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Survivors, ex-employees say Kanakuk Christian camp 'ministered' to its sexual predators

The summer of 2016 wasn’t the first time Caroline attended Christian summer camp in Branson, Missouri but it is the one etched most deeply in her memory.

One night, Kanakuk Kamps counselors “packed every single camper, like 300 kids … in a mosh pit type of thing,” said Caroline, who was 13. “They throw all these bubbles on you. It’s a fun event.”

The fun ended when Caroline felt a male camper slide his hands into her athletic shorts.

“‘Excuse you!’ And I said some mean words,” she said. The next morning, Caroline said, three other girls tearfully told her they’d been assaulted by the same camper.

She said they reported it to their counselor, who arranged a meeting with camp director Keith Chancey. Caroline and one other girl gathered the courage to relay what happened.

Camp leaders rebuked the girls, not the boy, she said.

“We believe in salvation, we don’t believe in punishment, Jesus forgives, and we are going to forgive the camper,” Caroline said Chancey told her. “We’re going to help him through his problems.”

That’s when Caroline, who asked not to be identified by her full name, said she learned first-hand how the camp responded to reported abuse.

Part of Kanakuk's Branson facilities, photographed from across Lake Taneycomo on Sunday, May 22, 2022.
Part of Kanakuk's Branson facilities, photographed from across Lake Taneycomo on Sunday, May 22, 2022.

Branson-based Kanakuk Kamps and its associated ministries are a multimillion-dollar global enterprise that includes the largest evangelical sports summer camp in the world. Since 1926, Kanakuk has hosted more than 500,000 campers and 50,000 staffers in Missouri and its many international locations.

The camp developed its Child Protection Plan in 2009, after one of its directors was arrested and charged with abusing children he’d met at camp and through related ministries. Ever since Pete Newman pleaded guilty to sexually abusing six boys, Kanakuk has touted itself as a leader in child safety, holding seminars across the nation.

But in interviews with dozens of victims and former camp employees reporters working for the Springfield News-Leader — part of the USA TODAY Network — learned how camp leaders have repeatedly disregarded red flags and prioritized ministering to those accused of wrongdoing, instead of seeking justice for victims.

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

While Caroline was discussing the groping incident with Chancey in 2016, she recalled that he brought the boy into the meeting. She said the boy admitted he “may have” groped the girls, but Chancey wanted the girls to apologize to the boy for making the accusation.

Caroline refused. She accused the boy of “lying in the eyes of the Lord.”

“We’re not bringing the Lord into this,” Chancey interrupted, according to Caroline.

A request to interview Chancey and another staff member present at the meeting was declined by a lawyer for Kanakuk. The organization issued a statement on the eve of publication, saying, in part:

“In addition to questions about Pete Newman, you have now asked that we give an account for things which allegedly occurred 30 or 40 years ago, and for allegations of concerning activity between minor persons that attended Kanakuk. We are unable to do so, as these concern people who are no longer employed at Kanakuk and/or concern confidential matters that Kanakuk is not authorized to disclose without parental consent.”

More: Kanakuk's statement provided in response to the News-Leader's questions

Kanakuk facilities in Branson photographed from a drone shortly before the start of the 2022 camp season.
Kanakuk facilities in Branson photographed from a drone shortly before the start of the 2022 camp season.

Caroline asked to go home but says she was told that could only happen if she were injured. Supervisors told her they would alert her parents to the incident. But when the summer session ended, she said it was clear her parents hadn’t been told the details.

“Something about a bubble party?” she said her parents asked her.

Caroline said her experience at Kanakuk made it harder to trust.

“Thirteen is an impressionable year for any child. You’re growing up and becoming a teenager, hanging around boys. It was a turning point in my life. But not everything is cracked up to what it seems,” she said. “Kanakuk is this fun-loving place in some senses, but this situation made me realize ... It wasn’t right.”

Downplaying red flags and warning signs

Long known as a charismatic director and ambassador for the camp, Newman's abuse of campers and others he met through Kanakuk-affiliated ministries often began with casual nudity and discussions about how to control sexual desires, progressing to mutual masturbation and sodomy.

Newman was charged with crimes involving six underage victims but admitted during sentencing to having “inappropriate activity with as many as 13 more campers,” according to News-Leader coverage of the proceedings.

The prosecutor who oversaw the case later estimated the actual number of victims could be in the hundreds.

Peter Newman at a 2009 court appearance.
Peter Newman at a 2009 court appearance.

