MK forum

I've been poking around the boards off and on for about a year, but no extensively so I apologize in advance if this has been discussed before. Just curious- anybody ever talk about stuff that went on at the schools & bases in the states? I'm not quite an MK as my parents never made it to the field. We were one of MANY families "asked to leave" aka kicked out in the last 20 years. We were more recent compared to most of you, and I'm not aware of sexual abuse but the list of stories and things I could talk about that are just MESSED UP about NTM & Staff is too long to even begin. Spirtual Abuse- most definitely. My Dad still doesn't attend church to this day because of how he was treated & abused at NTM.
I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut about the things I know or saw, but don't know who to tell either. I am still in shock that these people are in leadership. I was young but remember a lot. If I sat down with my parents and made a list of things that went on that were so....wrong... it would be pages. As an adult I randomly think of things that happened and ask my parents about it and get the real story & am completely & utterly shocked.

Anyways, just curious if anybody else experienced this. Sorry if this isn't the place to talk about it as I know it's not the abuse some had at the boarding schools. When were were in training I used to look at pictures of the schools & hear stories and think of how FUN it sounded...now I shake my head and thank God I never went.

Dear Not Quite,

Welcome to the FE forums. I, like you, am not familiar enough with all the posts to know the answer to your question. I can empathize with your folks. I served with ntm for 20 plus years, not realizing the abuse of children going on until my last two years with ntm. I have since resigned. There has been some mention from me and others on the spiritual abuse ntm inflicted on its members.

Your parents' story makes sense. Of course they would be repelled against religion after bad treatment from ntm leaders. It is a sad legacy ntm has of abuse and neglect of its members and their children.

Dear Not Quite,

Oh you had a lucky escape!!!!!!!!! NTM did your family a huge favor kicking them out, you got to avoid being totally messed up on some field. Please tell us more and see if you can get your parents to spill the beans on why they were kicked out.
I bet it is because they didn't go with the flow, didn't open their brains up to be filled with the crap that NTM teaches under the guise of their wonderfully spiritual training programme. Your parents probably couldn't be programmed.
When you see them next, give them the biggest hug you can muster, because they probably saved you from a life of confusion, misery, doubt, inadequacy, sexual abuse, physical abuse, rape, torture, molestation and mind control.
Many of us reading this will wish we were wearing your shoes and that our experience with NTM was just a brush, not a beating with the broom.

Welcome, NotQuite!

This is most definitely the place to talk about trauma suffered in an NTM environment. The pain suffered by you and your family, even though you were never in an MK school overseas, is as important to us as all the other pain we discuss here.

The thing that has become clear to me in the time that I have spent deeply involved in the discussions on this site is that much of the abuse that has hurt so many, many children occurred because of some general underlying attitudes and methods of group control practiced in New Tribes Mission.

Within recent months we have been made more aware that abuse has been occurring in many other fundamentalist environments as well. Stories are coming out of Bob Jones University, Pensacola Christian College, etc. that show me more clearly how the oppressive leadership system set up in these patriarchal organizations contributes to abuse. Women and children are not valued and respected. Actually, in general, individuals are not valued or respected. The survival of the organization drives many, many decisions. Thus, people like your father are tossed aside, if they become more of a "hindrance" than a "help" for the greater good, for the forward movement of the mission.

This lack of respect for the individual person is now seen so clearly in the appallingly poor response of NTM to the adult survivors of childhood abuse in NTM. The MKs from Vianopolis have been asked to trust NTM and participate in their sham investigation, and now they have waited five months since the submission of IHART's report to the EB, with no results. Not even any communication, as far as I can determine, aside from occasional indirect posts here on Fanda Eagles, which come through another person. Again ... nothing sent to the individuals. The MKs who were molested or abused, and the other MKs who also suffered trauma because of the sexual abuse they were aware of. Not to mention the emotional, physical and spiritual abuse all of them accepted as "normal" when they were children, because that's how everyone was treated.

Yes, it is clear to me now. Individuals don't count. They don't matter.

