The Boy Scouts Settle Sexual Abuse Cases for $850 Million

It gives me no pleasure to note the announcement this week that the Boy Scouts of America have settled sexual abuse cases in the amount of $850 million. Last year the organization declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and this latest announcement is yet another sign of its slow and precipitous decline.

Down 61% in membership since 2019, it should be obvious to even its most ardent supporters that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made the right choice in distancing itself from the Boy Scouts. Its current curriculum for young men is infinitely more advantageous than the old one that included Scouting. These latest revelations about sexual abuse were long rumored and are now confirmed by the court cases that proved their veracity.

For many years, I wrote about the tenuous relationship between the Church and the Boy Scouts. I always believed we could find a higher and better path than tethering ourselves to scouting as it has compromised itself into weakness. You can read my extended reasoning here in 2003, and here in 2013 . 

Estimated at 84,000 individuals who were affected by sexual abuse at the hands of Boy Scout leaders, it was so sad for me to read that these victims are now in their 60s and 70s. It has taken all these years for this first wave of cases to be resolved for the first 16,800 who filed suits. There will be years of future court cases and potentially billions of dollars in settlements to be paid out. This first settlement is the largest child sex abuse case in U.S. history. How ironic that it has arisen from a Scout Law that advocated for moral turpitude among its members.

I can still recite the Scout Law from memory: A Scout is: Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Sadly, now if you search Google for "scout law" what you end up with is references to "scout law suits."

We are living in a day of declining moral values. As young scouts, we internalized the Scout Law as obedient participants, but now we know there were predators among the ranks of the leaders who preyed upon the youthful boys in their troops. Those facts will continue to emerge in the years ahead. There may be fewer and fewer who will be traumatized by these details, but there are still many who will feel the ripples in the pond from the actions of those perpetrators for generations yet to come. Often the victims of sexual abuse become the practitioners. 

We can agonize all we want about how wicked the world has become, but it is all a fulfillment of prophecy: "And until that hour there will be foolish virgins among the wise - and at that hour cometh an entire separation of the righteous and the wicked; and in that day will I send mine angels to pluck out the wicked and cast them into unquenchable fire." (D&C 63:54).

We are moving toward that day of final separation, and it should not surprise us when these tragic stories are broadcast to the world. Black is becoming blacker and white is becoming whiter. We all have a precious gift to choose God first and discern truth from error: "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." (2 Nephi 2:27).

I have abiding and profound confidence in the living prophets who preside in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our current Prophet uses words like invite, plead, encourage, and promise to help us find peace in this ever-darkening world around us. Read again the words of President Russell M. Nelson as he delivered the closing sermon at the General Conference in which he was sustained as the President of the Church:

Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.

My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. Let this Easter Sunday be a defining moment in your life. Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.

With Moroni, I exhort you on this Easter Sabbath to “come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift,” (Moroni 10:30) beginning with the gift of the Holy Ghost, which gift can and will change your life.

We are followers of Jesus Christ. The most important truth the Holy Ghost will ever witness to you is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He lives! He is our Advocate with the Father, our Exemplar, and our Redeemer. On this Easter Sunday, we commemorate His atoning sacrifice, His literal Resurrection, and His divinity.

Moral Imperatives and Penn State - Secrets Shouted from the Housetops

The Savior warned us to never assume that our secrets would be safe. He prophesied they would be shouted from the housetops one day:

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." (Luke 12:2-3).

In light of developments at Penn State University last week, we would all do well to ponder that passage of scripture. We have all done and said things in secret, perhaps, that we would be all be embarrassed about if they were to be shouted from the housetops. In this age of digital communication, truly our every word can be instantly broadcast around the world. Our digital footprint is available to the world and on fully display. From any mobile phone, computer or other digital device we communicate instantly with others, and some of us actually still believe we can do whatever we do anonymously or in secret. As I suggested in an earlier post, not so!

