Cameron Turner: Predatory Sergeant Won’t Block Hope

There’s nothing more lowdown than an adult who preys on kids. Especially an adult with power and authority to whom kids and their parents turn for help. When they use that authority and power to deceive, coerce, manipulate, intimidate or otherwise force young people to perform sexual acts, these adults not only inflict lasting (often irreparable) damage to the minds and hearts of their young victims, they shred the fragile fabric of trust that society depends on to function.

Kelvin McFarland, the Pasadena youth boot camp operator who was recently sentenced to prison after pleading no contest to nine sexual abuse charges involving two 14-year-old girls, is another of these lowdown predators whose crimes have scarred the social order as well as the kids he harmed.

A retired Marine Corps master sergeant, McFarland was a beacon of hope for desperate parents who counted on the military style discipline of McFarland’s Family First Growth boot camp to save their troubled kids from the pitfalls of the streets. Apparently McFarland’s program did a lot of good for a lot of kids – and that’s part of what makes his crimes against kids so terrible. Because “Sgt Mac” used his access to young people to harm them, a worthwhile program has now crumbled. Furthermore, the efforts of sincere people to help youth through similar programs may now fall under unwarranted suspicion.

When someone we trust turns against us, our sense of the world can be shattered. We may no longer feel safe anywhere and we can come to regard everyone we meet as a potential wolf in sheep’s clothing. This bunker mentality is not limited to the victims of abuse. It can spread out to the rest of us adding to an exaggerated sense of insecurity, a belief that the world is a dangerous place in which we are surrounded by enemies.

McFarland’s abuse is made worse because he (like priests, pastors and other religious leaders who have preyed on children) gained trust and wielded power by wrapping himself in religion. Sgt. Mac sometimes held meetings with in churches and in 2011 he boasted to the Los Angeles Times, “I don’t know of a boot camp that praises the Lord as much as we do.” Being victimized by a religious leader – especially at a young age – often causes people to turn away from religion and even the concept of a god. This can deepen their cynicism and deprive them of the hope, comfort, peace and sense of ultimate, universal justice that billions of people around the world draw from various faiths.

Fortunately, criminals like Kelvin McFarland do not represent the majority of adults who are out there doing their best to help our kids. Three days after McFarland’s January 17 sentencing hearing, hundreds of Pasadena area family members, community leaders and elected officials gathered in the gym at Robinson Park to applaud young people who wrote essays, created art projects, presented folk dances and sang songs in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Nine days before that, an overflow crowd of adults and kids united at Lake Avenue Church for a breakfast promoting local mentoring programs. And every day, all across our communities, countless men and women give their all in classrooms, community centers, houses of worship, parks, private homes and even penal institutions to ensure that children and youth have every opportunity to grow up safe, healthy and happy.

It is because of the efforts of these innumerable heroes that we can go forward in a spirit of confidence and hope, undeterred by the despicable acts of those few villains who violate their sacred obligation to the most vulnerable members of our human family.

One final note: since Sgt. Mac bragged about praising the Lord, I’d like to remind him and his predatory ilk of the harsh promise that that Jesus made (in the gospels of Matthew, Luke and Mark) to people who victimize children: “If anyone causes one of these little ones — those who believe in me — to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents.