Stories on child abuse with the Scouts are increasingly being heard, particularly after discovery in a recent lawsuit. One shocking account involves a brave 14-year-old counselor named Adam Steed (shown left) who refused to allow leadership to allegedly cover up the presence of a molester in their ranks. Steed and counselor Brad Stowell were part of a Mormon-based scouting program.
Steed confronted the director at a camp with the accusation that “Brad Stowell is molesting Scouts.” Stowell was an individual who was trusted within the community despite his habit of sleeping with the boys and massaging them. What is fascinating is that, while Steed complained that Stowell was touching them inappropriately, he says that the director Elias Lopez assured him “We’ve talked to Brad. He promised me he doesn’t massage below the waist.” When Steed asked to leave, he says Lopez told him to stay. What he asked to call his parents, he says Lopez told him not to tell them about Stowell.
Eventually Stowell was arrested and pleaded guilty due to Steed’s organization of kids to force a call to the police. He was, however, only sentenced to 150 days despite accusations that he molested 24 boys.
Stowell, 32, is now planning to attend law school. He remains an Eagle Scout with five palms. Steed never made it to Eagle Scout.
For the full story, click here.
I know people high up in the Boy Scouts of America organization and can tell you that they are not “a bunch of criminals.” They are very aware of the problem and are doing what they can to deal with it. It’s not clear to me whether the troop mentioned in the article is Boy Scouts of America or a Mormon group. Generally the BSA has been very aggressive and open about kicking out men who have crossed the line, unlike the Catholic Church.
Just as rape is not sex, pedophilia is not homo- or hetero-. Both rape and pedophilia are forms of criminal assault.
Where do I begin?
Scouts have an excellent program to prevent sexual molestation, but nothing can be completely safe because of the human condition.
Scouts, like any other private group, have a right of freedom of association and it is shameful for homosexuals or anyone else to force themselves on people who don’t want to associate with them.
Scouts do not forbid homosexual children from becoming members of their troops. They simply restrict the adults. And they have every right to do this because they don’t approve of homosexuality. Scout groups can exclude anyone they disapprove of from leadership: drunks or heterosexual adulterers.
I think this whole problem is complicated by the fact that the loons are now running the asylum. What I mean is that the fields of psychiatry and psychology are so morally corrupt (ideologically driven) that we can no longer trust them to provide us with reliable scientific information to help us understand the scope or nature of the problem.
We now learn from these “scientists” that a man who is married to a woman but molests 20 boys is not necessarily a homosexual. Well great. This is like saying a man who is married to a woman and has sex with critters isn’t into bestiality, after all, he’s married to a human!
We will not get to the truth about the rates of homosexual vs heterosexual molestation with this sort of junk science going on.
Gingerbaker,
I must make clear, I agree the vast majority of pedophiles may be heterosexual, but if that statement is true, it means the vast majority of pedophiles target children of the opposite sex. Meaning most male pedophiles target girls, and most female pedophiles target boys. I think that sounds quite likely, and I never implied that more homosexuals are pedophiles, in raw numbers or proportionately. I simply meant to show we shouldn’t allow a male who preys on males, to self-identify as heterosexual, because 1) such a person is lying, 2) such a person is likely doing so to maintain a cover that enables future abuse.
Gingerbaker,
I think we just disagree about what the word pedophile means. A pedophile means someone who desires sexual contact with prepubescent children. The term doesn’t specify whether the children so desired are of the same sex or opposite sex as the pedophile. To determine that, we have to draw upon a different set of terms–homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual. The pedophiles I’ve heard of, commonly had individual preferences for the sex of the children they targeted. That means there is such a thing as a homosexual pedophile, and such a thing as a heterosexual pedophile.
The way you try to use pedophile *instead of* homosexual/heterosexual implies you think there are three major genders–male, female, and child! Children have gender, they aren’t a third gender. If a man says he’s heterosexual, but desires sexual contact with a male child, we agree he’s a pedophile, no? Why not that he’s a homosexual or bisexual pedophile? He has an attraction to members of his own sex or gender. They just happen to be prepubescent. If he was attracted to prepubescent girls, would we hesitate to say he’s a heterosexual pedophile? If so, why?
Are we so superstitious, that we think the phrase “homosexual pedophile” or “bisexual pedophile” will inevitably cause stupid people to think that homosexuals or bisexuals are more likely to be pedophiles than heterosexuals? Is that the big hangup here?
Or are we so stupid that we think a person’s self-reported orientation is more correct than what their behavior shows? If I say I’m sober, but you see me drinking, am I sober or am I drinking? If a man says he’s heterosexual but seeks sex with another male, he’s bi or homosexual–his statement to the contrary is disproven by his actions.
Here is a good review of the research, which addresses the concerns of both Gossegotha and Jack :
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,002.htm
Nonsense. A man (or woman) who molests a child is a pedophile. The vast, vast majority of pedophiles are heterosexual. There is solid research on this – what you happen to believe is irrelevant.
So…Stowell (a man) molested a boy, and he’s still a heterosexual? How’s that work?
