{"id":7721,"date":"2026-04-23T16:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/?p=7721"},"modified":"2026-04-23T16:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:40:17","slug":"an-lds-trust-broken-in-provo-what-the-stephen-mckean-case-asks-of-all-who-teach-the-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/2026\/04\/23\/an-lds-trust-broken-in-provo-what-the-stephen-mckean-case-asks-of-all-who-teach-the-young\/","title":{"rendered":"An LDS Trust Broken in Provo: What the Stephen McKean Case Asks of All Who Teach the Young"},"content":{"rendered":"

“You\u2019re Going to Make Me Like You Better Than My Wife”:<\/em> Reading the Affidavit with Trembling Hands<\/p>\n

Introduction: A Name Nobody Wanted to Read<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

When the name of a Brigham Young University professor appeared in a police booking affidavit<\/strong><\/a> this week, it was not in connection with a grant, a new paper in algebraic geometry, or a classroom honor. Stephen Henry McKean, thirty-two years old, of Springville, Utah, stands charged in Utah\u2019s First District Court with one third-degree felony count of distributing harmful material to a minor and three Class A misdemeanor counts of enticing a minor. The undercover officer on the other end of those messages was never a seventeen-year-old girl. He was an investigator with the Box Elder County Attorney\u2019s Office and the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, doing the grim, necessary work of meeting predators where they look for their prey.<\/p>\n

For believers, this news lands with particular weight. McKean is not only a professor at the Church\u2019s flagship university; he is, according to court documents, a Sunday school teacher in his local ward. Two roles are sacred, in any culture that still recognizes them, as any office a young man is likely to hold. When such men stumble \u2014 and the charges here, if proven, describe more than a stumble \u2014 the wound cuts through classroom, congregation, and family alike.<\/p>\n

This essay attempts something narrow and, I hope, faithful. It is not a verdict. McKean is presumed innocent, and the courts will do their work. What follows is an investigative account drawn from the public record, read through the lens of traditional Christian conviction about truth, trust, and the protection of children. I write neither as an enemy of Latter-day Saints nor as their judge, but as a Christian who has spent years working in and around Arizona’s LDS community, who believes that honesty about hard news is itself a form of love.<\/p>\n

What the Record Says<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The Investigation<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

According to the probable cause affidavit filed in Box Elder County, the investigation began on March 3, 2026, when Box Elder County ICAC investigator Ryan Staats, operating an undercover persona, was contacted through an online chat platform by an account later traced to McKean. The Herald Journal of Logan reports that the opening message on that account read to the decoy, and that once the officer stated the persona\u2019s age, McKean initially indicated she was \u201ctoo young\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/span> \u2014 then kept chatting.<\/p>\n

Defendant continued to communicate with the purported 17-year-old and expressed concerns that it was illegal. Nevertheless, Defendant continued to converse about the possibility of meeting up for sexual acts.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2014 Probable cause affidavit, as reported by Aubrey Holdaway, The Herald Journal, April 22, 2026<\/i><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The affidavit describes an exchange that escalated from small talk to explicit discussion of sexual acts the defendant allegedly wanted to perform with the purported minor. At one point, according to multiple news accounts drawing on the same court filings, the defendant sent an image showing only the bottom portion of his face, with the comment: \u201cI\u2019ll have to keep hiding my face for now.\u201d<\/i> Shortly afterward, an explicit photograph was sent with the message, \u201cHow\u2019s that for a compromise?\u201d<\/i> The defendant deleted the image. The undercover officer had already saved it. (Source: Herald Journal<\/a><\/u><\/span>.)<\/p>\n

The Identification<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The forensic trail is straightforward and, for anyone concerned about digital privacy and due process, instructive. On March 10, the investigator drafted a search warrant for subscriber data from the chat platform. Account and IP information were returned on March 28. On March 30, additional warrants were submitted to Verizon and Google for records tied to the IP addresses that had accessed the account during the period in question. By April 9, investigators had tied those addresses to a home in Springville, with an associated email containing the suspect\u2019s full name and a known phone number.<\/p>\n

The final confirmation came through open-source investigative work. Investigator Staats, according to the affidavit, matched the bottom-of-face image the suspect had sent to a public photograph on BYU\u2019s mathematics department directory. That directory page has since been taken down, but an archived copy remains accessible through the Wayback Machine (see archived BYU faculty page<\/a><\/u><\/span>). The defendant\u2019s personal academic site remains live at the time of this writing (shmckean.github.io<\/a><\/u><\/span>), describing him as an assistant professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University whose research concerns \u201capplications of algebraic topology to questions in algebraic geometry, number theory, physics, and biology,\u201d<\/em> and noting prior positions as an NSF postdoctoral fellow at Harvard following a 2022 Duke PhD.<\/p>\n

None of that academic record is in dispute, and none of it is germane to the charges in the ordinary sense. A person\u2019s competence in one sphere does not protect him from sin in another, nor does it aggravate it. But the public record matters here for a reason that does touch the heart of what follows: the investigators noted the defendant\u2019s access to minors as a factor in their concern.<\/p>\n

Stephen is a BYU professor with access to young adults as well as underage females who are in college or taking college classes while enrolled in high school. Along with that, Stephen is a Sunday School teacher at his local LDS ward, giving him even more access to children.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2014 Investigator Ryan Staats, probable cause affidavit, as quoted in The Herald Journal<\/i><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Statement That Cannot Be Unread<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

One line from the alleged chat transcript has already attached itself to this case in the public mind, and it will haunt it through every proceeding. According to charging documents reported by both ABC4 and Cache Valley Daily, the defendant told the decoy: \u201cYou\u2019re going to make me like you better than my wife,\u201d <\/i>adding that his wife could not handle \u201call of him.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/span> The Floodlit database, which tracks Latter-day Saint\u2013connected abuse cases using court proceedings, public records, news reports, and academic journals as sources, has now catalogued the case under entry b713<\/a><\/u><\/span> and selected that same sentence as its pull quote (Floodlit recently updated<\/a><\/u><\/span>).<\/p>\n

That line, if the words indeed belong to the defendant, matters beyond prurience. It is a confession, mid-act, that a covenant has already failed in the heart before the law was ever reached. For a Christian reader, it echoes the grammar of what our Lord taught about adultery long before any keyboard was pressed.<\/p>\n

The Institutional Response<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Brigham Young University\u2019s reply, issued through spokesman Todd Hollingshead, was immediate and unequivocal. The full text, carried in identical form by KSL, ABC4, and the Herald Journal, reads:<\/p>\n

Stephen McKean has been placed on administrative leave, effective immediately. We condemn abuse in any form, and the university will fully cooperate with law enforcement as this investigation moves forward. We are committed to offering support to any students who might be affected by this news.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2014 Todd Hollingshead, BYU spokesman, statement to ABC4, April 22, 2026<\/i><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the right first answer, and it deserves to be acknowledged as such. Administrative leave pending investigation is exactly what a responsible institution does when a faculty member is charged with crimes involving minors; it protects students while preserving the presumption of innocence that due process guarantees. Reporting by KSL\u2019s Pat Reavy (KSL, April 23, 2026<\/a><\/u><\/span>) notes the leave was put in place the day after charges were filed.<\/p>\n

What BYU, the local ward, and indeed every Christian and every Latter-day Saint organization must grapple with in the weeks to come is a harder question than the administrative one: what practical structures stand between a trusted teacher and a vulnerable minor in our care? Background checks? Two-deep leadership in youth classrooms? Device and internet-use policies for employees? Pastoral accountability for those whose callings place them in proximity to the young? These are not questions invented by this case; they have been asked, with growing urgency, by Christian denominations across the theological spectrum for three decades. The McKean charges do not indict the university or the ward. They do press the question once more, and honestly, on all of us who teach.<\/p>\n

