MK forum

Excuse my ignorance, but is this update posted publically, i.e. on the NTM website, or is it only available on application?

Pat Hendrix has my e-mail address, I've had no reply from her for almost 2 years. I wrote to her a month ago and still no reply.

Given my position as a Downunder MK, I think you can figure out how this is interpreted by myself and my colleagues down here. Is what I predicted would happen, coming true and we are now out of the equation?

Bemused, are you asking about the October, 2013 update from Pat Hendrix?

If so, I did not receive it either. Of course I have never personally received any updates from Pat. Dbarney received it some way, I am not sure how. She is the one who posted it here on FE. When I went to the NTM website to see if it had been posted there yet, that is when I was shocked to find that not only is it NOT there, but the other updates from Pat that used to be found there have also disappeared!

So ... to summarize... I have received no recent updates from Brian Shortmeier. I think perhaps the last one I got was in February of this year? I have never received an introduction or update from a Brian Coombs, who is now the one listed on the NTM website as a contact person for former NTM MKs and their parents. It would appear that Brian Coombs may or may not have replaced Brian Shortmeier, but that has not been clarified, at least not to me, not to the Fanda Eagles readers, or on the NTM website. I also have never received a formal investigation update from Pat Hendrix herself. If she expected this October update to be posted on the NTM website, I hope someone has informed her that it is not there.

Were it not for the thoughtfulness of dbarney in passing this on to us, it is unclear to me how we were supposed to know about the fact that two out of the three IHART investigations are now reaching their next phase: the Recommendations Panel.

From what I can make out all IHART related pages have now been removed from the NTM site, which means there is no public access to any historical matters pertaining to Child Abuse.

This has an awful odour about it.

NTM has difficult choices to make, but this is because they got themselves into this mess in the first place. They should have cleaned this mess up properly years ago.

Also notice the spin that this was a problem that was "rectified" in the 90's, no mention of Scott Kennell, who was only months ago.

As we move into the next phases of this process, I am thinking that there are some MK abuse survivors and their parents, families, friends and loved ones who are hoping to hear an apology from New Tribes Mission.

In light of that, I am sharing a blog post by David Hayward, who has an excellent blog called Naked Pastor.

This post describes a true apology, and sets a new standard for those of us who would want an apology we give or receive to be one that truly speaks to the heart and heals the soul.

********************************
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nakedpasto ... /#comments

What My Wife Says When I Apologize Like Rick Warren

Apologizing is agonizing work. I know because I do it a lot.

My wife Lisa is an amazing person. She has taught me how to apologize. (No, this is not a wife joke.) I’m serious! When I first started needing to apologize to Lisa, she made it clear that she wanted me to actually feel sorry for what I did, which meant that I had to be aware of what I actually did, then make amends and promise to not do it again. Easy: own it; admit it; change it.

It seems that half-apologies are becoming more popular. Just this last May Mark Driscoll gave a similar half-apology. Bad apologies abound. I used to be good at it. I’m still learning how to do good apologies.

Rick Warren, you might remember from a previous post, Rick Warren, Saddleback Church and Propaganda Posters, that he half-apologized for using a Red Army poster to inspire his troops. However, since then Warren has committed other culturally insensitive offenses that have raised the valid concerns of the Asian-American evangelical community. Especially since he’s planting a Saddleback Church in Hong Kong. The Asian-American evangelical community has composed a letter for the evangelical church asking for cultural awareness and racial harmony. Here’s a portion:

“Over the past decade Christian evangelicalism has been the source of repeated and offensive racial stereotyping, and Asian Americans have been inordinately affected… Asians have been caricatured, mocked or otherwise treated as foreigners outside the typical accepted realm of white [evangelicals]. And the situation has not improved over time.”

Let me get personal. If I said something that hurt Lisa and I apologized with Warren’s exact words…

“If you were hurt, upset, offended or distressed by my insensitivity I am truly sorry. May God richly bless you.”

… here’s how Lisa would come back. Fasten your seatbelts:

1. “If”: If???? I’ve made it very clear to you that I indeed am hurt, upset, offended and distressed. No if! You definitely hurt me and you know it. Why did you say “if” when you know for a fact you hurt me? I’ve made that clear to you, and if you had any sense you should realize it without me needing to tell you!

2. “my insensitivity”: Yes, your insensitivity! I’ve told you before that you lack sensitivity in that area and you still hurt me there! You need sensitivity training when it comes to this issue and you still haven’t even picked up a book on the topic! You don’t understand me and you don’t seem to care. Hurry up and take personal responsibility to educate yourself on this before you hurt me again. This isn’t just going to go away unless you take accountability and change because I’m not going to put up with this callousness forever! You’re better than this.

3. “I am truly sorry”: Are you? You seem to be suggesting that you’re only sorry because I was hurt by what you said. You don’t seem to be sorry for actually saying it. In fact, you seem to be suggesting that if it didn’t hurt me that it would be totally fine for you to say things like that. Are you implying that saying offensive things like that is okay as long as I don’t get hurt? Or are you implying that if I can take that, then you’ve got more in your arsenal? Are you sorry because I’m too sensitive and was hurt by it, or are you sorry because you said something that inflicted me with pain? You do realize if you treat me this way you’re going to treat other women this way, right?

4. “May God richly bless you”: What??? Why are you bringing God into this now? Are you trying to turn this into a spiritual thing so I won’t be so hard on you? Are you trying to make me remember that you’re this highly respected man of God that can do no wrong? Are you trying to remind me that you’re God’s anointed that should not be touched? Or are you trying to deflect this difficult conversation away from your problem and turn this into a prayer meeting? Don’t try to squirm out from under this. This is too important! I know God richly blesses me. But right now I need you to. This is about you and your issues. Not me and God.

Ya! That’s how Lisa would challenge me on this apology. And I love her for it. She makes me want to be a better man. I learned a long time ago that the fastest way to peace and reconciliation is to own it, admit it; change it. It’s tough to admit weakness. But I also think when we do it that it is actually our greatest strength. In a culture that applies a great deal of pressure on its leaders to be perfect, admitting error can sometimes be perceived as fatal. I suggest there is a new kind of leadership emerging though, evident in our culture as well, that leaders with weaknesses are more human, accessible and even desirable.

What about the parents who should be apologising to their children. The ones who knew what was going on, the ones who still say nothing ever happened. The parents who have mocked and ridiculed their children when they stood up and told the truth, who still spread their poisonous gossip in an endeavour to discredit.
Sackcoth, Ashes, on knees, begging for forgiveness and saying what should have been said decades ago, "oh you were so very very right!!!!!!"

This will never happen in some of our cases, we have bitter, lying, deceitful parent/s with much to hide. So how can we trust any mission or religious organisation when our own parent/s and families have done this to us.

It is true as Bemused mentioned------Scott Kennell. He is not from the 90's. He is present day.

I do remember a Brazilian missionary telling me that Scott liked Brazilian girls. I thought she meant of age, not child victims.

So possibly he did not abuse non-Brazilian MK's. But there are a lot of Brazilian MK's down there.

Needless to say, ntm is only concerned about money. Sometimes I wonder why the heck do I expect them after forty some years to suddenly change and have respect and regard for children??? Their very actions speak for themselves. From the start they have done nothing but protect the criminal. Their very actions of evading openness and honesty are offensive and further abusive to the many victims that suffered at their hands.