Digital technology destroys our presumption of secrecy. WikiLeaks exposed thousands of classified government documents, embarrassing diplomatic leaders everywhere. How many of you know teenagers whose innocence has been betrayed when they were caught “sexting” to a friend? What they thought was innocent fun is suddenly broadcast everywhere, relationships are destroyed, and pain is inflicted.

Our deep dark secrets are harder and harder to hide. Sooner or later we are betrayed. If not in this world, doesn't anyone who believes in God have a sense of moral accountability before Almighty God? If what we do and say in secret is not revealed in this world, it will certainly be on full display when we stand before the judgment bar, won't it? How are we to assume we can hide from an omniscient God?

King Benjamin observed: "I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them. But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not." (Mosiah 4:29-30).

The question God poses to Adam in the garden after he has partaken of the forbidden fruit, "Adam, where art thou?" is not because God didn't know the answer. Rather, He was more interested in whether Adam knew the answer. I submit we must make every effort to speak, write, and act in greater purity before the Lord.

We are living in a very public world these days. As disciples of Christ, we are charged with bearing witness to His name in our lips, in our hearts and in our daily walk. I'm not as worried about what others think about me as I am about what my Savior thinks. His eyes are upon us all. He knows us. He will succor us in all things. The least we can do is reflect His glory in our lives in exchange for His atoning sacrifice on our behalf. Even though true disciples are not yet perfected, their diligence is required in eschewing the temptations with which we are beset.

Which brings me to the topic today. In the category of colossal moral lapses, cover-ups and hidden sins, the events at Penn State this last week are in a lamentable category all by themselves.

Former Penn State head football coach, Joe Paterno 

In case you've been living under a rock, a storied football tradition at Penn State University came crashing back down to earth with the revelation that a defensive coach was in fact a serial child molester and had abused at least eight young boys under the noses of the university's top brass. After many years of head football coach Joe Paterno and university President Graham Spanier, acting in what they deemed to be the best interests of "the program," the board of trustees finally took action and fired both of them abruptly when the scandal blew up in their faces last week. The assistant coach who was allowed to retire without any of these sordid facts tainting his reputation, now stands arrested and will likely face the rest of his life in prison. The athletic director was put on administrative leave.

What a sad end to the career of college football's winningest coach. Whatever his legacy might have been in the future, it will now be forever tainted by his inability or unwillingness to prosecute swift justice against his assistant who was the perpetrator of the abuse against so many young and innocent boys. The scandal and his role in it will forever be the first item listed in his resume. How tragic!

"The failure of top university officials to act on reports of Sandusky's alleged sexual misconduct, even after it was reported to them in graphic detail by an eyewitness, allowed a predator to walk free for years — continuing to target new victims," said Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly. "Equally disturbing is the lack of action and apparent lack of concern among those same officials, and others who received information about this case, who either avoided asking difficult questions or chose to look the other way."

I have not read the court documents, but those who have waded through them describe Paterno's assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, as "a monster" at work under the safety and protection of a bureaucratic cover-up designed to protect "the program."

Even more troubling, perhaps, is the rioting on campus that ensued. I kept wondering as I watched those scenes unfold, "What are the parents of these students thinking about the lack of moral clarity in their children that they cannot distinguish between right and wrong?"

It's one thing to be loyal to an iconic football coach, but does that loyalty manifest itself inappropriately and is it out of step with reality when it supports the obvious lack of moral turpitude of those who were in a position to end the abuse but failed to?

Do crowds of college students taking to the streets in the middle of the night and overturning a media truck in fury for reporting the facts of the matter make the disclosure of the beastly conduct of one assistant football coach somehow acceptable?

Does defending the indefensible somehow trump the morality of basic human conduct?

When does football become more important than what is considered a reasonable, even minimal, standard of acceptable moral behavior?

Even in a godless society, does sexual abuse of young boys by an authority figure EVER become morally justified in the name of protecting "the program?"