A Christian Reading of a Painful Story<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Sin Wears the Robes It Can Find<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The oldest and hardest truth in biblical anthropology is this: sin is not a stranger at the gate of the Church.<\/strong><\/span> Sin is a thief who knows where the key is hidden. Scripture offers no embarrassment about the fact that Judas was a treasurer, that Demas loved this present world, that a man under the discipline of the Corinthian church was in sexual sin \u201csuch as is not named among the Gentiles\u201d<\/em> (1 Corinthians 5:1). Our Lord Himself warned that the appearance of godliness is precisely what makes a hypocrite\u2019s fall so devastating to the sheep (Matthew 23:27\u201328; Luke 12:1). Jeremiah\u2019s complaint that \u201cthe heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked\u201d<\/em> (Jer. 17:9) was never intended to flatter the unbeliever alone. It was spoken to the covenant people.<\/p>\n

The McKean charges, if the allegations prove true, are not a unique horror. They are a familiar horror. The Floodlit database to which this case has now been added lists, as of this writing, more than four thousand reports of sex crimes allegedly perpetrated by Latter-day Saints, each grounded in court records, news reports, or academic journals. A parallel catalog could be compiled, and has been, for Catholic clergy, for Southern Baptist ministers, for independent fundamental Baptist pastors, for Anglican priests, for non-denominational youth leaders. The fallen state of man does not respect the cut of a teacher\u2019s coat.<\/p>\n

What distinguishes a Christian response from a partisan one is the refusal to use such news as a trophy. The tabloid asks, \u201cIsn\u2019t it terrible what they do?\u201d<\/em> The gospel asks, \u201cWhat, then, shall we do?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Particular Evil of Betraying the Young<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Scripture reserves some of its sternest language for those who would harm children. Our Lord\u2019s words in Matthew 18:6 \u2014 \u201cwhoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea\u201d<\/em> \u2014 are not mere rhetorical flourish. They reveal the divine heart toward the abuse of the weak by the strong, the vulnerable by the educated, and the trusting by those they depend on. A professor has knowledge and authority. A Sunday school teacher has trust and influence. In the biblical sense, both wield power. When such people prey on others, their sin is worsened by the very office they hold.<\/p>\n

I write these sentences with deliberate care, because we must not read them as applying only to the worst cases of hands-on abuse. The statute under which McKean is charged \u2014 enticing a minor \u2014 exists precisely because the grooming that precedes contact is itself a spiritual and legal violation. To speak graphically of sexual acts with a purported seventeen-year-old, to send explicit images, to persist after being told the person is underage, is to have already crossed a line that no later hesitation retroactively uncrosses. The affidavit\u2019s description of the defendant expressing concern that the conduct was \u201cillegal\u201d<\/strong><\/span> and continuing anyway is, in theological terms, a description of a conscience that spoke and was overridden.<\/p>\n

A Word to Those Who Teach<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

If you stand in front of a classroom, a Sunday school quorum, a youth small group, or a Sabbath school lesson, this case must be permitted to ask you its questions before the news cycle moves on. Not because you are a suspect, but because the enemy of your soul will use the ordinary privileges of teaching \u2014 access, admiration, private conversation, the warmth of young trust \u2014 against you if he can find an unguarded door. The old Puritan counsel still applies: watch and pray, for the flesh is weak. Install the filters. Accept the accountability partners. Refuse the one-on-one digital message with a minor student. Tell your spouse what you would rather hide. Meet privately only in public places. These are not legalisms. They are the ordinary architecture of a clean conscience in a fallen world.<\/p>\n

The Apostle Paul exercised exactly this kind of visible caution when handling the Jerusalem collection, \u201cproviding for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men\u201d<\/em> (2 Corinthians 8:21). If he did so for money, how much more for the souls of the young?<\/p>\n

What a Traditional Christian Cannot Avoid Saying<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

I am a Christian and part-time apologist who often works in the Latter-day Saint context. I must, in fairness, say what my own tradition requires me to say when a case like this breaks. I do not say it as a gloat, and readers who come here looking for a polemic will be disappointed.<\/p>\n

