254.

"That is a number not known before today or ever revealed by the Boy Scouts of America," he said.

There's more at the link.

To make matters worse, corporate pressure and political correctness may have contributed to the problem.

Dressed in a blazer and gray slacks, Eagle Scout Rex Tillerson — better known as the CEO of Exxon Mobil — approached the podium during a national meeting of the Boy Scouts of America at a Grapevine hotel last year.

The organization’s delegates had just voted to allow openly gay youths to join their troops and earn their merit badges. And Tillerson began laying out next steps in the same forthright tone with which he delivers financial results to shareholders.

“So we’ve made the decision we’re going to change. Now what?” he said. “No winners or losers. After we make the decision to change, it’s the mission.”

. . .

Tillerson’s close ties to the Scouts were evident last year when he took the stage to address the decision to allow gay youths to join.

The Boy Scouts of America declined to make board members or professional staff available to discuss their well-known Scout. And Tillerson, through the public relations office of Exxon Mobil, also declined to be interviewed ... Nonetheless, Tillerson was instrumental in lobbying the Scouts’ board to accept openly gay youths, said John Hamre, president of the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, of which Tillerson is a board member.

“I can’t get into the intimacy of these conversations. But he agonized over this. He prayed on it, and ultimately he came to the conclusion the only thing that can guide him here is what’s best for the young boys,” he said. “I think he became a key leader in helping the group come to a consensus.”

Again, more at the link.

Clearly, the Boy Scouts learned nothing from the Catholic Church's experience of pedophilia.  In the course of the latter institution's exhaustive investigation into the problem, numerous studies confirmed that not all homosexuals were pedophiles:  however, the vast majority of pedophiles in the Church were also homosexual, or exhibited at least some homosexual tendencies.  The correlation was very close indeed.  That information has been public knowledge since the early 2000's.  Why did the Boy Scouts not take it into account from that time onward, and use it in assessing how to relate to homosexuals within its ranks - particularly in positions of leadership and authority?

I was a Cub Scout in South Africa, although instead of proceeding to the Boy Scouts as I grew older, I chose to enter the Sea Cadets.  I still remember the Baden-Powell ethos that the Cub Scouts tried to inculcate in us (and which is strongly emphasized to this day by traditional Scout movements).  Given their politically correct attitudes, leadership and emphasis today, I wonder how the US Boy Scouts managed to lose sight of that so completely?




Peter

13 comments:

McChuck said...

You have to understand the true mission of the leadership. It's seldom what's labeled on the box.

http://stonetoss.com/comic/burger-kang/

Dave said...

Though LDS leaders insist otherwise, I strongly suspect that the decisions by BSA national leadership to admit open gays, and then girls, into the organization had a lot to do with the Mormon church's decision to withdraw from Scouts at the end of 2019.

The Mormon church provides something like 1/3 of the BSA's funding.

Get woke, go broke.

Glen Filthie said...

It is heresy to notice the link between homosexuality and pedophilia. Just as you can get burned at the stake for noticing obvious differences between races.

D.J. Schreffler said...

My son was a Webelo, and these changes at the national level made me decide to remove him once he was done with that.

We're now in Trail Life USA, and my daughter in their sister organization American Heritage Girls. Explicitly Christian faith-based scouting FTW.

Mad Jack said...

I was a cub scout. We learned how to start a fire by rubbing two kitchen matches together, how to stay out of the deep end of the swimming pool, and how to hot wire a car. We were a very progressive troop.

Sanders said...

The BSA won their case before the Supreme Court to not allow homosexuals into their organization. They did not have to go that direction, and had the SCOTUS ruling to back them up.

Then they put former Dept. of Defense head, Robert Gates in charge. Remember "Don't ask, don't tell"? That Robert Gates.

The rest is for the history books.

Beans said...

But the Gays all say pedophelia is a straight-man problem. Gays and pedophelia?

Kill it. Kill it dead. Start over with the 1918 scout book, and stick with it!

Roy said...

