‘A group of sexual abuse victims and family members went public with their concerns about former Kanakuk counsellor Peter Newman in an interview that aired on the CBS affiliate in Dallas. The story aired last Thursday, and is now on the station’s website.’ https://ministrywatch.com/kanakuk-victims-speak-to-dallas-tv-station/
Sexual abuse
All posts tagged Sexual abuse
‘Five years ago today, a young man opened fire in the in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016, murdering 49 people and injuring another 53. NBC News reported Thursday that the Senate voted unanimously in favor of legislation designating the site a national memorial. Almost certain to be omitted from the memorial, however, as it has been from all the coverage of the legislation, is any information about the beliefs and motivations of the attacker. This is because the killer, a Muslim named Omar Mateen, was an Islamic jihadi, and in Old Joe Biden’s handlers’ America, jihad terrorism just doesn’t exist.
Pulse was a gay club, and so the massacre has been taken for granted from the beginning as an incident of anti-gay violence, although, as Tyler O’Neil recently explained, that is not actually what it was. Nevertheless, Biden’s handlers issued a statement today doggedly assuming that the attack was targeting gays as such, and scolding us yahoos once again to go easy on the “hate”: “We must drive out hate and inequities that contribute to the epidemic of violence and murder against transgender women — especially transgender women of color. We must create a world in which our LGBTQ+ young people are loved, accepted, and feel safe in living their truth.”
This has been the Left’s line on the massacre for years. In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, the ACLU’s ridiculous staff attorney Chase Strangio tweeted that the massacre was the fault of conservative Christians: “You know what is gross — your thoughts and prayers and Islamophobia after you created this anti-queer climate.”
All right. So “Islamophobia” and Christians are the problem, and Biden’s people want us to create a world where LGBTQ-and-all-that young people are loved and accepted. All right. Let’s create that world. Now let’s see. What might be one large belief system, followed with varying degrees of knowledge and fervor by over a billion people, that mandates the death penalty for homosexuality? No, not Christianity, despite its status as the favored whipping boy of the besotted ideologues such as Strangio and the LGBTQ-whatever lobby. While Christianity sees homosexual activity (and all sexual activity outside of a marriage between a man and a woman) as sinful, it does not call for the death of homosexuals.’https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/06/congress-votes-to-make-pulse-nightclub-site-of-jihad-massacre-a-national-memorial-2
Bible believing Christians leave the judgement for the JUDGE Himself!
As I said in a previous post I had never heard of Kanakuk Kamps, Pete Newman or Joe White until recently. However, this cover-up for sodomites, adulterers and pedophiles occurs sadly too often within professing Christian organizations. Pete Newman is one example of a Good Ole Boy within a professing Christian organization! Now we read that ‘The first thing you need to know about Pete Newman is that people loved him. He has olive skin, dark hair, and thick eyebrows that generated good-natured “unibrow” teasing. Girls wanted to date him, guys wanted to be him, and children wanted to follow him.
He was a camp director at Kanakuk Kamps, one of the largest Christian camps in the world. Kanakuk is an immense operation. Since its founding in 1926, it claims to have served more than 450,000 campers. Its main campus is located outside of Branson, Missouri, but it has international reach. Every summer approximately 20,000 kids pass through its gates, and the institution is particularly prominent with the Evangelical elite.
Newman was the camp’s rock star. A person who went to Auburn University with Newman said, memorably, “If Jesus and Pete walked into a room, I’m not sure who the kids would have worshiped.” “Pete Newman is the most thorough relationship builder with kids in Kanakuk history,” Kanakuk chief executive officer Joe White once said. “This guy has a raging love for God and it spills over constantly to the kids at kamp.”
White himself has long been a popular, charismatic figure in American Evangelicalism. (We reached out to White, and he declined to comment.) He has inspired intense devotion from campers, employees, and parents. Outside of camp, he’s known for a particular and vivid public presentation where he builds and carries a cross on stage to illustrate the crucifixion of Christ. The example below comes from a 2015 convocation at Liberty University:
Kanakuk and White promoted Newman relentlessly, both within the organization and to the public at large. Newman rose through the ranks from camp counselor to camp director. It sent him on the road to recruit campers and to raise money. According to former members of the camp community, parents would sometimes compete for a coveted honor—hosting Newman in their home.
He was also a superpredator. He groomed and abused boys in their own homes. He groomed and abused boys at camp. In fact, he abused boys across the world. On June 9, 2010, he pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexually abusing boys. He received a sentence of two life terms, plus 30 years. His guilty plea was but the tip of a terrible iceberg. A civil complaint alleges that there were at least 57 victims, but the prosecutor in his case estimates that the real number could be in the “hundreds.”
