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"First thing first. Sin is sin. No missions organization condones or supports sexual abuse. To say that is just plain ranting and silly. I don't think anyone has ever said that on this website. Has someone said we did? Sexual sin is bad, sexual sin to children is sick sick sick. I know first hand the training that goes on at NTM. There are child safety reminders in your face everywhere, campus “safe people” to talk to about anything, field safe people, counselors, and 10+ class hours on sexual abuse alone. In this class it’s open forum for questions regarding anything with NTM alleged and actual sexual abuse. There are stringent background checks, 15 page applications just to join NTM, then you candidate for your time in training with a mentor couple week after week so they can see if there are any red flags in your ability to mature spiritually and grow in Christ. There is a dedicated team at NTM Head Quarters that are on staff (supported by their churches to be there, they raise support and forgo the foreign field to serve in this way…$100,000s in support for the staff just for this very reason). This team travels to every field entity PNG, Indonesia, Brazil, Thailand, etc. to raise awareness of sexual abuse signs and yellow or red flags. I too, would like to know more about this dedicated team. I know there was a push, back several years ago, to initiate child abuse prevention education, and we applaud that. I am skeptical however, of the implication that there is currently a team that continues to travel the globe raising awareness. In fact, I am very curious about the current status of child abuse prevention and response education in NTM today, as I believe the people who put that curriculum and plan in place are no longer with the mission. Is education and information still being given the same priority it once was? A kids grades drop suddenly, a bruise, even hesitation to talk, it all gets recorded on permanent record so if a child changes behavior in any of the signs that all staff is trained to look for, then personal investigation ensues to adults who interact with that child. Fancy gift of iPod to child from an adult that is not their family? yellow flag, that’s an inapproriate gift in most cases.
Any person reading this including myself are capable of doing the most horrendous things. I am convinced that no missionary, no dorm parent, coach, or teacher, goes to the field setting out to sexually abuse a little boy or girl. This point of view is alarming in its naivete. I don't know any pedophiles who are transparent and honest about their hidden demons. I would assume that many people who sexually molested MKs were already deeply troubled, and may even have been showing signs of their dysfunction, if people around them had known what to look for and act upon. It concerns me that Stan would not at least consider the possibility that some people did choose to go abroad to isolated mission stations precisely because they could more easily hide their darkest secrets.
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19. What happens in most cases in Christian’s life is that they have a sinful thought, a temptation. That thought gets entertained (covetousness). Instead of taking that thought captive, they let it take them captive. They start doing things in secret so their deeds won’t be exposed. When they know they should repent to God and confess to a brother or sister that they need help, many times they are too afraid of loosing face or telling their 80+ supporters and home churches that they struggle with pedophilia thoughts and need to get counseling. There are documented cases in NTM history of missionaries who DID confess to leadership that they had abused a child. In more than a few cases, this known abuse was NOT taken seriously. They were not reported to law enforcement. They were kept in the mission, moved from one job assignment to another, moved from one country to another, sent back to Boot Camp for further "personal ministry", or moved back to Stateside staff. Maybe that wouldn't happen in the NTM of today, but we know for a fact that it did take place in the past. They keep it a secret. They try to push it away, but they let Satan in more and more. They want to do something sinful and instead of just doing it (since they know they won’t get away with it) they manipulate and push and make a poor child think they “need” to undress or perform disgusting acts to keep someone from getting in trouble, or they did something wrong and they don’t want their parents to find out so they are blackmailed. It’s sick.
Boarding schools were bad in many ways, no accountability for dorm parents (leadership asking hard questions and parents not involved), parents sacrificing their children to the god of ministry, parents not spending intentional time with their children in person (because on the radio they can’t tell their parents because everyone else is listening), parents aren’t asking “has anyone made you feel uncomfortable or made you do anything you didn’t want to?”
I will likely homeschool our children for this very reason, parents can do this. I even had a friend fly to Brazil and serve as a nanny so the mom could spend more time learning language and teaching instead of teaching her kids all day. This allowed the parents to be directly involved and still have their children with them.
