BROTHER TONY’S BOYS: THE LARGEST CASE OF CHILD PROSTITUTION IN HISTORY

Brother Tony’s Boys is the story of a child prostitution ring initiate by a Pentecostal minister described by his followers as a “prophet of God.”  Brother Tony Leyva used his position to gain the trust of his victims and their families, after which he would sexually assault the boys.  The fact that this abuse continued over a twenty-year period shows how gullibility can blind one to reality and also how effective the church has been in covering up its scandals.

Readers should be forewarned that some of the descriptions of the encounters are graphic.  This makes for a discomforting read.  But the book is nonetheless extremely valuable in that it shows one of the potential consequences of blind faith.  Certainly, all faith is blind but, in this context, we can understand how the gullibility factor enabled this man (and so many others like him) to get away with his crimes for so long.  In their desire to believe the best about a “man of God,” people would turn their backs on discomforting acts.  Any evidence that upset their stasis, or comfort zone would either be ignored or rationalized away.  Blaming the victim also plays a role here.  These are some of the ways in which religion serves to perpetuate evil.

Of course, Leyva justified his actions by telling the boys that this was “God’s way” of allowing his people to show their love for one another.  He claimed that God allowed him to have relations with boys and, after his conviction, turned around and claimed that “Satan entered my body and did it!”  The lengths that some religious people will go to avoid personal responsibility is amazing.

As the epilogue informs us, child molestation is a problem that is not restricted the the Christian Church.  ISKON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) has experience similar troubles with pedophiles in their temples.  This has occurred in both the United States and India.

Sexual abuse of children by the clergy is nothing new—it has probably been going on for as long as there has been religion.  What is new is the fact that the church today has been less successful in hiding these crimes from society at large.  The traditional “solution” employed by many churches of transferring the offending clergyman to other parishes no longer works: the scandals have reached the top levels of the church hierarchy and they have been forced to deal with the consequences of their cover-ups.

Brother Tony’s Boys is a success in that it depicts how pedophiles operate and what we can do to stop them.  It fails in that the author does not recognize the fact that the root of the problem lies in the nature of religion itself and of its tendency to produce gullible people all too willing to look the other way when discomforting evidence is right in front of their faces.