The true dimensions of the worst Christian sex abuse scandal you’ve never heard of have long been largely unknown. Newman’s initial arrest and sentencing received little media attention. Few reporters knew about the camp’s size or importance. They were unfamiliar with Joe White. Moreover, the limited scope of the guilty plea concealed the sheer scale of the abuse. The resulting civil lawsuits received little attention, and nondisclosure agreements silenced victims and kept evidence under seal.
Following Newman’s conviction, the narrative from the camp was relatively simple. They had been shocked to find a bad apple in their midst. They had fired him immediately, promptly reported his wrongdoing to the authorities, and then implemented new “industry-leading” protective measures to protect the children who attend the camp. The camp’s worst moment became a catalyst for positive change, and now, its leaders maintain, it leads the way in caring for kids.
The truth is far more complex.
The scant media attention—combined with NDAs—means that we still don’t know the true number of legal actions against the camp or the true extent of Newman’s abuse. An unknown number of victims have filed an unknown number of lawsuits filled with unknown evidence that have resulted in unknown numbers of settlements for an unknown amount of money. We do, however, have a far more complete account of what happened at Kanakuk, and we’re sharing that account today.
Our own involvement began when former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson reached out to Nancy (who has her own experience with sexual abuse in church) after discovering from a victim’s sister the extent of the NDAs connected to the scandal. Nancy then began her own months-long effort to comb through court documents, interview witnesses, and to retrieve the documents and testimony that would tell the tale.
During this investigation, we discovered that one courageous young man and his family had resisted the pressure to promise silence. He and his family refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement. They wanted the freedom to tell their story and to share their evidence. They still want their identities to remain private (we’re maintaining the anonymity of victims and their families), but they want the evidence to become public. We’re sharing that evidence today.
But first, a warning. The content that follows is deeply disturbing.’ For more of these sordid details and the rest of this article they may be found at https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/they-arent-who-you-think-they-are
I personally had never heard of Kanakuk Kamps before this. However, unknowingly my wife and I spent fourteen years with an independent Baptist mission agency that for years covered up an adulterer/pedophile on the mission field so this is all too believable. We didn’t learn about the adulterer/pedophile doctor until years after resigning from this mission so organizations do have a bent to cover-up sin.
‘Kanakuk Kamps is one of the largest Christian camps in the nation. Each summer, more than 20,000 kids from age 7-17 pay thousands of dollars each to stay at the camp in southwestern Missouri. Some of the most prominent leaders in the evangelical world have worked with the camp and its leaders, Joe and Debbie-Jo White.
But a new website, called FactsAboutKanakuk.com claims that “Kanakuk’s reputation and reach conceals a dark secret. For decades, Joe White and other camp leaders knew about and facilitated sexual abuse against scores of children.”
The website, which went live on Saturday, includes links to court documents for six lawsuits in which Kanakuk and senior staff members, including Joe White, were names as defendants. The website maintains that “non-disclosure agreements and significant financial settlements have concealed the truth in order to preserve a ministry brand and economic engine.”
Kanakuk Kamps and related non-profit organizations brought in about $35-million in 2018, the most recent year available. It had a profit (revenue over expenses) of more than $8-million. According to an analysis of Form 990s from 2014-2018 by MinistryWatch, Joe and Debbie-Jo White receive payments from Kanakuk – payments that include salary, rent payments for real estate they own, and other compensation – that usually top $500,000 per year, and some years top $700,000.
The FactsAboutKanakuk website also has a petition demanding that individuals and families who have settled with the camp be released from any non-disclosure agreements or “similar clauses.” MinistryWatch is on record opposing the use of non-disclosure agreements in ministry settings.
One of the lawsuits filed by “John Doe IX” against Kanakuk and a senior staff member, Peter Newman, resulted in a judgment for the plaintiff for nearly $20-million in 2018. According to the Springfield News Leader, “The judgment ranked as the largest reported plaintiff’s judgment in Missouri in 2018.” However, it is not clear that the settlement has actually been paid by either Kanakuk or Peter Newman, who is now serving a life sentence for multiple counts of sexual abuse perpetrated when he was a senior member of Kanakuk’s staff.
Repeated calls by MinistryWatch to Douglas, Haun, and Heidemann, the law firm that represented the plaintiff, to determine if either Peter Newman or Kanakuk had paid the plaintiff, “John Doe IX,” have gone unanswered.
Kanakuk Kamps told MinistryWatch that, in part in response to past troubles, it has adopted new youth protection policies. Current seasonal staff undergo two days of training on sexual abuse and youth protection policies. Their current policies are outlined here and here.’https://julieroys.com/kanakuk-kamps-sexual-abuse/?mc_cid=3105d8da45&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
Then there is this undisputable page listing those affiliated with Kanakuk and convicted of sex offences.
‘Kanakuk’s Convicted Sex Offenders
The following is an evolving roster of former Kanakuk staff and associates who have been convicted of sexual abuse of minors since Joe and Debbie-Jo White assumed leadership of the camp. Only convictions according to verdicts and judgments from the criminal justice system are listed, although it is believed that additional former staff members may be subject to similar charges as investigations and civil litigation proceed and as victims continue to come forward.
The average age of victims who finally report childhood sexual abuse is about 52 years old. Only 23% to 33% of victims disclose their sexual abuse during childhood, and only 6% to 15% of victims ever disclose those assaults to law enforcement. Males are more reluctant and take longer to make full disclosures. The extent of damage done to campers who attended Kanakuk Kamps and its programs will likely not be known for many years.
If you were abused at Kanakuk Kamps or have more information, please submit a Contact Form.
Lee Bradberry
Bradberry was a Kanakuk Kamps counselor in the summer of 2011 after the camp had implemented and promoted its Kanakuk Child Protection Plan. Arrested the following year for sexual abuse of young boys, he was sentenced in 2013 to four years for sexual misconduct involving a child under 14, seven years for statutory sodomy, and two 10-year sentences for child molestation, to be served concurrently. He is serving those sentences in a Kentucky correctional center. Bradberry is expected to be released in 2023.
Corbie Dale Grimes
Grimes was a Kanakuk Kamps counselor in 1987. He was terminated after being caught for sexual misconduct with campers, but the incidents were not reported by the camp to law enforcement as mandated by state law. As a result, Grimes went on to work in youth ministry, was caught abusing children as a youth pastor at another institution, and was finally convicted of sexual abuse in Florida in 2002.
Paul Kerr
A staff member at Kanakuk Kamps from 1998 to 2005, Kerr was arrested in Colorado in 2011 for the abuse of adolescent girls. After pleading guilty to multiple charges, he received 45 days in jail and 10 years of sex offender probation. It is unknown if he engaged in sexual misconduct while at Kanakuk Kamps.
If you were abused by Paul Kerr or have more information, please submit a Contact Form.
Robert John Morgan
A pilot for the private plane used by Joe White, Morgan was charged with sexual abuse of his biological child in 2000. White invited him to stay on Kanakuk grounds while awaiting trial. White later testified for Morgan’s defense as a character witness, stating that he would have no problem allowing the man to babysit his own children and encouraging the judge not to imprison him. It is unknown if Morgan abused any campers during his multiple years of affiliation with Kanakuk and his off-season residence on camp property.
Morgan was found guilty of statutory sodomy in 2009 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was released in 2019.
Peter Daniel Newman
Newman was hired as a Kanakuk counselor in 1995. He moved up through the ranks as a father-son retreat leader, assistant director and ultimately the director of K-Kountry. Frequently used by the organization for marketing and promotional purposes, Newman was arrested in 2009 and pled guilty to two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy, three counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, and three counts of enticement of a child. A prosecutor in the case stated that Newman “is the most prolific child molester I have ever dealt with.” In 2010, Newman received two life sentences plus 30 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. The subject of multiple civil lawsuits, there were at least 57 alleged victims of Newman prior to his arrest, but the total number of campers abused by him remains unknown.
Ed Ringheim
Ringheim was a counselor for K-1 and volunteered with the K-Life Orlando program. He was accused of criminal misconduct that occurred in 2008 and 2011. He regularly chaperoned bus trips to Kanakuk’s Missouri camps and other activities, with the intent to groom and molest children. He was ultimately charged with seven felony sex crimes against underage boys. He was arrested in 2011, was found guilty of seven felony sex charges involving underage boys, and was sentenced to 15 years in Florida state prison. He is expected to be released in 2031.’ https://factsaboutkanakuk.com/known-abusers/
The Good Ole Boy’s Club is alive and well at Summit Church. Why would one say that? Years have come and gone BUT finally the Summit Church has hired an outside organization called Guidepost Solutions https://guidepostsolutions.com/ to investigate Bryan Loritts’ mishandling of sex abuse at a former church. Yes, finally, ‘The church of Southern Baptist President J.D. Greear today announced it is hiring a third party to investigate Executive Pastor Bryan Loritts’ handling of sex abuse at a previous church.
