Beyond Disgusting

We had to know that decades of sexual abuse cover-ups in our churches were not the only cases of adults taking advantage of trusting youngsters. Then the disaster at Penn State University came to light; an all-powerful football program covered up the horrific actions of one of its leaders. Where young people gather, predators are sure to lurk, in churches, in sports programs, these youngsters are easy prey.

And now a series in the Los Angeles Times exposes decades of abuse and cover-ups in the Boy Scouts (BSA); cover-ups by the BSA and some in the media with leadership roles in the movement. It’s not surprising that the Scouts have made every effort to hide sexual assaults by Scout leaders on the boys in their program. Leaning on a Congressional Charter, the organization has a history of arrogant independence, haughtily refusing to be accountable to any outside entity.

Meanwhile they have been paying out millions to victims who brought lawsuits against the Scouts as a result of abuse. The Times has obtained some 1,600 pages of documents made public by these lawsuits. There is no way to know how many cases are still hidden away in the BSA files. They have spent millions in the courts fighting attempts to open this cesspool to public view.  

Over the years the BSA has published many rules and regulations, but like the elegant Code of Ethics proudly displayed by Enron prior to its fall, the BSA rules in most cases were not worth the paper they were printed on. They repeatedly ignored reports of abuse and allowed the abusers to continue to work with boys.

The Times story included these disturbing instances among many others: “In at least 50 cases, the Boy Scouts expelled suspected abusers, only to discover later that they had reentered the program and were accused of molesting again.”

“One scoutmaster was expelled in 1970 for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Indiana. After being convicted of the crime, he went on to join two troops in Illinois between 1971 and 1988. He later admitted to molesting more than 100 boys, was convicted of the sexual assault of a Scout in 1989 and was sentenced to 100 years in prison, according to his file and court records.”

“In 1991, a Scout leader convicted of abusing a boy in Minnesota returned to his old troop — right after getting out of jail.”

These disturbing reports go on page after page. While the BSA appears to have toughened up its standards and rules, there is no reason to believe that they are any more willing to open themselves up to reputation damaging revelations than they have been in the past. 

We understand the thinking behind this behavior, the belief that all the good the BSA, the Church, the Sports program, etc., etc., does, justifies “protecting it.” How about protecting the victims for a change?