Can anyone, even a casual observer, even begin to count the cost in the lives of those boys, their families and the sordid ramifications of their future lives in the wake of what was perpetrated upon their souls? I am a somber witness of what can happen to the life of an innocent child who is sodomized at a young age. The ripples in that pond can go on and on forever.

I sincerely hope the twisted thinking of school administrators at Penn State who looked the other way in this sordid series of events is not representative of what is going on nationwide in other schools, but there is evidence it is not unique to Penn State. The culture of the NCAA has contributed to these events, I am sorry to say. The quest for money, ever increasing amounts of it, while somehow proclaiming its amateur status is naive. You can't have it both ways.

The purity of the NCAA's amateur image is continually challenged as recruiting violations pile up, disclosures of under the table payments to star athletes by boosters are disclosed, and the list goes on and on. Those guilty of crimes are routinely slapped on the hands, then go on to sign multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts with professional teams. Purity and college (even high school) athletic programs are not often two words found in the same sentence. There is a distortion over what is right and what can be considered acceptable conduct when boosting your "program," it seems.

The stark revelations at Penn State are a reminder once again that what we think is true, we hope is true, because we seem to value sports figures so much in our society, is nothing more than a sordid sham of excessive proportions.

The moral question was put into sharp contrast for me when I read in The New York Times a statement of one of the rioters who said, "It's not fair. The board is an embarrassment to our school and a disservice to the student population."

Really? The board of trustees acted decisively and accurately when it ended the season of Paterno prematurely by firing him, along with the university's president. As leaders of the university, the lapse in their moral judgment was appalling. Where's the outrage for the abused? Students are angry because their beloved coach was fired?

The evidence suggests both knew what was going on for fifteen years right under their noses and they took no decisive measures to clean house. Now their reputations, whatever they were before the events of last week, will be forever tainted and attached to this scandal. Evermore, they will have to live with their complicit decisions to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

And there is nothing supportive rioting students can do to alter that fact.

Deep Dark Secrets

A recent tragic story has dominated the headlines and newscasts here in Utah. The 5 Browns is a talented family group of gifted pianists, perhaps the first and only quintet of pianists, who have realized tremendous commercial success together. They are comprised of two brothers and three sisters from the same family, and they are magnificent performers if you haven't seen them or heard them play together.

The tragic story to which I allude is the revelation that the father of this talented family had sexually abused his three daughters when they were younger women. He appeared in court the other day and pled guilty to the charges in a deal that will result in a long prison term.

I do not know the Brown family, and I do not presume to know what happened except for the scant details that have surfaced in the media reports.

What I am familiar with is the dynamic we see repeated here of attempting to hide our deepest, darkest secrets from God.

President Spencer W. Kimball

"There are no corners so dark, no deserts so uninhabited, no canyons so remote, no automobiles so hidden, no homes so tight and shut in but that the all-seeing One can penetrate and observe. The faithful have always known this. The doubters should take a sober look at the situation in the light of the electronic devices which have come into increasing use in the last few years and which are often delicate and tiny but so powerful as almost to annihilate man's personal privacy. . .

"In the light of these modern marvels can anyone doubt that God hears prayers and discerns secret thoughts? A printer's camera can make a negative three feet square. What magnification! If human eyes and ears can so penetrate one's personal life, what may we expect from perfected men with perfected vision!" (President Spencer W. Kimball, Miracle of Forgiveness, 110-11).

This attempt by fallen mortal man to hide our sins from God is as old as Adam and Eve. "I hid myself because I was naked." As the mortal offspring of Father Adam and Mother Eve, we have inherited that nasty tendency to think we can hide from Him. The truly tragic reality of our mortal existence is our deepest, darkest secrets are rarely hidden from others. We only have the mistaken perception they are. Have you ever noticed how piercingly accurate your awareness is of the mistakes and faults of others? At least you think you know. Then suddenly, as with the Browns, a deep dark secret unknown to their peers emerges and then we become aware of just how little we truly know about each other. But sooner or later truth rises and everyone knows what you thought was hidden away and neatly disposed of in the recesses of your mind and the memories of those you have offended.

