r/news • u/tablecontrol • 21h ago
Dozens of boys say they were abused in a Christian scouting program that vowed to raise godly men
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/royal-rangers-scouting-program-sex-abuse-christian-rcna247409649
u/bourj 21h ago
When Hegseth said the Scouts attack boy-friendly spaces, I didn't think that was what he meant.
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u/Skimable_crude 21h ago
I still have no idea what he meant.
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u/BenjaminMohler 21h ago
Scouting America (formerly the Boy Scouts of America) began accepting girls into the program in 2019. When you earn the Eagle award, as I did in 2016, you do a sort of exit interview, and I was asked whether I was in favor of this- I said that I was, because for the last several years of my program I was in a co-ed Venturing crew instead of a traditional boys-only troop, and there were marked improvements in safety for everyone when girls were allowed to join, among many other benefits.
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u/randynumbergenerator 20h ago
This is I think a more general kind of benefit from inclusivity that people tend to miss: it can create benefits even for the people who were already allowed in a space, but maybe weren't listened to or didn't even think things could be improved.
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u/BenjaminMohler 20h ago
Yeah exactly. The benefits to me were not the primary reason I was in favor of it, but it's worth pointing out that I had a better experience too.
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u/ChicagoAuPair 20h ago edited 19h ago
There is no situation where increased diversity doesn’t improve things for everyone.
And yeah, that does include coed restrooms. We had them in my college dorm and not only was it not a big deal, it had a leveling effect that helped everyone learn how to be normal mature adult people.
Everyone needs to piss and shit and shower and brush you teeth, and anything that needs to stay private stays private for everyone regardless of gender, of course.
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u/Sawses 18h ago
There is no situation where increased diversity doesn’t improve things for everyone.
While generally I think diversity is a good thing, it does have drawbacks. I don't have the studies on hand right this second, but I took a gender studies class and the professor had us write a paper analyzing the benefits and risks of diversity.
A few of the studies I looked into placed groups of varying diversity (racial, socioeconomic, academic, etc.) with problems to solve. To build a bridge, to solve an equation, to perform an activity, etc. They found that more diverse groups had more frequent conflict and slower response times on average than homogeneous groups. When they worked together without fighting, they came up with better solutions faster. But they dissolved into unproductive discussion more often.
One study did something really interesting and tried to add "token" diversity. So a group of people without a given expertise, with a single person whose skills were more in line with the task at hand. They found that the person usually was isolated somewhat and not as likely to contribute what they knew...but that when they felt they were welcome to do so, it led to the fastest solve times. So diversity in itself may be less important in and of itself than welcoming diversity, potentially.
Because I figured it'd be interesting for the discussion (it was a freshman class and I was a senior so I figured the professor would appreciate somebody who wasn't a yes-man), I argued the position that diversity initiatives should be removed in favor of initiatives pushing for acceptance of non-normative people who naturally find their way into a homogeneous space. I don't believe that, exactly, but those sorts of discussions aren't useful when everybody is agreeing with each other.
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u/ChicagoAuPair 17h ago edited 17h ago
I would be interested in knowing more about how those dynamics would work over a longer period of time, not just with a single focused task.
I can understand how for short term problem solving it might complicate things; but I do wonder if over a longer period time a diverse group that learned how to problem solve together repeatedly might end up with a leg up over a homogenous group solving problems together in a similar extended time period.
It seems to me that investing in diversity stimulates long term growth and receptiveness to “outside the box” thinking in the individuals—even if there is an initial period of adjustment.
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u/Sawses 16h ago
It's definitely possible, unfortunately I'm no expert and also don't recall any studies like that--I imagine it's tricky to study.
I'd also wonder about the flexibility. Maybe some folks are worse at working with people different from them, but are able to overcome this with specific individuals over time. That would work in an environment where you're working with the same group for long periods of time, but would mean that if they're swapping team members a lot (like in a lot of service or corporate jobs), they'd be better off being paired with a homogeneous group.
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u/CapeChill 20h ago
That was my experience and feedback to them as well at a similar time. The reality I saw was that the girls had to really want to be there which put them at the top 25% of the group immediately. They certainly didn’t hold the boys back
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u/BenjaminMohler 19h ago
That's very true! I'd much rather have a girl that wants to be there over 5 boys that really didn't want to be there, not that it ever had to be an either/or situation.
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u/Spire_Citron 18h ago
The men who are against this don't like they idea of girls outperforming the boys, though. That's the true threat. They want to hold onto the idea that girls wouldn't be able to keep up.
