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Boy Scouts of America Files for Bankruptcy After Surge in Sex-Abuse Lawsuits

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The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today after hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits have been filed against them.

By going to court, the Scouts can put those lawsuits on hold for now while they try to work out a potentially enormous plan to compensate the victims in the lawsuits - a plan that would allow the 110-year-old organization to still carry on.

This federal bankruptcy filing could be one of the biggest, most complex bankruptcies ever seen. Scores of lawyers are seeking settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were molested when they were Scouts.

The victims say the incidents involved scoutmasters or other leaders decades ago, but they are now eligible to file because of recent changes in their states' statute-of-limitations laws.

The Scouts may have to sell off some of their properties like campgrounds and hiking trails to pay for a compensation fund that could exceed a billion dollars.

The bankruptcy petition listed the BSA 's assets between $1 billion and $10 billion, and its liabilities at $500 million to $1 billion.   

"We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to harm innocent children," said Roger Mosby, the BSA's president and CEO. "While we know nothing can undo the tragic abuse that victims suffered, we believe the Chapter 11 process, with the proposed trust structure, will provide equitable compensation to all victims while maintaining the BSA's important mission."

Jim Turley, the national chair of BSA said in an open letter that the organization entered bankruptcy in order to fairly compensate victims of abuse through a trust.

Attorney Paul Mones has been at the forefront of representing Boy Scout victims of sexual abuse. "There are a lot of very angry, resentful men out there who will not allow the Boy Scouts to get away without saying what all their assets are. They want no stone unturned," he said.

Other Controversies: The Boy Scouts Changed Who They Are

BSA opened a new door for controversy in 2017 when they announced that girls would be allowed to join the group. The following year, the group changed their name to Scouts BSA to reflect their inclusion of girls since the "Boy Scouts" would no longer be about boys.

The organization officially rolled out the changeover on February 1, 2019. Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) was just one group that was upset about the BSA's decision to allow girls into their troops.

"The Boy Scouts house is on fire. Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA's senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls," GSUSA said in a statement.

For many Christian families, the real dealbreaker came years earlier when the Boy Scouts became aligned with the LGBT movement. In 2015, the group lifted a ban on gay adults as Scout leaders, also allowing openly gay youths to join scouting. And in 2017, they announced they would include transgender children.

Christian Alternative to Boy Scouts

Christian scouting advocates perceived a moral downward spiral in the BSA, so they organized a faith-based alternative - Trail Life USA.

Trail Life is a Christ-centered program that teaches values based on the Bible and is set in the conditions of outdoor adventure.

Boys from Kindergarten through 12th grade are involved in a troop setting with male mentors who challenge them to "grow in character, understand their purpose, serve their community, and develop practical leadership skills to carry out the mission for which they were created."

FLASHBACK Parents Ditching Boy Scouts for Faith-Based Alternative: 'They've Forgotten Who They Are'

 

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About The Author

Andrea Morris
Andrea
Morris

Andrea Morris is a Features Producer for The 700 Club. She came to CBN in 2019 where she worked as a web producer in the news department for three years. Her passion was always to tell human interest stories that would touch the hearts of readers while connecting them with God. She transitioned into her new role with The 700 Club in August 2022.