Traditional Christian theology begins its account of the human being with a hard fact: every son of Adam and every daughter of Eve enters the world with a nature bent toward sin (Romans 3:10\u201323; Ephesians 2:1\u20133). That doctrine has been called grim. It is also the only doctrine that can stand up to the police blotter without flinching. When a brilliant mathematician, raised in a devout home and entrusted with young adults and children, is charged with what this affidavit describes, the question is not \u201cHow could this happen?\u201d<\/em> but \u201cWhy are we surprised?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Our surprise, when it comes, is a witness to something true about the office he held and a symptom of something false about the anthropology we often operate by. We expect better of teachers and of Sunday school leaders because we rightly honor those offices. We forget that the office does not regenerate the man. Only the finished work of Christ can do that, and even then, sanctification is the slow, grace-given war of a lifetime, not a graduation certificate.<\/p>\n

This is why, whatever the courts eventually conclude, the pastoral response to news like this ought to include a rigorous examination of how our communities handle two specific categories of persons: those who hold teaching office and those who have previously offended. Both require love; neither should be left alone with the lambs. The Floodlit database includes, to its sorrow, multiple cases in which offenders were returned to youth-adjacent callings after excommunication and rebaptism, sometimes with tragic results. Grace forgives sin. Wisdom does not hand the keys back.<\/p>\n

What Comes Next, and What Does Not<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

As of this writing, Stephen McKean is being held without bail in the Box Elder County Jail. His initial court appearance is scheduled for April 27, 2026, in the First District Court in Brigham City, and he is expected to appear virtually. The evidentiary process will now proceed in its ordinary, unhurried way: preliminary hearing, plea, discovery, whatever motions the defense elects to file. The public, including the Christian public, is obligated to let that process do its work, and to resist both the temptation to convict before trial and the temptation to forget once the news cycle turns.<\/p>\n

What does not come next, if we are faithful, is forgetting. Not for his sake \u2014 the defendant, whatever his outcome, is owed the ordinary mercies any accused is owed, including prayer, and, if he is guilty, the hard mercies of repentance, consequence, and separation from access to the young. And not, above all, for the sake of the real young women and girls whom the ICAC task force exists to protect. Every affidavit like this one represents, in practical effect, a minor who was not harmed because an officer sat in her chair. We ought to be deeply and soberly grateful for the existence of such task forces, and we ought to pray for the investigators whose daily work is to read what most of us cannot bear to read.<\/p>\n

The Gospel of John tells us that our Lord, knowing what was in man, did not commit Himself to the crowd\u2019s applause (John 2:24\u201325). We who serve Him in Christian teaching would do well to cultivate the same holy realism. Love the students. Trust the institutions. And build the fences anyway.<\/p>\n

A Closing Word to Readers<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

To the Latter-day Saint reader who clicked on this essay braced for an attack: I hope the preceding pages have given you no occasion for that defense. The charges against this young professor are a sorrow shared by every community that honors teaching, and a warning issued to every community that honors teaching. My Evangelical tradition has buried its own share of such sorrows. We are not speaking to you across a chasm; we are speaking beside you, in the same valley.<\/p>\n

To the fellow Christian reader: do not read past this story. Read through it. Ask whether your church has a written child-protection policy. Ask whether your youth workers are screened, trained, and paired. Ask whether the man at the front of the classroom \u2014 or the one writing these words \u2014 is walking in the light, with the windows open. The safety of the sheep was never primarily a legal question. It is a pastoral one, and the Good Shepherd still sets the standard.<\/p>\n

And to every reader: pray for the young woman who does not exist \u2014 the fiction the officer gave a voice \u2014 for the sake of every young woman who does.<\/p>\n