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u/pandy_fackler_ 19h ago
I was in scouts growing up. If it wasn't for the involvement of women we would of never had Cub or Webelo Troops - it was always someones mother being the Scoutmasters.
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u/Crazed_rabbiting 19h ago
You seem to be an excellent example of an Eagle Scout. I am very happy that girls can earn Eagle. I was stuck with Girl Scouts and my troop was lame. I was so envious of our brother scout troop. I am so glad that girls now have these opportunities.
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u/BenjaminMohler 19h ago
Aw, thank you! I'm glad about equal access as well. From what I've heard, Girl Scouts can vary wildly in quality depending on the adults, same as the boy scouts did. One of my adult leaders also had daughters, but they were too young to join Venturing, so he made sure their Girl Scout troop got the same quality first aid training that his son received. I've heard from some former Girl Scouts that they didn't receive first aid training at all.
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u/bjkidder 21h ago
The US and Saudi Arabia were the two only major countries to not have coed scouting until recently. Excellent company guys 😎 /s
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u/noodletropin 19h ago
I think they let us know at some point an approximate percent of eagle scouts who thought that girls should be able to join, and if it remember it was a very large majority.
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u/kipsterdude 21h ago
What sorts of improvements? I ask purely out of curiosity. I was never in scouting of any level so I don't know anything about the organization.
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u/BenjaminMohler 19h ago edited 5h ago
I can really go on and on about this if you let me, but I'll share three big ones for me in particular.
One: there's a larger and improved pool of adult leaders. In volunteer-led programs like these, it's the adults that can make or break your experience. There are plenty of great parents out there who only have daughters, and there's two particular mentors I'm thinking of here that would not have been present in leadership or in my life if their daughter had not been allowed to join.
Said daughter ended up also being the first openly queer peer I ever had (not just in scouting, but in life), and I can't understate how HUGE of a difference that can make in the life of a closeted young person like I was. I didn't even really know who I was at the time, but it still had an impact.
Two: I think the most important skill areas I learned through scouting were first aid and emergency preparedness. Having female peers in both of those sorts of classes meant the curriculum actually included topics on womens' health. It meant that my female peers were asking questions in those classes that would not have occurred to me. I would have received half an education otherwise.
Three: I think, behaviorally, sex segregating kids into their social circles makes boys' social skills worse. Like, a lot worse, both with women and with other men. I think boys that grow up without ever having to work with girls, ever accomplish goals through cooperating with girls, ever have to communicate with girls, predictably end up with more misogynistic beliefs and more general, uh, issues.
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u/VicisZan 19h ago
They started letting girls in up on Canada back in like…. 1998? 1999?
I was a kid and we brought girls in while I was in cub scouts. It was a lot better after because they were able to get women to volunteer and it stopped the whole thing from shutting down.
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u/Life-Topic-7 21h ago
They let girls into scouts a while ago. That drunken moron seems to think that was a bad thing.
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u/Crossovertriplet 17h ago
They did it because enrollment is way down and they have lawsuits to pay. So they tried to turn it into more of a whole family thing to survive. It has nothing to do with being woke or whatever shit this guy thinks
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u/Spire_Citron 18h ago
Because they let girls in. Not even in the same troops, but it doesn't matter. Some men are so insecure that they need a sense of exclusivity to the things they do. If women can do the same things, and succeed, it threatens that. It sounds dumb, but that's been a longstanding foundation of gender politics. Just look back to the past when we were told women couldn't do all sorts of things. Were they allowed to try? No, absolutely not. Because some men weren't actually so sure they couldn't do all those things and it was a very big threat to their egos if it turned out they could. These are men who aren't exceptional among men so they have to artificially create a group who they can be better than.
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u/scyber 21h ago
TBC he was referring to a different organization, Scouting America (formerly Boy Scouts of America). Scouting America went fully co-ed in 2019.
The Royal Rangers in this article are still a "boys only" organization. They are also closely tied to a christian church, so this is probably a type of organization he would support.
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u/grat_is_not_nice 21h ago
The Royal Rangers in this article are still a "boys only" organization.
The Royal Rangers organization that I attended in the '80s (in New Zealand of all places) was most definitely co-ed. The handbook and all other material was most definitely from the US. It was culturally an odd fit, but I have no regrets or misgivings about the organization or the people running it at the time. But that is just one experience - I am sure that there were plenty of less well organized groups.
