Big Brothers-Big Sisters (BBBS), the nation’s largest mentoring agency for children of single-parents, created a firestorm of controversy last July when it forced affiliates to consider homosexuals to be mentors. The 98-year-old organization says it is only enforcing a standard that has been on the books for 25 years, but the controversy continues as allegations of child sexual abuse by BBBS mentors have recently surfaced in three states.

Since September, Big Brothers mentors in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas have been charged with sexually abusing young boys they met through the program. Newark, Ohio authorities charged Scott Wagner, 34, with 76 counts of sexual abuse involving 11 boys affiliated with the program. Since 1999, Big Brothers mentors have been charged or convicted of child sexual abuse in Tennessee, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, California and Utah.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Stephen Bennett. "We have another homosexual scandal of major proportions like that of the Catholic Church brewing and unfolding right before our eyes." Bennett, a nationally recognized speaker on "coming out" of homosexuality, has been an outspoken critic on the policy change.

In late November, nine members of Congress called on President Bush, honorary co-chair of BBBS, to pressure the agency to drop the policy. Currently, all 490 affiliates are strictly bound to the non-discrimination policy. Refusal to comply could lead to local chapters being stripped of their affiliation.

At least a dozen affiliates, however, are defying the directive from the national office and one affiliate located in Owensboro has left the organization altogether. The new group, Quest for Kids, is a Christian-based mentoring group that provides biblical gender role models for kids, according to board chairman Brad Rhoads. The new group is now receiving donations from new sources while maintaining previous supporters. Better yet, volunteers have increased from its prior number under BBBS.

But not all BBBS chapters have a problem with the new policy. Sara Shepherd, executive director of the Pennyrile Chapter of BBBS, located in Hopkinsville, said the organization is much bigger than this one issue. "Homosexuality is different from pedophilia," Shepherd said. "We don’t have the right to tell parents how to parent.... I’m not in the business to tell them [homosexuals] their lifestyle is wrong." Shepherd said there is nothing wrong with homosexual mentors as long as parents have a say.

However, parents who participate in school-based BBBS mentorship programs do not have a say, according to a letter written to President Bush by U. S. Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., and eight other Congressmen. "The parent does not meet the mentor and will not be informed if their child is matched with a homosexual. The new policy ignores the psychological research and common sense," they wrote. "As a general rule of thumb, Big Brothers doesn't match up adult men with teen-age girls. Obviously that would set up a risky situation that could lead to sexual abuse."

The Congressmen have some hard statistics on their side. The Journal of Sex Research reports that homosexual pedophiles commit about one-third of the total number of child sex offenses in the United States, even though homosexuals make up less than five percent of the population. A study in Archives of Sexual Behavior found that homosexual men are often attracted to young males. Another study by Karla Jay and Allen Young, report data showing that 73 percent of homosexuals surveyed had, at some time, had sex with boys sixteen to nineteen years of age or younger

Dr. Bill Maier, a psychologist with Focus on the Family, opposes the BBBS policy because it has dangerous consequences. "Children who are in the Big Brothers-Big Sisters program come from single-parent homes," Maier explains. "Many of them are emotionally fragile, and they're desperate for attention from adults of their own sex. To match up a boy who is starving for male attention with a gay 'big brother' could be a recipe for disaster."