\n

Sources<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2022 Pat Reavy, \u201cBYU professor charged with sending sexually explicit material to \u2018teen girl,\u2019\u201d KSL.com, April 23, 2026. https:\/\/www.ksl.com\/article\/51487753\/byu-professor-charged-with-sending-sexually-explicit-material-to-teen-girl<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Will Feelright, \u201cBYU professor and Sunday school teacher arrested in undercover child sex sting,\u201d Cache Valley Daily, April 23, 2026. https:\/\/www.cachevalleydaily.com\/news\/byu-professor-and-sunday-school-teacher-arrested-in-undercover-child-sex-sting\/article_fc216a75-7b9c-4f35-89e7-8eefdc5e8c58.html<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Jordan Thornblad, \u201cBYU professor charged, accused of messaging, sending explicit photo to undercover agent posing as 17-year-old girl,\u201d ABC4 Utah, April 23, 2026. https:\/\/www.abc4.com\/news\/crime\/byu-professor-charged-enticing-minor-explicit-photo\/<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Aubrey Holdaway, \u201cBYU professor charged in Box Elder County ICAC investigation,\u201d The Herald Journal, April 22, 2026. https:\/\/www.hjnews.com\/tremonton\/news\/byu-professor-charged-in-box-elder-county-icac-investigation\/article_2f5d5bc2-f83f-40d0-8550-0b79384f59b8.html<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Stephen McKean, personal academic website. https:\/\/shmckean.github.io\/<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 BYU Mathematics Department faculty directory page (archived). https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260209121700\/https:\/\/math.byu.edu\/directory\/stephen-mckean<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Floodlit database entry for Stephen Henry McKean (b713); Floodlit recently updated index. https:\/\/floodlit.org\/a\/b713\/<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Floodlit recently updated (catalog context). https:\/\/floodlit.org\/recently-updated\/<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 \u2014 \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

All charges are allegations. Stephen Henry McKean is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A Note on Research Methods and Accuracy<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

In recent years, some have voiced concern that artificial intelligence may distort facts or introduce inaccuracies into serious research. That criticism deserves acknowledgment. However, AI has now evolved into the most powerful research instrument available to any dedicated scholar\u2014capable of analyzing vast datasets, cross\u2011referencing historical records, and surfacing overlooked connections across sources. This work represents a collaboration between the author\u2019s investigative inquiry, verified primary documentation, and the advanced analytic capabilities of AI research tools. Here, AI was not used as a ghostwriter or a shortcut for scholarship, but as a disciplined research partner devoted to rigor, accuracy, and transparency.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Every factual claim in this work has been subjected to active verification. Where AI\u2011generated content was used as a starting point, it was tested against primary sources, peer\u2011reviewed scholarship, official institutional documentation, and established historical records. Where discrepancies were found\u2014and they were found\u2014corrections were made. The author has made every reasonable effort to ensure that quotations are accurately attributed, historical details are precisely rendered, and theological claims fairly represent the positions they describe or critique.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That said, no work of this scope is immune to error, and the author has no interest in perpetuating inaccuracies in the service of an argument. If you are a reader\u2014whether sympathetic, skeptical, or hostile to the conclusions drawn here\u2014and you identify a factual error, a misattributed source, a misrepresented teaching, or a claim that cannot be substantiated, you are warmly and genuinely invited to say so. Reach out. The goal of this work is not to win a debate but to get the history right. Corrections offered in good faith will be received in the same spirit, and verified corrections will be incorporated into future editions without hesitation.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Truth, after all, has nothing to fear from scrutiny\u2014and neither does this work.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Dennis is a Christian apologist, street evangelist, and author of The Righteous Cause series, available at RighteousCause.net and on Amazon Kindle. He is a member and Director of Security with East Valley International Church in Gilbert, Arizona.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“You\u2019re Going to Make Me Like You Better Than My Wife”: Reading the Affidavit with Trembling Hands Introduction: A Name Nobody Wanted to Read When the name of a Brigham Young University professor appeared in a police booking affidavit this week, it was not in connection with a grant, a new paper in algebraic geometry,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[46,44,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity","category-latter-day-saints","category-mormonism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Gemini_Generated_Image_8oav4m8oav4m8oav.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7721"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7725,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7721\/revisions\/7725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}