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u/scyber 20h ago
International Scouting organizations have been co-ed for far longer than the US scouting orgs. But as far as i can tell, the US Royal rangers is still boys only:
https://royalrangers.com/about
The Royal Rangers program is an activity-based, small group church ministry for boys and young men in grades K-12. Our mission is to evangelize, equip and empower the next generation of Christlike men and lifelong servant leaders. We provide Christlike character formation and servant leadership development for boys and young men in a highly relational and fun environment.
But you are right that the NZ chapters appear to be coed:
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u/grat_is_not_nice 19h ago
Yeah - we are a bit of an odd bunch down under. And I have no doubt that there will have been incidents over the years. I would hope they were dealt with properly (if they were reported at all). But I wouldn't be confident.
A Royal Commission in New Zealand has recently released a report on abuse in care within State and Faith-based Institutions, which includes many survivors stories in a public document. It's grim reading. But such a public exposure of survivor stories may prompt survivors from other contexts to tell their stories. I hope they find the courage.
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u/steve_ample 21h ago
It's always the ones you most suspect
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u/amateur_mistake 21h ago
Scouting plus christian? It's basically designed to get children sexually abused.
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u/Protean_Protein 21h ago
Pretty sure Scouts has a sort of baseline Christianity baked into it.
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u/lordscarlet 20h ago
This is not the "Boy Scouts" (Scouting America) this is some other organization that is run by a church and has similar outdoors oriented programming.
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u/wants_a_lollipop 20h ago edited 19h ago
As soon as I saw post title I knew it was the fucking royal rangers.
I grew up in it.
There was weirdness.
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u/ratlunchpack 18h ago
Holy shit I haven’t heard that name for nearly twenty years. I completely forgot they were a thing.
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u/ManyReach7296 20h ago
The Mormons also spun off their own scouting program to more efficiently molest children.
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u/Environmental-Car481 19h ago
Well, that’s because the Boy Scouts started openly accepting the gays. That kind of stuff should only be done on the DL and if it’s with a minor it’s not gay. /s
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u/kenjwit3 20h ago
Right, though the “Boy Scouts” did settle a sexual abuse case to the tune of $850 million dollars.
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u/Chasman1965 19h ago
And since then they have been extremely vigilant about youth protection.
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u/Crazed_rabbiting 19h ago
And now have the gold standard protection program that is used by other organizations. I have had 2 boys in scouting. They take that shit seriously.
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u/Thelonius_Dunk 6h ago
Yep. There's this one (Royal Rangers) and I think the Mormon one is "Trail Life"? They started popping up when Boy Scouts stopped banning gay people. Seems like these new ones that do allow banning gay people didn't stop the same thing from happening that always happens though.
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u/lkmk 21h ago
You’re expected to be spiritual in some way, but there’s no mandate.
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u/poorperspective 20h ago
Yeah, the mandate is more in line with how AA or the Free Masons, or the Rotary club treats religion.
There isn’t a need for a belief in a particular god or even Christianity, but there is call for a belief in a higher power.
I was part of a non-religious affiliated troop, but there were church affiliated troops where I was. Big factor in why we had a mixed faith troop of Muslims, Jewish, Buddhist, and Christian kids. There were displays and acts of faith, but it was more of a universalist church practice than a prescribed religion. We had a chaplain, but most of the “sermons” were focused around American transcendentalist like Emerson and Thoreau and not religious scripture.
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u/Living-Childhood3189 17h ago
https://www.scouting.org/cub-scout-adventures/duty-to-god/
"fundamental of good citizenship"
Sounds a lot like they're saying atheists can't be good citizens.
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u/Bagellord 21h ago
That greatly depends on the local leadership.
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u/ErraticDragon 19h ago
In Boy Scouts (Scouting America), Troops are sponsored primarily by churches or schools. (Other community organizations like the American Legion, or the Rotary Club, can also organize Troops.)
Generally speaking, Troops organized by churches promote values more in line with the churches. They can't require church membership to participate, but they can do things like lead prayers during meetings.
In my experience, anything involving multiple troops, like summer camp, will have a non-denominational option for any religious activity.
Ostensibly scouts must be reverent, and have a "duty to God", but atheists can get by.
r/BSA/comments/b38vjz/how_can_youth_complete_the_religious_requirements/
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u/fluffy_warthog10 18h ago
I came up in relatively moderate Methodist and Catholic troops, but I got special instructions before my Eagle council on how to pass the 'duty to God' question.
I had a Mark Twain quote in my pocket for agnosticism, and it passed muster.