We may deceive others for many, many years, but God does exist, He does know us, and we are all accountable before Him. These are absolute truths from which we cannot ultimately escape. We will all die. We all stand before Him to be judged. We learn by experience, there really is no other way, and what we learn compels us in time to trust Him. We learn His mercy through the atonement of His Son Jesus Christ is sufficient for each of us.

President Spencer W. Kimball testified some years ago. "That is an absolute truth. All. . . of the children of men on the earth might be ignorant of him and his attributes and his powers, but he still lives. All the people on the earth might deny him and disbelieve, but he lives in spite of them. . .  In short, opinion alone has no power in the matter of an absolute truth. . .  The watchmaker in Switzerland, with materials at hand, made the watch that was found in the sand in a California desert. The people who found the watch had never been to Switzerland, nor seen the watchmaker, nor seen the watch made. The watchmaker still existed, no matter the extent of their ignorance or experience. If the watch had a tongue, it might even lie and say, 'There is no watchmaker.' That would not alter the truth." ("Absolute Truth," 1977 BYU Fireside and Devotional Speeches of the Year [Provo: Brigham Young University Publications, 1977], 138). I wrote recently about these absolute truths we know as Mormons.

When stories like the Browns' surface, there is something salacious and almost magnetic about it that also says something about us. We are drawn to these very public and embarrassing disclosures as part of our "human nature." It is as though we are anxious to discover something about ourselves. Can we hide ourselves from God much longer, or will we, like Keith Brown, think we can sin and remain free from judgment? On the day he appeared in court, his attorney said, "Today was the next step in a very long process of accountability for a reprehensible act." He said the plea deal will minimize the harm a public trial would cause the family. We look upon this train wreck and secretly wonder to ourselves, will I be different? Can I escape accountability for my hidden works of darkness? Can I escape the all-seeing eye?

In our mortal journey there is one indispensable gift for which we must seek. It is the gift of discernment. I don't mean the gift to discern between right and wrong, because the acquisition of that gift is assured at birth, and it is referred to as the "light that lighteth every man" -- the light of Christ. (D&C 88:4-13).

Rather, I speak of the spiritual gift to discern between what is good, better and best. Few people would entertain thoughts of sexually molesting their children. There is a natural barrier between fathers and daughters and mothers and sons over which the vast majority of fathers and mothers will never step, nor are they ever even tempted with the thought to violate that natural barrier. I wonder if a gift of discernment that helps us choose primary over secondary causes isn't really more valuable.

President Boyd K. Packer

President Boyd K. Packer warned: "As we test the moral environment, we find the pollution index is spiraling upward. . .  God grant that we will come to our senses and protect our moral environment from this mist of darkness which deepens day by day. The fate of all humanity hangs precariously in the balance."

C. S. Lewis

There is a classic exchange in the C. S. Lewis masterwork, The Screwtape Letters, which has one of the archdevils, Screwtape, giving instruction to his nephew, Wormwood, about how to deceive those who have become Christians: "The real trouble about the set your patient is living in is that it is merely Christian. They all have individual interests, of course, but the bond remains mere Christianity. What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call 'Christianity And.' You know — Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians, let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing." (C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters [New York: Touchstone, 1996], 115-16; italics in original).

The devil, except in rare instances like this isolated deep dark secret in the Brown family, doesn't need to persuade us to steal or lie or molest our children or commit adultery. All that is necessary for Satan to deceive us is to have true believers merely undersell, understate, minimize and thus underestimate the awesome powers, appropriateness, and relevance of the restored gospel as the antidote for sin in these last days. The magnitude of the sinning suggests we need to step up our game too.