As The Roys Report first reported in June, eyewitnesses at Fellowship Memphis, where Loritts served as a senior pastor, alleged that Loritts covered up sex crimes at the church 10 years ago.
Aware of these allegations, Greear’s Summit Church hired Loritts as an executive pastor on June 1.
At the time, Summit claimed that it had conducted its own investigation into the allegations and concluded that though Loritts had made mistakes, he had not participated in a cover-up.
The eyewitnesses, however, told The Roys Report that Summit had conducted a sham investigation and had failed to take their allegations seriously.
Today, the elders at Summit acknowledged in a public statement that their investigation was flawed.
“(W)e realized that without an open and confidential channel for victims to report and an independent investigative firm to evaluate that evidence, an important part of our process was incomplete,” the elders said.
As a result, the church said it has hired a firm called Guidepost Solutions to conduct a new investigation. Summit also published its contract with Guidepost Solutions.’https://julieroys.com/greear-church-investigation-loritts/?mc_cid=78623c2910&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
The following is from an article written concerning the cover-up of sexual abuse by an Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) missionary medical doctor on a twelve year old missionary kid.
Please read the entire article at New Republic or the pdf at Sad Saga. The whole thing would make any normal person cry. Nevertheless, some of these people have NEVER been held to account for what they did to this poor girl. Ketcham is now 86 and is facing trial in Michigan for sexaul abuse of another minor but who knows, he may die before justice is dealt. Then there is Russ Ebersole. He is still preaching in churches as though he did nothing wrong. Again I stress that YOU read the entire article and then make your own conclusion as to what should be done to those who covered-up this pedophile and his sexual abuse of another missionary’s daughter!
‘It was a hot day in July, a Saturday afternoon, and Kim James was bored. Her older sisters had taken her to a church event in their small hometown in Indiana, where the 
girls were spending their summer. Her parents were back in Bangladesh, working at the remote Baptist missionary compound where the family had lived, on and off, for five years. For an adventurous and high-spirited 13-year-old like Kim, Indiana seemed dull compared to Bangladesh. She missed her friends, the dozen or so missionary kids everybody called “MKs.” She missed the menagerie her parents let her keep: goats, cows, a parrot, a monkey. She missed the jackals that called in the distance at night, and the elephants that sometimes crashed through the compound fence.’ https://newrepublic.com/article/142999/silence-lambs-protestants-concealing-catholic-size-sexual-abuse-scandal
A pdf of this article may be found at https://sadsaga.wordpress.com/
ABUSE IN THE CHURCH & CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS
The link will take you to an interview with Boz Tchividjian who heads the investigative organization, G.R.A.C.E.. GRACE deals with abuse within churches and Christian organizations. Interestingly GRACE was just weeks away from submitting their final report on the pedophile missionary Donn Ketcham when the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) dismissed G.R.A.C.E. Was ABWE frightened of what the report might reveal? Sadly, we will probably never know what G.R.A.C.E. discovered in their investigation.
Boz says in this interview that “In 1994, I became a prosecutor in central Florida, and eventually became the chief of the sexual crimes division. During that time, God opened my eyes to the physical, emotional and spiritual harm resulting from child sexual abuse. After leaving the prosecutor’s office in 2001, I was burdened to apply what I had learned on the front lines as a child sexual abuse prosecutor in helping to train and equip the faith community to address the many issues associated with abuse. In response to this burden, I formed GRACE in 2004.”
Boz continues “It was not until I became a prosecutor that I saw for the very first time the utter devastation that is caused by the horrors of sexual abuse. I will never forget sitting across my desk from weeping parents who had only recently learned that their 9 year old daughter had been sexually victimized by one of their best friends. I will also never forget meeting that beautiful 9 year old little girl. A girl whose life had just begun, but who never had the opportunity to enjoy childhood because of the evils perpetrated upon her. Though the abuse had forever changed the life of this precious child, I came to realize that the abuse had not destroyed her soul and that underneath it all she was still a 9 year old who had childhood interests, aspirations for what she wanted to do when she “grew up”, and even dreamed of going to Disney World. It was during those moments when I realized that God had given me an incredible privilege to be placed in such a position for the purpose of expending myself to those who were struggling through these very dark and painful valleys of life.”
This interview is a must to read. Sexual, mental and physical abuse is happening right now within many churches and Christian organizations. If you do not believe this do a little search on the internet and you will soon read not only of the abuse but the all too often cover-up that occurs to either protect the offender, the organization or both!
One could almost (and I stress almost) understand the cover-up when it is in the world but churches and mission organizations?! Whatyareckon?
whatyareckon 