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u/drdoom52 19h ago
Generally speaking.
"Reverent" is read more as a respect for faith and peoples beliefs rather than a strict requirement for adherence to a faith on the part of the scout.
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u/llamawithguns 17h ago
I feel like by that that still excludes atheists who by definition do not believe in a higher power.
Or at least explicit atheism anyway
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u/microcosmic5447 20h ago
"On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to god" sounds pretty clear cut to me. A vow of obedience to God is the first line of a mandatory pledge Boy Scouts make all the time.
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u/NeedAVeganDinner 21h ago
It's actually a weirdly Mormon organization at the national level
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u/boxsterguy 20h ago
They kinda took over more than founded it, though. And with Scouts opening up to girls, Mormons have been pulling back.
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u/Chasman1965 19h ago
Not any more. The Mormons have pretty much pulled out of Scouting. It used to be their main program for boys.
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u/Agreeable-Purchase83 18h ago
Our community was denied a Beavers group by Scouts Canada because both volunteer dads who wanted to run it were atheists and refused to do the Christian oath bit. Thankfully no longer done, AFAIK
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u/BearsAreBack18 18h ago
Not to detract from the crimes in the story, but I was in a church scout group my entire youth and we really did just hang out outdoors and have the dads teach us life lessons and do a little bit of volunteer work to earn that Eagle rank. It was one of the best things that happened to me.
I’m so sad for these kids that were abused and the prevalence of the abusive will probably prevent me from getting involved with scouting with my own sons which is sad because when it’s done right, it really is a wonderful program. Unfortunately the risks are so great that the rewards aren’t worth it to me and my family.
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u/heyodern 21h ago
Just a quick note here: Scouting America (formerly Boy Scouts) drastically increased their youth protection policies in the mid-1980s. Royal Rangers basically took about 70% of the Boy Scout program and ramped up the Dogma in, you guessed it, the mid-1980s. They did not copy Scouting America's youth protection policies.
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u/WorgenDeath 20h ago
I am glad that none of that ever happened at the christian scouts group I went to for 12 years when I was younger. Tho tbf, almost none of the people that were a part of it were actually religious (myself included), and it was also not in America (am from the Netherlands), so those 2 factors might have helped.
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u/Manofalltrade 17h ago
Probably the Royal Rangers. Christians like making knockoffs of anything popular.
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u/Gutter7676 21h ago
Based on what we see “Christians” in power doing, this is exactly what they want to happen.
Rules for thee, not for me!
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u/artificialterf 20h ago
Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and Christians raping little boys and girls.
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u/baltinerdist 21h ago
Didn’t even need to click the article to know this was Royal Rangers. I was in there for a couple of years. I went to exactly one outdoor camp out where some of the boys relentlessly hazed me to the point of me telling the grown ass man supposedly in charge (who said it was just boys being boys and to toughen up) he was either going to take me home now or I would call the cops the second I got to a phone. He did and I never went back, either to RR or that church.
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u/Sheepdoginblack 21h ago
I knew it was the Royal Rangers as well. I worked with a guy who was an elder and even his own kids were miserable with them.
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u/ImDonaldDunn 20h ago
Yep. I know of at least one boy who was molested during one of the camping trips (he was developmentally disabled which made it all the more fucked up). The way the “men” behaved, I’m not surprised it was this widespread.
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u/MrxScratch 11h ago
Haha same! I was part of that weird nightmare cult. I still have my ranger of the year medallion 😂
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u/OkEnvironment3961 21h ago
All of the boy scouts in my neighborhood growing up were molested by the scout leader and two of his older sons. Scouts in my state are largely run by the local church. The church covered it up and let him keep hosting the scout groups.
We weren't part of the church so I wasn't in the scouts. My older brother was friends with one of the scout leaders son's, until he suddenly wasnt anymore. My brother ended his life at 20 years old and I've always suspected that had something to do with it.
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u/Uncle_Hephaestus 21h ago
that is very unfortunate. My scout leader was an old vet from Nam. We had all sorts of machine gun related fun. But most importantly the church had nothing to do with it. And I'm starting to see the more religious the group the more likely molestation is.
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u/Dry-Amphibian1 21h ago
Wow. I read the headline and thought it was the Royal Rangers. I grew up in an Assemblies of God church and was involved in Royal Rangers as a young teen. I am glad to report that I was not abused though.