Regardless, Stowell should be bludgeoned. And actions should be taken against individuals that don’t use common sense.
vlf2112,
I am wholeheartedly against the Scouts or the military banning openly gay participants. If we ban gay scoutmasters, by the same logic, we ought to ban straight men from coaching girls’ sports teams, and we ought to ban everyone from teaching in public schools.
However, let us keep our language clear, because these child-molesters would have us do otherwise–homosexual means you desire sexual contact with the same sex. A man who molests a boy is either bisexual or homosexual, just as a man who molests a girl is either bisexual or heterosexual… of COURSE lots of men who molest boys claim they’re straight–they want to appear as normal as possible! Their actions prove they are either bisexual or homosexual pedophiles.
But this doesn’t mean a homosexual is more likely to be a pedophile than a heterosexual–orientation toward gender has nothing to do with orientation toward age.
Muddying these waters with unclear language is exactly what these molesters want… “Oh, he can’t be gay… he’s married… thus hetero… and heteros never molest boys… so I can trust him with my sons…”
Give me Steed’s address and I’ll mail him my Eagle patch. He lives up to the ideals of Scouting better than I, and certainly better than Stowell, who I’m ashamed to be placed in the same category as.
I am beginning to think that the Boy Scouts are run by the Catholic Church. These scout leaders who allowed this to continue should be in the same cell block with the Bishops who predators from the flock and from the authorities.
From the Eagle Scout ceremony:
“The third peak is the Eagle Scout. The scout has demonstrated he is a Star and he has embodied the Scout Spirit in his Life. Now he must be tested on one final climb to see if it is truly part of his character. The requirements are much the same as Star and Life, however the scout must now go into the community, plan, organize, coordinate, and deliver a service project; a demonstration of leadership and character.
And one final time the scout must go before a group of adults who focus on his character, his leadership and his spirit.
Does he reach the peak? Has he proven himself? Can he leap from the top peak and fly like an Eagle?”
For at least one fellow named Steed, the answer is three “yesses.” Like the RCC and the good works that it sponsors, we need not confuse the corruption of the organization with the principles it teaches, and the followers who adhere to those principles. Sometimes those followers take the organization back to its principles.
What is alarming is the scope of the problem. Watch Chris Hanson’s voyeuristic To Catch Predator to see that this problem is EVERYWHERE and affects far more men that we are willing to consider.
If one does the math, one can extrapolate that, in San Bernardino, CA, for example, where the men were coming faster than the show producers could handle them (5 went on air, over 50 were arrested), one arrives at the astounding figure of 1 in 10 men would seek out young boys, and mostly boys.
It is a problem the current mindset of law enforcement and a dogma-steeped public cannot address. We are such a sex-negative country, than unless your commentary makes reference to “missionary position,” you are a pervert. And once a pervert, you are stripped of, well, everything. Bless the internet that these numbers could be learned. They would not come out of the house in such numbers to be counted otherwise.
We have to learn to rationally talk about this problem or nothing will change. Treatment, clearly, isn’t working, and I believe for the large majority of these men, it’s because it can’t. Nature of the Beast. And THAT’s the bitter pill. So what do we do? One in ten men. Hell, it would be a serious problem if it were 1 in 20.
The RCC. I guess….
Whose Playbook are they using? Hail Mary won’t get em very far in this one.
See also the documentary “In a Small Town”, where the courts directly participated in the cover-up of these cases. Trailer here:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNInPGF0abs&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]
Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of America is at its heart a criminal enterprise that has been allowed to continue its abuses through false claims on morality.
rc,
We are playing from the same play book.
vlf
“Yet, it is homosexuals that are demonized as perverted, twisted pedophiles unworthy of exercising their civic duties”.
Not only is this comment entirely and disgustingly true, but it is also the written policy of the Boy Scouts of America to discriminate against gays. For that reason I haven’t contributed to the BSA in many years. I have told many Boy Scouts and their parents outside grocery stores selling promotional candy that I no longer support the BSA. When the parents ask why, I tell them the reason is because the BSA teaches and fosters intolerance. I’ve never been asked to explain further. They know it’s true and are fine with it.
Just what I thought – Stowell is a screaming heterosexual, married and will surely have kids one day. Yet, it is homosexuals that are demonized as perverted, twisted pedophiles unworthy of exercising their civic duties. The ‘logic’ just boggles my mind.
Sorry, but Stowell ought to be tarred, feathered and dragged through the streets for the piece of crap that he is.
The fact that this happens at all is disgusting, but then add to the fact that it happens in the church, in schools, in the scouts, and even in our police dept’s.
Places where people are lead to believe they are safe, but instead where these perversions are covered up by authorities.
And anyone that would accept the statement that “He promised me he doesn’t massage below the waist” is either an abuser himself, or he’s an idiot. (Or perhaps he thinks everyone else is an idiot.)
Wherever & whoever is involved in these crimes should be prosecuted.
And don’t kid yourself that these are isolated, Google around the net and you will see some of the “local” stories that never make it to national headlines. Most of these are kept local and quickly & quietly settled (usually with taxpayer money), and then hope its forgotten.
It stinks!