MISSOURI
The Turner Report
A godlike man named Joe and sex with underage boys- and it’s not Penn State
It has all of the earmarks of a national scandal.
A godlike figure, Joe, in charge of the fate of hundreds of young people. In the late ‘90s, one of his trusted assistants is charged with inappropriate activities with underage obys. The assistant is allowed to keep his job and continues his illegal, predatory activities.
When the assistant is finally brought to justice, a decade after the warning signals were sounded, the people at the institution gather around the godlike figure and mercilessly hammer at anyone who suggests that Joe might have anything to do with the evil that occurred on his watch.
I am not writing about Penn State, but the Christian sports camp Kanakuk, with its main location in Branson, Missouri. I was not describing the evils of Jerry Sandusky, but those of former Kanakuk camp director Pete Newman, and the godlike figure is not the late Joe Paterno, but the very much still in control Joe White, a nationally known motivational speaker connected with Promise Keepers.
The Kanakuk scandals began with Newman’s 2009 arrest on multiple charges involving sex with teenage boys over a 10-year period.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.