MK forum

I take this quote from the King James version, though others are essentially the same:

"Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou are in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
...
"And if any man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also."
Matthew 5:25-26, 40

It would be difficult to find a passage of scripture more at odds with how NTM has handled law suits.

What system of interpretation is in use there?

When NTM sent a libelous letter about me to the Royal Thai Government, I requested that they withdraw it. I did not ask for any monetary compensation. I did not press criminal libel charges. I only asked that they retract the letter.

They followed the instructions of Jesus by ... by ignoring me!

When my son and I pressed criminal libel charges against NTM in Thailand, they responded like this:

1. Their attorney threatened my son, "explaining" to him that people who ask for a large settlement often get killed.
2. They reaffirmed the libelous comments they had made.
3. They spent a lot of time and money sending their house counsel to Thailand, who did nothing to resolve the conflict.
4. They finally offered a settlement that would almost have covered my attorney fees. I declined.

Eventually, they settled out of court. They wrote a brand new letter stating the exact opposite of everything they had said of a libelous nature and gave my son and me each a financial settlement of 500,000 Baht - a huge sum by Thai standards and one that need never have been paid had they merely withdrawn their libelous letter.

This is how NTM agrees quickly with their adversary.

I am at liberty to disclose the terms of this settlement for the reason that NTM did not ask for and has ignored my repeated requests for a confidentiality agreement. Anyone who is presently involved in any kind of talks with NTM, be it of a legal or other nature, will want to keep this in mind. If you do not want a confidentiality agreement (and it may be in your best interests not to have one), please know that they certainly do not mind. At the very least, it allows them to talk about you, too.

What they did ask for was an agreement that they would never talk to me again about this case. To me, mind you, not to others!

My experiences, of course, were under the old leadership of the Executive Committee. Now NTM is overseen by an Executive Board... who have treated Jane Doe 7 in the exact same way! This should bring a real measure of cheer to those who value continuity in faith and practice!

For those who are looking for improvement, or even change, it might not be so heady.

NTM refused repeated requests from Jane Doe 7 that NTM forward the details of abuse by Les Emory to the authorities in the Republic of the Philippines, where he could be prosecuted for his crimes.

When other requests were made, they told her, "Have your lawyer call our lawyer."

Is that what Jesus meant when He said, "Agree with thine adversary quickly"?

NTM is expending a great deal of time, effort and money protecting the donations designated for their employees (who are also members of the Church of New Tribes Mission (that is not a joke)).

They are using every legal tactic they can to keep from having to settle with Jane Doe 7. They know they need to do this, however distasteful it may (or may not) be to them and their employees/ members and larger constituency. For, if they fail and either lose in court or are forced to settle for a large sum out of court, a potentially disastrous precedent will have been set. You can bet the farm that their insurers have warned them of dire consequences!

This is how NTM follows Jesus' admonition to "give them your cloke, also."

"Give them the works," is how NTM reads this passage!

Just a quick note, anyone reading the above would wonder if this side of the story was true. But to add validity, our family had similar dealings with NTM.
They were caught committing fraud, because they thought they could get away with it. When challenged they resorted to threats and blackmail.
The hierachy of NTM will go to great lengths to get their way, including sending their staff on long flights to put pressure on, I to have seen it happen and then they lie about it.
As the saying goes, "Absolute power corrupts Absolutely".

There is also some question as to whether or not NTM is responsible for acting negligently. Unsurprisingly, NTM does not feel they should be held responsible.

Here's why:

It happened a long time ago, under someone else's watch. Some of the present leaders of the mission were inmates at NTM boarding schools and they either did not experience such abuse and were blissfully unaware of it, or they did experience it and turned out unscathed ("What's the big deal?").

The statute of limitations has passed and/ or it happened outside of the jurisdiction of the United States, the only country in the world that matters.

Plus, they have already said they are sorry.