MK forum

Perhaps a forum should be started to discuss the philosophy of legalism and spiritual abuse that existed 20+years ago within NTBI and the various boot camps. And on some level, a form of that philosophy still exists within the training system. We certainly encountered this in our training.

Spiritual abuse is often minimized, much to the detriment of those so abused as well as the organization itself.

Rather than having "abuse" as the general heading, with "sexual," "emotional," "physical" and so on arranged below, it may be helpful to see "spiritual abuse" as the general category, and the various other manifestations as subunits of it.

As a close reading of the Fanda Eagles website and these forums will substantiate, it is the damage to the spirits of the victims that lasts. Whether they were inappropriately touched, raped, sodomized, beat, forced to eat their own vomit, ridiculed, humiliated, taunted or ignored, you cannot read the stories of these victims and not hear the agony - the spiritual agony - that has been caused.

Love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13.10). If we love our brothers, we will do them no harm. To do them harm is to fail to love. The one who hates (does not love) his brother is a murderer (I John 3.11-15). Murder, after all, is just the last escalation in personal conflict. All the commandments, after all, are summed up in the one command: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Enduring the abuse that can be inflicted by the people you love and have worked with can be indescribably hard to bear, yet it is often brushed off by others. Charges of "bitterness" and "revenge" are hurled at those who have been hurt as adults, whose lives have been battered and reputations ruined because they did not meet the arbitrary expectations of insecure and insensitive leaders.

More than a philosophy, Mama Mia, there is bad theology at the root of this. And, this isn't just the situation that was present 20+ years ago. It continues to this day.

My memories of Vianópolis are from the 1970s. There was lots of spiritual abuse that was reminiscent of cultic attitudes about authority, physical abuse - lots of beatings for anything, and emotional abuse - lots of public humiliations, board meetings, calls to repentance etc. As far as I know, and my knowledge is limited to a few years and a few dorms, there was no sexual abuse at the time.

That means, in my opinion, that the spiritual, emotional, physical abuse prevalent created an atmosphere in which sexual abuse was able to take place. The insistence on unquestioning submission to authority, the silencing of anyone who disagreed, whether student or otherwise, the basic disrespect for the rights of individuals, all of these things created what was needed for an abuser to thrive unquestioned for many years. This to me is a serious indictment of a system and needs to be brought out into the light so that it will not happen again.

I was not sexually abused, but I and others suffered at the hands of people who were highly authoritarian, and seemed to enjoy the pain they inflicted via beatings and humiliations. There was a group of very disturbed people in charge of underage children. This also has to be brought out into the light out of respect to those such as I who suffered there at the time and as an analysis of how evil such as child abuse can come to pass. I believe the child abuse grew out of an atmosphere that was conducive to the ultimate disrespect of a human being. The disrespect that already existed led to the greater horror of child abuse.

As I'm not NTM, I can't really say where this basic disrespect came from - from leadership practices within the mission as a whole? from a legalistic interpretation of the Bible? from bootcamp mentality? from a lack of good seminaries affiliated with NTM? It would seem that a kind of insular culture was formed that encouraged spiritual abuse and this led to the other types of abuse.

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Dear Unexpected Hero,
I think you and Gene Long have summarized the situation quite well--"bad theology and an insular culture." It is such an accurate observation. I am truly sorry for all of us who suffered any type of abuse while trying to follow our hearts' desire of serving the Lord and loving the lost. None of this fostered a grace based atmosphere for folks to grow in their walk with the Lord. It simply led to performance and a giant fear of man.

I am finding so many of these threads so validating. I find myself over and over saying "omg, this really happened and I'm not the only one who sees how NTM contributed."

...still finding the courage to say more.

Dear Broken Angel,
You will find support and validation here. We're praying for you and cheering you on. There's finally validation and a voice for those of us who are broken because of whatever type of abuse we encountered during our time with NTM.