Kanakuk Ministries president Doug Goodwin, who also has been identified as the camp’s chief operating officer, said in an interview that Newman’s case “was the first time we’ve ever dealt with anything like this.”

In a deposition in a civil suit filed by one of Newman’s victims, Kanakuk CEO Joe White said sexual abuse “wasn't even on the radar screen. ... It wasn’t a part of our culture.”

A growing amount of evidence contradicts that narrative.

More: Kanakuk camper says she was told to apologize, denied call home after reporting abuse

Documents Kanakuk released during civil court proceedings show camp leaders were made aware of Newman’s nudity with children and other inappropriate behavior on multiple occasions from 1999 until his confession in 2009. Former Kanakuk staff interviewed for this story, including a supervisor who recommended Newman be fired in 2003, say those complaints were repeatedly excused and dismissed.

Kanakuk leaders also have described convicted child molester Pete Newman as a lone predator but he wasn't the first or last abuser connected to the camp.

Reporters working for the Springfield News-Leader have confirmed reports of at least four other men affiliated with Kanakuk who sexually abused children they met through the organization.

Those men's connections to the organization have never before been fully exposed publicly and, in many cases, the camp has repeatedly denied and downplayed the connections.

Corbie Dale Grimes, a counselor who held a variety of Kanakuk jobs in the late 1970s and 1980s, was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 for sexually abusing a boy in Texas in 1999. At Grimes' trial, a Kanakuk director disclosed that Grimes had been fired from Kanakuk after an incident involving a young male camper.

Ed Ringheim, a Kanakuk counselor in the 1990s who later volunteered with the Kanakuk-affiliated KLIFE program in Florida, was convicted in 2012 of seven sex-related felonies involving underage boys. One of the victims was a boy he had chaperoned from Florida to the Branson camp.

Paul Green, another Kanukuk counselor, was investigated before Newman’s crimes came to light after allegedly abusing a Texas boy in 1994 whom he had met at camp. He died in a car crash while a police investigation was ongoing.

Chuck Price, a Kanakuk programs director, was fired in 1990, according to a victim, her mother and two former Kanakuk staff members who investigated separate complaints that he inappropriately touched young girls.

A sign outside Kanakuk's K-1 site in Branson on Sunday, May 22, 2022.
A sign outside Kanakuk's K-1 site in Branson on Sunday, May 22, 2022.

Since it launched its website in April 2021, an advocacy website, Facts About Kanakuk, says it has collected 60 reports of abuse beginning in the 1950s.

The site, which says it is run by victims and their family members, issued an open letter in February demanding that Kanakuk agree to an independent investigation of abuse claims and calling on leaders to release victims from non-disclosure agreements.

Camp owner White responded that he and Kanakuk “will not object to you sharing your story with those who can support your healing.” But, he added, because “most agreements involve insurance companies who may choose to defend their interests, you should keep the terms of your settlement confidential.”

Victims say such confidentiality clauses have kept stories of abuse at Kanakuk from reaching a national audience — although that is changing.

More: Former Kanakuk counselor Peter Newman named in new sex-abuse lawsuit

In the past two years, media coverage of abuse at Kanakuk has included reporting by Christian financial watchdog organization Ministry Watch, CBS News in Dallas, VICE News and conservative online magazine The Dispatch.

In March, less than a month after White’s open letter to victims, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation included Kanakuk in its 2022 Dirty Dozen list, alleging “decades of child sexual abuse at Kanakuk Kamps have been swept under the rug by the organization.”

An aerial view of part of Kanakuk's K-1 camp with Branson Landing in the background.
An aerial view of part of Kanakuk's K-1 camp with Branson Landing in the background.

Camp supported, 'ministered to' men accused of abuse

When Ed Ringheim was arrested in Florida in 2011 for allegedly abusing several boys — including one he had chaperoned to Kanakuk — the camp issued a statement noting it had “extensive policies in place to protect the health and safety of every child attending Kanakuk.”

Ringheim had once worked as a counselor at the camp but the statement sought to distance the camp from KLIFE, the youth ministry for which Ringheim volunteered. Although organized as a separate nonprofit, KLIFE continues to refer to Kanakuk Kamps and other affiliated organizations as “sister ministries.”

Ed Ringheim, a former Kanakuk counselor who later volunteered with an affiliated youth ministry in Florida, was convicted in 2012 of multiple counts of child molestation.
Ed Ringheim, a former Kanakuk counselor who later volunteered with an affiliated youth ministry in Florida, was convicted in 2012 of multiple counts of child molestation.