And this, in my opinion, is radically opposed to the beliefs we claim we hold so dear as Christians. It is radically opposed to what missionaries say motivates them to reach tribes, until the last tribe is reached. New Tribers for over seven decades have gone to incredible lengths to bring the Good News of God's love to individual members of isolated and neglected tribal groups around the world.

And yet they don't have the decency to communicate with individuals in the United States of America to tell them specifically what is being done to address the abuse that they suffered during the time their parents were sacrificing so much in order to show that individuals matter to God.

This is a rant about what is on my mind these days, but it does address your question, NotQuite, about whether you matter here.

The answer is: YES, you do.

Several years ago there were some threads and posts about abuse in Stateside NTM environments. All of us who are familiar with NTM understand that it is not only children who have been used and abused in NTM. And that abuse has been a part of the overall picture, not only overseas, but in training centers and headquarters as well. Among staff and students. It has been pervasive, and we all put up with it, because we cared so much about reaching tribal people, that we allowed our own dignity and individuality to be trampled on for the great good.

Group control. Group think. Which led to abuse of power. Mind control. Behavior control. Abuse of men, women and children. Emotionally and spiritually. And tragically, in other ways as well.

It is time to tell our stories.

Everyone matters. Every single person truly does.

Aussie- I can see now we are blessed to be out, but I was angry for a long time- as were my parents. They still struggle as they really felt like God was calling them to 'GO'. I think I can see it now as more of a blessing since I was slightly removed from the abuse, and I have no doubt that it was that- abuse. They were kicked out because my Dad had "leadership problems." Which makes me laugh now, of course he had problems with the leadership!! He is very smart, and refused to become a drone. He questioned things often- spirtual, the way things were done on work detail, procedures & rules etc... They were threatened by him and after Bible school & boot camp he wasn't conforming or shutting up so they kicked us out. My parents found out 'they' kicked out someone every year (or maybe semester? I can't remember now) just to assert their authority. I believe a son of a staffer (who is now on staff at a Bible school) told them that.

I think one of the things they questioned the most was of another student who came onto single girls and it was quite obvious they abused (physical and suspected sexual) their own children (among many other problems he had- stealing from work, lying, things strangely going missing from our apartment after he was over). My parents regularly went to the staff about him and the only thing they were ever told was to love him. Kind of hard to sit back and watch his family make it through training and onto the field when my parents were good people. Guess the only comfort we have now is that he died recently of strange causes and one can only wonder if God just finally took him. So- there were good people who noticed the bad ones and tried to stop it, but NTM turned and looked the other way & kicked out the good ones....

NTM is based on one fundamental error. It's called arrogance!!!!!!!!!

Tribers are taught that they are the only ones that are right, everyone else is only partially right or completely wrong. Therefore they then assume that everyone else is on this planet to provide them with exactly what they need to do whatever their god, that only speaks to them, tells them to. And that is why there is so much abuse, because it goes to the head of simple minded men and they dish out abuse to anyone they wish to control.

And if you think that NTM's response to it's victims in the U.S. is appalling, try being a Downunder MK!!!!!!!! We spent our lives being told we were inferior to our Stateside Cousins, doing the shitty jobs that they refused to do and being stripped of our dignity and possessions. Has there ever been any acknowledgement of this? If you think that it is bad for American MKs, stop and look at the mess that is the Downunder MKs. It's the aftermath of abuse on steroids and there is little recourse or compensation or justice coming down this way, because to the average Triber, we don't even raise a blip on their arrogant selfish radars!!!!!!!!!

Maybe the most honest of us all was the Sympathetic Agnostic who freely admitted he didn't have all the answers and wrestled with doubts. This site just isn't the same without a bit of Agnostic magic, shining that old endoscope for the world to see

Bemused is alive??

Oh whew!

Falling on my knees to thank the sympathetic protector of the agnostics!



(Thanks for that reassurance, Mrs Bemused .... make sure that guy stays on the couch as long as necessary.)