INVESTIGATION: NTM has an independent Christian investigation organization that takes on investigating alleged abuse instances. This claim has been shown to be blatantly false! If this is what NTM members or trainees are still being told, WAKE UP! This is not true! An independent Christian investigation organization? Is this supposed to be referring to IHART? IHART is a "process" of NTM. The only thing independent about it is that the IHART coordinator, Theresa Sidebotham, and the investigators she retains, are not members of NTM. Aside from that, IHART was established solely for the purpose of being a process for NTM. It was NOT an organization prior to that. It can now be clearly seen that it is within the power of NTM to make major changes within IHART, such as terminating one coordinator and replacing them with another. This is so the victim may have justice served, proper evidence for pressing charges, closure (if it is possible through counseling) and counseling. Is this what NTM trainees are being told that the purpose of the IHART investigations is? Justice served? Evidence for pressing charges? Closure? Here are the four stated objectives from the IHART website: to be certain that there is no current member of New Tribes Mission USA who has abused children, to give victims an avenue to tell their story, to offer a means for counseling for any victims who desire it, and to learn from the past to make the organization as safe as possible for all families. There is nothing here about justice, gathering evidence, or pressing charges. To date, I am not aware of any initiative on the part of NTM to get charges pressed on any offender. IHART and mission leaders will tell you that perpetrators have been "reported to the authorities". But ask the hard questions. Find out what that really means. Try to follow the trail and see what has happened to that growing list of names of missionaries who have harmed children. And be prepared for disappointment. There are also many instances where a child seeks attention and makes up a story. What is the basis for this claim? Ask experts in the area of child abuse. This is a ludicrous opinion that has no basis in fact. This line of thinking has kept children silent and abusers protected for generations. On the contrary, BELIEVE your children! It is not even in the realm of capability for a small child to make up stories about the type of abuse we are referring to, just to get attention! In these cases should a family’s ministry be ruined by one child’s mistake? So the independent from NTM organization deals with all parties involved. During investigation all involved are removed from ministry. If a person is found guilty, then charges are pressed by the family with the evidence and obviously there is absolutely no chance the guilty person ever serves NTM again. Again, no basis in fact. Charges have not been pressed by families. In most of the cases we have discussed here on Fanda Eagles, there is literally no possibility of pressing charges, because of the time frame in which the abuse occurred, and because the crimes were committed overseas. This is just one more reason why we need an appropriate response from New Tribes Mission! These missionary monsters will never spend a day in an American jail! So all the more reason why there needs to be other consequences for them! They need to be help accountable by the mission, because they cannot be touched by law enforcement! They should be NAMED! They should be EXPOSED! They should not be allowed to hide! Their deeds should be known publicly, by all who have ever been in contact with them, both within the mission context and outside! If a missionary has harmed a child overseas, they may have also had other victims, back in their home country. Child abusers do NOT deserve the protection of the mission. But smug in the realization that NTM will never tell their secrets, because the mission is afraid of damaging its reputation, losing financial supporters, and/or seeing a drop in its recruitment, these creeps know they are safe. This is scandalous!
NTM is an organization that God is using to accomplish great tasks. This side of heaven the leadership and everyone to the last missionary will be flawed sinful saved by grace humans. If your looking for perfection, you won’t find it. If your looking for diligence to care for children then you will find it.
We must remember that abuse between a perp and a victim is between that perp and the victim. NTM is not law and cannot do much but to prevent and kick out anyone causing these sick acts. Oh, I beg to differ. There is so, so much more that NTM could do. Furthermore, there are even known child abusers who are still members of NTM. They may now be mostly retired members, but they were NOT "kicked out" Even Gary Earl wasn't "kicked out". He was required to resign. There is a big difference. I am a former member of NTM, so I KNOW there is a big, big difference between resigning and being terminated or dismissed.
To make a website and come here and rant doesn’t do anything for anyone, but cause potential supporters to shy away from supporting individual NTM missionaries who have absolutely nothing to do with anyone abused. These claims true or not hurt the rest of us. Stop the gossip, if you want a support group, talk privately with each other. Stop the gossip? Is this website for the purpose of gossipping? I would say we have actually shown commendable restraint in not being too specific about individuals and their known sins. For one thing, we are very mindful of the fact that missionary abusers have family members who are innocent, but still very hurt by things that have been brought to light, or could be brought to light. I think about this often, and it does break my heart. We are not gossipping about individuals. We are, though, trying to put pressure on NTM as an organization, to do the right thing.
