Joe White, the embattled leader of Kamp Kanakuk in Missouri, will retire at the end of this summer camping season, he announced. That does not mean he will relinquish ownership of the camp, however.
Joe White
White and Kanakuk have been embroiled in lawsuits and allegations related to child sexual abuse at the Christian camp for decades. Abuse survivors and their families contend White ignored, covered up and sought to quash knowledge of abuse perpetrated by camp staffers.
While the most notorious case involved camp staffer Pete Newman, who was convicted of child sexual abuse charges and currently is imprisoned, he was not the only alleged abuser. White and Kanakuk used nondisclosure agreements as they settled with victims and their families and sought to keep the reality of abuse hidden.
Kanakuk has a cult-like following among some families in Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas, with generations of families attending the Ozarks camp. Even though news of the abuse and alleged coverups has been widely published now, families still send their children to Kanakuk.
Having battled leukemia since 2000, which has caused him to undergo numerous surgeries including the amputation of his legs, White says it is time to “pass the baton to the next very capable generation.”
“I’m also mindful of the increasing volume of fallacious attacks in the media.”
White, now 77, has faced no visible repercussions from the abuse scandal. However, in an earlier statement announcing he would relinquish leadership of K-2, the teen camp component of the ministry located in Lampe, Mo., White cited health problems and the constant drip of abuse litigation as factors.
“I’m also mindful of the increasing volume of fallacious attacks in the media, and that my presence at K-2 this summer has the potential to draw focus away from the incredible work and ministry that happens there each summer,” he said.
White’s retirement announcement came two weeks after the Missouri Supreme Court denied abuse survivor Logan Yandell’s application to escalate his multi-year long lawsuit against Kanakuk from the appellate court to the Supreme Court. The lawsuit alleged Kanakuk defrauded him by leaving out pertinent information about their knowledge of abuse, which may have deterred his parents from entering the settlement agreement on his behalf.
Those who have been sounding alarms about White and Kanakuk said his retirement is not enough to satisfy what should be done.
Nancy French, who was among the first to document abuses at Kanakuk, said on social media: “Under his leadership at Kanakuk, hundreds of children were abused. This isn’t the end of an era — a new start requires institutional acknowledgement of wrongdoings and actual repentance. He’s still currently CEO of this camp.”
Elizabeth Carlock Phillips founded the advocacy organization No More Victims after her brother, Trey Carlock, was abused by Newman and eventually took his own life in despair about an NDA he had signed. She told MinistryWatch: “Joe White covered up known child sexual abuse for years and lied to families about covering it up. He continued to allow a known child abuser access to children, well after multiple families reported the abuse. He should have retired years ago, and most likely spent time in prison.”
A lengthy post on the Kanakuk website claims the organization’s leaders have apologized for not being aware of past abuse and pins almost all the blame on Newman alone.
“Kanakuk has never used non-disclosure agreements to prevent victims from reporting their abuse to police or telling their story.”
The statement also claims: “Kanakuk has never used non-disclosure agreements to prevent victims from reporting their abuse to police or telling their story.” Any such claims are a “false narrative” because Kanakuk isn’t “hiding anything.”
Yet numerous abuse survivors and their families have come forward to make public claims about signing or being asked to sign restrictive NDAs with Kanakuk.
According to the survivor group Facts About Kanakuk, there are 17 known abuse-related deaths by suicide.
One survivor’s family, the Alarcon family, were able to avoid the NDA — but only after a series of litigation with Kanakuk costing the family thousands of dollars.
Ashton Alarcon and his father, Joe Alarcon, told their story on BNG’s “Non-Disclosure” podcast last summer, explaining that at 13, although he didn’t fully understand the impact of his choice to refuse the NDA, Ashton knew he wanted to protect his voice. Today, he is grateful his family supported this decision.
In addition to Newman, Facts About Kanakuk has identified 60 other Kanakuk child sex abusers and thousands of survivors after collecting tips from sources worldwide.
The history of abuse at Kanakuk has sparked a national movement for state legislatures to adopt “Trey’s Law,” which makes it easier for abuse survivors to make legal claims against individuals and institutions that perpetuate abuse.
According to MinistryWatch, Kanakuk Ministries has annual revenue in excess of $37 million and assets worth $54 million.
Five Kanakuk executives receive compensation in excess of $150,000 annually, including President Doug Goodwin, whose 2023 compensation was reported as $293,557.
The IRS has classified Kanakuk Ministries as a church, which has reduced the required financial transparency. Joe White and his wife, Debbie-Jo White, have owned the camp since 1976. They bought it from his parents, Spike and Darnell White, who purchased it in 1955.
The website Facts About Kanakuk has identified at least 50 organizations somehow related to Kanakuk Ministries.
BNG has produced a podcast series about child sexual abuse at Kanakuk called “Non-Disclosure.”