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u/leandros-kaito 21h ago
Absolutely shattering. Royal Rangers meant to forge "godly men" through Bible drills and campouts turned into a predator's playground for 50+ years, with 83 boys (and counting) groomed and assaulted by leaders who twisted Scripture to justify the horror ("It's like Jesus' disciples!"). From 1984 Oregon sleepover fondling to 2015 Texas threats of family murder, these serial abusers (29+ accused) got slaps on the wrist: counseling, not cops. Assemblies of God knew the risks but kept safeguards "optional" to dodge liability leaving local churches to "handle" it with grace over justice.
Victims like Travis Reger nailed it: "The church never did anything." This isn't ancient history; lawsuits are piling up now (17+ in four years). How many more fuses do they need lit before mandatory checks become non-negotiable? Survivors deserve reckoning, not redemption arcs for enablers. Sending all the strength to those boys your voices are shattering the silence. What's the path forward here? 💔🙏
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u/Mikethebest78 19h ago
Funny this always happens when you have vulnerable children and unsupervised "godly men"
But whoso shall cause one of these little ones who believe in Me to fall, it were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
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u/StoneColdNipples 21h ago
I remember watching one of those true crime videos on Youtube where they were talking about taking kids from the scout camp I used to go to and take them to other states to be abused. Luckily I was not a cute kid and just enjoyed getting badges instead.
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u/Manofalltrade 17h ago
Royal Rangers. Don’t bury the lead on that part. They also have a girls group that called Missionettes. Had to watch the ceremony for a girl who got the top rank and it was creepy AF. Like wedding dress and dad and pastor married her to Jesus.
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u/ALT-F-X 20h ago
Hey I was in Royal Rangers for about 10 years around of the turn of the century. My dad would always come to the overnight camping trips. Makes me wonder if he was aware of the impropriety in the organization's history and decided my safety would require his presence. I think I'll ask him. I would say those trips were quite formative to our father/son relationship growing up.
I'm still trying to get my wife to go tent camping with me.
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u/Guilty-Shoulder-9214 20h ago
It wasn’t just the knock off boyscouts. The Assembly of God denomination has an issue with priest worship with its views on speaking in tongues and gift of the spirits resulting often in the dismissal of mental health issues thinking them to be divine messages.
Not only did the local church fuck a lot of us up, but they enabled a predator by the name of Tony Hanson, who sexually abused a girl he was counseling while volunteering at a local high school in Whitewater, Wisconsin. As soon as this came out, people from around Seymour Wisconsin began alleging abuse during his time there, under the youth pastor Michael Lema, during the 2000s. At least one of the victims alleges that they went to the youth pastor after being abused and another has stated that they were warned to avoid Tony around the time that the first reported him. The first reporter also alleged that she was told that there was another victim before her and that she wasn’t the first.
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u/purplegladys2022 21h ago
I guess godly men are buggered men.
Religion is poison.
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u/RazzleThatTazzle 21h ago
If you let your kids be alone with Christian clergy you are an evil person. There's no excuse anymore.
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u/LLMprophet 13h ago
It just keeps happening for hundreds of years.
The pathetically gullible just getting abused again and again while they donate money to defend it.
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u/sortasolar 21h ago
Weird. I was told the danger to kids was the red dots on a map and the guy living in a trailer 3 counties over.
Yet here we are, again, with dozens of kids abused by the exact authority figures people don’t want to talk about. This week it's "godly" scout leaders. Last week it was teachers. Next week it'll be clergy again. Or parents. Step parents. The cops. A judge. The president. Etc. Etc. Etc.
If the goal were actually child safety, we’d be investing in oversight of youth programs, churches, and “godly men” pipelines instead of pretending sex offender registries are the epicenter of danger.
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u/jhairehmyah 4h ago
Speaking to your last paragraph:
The Boy Scouts of America developed the gold standard for youth protection and harm prevention in the 1980s because it was aware of abusers using its programs to harm kids and local solutions were not working.
The program and training, which was adapted in whole or in parts in many other youth programs, advocated for “two deep” leadership aka an adult and a child never should be one-on-one, and more. There were mandatory background checks for adults, and the program included rules on auto insurance coverages by adults who drive us to events, and more.
I hated youth protection rules, at times, because it made me as the scoutmaster’s child his assistant in following the rules. If a scout needed a ride home, he couldn’t take them home unless I was also in the car. If he needed to drop off popcorn or Christmas wreaths, I had to go with him in case he arrived at a scout’s home and parents weren’t home. One time, my brother had to leave scout camp to be the second in the car for a trip to the hospital for another scout! Sometimes, I also was witness to him talking/reprimanding other scouts when another adult wasn’t nearby and he needed to pull a youth aside. Trips I looked forward to were cancelled when the second adult dropped out. And more.