If you have been abused, first seek professional Christian counseling. After seeking professional counseling, tell mature members of your family that are safe. Then approach law enforcement before or after talking with the Abuse Prevention staff at NTM. Then if able press charges. This has already been addressed by others, but this is absolutely not the right order to put responses to abuse in. Even NTM would disagree with this, I am sure. CALL THE POLICE! Work on heart attitude of forgiveness and through counseling and prayer and confession (I say confession because sometimes those abused somehow enjoyed certain parts and then they feel dirty and worse). This sentence has already received the withering response it well deserves, so I will just say: despicable. I have heard that this is the kind of garbage the so-called counselors at Bob Jones University sometimes dumped on abuse victims there. Perhaps Stan is from that extreme conservative fundamentalist camp. I know for sure that not everyone in NTM would agree with his opinion, and in fact I hope that NO ONE would. Yech .... makes me feel nauseous.
You cannot hold an organization responsible for one person’s actions. If NTM knew these things would happen many of the schools that are shut down, would have been shut down earlier. This seems to indicate that current NTM trainees are under the impression that NTM schools were shut down in response to the abuse? This would not be an accurate portrayal, as far as I know. Many NTM boarding schools are now closed, but I think this happened because missionary parents lost trust in the system, and younger parents had much different opinions about boarding schools that did we parents of decades gone by. I am proud of the young families in the mission today who would stand up and say, "Send my 6 or 7-year-old away to school for months at a time? Are you out of your mind??" Good for them! Because yes, we were out of our minds! Remember, back in the 80′s things were still communicated by snail mail. It is unreasonable to ask a short staffed organization to investigate things that allegedly happened to people not with NTM by people no longer with NTM. I cannot imagine what you have gone through or are going through, but ranting on a website bashing the previous generation of missionaries in a way that defaces the current generations of missionaries is divisive and destructive. We are to build one another up. Seek professional help from someone you trust. Genesis Institute has helped many of my friends. Genesis Institute. Aaah .... I think maybe Stan really is from the staunch fundy camp. I googled Genesis Institute. They are a "Biblical Counseling" group. For those who don't know what that means, here is a quote from their own website: "The uniqueness of our approach is an adherence to Biblical revelation. Genesis believes that our deepest problems display themselves in our relationships." The Biblical counseling model says that all mankind's problems are sin problems. If you confess your sin and get right with God, everything in your upside-down world will right itself (or God will right it for you, I guess). Some of these counselors are the type that would lead a child abuse victim into admitting that they had in fact committed a sin while they were being molested. I could go on a whole separate rant about the dangers of "Biblical" counseling. But I shall refrain.
Again, NTM is not law enforcement. To call an organization of over taxed understaffed missionaries and expect them to drop their supporting duties to current missionaries they are serving, to pursue and investigate (they themselves not having training on investigation or abuse or maybe the ability to not be biased (because the truth is not biased toward perp or victim) is irrational.
NTM has over 1500 staff. Each staff is supported by churches and individuals to do a specific task. If it’s not sexual abuse prevention and investigation, this person is not doing what they are called to do if they take it as a personal mission to see something go somewhere. They must pass it on to the staff that handles it and it’s all they can do.
Put yourself in the staff’s shoes. Say your working for Joe’s Donut’s company. A lady at the age of 40 calls you and says that when she was 9 she was abused by Joe’s Donut’s assistant manager while her mom worked there. You are on the clock and feel bad for this lady, but you don’t know her, the alleged perpetrator, or anyone who was staff 31 years ago. Out of the 1500 staff of Joe’s Donut’s international the lady says she was abused in Thailand. The best you can do is put her in contact with someone who could help her more than you, ultimately though it is the victim’s responsibility to pursue justice. For her to hold you accountable to see it through is not right. And if she doesn’t get the answer she wants, she’s going to go online and leave negative reviews, feedback, and media slander a company? Did the company abuse her? No. A sick individual did.
The only justification for a website like this (if it’s only purpose is to bring down NTM through embittered hearts that are ranting instead of seeking true investigation and pressing charges) is to unite people that have struggled with abuse. Coming together to seek justice. Then after justice is served to the perp, take the files and people and interviews to NTM and tell them ways they could prevent these things from happening. If your abused, take mature responsibility to investigate, not just hate." Do New Tribers really believe this? That the only purpose of this website is to bring down NTM through embittered hearts that are ranting? Over the past 5 years, I think I have read every word that was posted on this website. I do not think our purpose has EVER been to bring down NTM! It actually hurts my heart a great deal to think that there are those who would believe that was my purpose; our purpose. I am an advocate for MK survivors of childhood abuse in the NTM environment. If NTM had joined me in advocating for MKs, we would never have even been on opposite sides! We could have worked together!
Oh, man. I'm exhausted. I'm done.
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I will be echoing many thoughts that have already been expressed, but I want to add my voice to the discussion as well.