"...lawyers who demand the full release of thousands of names of alleged offenders in the files. "

"...though allegations came to light..."

"...list of former Boy Scout leaders accused of abuse..."

"...that there were 7,819 suspected perpetrators..."

--------------

I've said it before and I will continue to say it over and over: Just because someone says it does not make it so.

MrGarabaldi said...

Hey Peter;

This one is a tough one, I have blogged about the issue more than one. I was a Boy Scout in the 1970's and a Scout Leader, My son is almost Eagle. That being said, the BSA developed what is called "2 Deep Leadership", basically 2 adults have to be with the kids all the time, no adult can be with a kid by themselves. We follow this religiously to prevent any "accusation". In this day and age, any accusation can ruin a person, even if it is false. This was developed in the 1980's if memory serves because of what happened in the past.
The Gay issue with the openly gay kids in the program was that the program was best for the boy if they wanted to be in it. Then they allowed gay adults to join the program and I disagreed venomously and blogged about it. Sexuality has no business in the Boy Scouts and that is still my stance. We were having some of the "Progressive " councils out in California, Colorado and other areas before lifting of the ban openly defying National. The BSA is wrapped in the culture war but it shouldn't be. Our mission was and is to "Make boys into Good Man". Now we are having this come out now after all these years, what is the purpose of it? if it is to seek justice for those that were wronged, I get that and punish the guilty, I get that and agree with it. The trust was violated. But we are having the BSA itself drug in with it, the lawyers and other leftist see an opportunity to destroy an organization that "teaches Traditional values" and destroy it on the alter of political correctness as another trophy of those that dared challenge the liberal mindset and leftist/communist/socialist dogma that believes that you must destroy all traditions of a people before you can replace them with "values" that are acceptable to the state.

Tirno said...

Peter,

My kids are in Scouting, and I've jumped in as an Assistant Scoutmaster... for my daughter's ladies' patrol.

MrGaribaldi is right, we're REALLY serious about the two-person-integrity thing. Every year, we have to do the Youth Protection Training again and it's the same drill over and over: no one-on-one contact between youth and adults. The scouts also get training from their end to expect that standard to be kept up. Additionally, the young ladies' patrol requires at least one female scoutmaster to be along on any outing, unless all the present female scouts have their own parent along.

There have been a lot of changes, and I can't say I'm happy with all of them, but I can't do anything about it from the outside. At least if I'm on the inside, I can be watchful.

Unknown said...

I was a cub leader, then assistant scoutmaster, working my way through the system as my boys progressed through scouts. I have boy-girl twins. Both boys earned their Eagle. My daughter earned her Gold (really, it was at least as complex as her brothers' Eagle projects). The only thing BSA has done in the last decade that parents have wanted is build a program for girls. The Girl Scouts is a leftist activist training program. It has been thoroughly killed, gutted, and worn as a skin suit by feminists. When they're not running paper craft programs for teenagers, they're promoting raising of awareness.

The leftists pushed BSA to move left, and it drove out many of the organizations, including the LDS, who supported and chartered the troops. The BSA youth protection program is nice, but it avoids the edge cases. Nowhere do they address things like, is it OK for a single adult to transport a vehicle-full of scouts? That's not really two-deep leadership. But if we required that level of adult presence, the scouts would never travel anywhere. Nor do they address how to handle an openly gay scout tenting with another scout. They don't allow mixed-sex tending for youth, but what's the difference if one or both of the scouts is gay?

I'm still involved, because my children are. But we're nearly out, and I lament the future of scouting. I hope that something rises up and carries the values of Baden-Powell to future generations. Those values are critical to civilization. We need them now more than ever.

SchrefflerFamily said...

Trail Life.

HMS Defiant said...

Left the boy scouts early and joined sea explorers to sail and plus as a bonus, there were girls. Way better than boy scouts.
Is it just me that remembers the old boy scout oath which included, back in the 60s and 70s a line about being morally straight? When the hell did that just get tossed on the dungpile that is modern scouting.