MK forum

This discussion is necessary.
At this point, I am just listening
And fuming too.

Thanks for the links. The first one provides a most interesting background of Theresa Sidebotham and her previous cases.

NTM has made an "interesting" choice.

From what I can deduce NTM is no doubt paying very good money to hire the services of a lawyer with experience in defending similar religious organisations from legal actions of their victims and who has written a paper that seems rather dismissive of MK abuse and attempting to put it into contexts of comparisons that are not particularly relevant.

NTM have no doubt now hired someone who is considerably more competent and qualified, but I'm rather suspicious that NTM will have bought a much better level of defence of it's atrocious past, not a better level of independent investigation that will result in justice being served.

I would predict that some blame will be found, but scapegoats will also be found, who will be deceased, dismissed or of unknown abode. The faithful to the cause will have little consequence for their inactions or actions and the culture will only slowly change, if at all.

In the end, money will talk and money will also silence, unless voices speak up loudly for a full and fair investigation with real consequences.

SO LET'S KEEP SPEAKING!
LOUDLY!

Theresa Sidebotham, you have the opportunity to jump in here, any time, and let us know if there are things you wrote in this article three years ago that you no longer agree with.

We all understand that sometimes a person changes their mind, and perhaps you have changed yours.

If you don't let us know differently, we will assume you still stand by every word written in this article.

And I still have a lot more I could say about it. None of it pretty.

This paper was presented at the 2011 conference of the American Society of Missiology. Exact dates of writing or presentation unknown, but it first came to our attention in late June, 2011.

(For some context, the GRACE report on abuse at Fanda was produced on Aug. 28, 2010.)

pg 1 of the Nussbaum/Sidebotham paper:

"The Catholic prequel shapes allegations now surfacing against Protestant boarding schools. As the attack against Protestant ministries accelerates, some could face a threat of the magnitude that bankrupted eight Catholic dioceses and two Catholic religious orders."

pg 19, following the list of ten objections to GRACE's investigation and report on Fanda:

"It is no surprise that this mission in this report has been sued. In May 2011, one of the leading abuse plaintiffs' attorneys, Jeffrey Herman, filed a lawsuit against New Tribes Mission and stated that there may be many more to come."

To my knowledge, there have been three lawsuits filed against NTM by MK abuse survivors.

1. Jane Doe 7. Filed 5/9/2011. Mediation settled and agreement reached on 5/7/2012.

2. Jane Doe. Filed 7/22/2011. Scheduled to go to a jury trial on 6/9/2015.

3. Jane Doe 25. Filed 9/28/2012. A hearing is scheduled for 2/2/2015.

The first lawsuit was filed before the writing of the Nussbaum/Sidebotham article, and is mentioned by them. The second and third were filed later.

As far as I know, no additional lawsuits have been filed against NTM by MKs since Sept. 2012. That is over two years without any new suits being filed.

So much for the avalanche of litigation that was going to bankrupt NTM.

Meanwhile, the attorney author of this article has now been hired by NTM to coordinate their abuse investigations. I am sure she can help protect them from this terrifying, accelerating attack by greedy attorneys who have emptied the coffers of the Roman Catholic Church and are now on the prowl for new "markets".

Of course I am sure that the bill NTM will be receiving for legal services will be very small, to reflect not being classified as one of the former mentioned greedy attorneys. . .

Bemused, are you deluded today or been out in that Kiwi sun too long

In light of the public release of the complete Pii report on Donn Ketcham and AWBE, I would encourage all of you to read the following section starting at the second bullet point on page 255 and continuing through the end of the section on page 259. Then consider who NTM has put in charge of their "independent investigation".

(You can access the report at either or .)

Refreshing a second thread discussing the article co-authored by Theresa Sidebotham in 2011.

http://www.rothgerber.com/files/10368_A ... Market.pdf