Asked in a March 2021 interview whether he was aware of any improper conduct while Ringheim worked at Kanakuk, Goodwin — an employee of the camp and related ministries for 36 years — said “No. None at all.”

Robert Shaffer, a Kanakuk counselor from 1991 to 1995, contradicted that claim. Shaffer said that at one point during his tenure he and other counselors learned that “a mother had made an accusation Ed (Ringheim) had been sexually inappropriate with her son.”

Shaffer recalled that his supervisor told the counselors “Ed crawled into bed with the boy because he was homesick and was attempting to comfort him.” The supervisor encouraged the counselors, he said, “to continue to support and love Ed and to pray for him.”

Shaffer said the camp reassigned Ringheim to “maintenance” after the complaint.

More than a decade later, Ringheim volunteered with KLIFE in Orlando. Apparently unaware of the previous allegations against him, parents sometimes hired Ringheim to escort their children to Kanakuk.

One of those boys was among the victims when Ringheim was convicted of sex crimes in 2012.

A culture of forgiveness begins at the top

Robert John Morgan, a former pilot for Kanakuk CEO White, pleaded guilty in 2004 to sexually abusing a young girl and remains on Missouri's sex offender registry.

In 2000, when Morgan was awaiting trial and White knew that he had confessed to hiw wife that he had sodomized an adolescent female relative, White gave him off-season housing at Kanakuk.

Robert John Morgan, a former pilot for Kanakuk CEO Joe White, pleaded guilty in 2004 to sexually abusing a young girl and remains on Missouri's sex offender registry.
Robert John Morgan, a former pilot for Kanakuk CEO Joe White, pleaded guilty in 2004 to sexually abusing a young girl and remains on Missouri's sex offender registry.

White also testified as a character witness on Morgan’s behalf, saying, “rehabilitation on this side of prison walls is much more healthy for him than rehabilitation behind prison walls.”

The judge sentenced Morgan to 10 years.

Former Kanakuk counselor Michael Horn said he was working at the camp in 2002 when he and another counselor witnessed a third counselor sleeping in a closed sleeping bag with a shirtless child straddling that counselor’s bare chest.

Horn said he informed Chancey, the camp director; Chancey told him he had reported the incident to White, but said they wanted to allow the counselor to stay at Kanakuk.

“The explanation that I was given was that Kanakuk’s ministry to the counselors is just as important as their ministry to the campers,” Horn said.

The counselor was allowed to stay and to return the following summer, Horn said.

That culture of forgiving extended to Newman as well.

Peter Newman photographed in Missouri state prison, in 2017.
Peter Newman photographed in Missouri state prison, in 2017.

In October 2003, after being confronted about being nude with campers, Newman signed a probationary contract. The stated objective: “To help Pete understand what healthy ministry is, and to make sure Pete never places himself in a compromising position that his integrity would be in question. We want to insure [sic] that Pete be involved in a lifetime of ministry.”

When Newman was arrested six months later, the camp issued an alert to camp families that included the sexual abuse allegations. But even after Newman’s 2010 conviction, Kanakuk leaders’ esteem for Newman remained evident.

“I was at camp the day Pete was convicted,” said a former Texas camper who was 15 at the time.

“Joe White came into the dining hall at lunch and ... went on and on about how he was a good man who the Lord would continue to use,” said the camper, who asked not to be named publicly. “It wasn't until years later that I learned that ‘good’ man was a pedophile and the people needing the prayers were the countless victims I spent my summers with, not Pete.”

Before Pete Newman, counselors fired for ‘inappropriate behavior’

Not all reports of inappropriate behavior went unpunished. On at least two occasions that predated Newman’s confession, male counselors at Kanakuk were fired over allegations of sexual touching.

Corbie Dale Grimes, who worked at Kanakuk in the 1970s and ’80s, is serving a life sentence for abusing a boy in Texas in 1999.

In a 2021 phone interview recorded by a reporter, Kanakuk COO Goodwin was asked if the camp knew of “any reports, any misconduct” involving Grimes during his employment. Goodwin indicated there was nothing unusual about Grimes’ departure.

“Why did he leave? He was only a summer staff. They left all the time …,” Goodwin said.

In fact, Grimes did not leave voluntarily.

A gate leading into Kanakuk's K-1 camp on Sunday, May 22, 2022.
A gate leading into Kanakuk's K-1 camp on Sunday, May 22, 2022.

“Mr. Grimes was terminated by Kanakuk for inappropriate behavior and poor judgment,” according to an April 3, 2021 letter attorney Ted Tredennick sent to the Facts About Kanakuk website. Tredennick said Grimes’ actions “did not constitute a ‘reportable offense’ in a criminal context” when Grimes was terminated in 1989.

