by Kim Christensen
Release Date: February 11, 2025
2025 Grand Central Publishing
Harcover ARC; 336 Pages
ISBN: 978-1538726730
ASIN: B0D5X3BR7N
Audiobook: B0D6WLYLFM
Genre: Fiction / True Crime / History
Source: Review copy from publisher
4 / 5 Stars
Summary
Since its founding in 1910, the Boy Scouts of
America has been the nation’s premier youth organization, espousing
self-reliance and honor. More than 100 million Americans have been Boy
Scouts, from Bill Gates to Martin Luther King Jr. Today, however,
Scouting faces an existential threat of its own as more than 82,000 former
Scouts have filed claims alleging they were sexually abused—seven times
the number of similar allegations that rocked the Catholic Church two
decades ago.
The Scouts’ indefensible practices remained all but hidden until 2012, when Kim Christensen and his colleague published a series of explosive articles for the LA Times, blowing up a century of secrecy. Now, continuing his decades-long investigation, On My Honor untangles the full story of the Boy Scouts of America, tracking its creation, growth, influence, and the massive generational trauma it has caused. Using the iconic institution to tell a story of American values over the last century, the book grapples with America’s changing understanding of what it means to “make men.”
The Scouts’ indefensible practices remained all but hidden until 2012, when Kim Christensen and his colleague published a series of explosive articles for the LA Times, blowing up a century of secrecy. Now, continuing his decades-long investigation, On My Honor untangles the full story of the Boy Scouts of America, tracking its creation, growth, influence, and the massive generational trauma it has caused. Using the iconic institution to tell a story of American values over the last century, the book grapples with America’s changing understanding of what it means to “make men.”
My Thoughts
On My Honor was an interesting read, and I thought the author did a great job highlighting the growth of the organization as well as cultural context as to why it was so incredibly popular for so many years. However, there was a dark side to it, one that hid many secrets to protect itself rather than protect the people it served, and while I don't think the book quite highlights the entirety of the horror that happened or the full context of the agendas by those who tried to keep it all hidden, it does serve as a good read to get an understanding of the corruption that can happen in such a society and the steps that need to be taken to prevent this from happening in the future.
The nature of the sexual crimes is very gruesome, but for me, it was definitely the unapologetic nature of the BSA that set my teeth on edge throughout the book. Here's an interesting quote from the book that seems to sum up what the victims felt throughout the process,
""There's a real feeling of 'I was abused as part of a bad system,' and here I find myself in another system - a system that is set up to accommodate or look after the needs of the Boy Scouts, not the survivors,"...After the first public bankruptcy hearing, in which the judge said that the primary goal was to preserve the Boy Scouts' mission, Kennedy said his phone had exploded with calls from exasperated survivors...'Why is the judge so concerned with them and their mission?'...So again, it's this feeling among myself and [other] survivors of just 'Here we are, getting abused by another system.'"
What's particularly disturbing is the reluctance of the BSA to admit culpability in what happened, to admit they failed to protect the children under their care, and to be more concerned with the state of the organization itself rather than the children who were abused. The BSA had a comprehensive list of abusers they kept secret and repeatedly mentioned how worthless the list is for the public. Holy wow! A list of abusers, their offenses, why they should be banned from the organization, and they thought it was worthless? They kept losing lawsuits and finally declared bankruptcy to protect themselves.
The author added several personal stories to his research, enough to get an idea how bad the abuse could be and included the life-long effects this abuse had on their life, their marriage, their personal relationships, some of whom committed suicide, fell into drugs and alcohol abuse, or even became abusers themselves. Reading their stories was heartbreaking. And for it to be dismissed so callously by an organization that was supposed to protect them breaks my heart.
That being said, I was also not a fan of the lawyers involved in the scandal, taking advantage of the victims, looking for a huge payout themselves, charging exhorbitant fees, like sharks. Not all the lawyers were like this, but some wanted 40% of the awards victims received.
Verdict
On My Honor was an interesting read, but I am left with a bad taste in my mouth. Until the organization actually accepts responsibility for what happened and takes real steps to ensure this doesn't happen in the future, I think there will always be a black mark on their association and people will not be able to trust them. And just to be clear, the author is not against these types of organizations; in fact, when run well they are definitely beneficial for children to be part of something like this as there are not a lot of opportunities for these kinds of activities any more. But, the BSA needs to do more than rebrand, in my opinion, they need to tear itself apart and really examine what got them into this mess in the first place so they can build on that and rebuild trust. It should not just be brushed under the rug. I tend to agree with Doug Kennedy, a former scout, when he says, "...the BSA has faced too little scrutiny for its handling of a sexual abuse problem that has devastated so many lives...'There has to be an investigation to find out who knew what, who's at fault and why didn't they do anything about it,...' I concur on that.
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