bluecrash

Looking for staff from Adam's Pond or Wild Goose Scout camps at Storer Scout Reservation in Barnstable NH, who may have worked between the years 1981 and 1985. Would love to chat. Please email bluecrash@aol.com

Maybe BSA should bar all Mormon men who are married from serving as unit leaders!

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Sex-crimes charges against Blue Springs man surprise neighbors

By ERIK PETERSEN and JOE ROBERTSON

The Kansas City Star

David Neil Brown, active in the Mormon church and as a Boy Scout leader, was the kind of person friends and neighbors liked having around.

He kept computers in his house and bees in his yard, and people could rely on him to help with a new computer or drop off honey.

Now they are trying to reconcile those memories with the 32 charges of statutory sodomy brought against the Blue Springs man this week by the Jackson County prosecutor's office.

Court documents allege that Brown had sexual contact repeatedly with five boys between 1997 and 2001. Brown was arraigned Thursday and will appear at a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

"My experience has been very, very positive with him," said Diane Mack, a Blue Springs parent who knew Brown through church and Boy Scouting. "This takes my breath away."

Her son, Josh Mack, 18, was a close friend of the Brown family, particularly David Brown. Brown helped Mack with his Eagle Scout project and was someone he could call on any time for help. Josh Mack said he had gone on Scout outings with Brown, and called him a "good friend."

"I don't believe it," Josh Mack said. "He just was not the kind of guy to do something like that. If anything like that was going on with him, it had to have been kept in the most deepest, deepest place."

Brown and his wife have a large family, and their house -- with a swing set in the back yard -- was a popular neighborhood destination.

"They were extremely involved in church," neighbor Ruth Yunker said. "They seemed like a very happy couple at homeowners meetings."

Many church members can tell stories about Brown and his family and how he was always eager to help people in need, said Ray Christensen, who knew Brown from the church and from Boy Scouting.

Brown has taught adult and youth Sunday school classes and helped with many church programs over the years, said Christensen, who is public affairs director for a group of Mormon churches that includes those in Blue Springs. The denomination is formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Christensen has an adopted son who is battling lupus. When a social service group gave his son a laptop computer, Brown showed the boy how to use it.

Brown "always seemed forthright," Christensen said. "He always seemed very kind. This (the criminal case) has totally caught me off guard."

Brown worked with a church-affiliated Scout troop, Christensen said, and troop leaders are trained in Scout regulations that require at least two adult leaders to be with boys at any time.

The church applies the same rule to its youth programs, he said.

"The church has always been so careful," he said.

According to police reports, most of the encounters took place at Brown's home. However, several reportedly happened at area parks, and at least one allegedly occurred at a Scout campout.

Brown volunteered as an assistant scoutmaster from 1999 to March 2002, when the allegations began to surface and he was removed, following Boy Scout policy for any registered leader suspected of child abuse.

In a prepared statement, the Boy Scouts' Heart of America Council extended its sympathy and support to the children and families. The council also stated that it followed the Scouts' Youth Protection Program fully after learning of the allegations and will continue cooperating with law enforcement.

The council also noted that it has not been proved that any of the alleged events took place on Scout trips or functions. Regardless of that, the council said, counseling will be made available for the affected families and children.

The regional spokesman for the Mormon church also released a statement expressing sadness at the allegations and pledging full cooperation with authorities.

Well it is becoming QUITE obvious to me that I will in no way be able to get any type of good results from what I am reading here. I thought if there was one place I would be able to, it would be in this kind of forum, but I was obviously mistaken.

I know see what people in the gay community have been talking about first hand for years.

PLEASE REFRAIN FROM ANY MORE BASHING, COMMENTS, CRITIZIMS, ETC.

NOTE TO MODERATOR: Please feel free to remove this survey, as i obviously made a mistake asking "Adults" and "Scout's" for opinions.

To answer the question of "Why the poll", I am currently working on a research paper reguarding the BSA's Policy of not allowing Homosexual men and women, also known as Gay's and Lesbian's, into membership of the BSA. As an Eagle Scout, I have become very interested into the rational people utilize in deciding what is "moral" vs. what is "immoral".

For instance, if we hold that sexual acts that have nothing to do with Scouting, that relate to homosexual activities dis-allow a youth or adult from working in the BSA movement. What about the scoutmaster that commits adultery? Is that not an immoral sin?

So, the "motive" of the survey is strictly to get an impression about how the real world views this topic.

THank you to all who do choose to participate.. it is afterall your choice to do so. It will help my non-scientific research.

In your opinion, can most adults/parents look past one's "sexual preferences" and see the good or bad that a person can bring to a youth member as a good role model? In other words, can a Gay adult also be a good role model? Does one have anything to do with the other?