Texas and West Plains churches announce they will not partner with Kanakuk Kamps

A week before Kanakuk ministries was set to host a camp at a Texas Baptist church, the pastor canceled the event. This comes a couple of months after a West Plains church made a similar decision.

First Baptist Church of Grapevine Pastor Doug Page told CBS Dallas Fort Worth that his decision this we to cancel the camp "followed the Southern Baptist Convention's bombshell report" on sexual abuse allegations within the church.

Page told CBS that there were no issues in the past with Kanakuk hosting the camp.

Requests by the News-Leader for a statement from First Baptist Church of Grapevine were not returned by press time.

For more than a decade, the camp has been under scrutiny for reports of sexual abuse. As the News-Leader reported in 2010, a former camp counselor, Peter Newman, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing boys and is now serving two life sentences in Missouri prisons, plus 30 years.

Recently, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation named Kanakuk Kamps on its "2022 The Dirty Dozen List," an annual campaign that identifies "mainstream entities for facilitating, enabling, and even profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation," according to its website.

"For decades, thousands of families have entrusted their children’s hearts, minds, and safety to Kanakuk Kamps — one of the largest Christian sports camps. Tragically, in a deeply troubling array of instances, the safety of children took a back seat to other considerations as years of child sexual abuse at Kanakuk Kamps have been covered up by the organization. This was and is a violation of trust, and ultimately a failure of leadership," the center said on the page for Kanakuk.

Eleven months ago, Kanakuk was again in the spotlight due to new reporting by journalists Nancy French and David French published by The Dispatch, a conservative-leaning news site. Much of their reporting focused on what camp leaders knew about Newman's behavior, and when, and how they responded once alerted to the abuse. Since then, people who identify as victims or family members have gone on television and other news outlets to express their concerns.

Two Branson men spoke with the News-Leader in April about surviving child sex abuse by Newman, and West Plains First Baptist Church Senior Pastor John King, who said in April that his church will no longer partner with the camp, knows both of them from his years as a student pastor in Branson.

Kids Across America CEO Randy Odom did not return call for comment.

More: Branson men, both 34, describe Kanakuk sex abuse, call for camp to be held accountable

"Those are both guys that I know and love," King said in what led him to write the statement. "It went from something where there's theories and people are angry to I know these people, I know what's going on, I listened to them and realized there's evidence that they may not have known (Newman) was physically abusing kids, but they knew that he had committed felonious acts as early as 1999."

Several reasons helped make this decision, King wrote in the statement, including: not wanting to introduce the community to an organization "we no longer feel we can trust" and sending a message of support to the victims that they are heard and their voices matter.

"We want to send a message to those who have suffered harm in other situations that this is not God's intentions and that the church is to be a place of refuge from abuse," the third point stated. "Our church is a refuge and will not stand for abuse or with those who hide it."

The final reason invites other churches to "stand for truth," King wrote.

"We invite Kanakuk to see what happened with the victims between 1999-2009," the statement reads. "We ask that they take responsibility for that abuse that would not have happened if they had terminated Pete's employment in 1999. We invite every church who cares for the abused to take similar actions in protecting and standing with those who have been wounded."

More: Survivors, ex-employees say unreported abuse at Kanakuk camps in Branson spans decades

King wrote that the church would not partner with Kanakuk's traveling summer camp, Kamp Out, for a second year "until the truth of their knowledge about what happened with Peter Newman is openly confessed."

"I personally know over 20 kids that were victimized in this situation — those are ones that have just made it public," King told the News-Leader in early May. "I have seen their families fall apart, I have seen struggles and I know what they're wanting."

King said he hopes that the "truth about what they knew and when they knew would come out" and victims could begin the healing process.

Kanakuk leaders said they were "forever sorry for the pain inflicted on victims and their families" and that they "desire to support victims and help them in their healing journey" in a December 2021 statement.

Reporting from former News-Leader journalist Gregory Holman contributed to this report.

Sara Karnes is an Outdoors Reporter with the Springfield News-Leader. Got a story to tell? Email her at skarnes@springfi.gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Texas, West Plains Baptists churches won't partner with Kanakuk Kamps