Michael Johnson, a former police detective in Plano, Texas, who served as the youth protection director at the Boy Scouts of America, says the embattled youth organization blocked his efforts to institute child protection measures due to fear of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Johnson made the claim in a new Netflix documentary released Wednesday called "Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America," which recounts the Boy Scouts of America's decadeslong cover-up of sexual abuse cases and chilling accounts from several now-adult men on the abuse they suffered as minors while they were a part of the organization.
"As the new youth protection director, as I was starting to wanting to do some what I thought were very medium-level policies and content training, upgrades for youth protection. I kept getting told [by a BSA executive] that the Mormons may not like that, the Mormons don't like that," Johnson recalled.
"I said, I came to work for the Boy Scouts of America. I came here to protect the kids, the boys and girls of the Boy Scouts of America. I am not working for the Mormon Church and the Catholic Church. And I remember, I'll never forget this: Jim Terry, assistant chief scout executive, told me, 'Mike, you need to understand something.' I'm like, 'What is that, sir?' He says, 'The Mormons are sacrosanct.'"
At the end of 2019, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cut all ties with the BSA, noting that they were shifting toward a...
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