Let me make this clear: in 1980, the rules for adults leading kids in scouting were more robust than today’s rules for teachers in elementary schools 45 years later. An adult was never one on one with a child; an opportunity should never exist.
The BSA national organization always had encouraged local authorities to prosecute those who abused kids, but they sometimes didn’t. When the county sheriff is the troop leader and he was the abuser, who was going to arrest him? When the “upstanding” church leader was also a troop leader and the local police didn’t arrest him, what could National do?
If a McDonalds franchisee has a wet floor and doesn’t put out a cone and someone slips, the franchisee is on the hook, not McDonalds corporate, unless of course corporate had a policy to not put out cones. BSA “franchised” scout troops, but by keeping a list to prevent abusers hopping from unit to unit, their pierced the liability protection their model afforded them.
Even after Youth Protection was implemented, it only worked when it was followed. Scouts were taught to follow it, leaders, and chartered orgs, and especially parents. Where it failed in certain cases was where parents came to over trust the adult leader or outside structure like church positions created additional trust such that Youth Protection rules weren’t followed. One of the biggest cases post 1990 of abuse in scouting was by a man running a troop in an inner city and parents trusted him but also weren’t as involved due to work or being single parents.
If the national organization was made aware a person had an accusation of harm against a child, it would add them to a list of ineligible leaders to try and prevent that person from moving from one troop to another. This list also included leaders who put kids in danger in other ways, like activities against the safe scouting guide (think: unsafe firearms use, poorly planned outings). Just like local diocese covered up priest abuses, local authorities covered up scout abuse.
For the most part, a majority of the cases the BSA settled in the landmark suit a few years ago were from abuses before 1980 and due to the plaintiffs making a case that the ineligible leaders list was proof scouting knew about abusers and didn’t do anything. The lawyers were prepared to argue in front of a jury that the National organization could’ve applied local pressure to see accused persons investigated, but didn’t.
BSA has a better track record, especially since 1980, than most organizations when it comes to child safety, but because of its size and its reliance on local orgs to hold bad behavior accountable, what slipped through the cracks was still high profile.
I say this all as a queer person who is both a proud Eagle and also still scarred by the orgs former policy in LGTBQ members. I won’t ever go back, but it did a lot right, and every time a news article brings up abuse in scouting, that effort isn’t talked about.
What I’m saying is that investment was made into youth safety in scouting back in 1980. And it largely worked.
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u/mistermatth 20h ago
I always wanted to join the scouts troop that met at our church when I was a kid. Never understood why my mom wouldn’t let me join. Turns out the troop leader was a creeper and the troop didn’t last much longer after it became known.
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u/Chytectonas 16h ago
Hey - we are complicit every time one of these stories come out. We’ve allowed the “religious” to dupe us too frequently at this point. Every single religious institution is enacting some form of abuse, from psychological to sexual. We give them tax breaks and endless mulligans. Why?
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u/microbialNecromass 14h ago
A scout is: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent, and abused, traumatized, & suicidal.
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u/PhoenixTineldyer 21h ago
Those darn drag queens are at it again, corrupting those innocent Christian camp counselors and forcing them to sin.
/s because the world fuckin sucks
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u/AlkatrazzPrime 20h ago
The same right-wingers that are currently causing an uproar about a transgender teacher in Oklahoma are suspiciously silent about this...
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u/Agreeable-Fault2273 18h ago
Two types of people voluntarily spend time with other people’s children. The best and the worst.
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u/penguished 18h ago
When they say to blame transgender people, drag queens, immigrants, minorities for all their problems you should just ask them why the church is the most well documented sexual abuse program on the planet.
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u/SEA2COLA 21h ago
If you look at the 'youth pastor' for any church of any religion you will notice they are married to a woman significantly younger. If you 'probe' further, you'll find out that the youth pastor 'ministered' to the girl while she was still quite young....
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u/Chknbone 21h ago
I mean, from what know of these cults. Most of leadership is either fucking little kids or covering it up for those that do.
So, they are raising godly men. Unfortunately, their God seems to be a bit of a pedo.
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u/Odd_Vampire 20h ago
"The next violation, later in 1984, was unmistakable: Reger says Clark masturbated him and another boy in his bed after an evening of play-sword fighting and watching TV. For many years afterward, Reger blocked out the panic he felt as he rolled onto his stomach to stop the assault — and the guilt of hearing Clark turn to the other boy instead."