However, those actions were serious enough that former Kanakuk administrator Cooper testified at Grimes’ trial that Grimes was fired after encouraging a camper to “pull his pants down, and Mr. Grimes … (was) whacking his pee pee with a stick.”

Cooper characterized this as “inappropriate behavior on Corbie’s part,” which the camp deemed “inappropriate enough that we let him go.”

Another Kanakuk employee fired after confession, former leaders say

Jody Jones was an 8-year-old camper at Kanakuk in 1985.

“It was a night when we were going to have a swim and then watch a movie,” said Jones, who agreed to be identified by name for this story. “I had a towel around my shoulders and just the bathing suit on.”

Jones said she was laying down to watch the movie when Chuck Price sat next to her and began tickling her foot. She didn’t think much of it at first.

“Then he made his way up my leg and put his fingers in my vagina,” she said. “I laid there … then I sat up and said, ‘Chuck!’ He froze.”

Jones said Price left and she continued to watch the movie. Years passed before she managed to tell anyone.

In the intervening time, another camper reported that Price had rubbed her leg and stuck his hand up her miniskirt on a Kanakuk-affiliated bus trip in the mid-1980s. That camper, who did not want to be identified, said she reported the incident to Kanakuk leadership.

In 1990, Jones returned to Kanakuk at 13 and saw Price again.

“When we got there, Chuck was up on stage and the entire crowd of kids was cheering, ‘Chuck, Chuck, Chuck!’” Jones said. “I lost it. With all those people cheering, I got up the courage.”

A banner at Kanakuk's K-Kountry camp, where Pete Newman worked before confessing to abusing campers, taken in the early 2000s.
A banner at Kanakuk's K-Kountry camp, where Pete Newman worked before confessing to abusing campers, taken in the early 2000s.

Jones told a friend about the 1985 incident, who confirmed her account when contacted for this story. She also said she told her counselor and a camp director.

“I was in a room with the director, and about three other people. Nobody really reacted,” Jones said. “There was no ‘I’m so sorry this happened to you.’ ”

Price, who has worked with at least three schools and is a girls’ volleyball coach in St. Louis, continued to volunteer with the Kanakuk-affiliated KLIFE youth ministry until at least February 2022, when a reporter called the Urban KLIFE chapter in St. Louis.

Contacted by a reporter last August and asked if he was fired from Kanakuk for abusing a child, Price responded: “I am busy doing the work of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, and that is all I’m focusing on.”

Kanakuk counselor who abused boy in Texas reported to police

At least one Kanakuk counselor — Paul Green — was investigated by police years before Newman was caught.

“People thought of Paul Green as this God-like figure,” said Blake Fusch, who was 14 when he spent a summer in the 30-year-old counselor’s cabin.

Like Price and Newman, Green was popular. When he entered the room, kids chanted his name, Fusch said. “Everybody looked up to him.”

Fusch’s parents met Green when they picked their son up from camp and were impressed. When they vacationed in Florida, where Green was living, they invited him along, a common practice among Kanakuk families.

In November 1994, Green spent Thanksgiving with them in Dallas.

It was during that Thanksgiving visit that Fusch said he woke one night and could tell that Green had been reaching into Fusch’s underwear from his adjacent trundle bed.

The next day, Fusch asked to have a friend spend the night so they could sleep in the living room.

“I was trying to avoid him,” Fusch said. “He knew I knew. I knew he knew.”

Targets and other facilities at one of the Kanakuk camps.
Targets and other facilities at one of the Kanakuk camps.

Fusch said Green packed and left abruptly after hearing Fusch tell his sister about the abuse. A day later, Fusch told his parents, who alerted police and met with a Dallas detective who specialized in investigating sex crimes. The detective suggested having the boy confront Green on a phone call, which police would record.

“I know what you were doing to me at night, and I didn't like it,” he said on the phone with Green. After a few moments of silence, Fusch said, Green replied: “It was an isolated situation and it’ll never happen again.”

At a meeting with the detective the next Monday morning, the family was told to expect an arrest that week. But Green would never face charges.

Before sunrise Green — then a graduate student at Louisiana State University – had crashed his car into a highway overpass support and died, according to a report in the Baton Rouge Advocate.

“The death was harder for me to deal with than the abuse,” Fusch said, “because I felt like I had driven him to it.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abuse at Kanakuk Christian camp unreported for decades, victims say