As a society we have made quantum leaps in our ability to harness information, discovery, and technology. I have witnessed young people who have mastered texting on their cell phones to the degree they are doing it with each other in a living room setting, as though a real conversation is somehow passe and antiquated. At the office we chat electronically to co-workers who are a few feet away and we tend to manage by e-mail as a substitute for human interaction.

I wonder sometimes if we are letting go of that which is fundamental and loosening the fasteners day by day that anchor us to the simple truths of the gospel. Some things as long as the earth shall stand will never change, however. I believe those are situations, tangled Gordian knots of human conflict and seemingly impossible resolutions, that can only be realized through divine intervention. The Apostle Paul said in Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." (Colossians 2:9-10; italics mine). Only in Him can all knots be eternally done and undone.

I bear witness that the real hope of the world is Jesus Christ, who is the Mender of all broken things. He is the "Wonderful Counselor" (Isaiah 9:6). He succors us because He knows us, knows our deepest, darkest secrets, in fact, has already suffered the consequences and the penalties for them and awaits our acceptance of Him as our personal Savior. The road to our self-awareness and acceptance of our accountability before the Almighty God does not have to be "long" and tortuous for our reprehensible acts or even for our choices that tend to mire us in the thick of thin things. I am convinced it can be easy and the burden light, because He promised us it would be if we would come unto Him for our healing. (Matthew 11:28-30).

Having said that, I am acutely aware of mental or social-emotional problems resulting from a chemical imbalance, addictions and other counseling needs that may require intense and extended therapeutic intervention. But I can also assert that even these are not ultimately healed based upon charismatic human personalities or the theories and philosophies of men and women, even men and women of good will. Rather, I rely more upon the blood of Christ, His transforming power to love even the vilest of sinners, the Spirit of God, and the blessings of the holy priesthood. I am eyewitness to miracles I cannot deny despite all the healing man can offer, knowing how therapeutic and helpful they can be. We are warned specifically not to take lightly the things we know through the revelations published in the Book of Mormon and other Holy Writ. (D&C 84:54-61).

I wonder if the "taking lightly" isn't just as good a victory for Screwtape, as a public and embarrassing disclosure of child sexual abuse.

President Ezra Taft Benson

President Ezra Taft Benson said it this way: "The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature. . .  Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world." (Italics mine).

President Harold B. Lee reminded us way back in 1970, "We have some tight places to go before the Lord is through with this church and the world in this dispensation. . .  The power of Satan will increase; we see it on every hand. . .  We must learn to give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through his prophet. . .  There will be some things that take patience and faith" (in Conference Report, October 1970, 152).

President Harold B. Lee

Then President Lee added a warning when he went on to say that we may not always like what comes from the authority of the Church, because it may conflict with our personal views or interfere with some of our social life. However, if we will listen to and do these things as if from the mouth of the Lord Himself, we will not be deceived and great blessings will be ours.

We can give up not only our deepest, darkest secrets to know Christ, but we can keep ourselves aligned with His servants and focused on the things that matter most, are best, and ultimately secure joy and peace for our families.

Remember, the final outcome in the struggle between good and evil is already known, and it is clearly revealed. There is only one question -- on which side of the line do we stand? It was English philosopher Edmund Burke who said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
As we discern carefully and learn to sift through our choices, we may set aside both the sordid and the secondary. As I have given father's blessings to my children, I am often reminded of their goodness and their righteous desires. For them it is not so much a choice anymore between good and evil, but more a choice between an array of good things, some better, some best. They routinely humble me with their goodness and their excellent choices. On those sacred occasions when I lay my hands upon their heads, I feel like Moses, who was told, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." (Exodus 3:5).

For each of us, that "holy ground" can be wherever and whenever we are knit together in faith and love as a family. In those moments we stand revealed before God and each other, and whatever deep, dark secrets remain may be blasted away in a burst of light and truth.

Darkness has no power.