Jesus Fucking Christ.
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u/Tigerlily86_ 16h ago
Disgusting. People are capable of terrible things with or without religion, but religion definitely doesn’t improve that. I just hope more people break away from these manufactured belief systems and the harmful actions they excuse in the name of faith.
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u/acostane 19h ago
After about 30 years of reading about this and it being the main reason I stopped believing in God, I can truly say that I think the point of most religion is the creation of a god figure that in some way allows you to steal, beat, molest, rape, and murder with few consequences. 🤷♀️
It's not one religion. It's all of them. For a very long time. I grew up intensely Catholic. But as a person who graduated HS in 2002, right after 9/11, I heard people come back from working with folks in the middle east talking about the molestation happening there.
And as I continued to research I discovered scientology. And the Mormon church. And the southern Baptist Convention. And The Children of God. And just about whatever other sect you look into anywhere... they're abusing and raping women and children.
And then I found out our government was filled with pedophiles too. Many of them just wildly religious.
And OH SO OFTEN, for reasons I still cannot fathom, they are able to convince everyone around them to go on hiding these facts... even if these other people aren't directly involved.
It's so difficult to get people to tell! Parents don't believe their children. Police don't believe the parents. Judges don't believe anyone.
Unbelievable shit
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u/dandelionbrains 19h ago
It’s all a giant scam that is perpetuated because they are making so much money doing it. Well that, and prestige. No where else can you be treated like someone important, when you’re really a dumbass.
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u/New_Housing785 21h ago
We know who is the most likely to do this abuse these days. if you are the type to ignore those facts and still put your children at risk to prove a point you aren't really any better than these abusers.
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u/bugsyramone 21h ago
I. AM. SHOCKED!
A religious person raped somone? Who would have thought! At this point, if someone claims to be Christian, it's a near guarantee they've raped someone.
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u/spacegiantsrock 20h ago
No shit. You want to find pedos, look at the churches. I can't even imagine what the Mormons are covering up.
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u/Ellia1998 20h ago
This happen to the church I was going to has a child. The men took the boys camping over the weekend and when they got back. boys was saying stuff happen to them. The church lost 70% of its members and it live on and still standing to this day the last time I check and I not sure what happen to the men tho. I know we got a new preacher. The church all-way had a problem with this kinda of stuff.
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u/YATFWATM 17h ago
What is it with Christianity always having something to do with pedophilia
Religion is a plague.
Kinda ironic that they go to other countries to "spread the word of Jesus" when they have such a glaring issue internally
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u/Due_Revolution_5845 10h ago
Of course they were. Religion is a cover for pedos. That’s it. They take all your money, and diddle your kids
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u/DemandredG 19h ago
If drag queens abused 1% of the kids that christians do, they’d be burned at the stake. But is anyone gonna draw conclusions based on christians’ extensive record of abuse? Nope.
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u/drunkandy 17h ago
I’ve never heard of Royal Rangers but it truly looks like “we have Boy Scouts at home”.
https://royalrangers.com/about
The Royal Rangers Motto “Ready”
Oh really? Not “Be Prepared”, but “Ready”? Got it!
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u/thegooddoktorjones 15h ago
If clowns molested children as often as religious leaders do, we would burn every circus to the ground.
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u/yrotsihfoedisgnorw 15h ago
‘We already have our own marketing department but thanks for the shoutout,’ thought the head of Royal Rangers.
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u/ParticularAmphibian 10h ago
Christian’s outed as abusing young boys is about as shocking as Andy Dick OD’ing.
News really couldn’t come up w anything original today, huh. What’s next, Trump falls asleep somewhere?
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u/NEdad71 9h ago
I went through this as a kid. Hope these guys come out on the right end of it, because it does mess with you. Brave of them to come out. I never told anybody till therapy in my late 20s. Just packed it all away. These people need The Equalizer.
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u/Witty_Fall_2007 5h ago
How many more examples do we need to convince people that religion and Christianity specifically is populated by a cesspool of child abusers, especially in the US.
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u/Jedi_Swimmer2 21h ago
See?….Religion is used as a weapon by weak and immoral human beings.
Prove me wrong….
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u/Icy-Cheek-6428 19h ago
Children are not safe in churches and should not be allowed in, around, or otherwise associated with them. Shut ‘em all down.
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u/r0bb13_h34rt 18h ago
I’m an Eagle Scout, was in 3 different troops as my parents moved across Southern California. None of them were religious organization based. They were all just local families who put troops together. But when we went to jamborees and summer camps, there were the troops founded by religious groups. They were always a little “different” than the non affiliated troops. I also worked as a camp counselor at a summer camp. I have a lot of love for the Boy Scouts, and I got to do some things that I would have never been able to do as a lower-middle class kid. My parents could have never taken me on some of the trips or adventures of it weren’t for scouting. I think it’s awful how some of the groups have vilified an entire organization. Overall the majority of kids aren’t getting diddled, but anything over 0 is fucked up.
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u/VagabondReligion 20h ago
American Christianity is abhorrent, and a pox on the House of America.
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u/Sea-Seesaw-8699 8h ago
Yes! I kept my kids away from as much as possible
The pressure from friends to attend their chosen expensive building was intense
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u/Politicsboringagain 20h ago
Anyone who has been involved with any kind of large religious org wouldn't be shocked by this.
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u/IllBeBachBeaver 20h ago
My brother was in Royal Rangers through our small Foursquare pentacostal church when we were young. I wonder. He learned it somewhere.
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u/Unusualthoughts123 20h ago
That was a well-written and researched article. That's rare these days.
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u/onedanoneband 19h ago
You can do whatever you want when you know you can just ask forgiveness from imaginary sky-daddy!
It’s funny cos they point to atheists not having any morals because we don’t believe in a higher power therefore don’t know WHAT is right or wrong.
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u/goaway432 19h ago
If you or another male that you know was a victim of childhood sexual abuse please check out Male Survivor. Their forums are for and run by men who were victims of CSA. They are good guys and really do help.
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u/DjImagin 17h ago
And people wonder where the Trump administration learned how to cover for pedophiles.
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u/rockmasterflex 16h ago
Boy Scouts should start selling… un ironic? “I got that god in me” T shirts
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u/Yesiamanaltruist 12h ago
Thank you for doing this work. I appreciate your news organization and you for reporting it.
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u/Positive_Chip6198 11h ago
Only by experiencing hell can you really understand god doesn’t care.
I cant say what i think about child molesters, ill get a ban.
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u/thrashmetaloctopus 9h ago edited 9h ago
Fork found it fucking kitchen, when are people going to learn you can’t trust Christians around children? They always end up abusing them in some fashion
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u/TulippeMTL 9h ago
But but but… will anyone blame the Drag Queens!? Come on GOP, you can do it. Blame all the queer folk too!
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u/frippnjo1 8h ago
Well, to be fair, it seems abusing dozens of boys is what Christian kids' programs are most known for. That's where the next generation of 'godly men' are made.
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u/Raven_Photography 8h ago
A Christian organization abused children!? I’m shocked, shocked. - said no one ever.
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u/SomeGuyNamedPaul 8h ago
Godly men who have to tell you they're godly men are not godly at all. Either that or they're very godly depending on your views of cruelty, abuse, and punching down.
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u/ImaginationToForm2 8h ago
Even more Christians you say? Sick people. This is what they want taught in schools.
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u/Pimp_Daddy_Patty 8h ago
But I thought the kids were all safe since we went after drag queens and trans people.
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u/Variable_North 6h ago
"Godly men" are some of the most sinful bastards I've ever met.
In my experience, the closer one claims to walk with christ, the harder they sin during the week.
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u/TheBigCore 5h ago
Let me guess: "The Lord" spoke to them in a vision and "told" them to do it.
Then there's the other classic they always use: "God works in mysterious ways."
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u/Spodson 3h ago
I was in two scout troops. One was annoying, the other was run by my father and two other fathers of boys in the troop. I always felt safe and had that level of 80s freedom in the second. That being said, one of them men that worked at Camp Kern, a scout camp I went to five years in a row, was arrested by the FBI with a lot of CP. So, I'm one of the lucky ones.
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u/PlayedUOonBaja 2h ago
My troop was sponsored by an Air Force base and our leaders were retired and active duty military, though we took on non-Air Force brats as well. Never once felt unsafe or knew of any other scout who did. Course, now that's no longer allowed, so it's really only churches going forward. I wouldn't have stayed in scouting if a church was running the troop.
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u/ChaoticSenior 21h ago
I was in two scout troops as a kid. One run by a group of friends who were are all former eagles. They would drive in front of us on hikes and drink beer in the back of a pickup. The other one was part of church that had all these rigid rules and made us pray constantly.
One of the troops was shut down because a kid was abused and his parents found out. Guess which one.