MK forum

I'd like to start an in-depth discussion of the article and how it pertains to the investigations. Do you agree or disagree with the facts and how they are presented? Personally I see certain portions as an "apples and oranges" comparison. I'd like to keep the GRACE discussion at a minimum as we discussed this on other threads at length.

Here is the link again.


And go!

The article starts out with the staggering numbers of children that are abused (in the U.S., but it will be no doubt similar for other similar countries) and then states that 92% of the reported abuse is committed by relatives.
And here in lies the difference, the abuse occurring in religious institutions is not generally being committed by relatives and that is what this is all about. Relatives that commit incest can be more easily tracked down and dealt with (and have been within the NTM environment), but dorm parents, teachers e.t.c. who committed crimes have become much harder to have had called to account because of the actions of the missions themselves.

The article tries to make comparisons between other groups of children growing up in non standard international settings and uses the military as a comparison. i.e. this piece
"Some allegations of abuse in missionary boarding schools conflate actual abuse with
typical MK psychological issues or confuse the two. Most MKs have feelings of disorientation,
dislocation, abandonment, and rejection, whether or not they attended a boarding school. The
MK experience is also complicated by strong elements of spiritual shame and coercion that were
often present in the evangelical subculture during the relevant periods.
These experiences, though painful, were often not abusive, but an outcome of a particular
choice of lifestyle and occupation by the parents. For a missionary child to face a boarding-
school separation is no more abusive than for military children to have their fathers sent to Iraq
for a year. However, some claimants and some investigators are confused about this . . ."
But to my mind this argument makes little sense. Children of soldiers in Iraq are not in Iraq, they are in the U.S. (correct me if I am wrong), while missionaries children are in the countries where there parents serve.

Next!

Oops back again.

Worth also considering that the Australian Government looked at similar evidence and came to a rather different conclusion, in that they set up a huge Royal Commission of Inquiry that is looking into abuse in Religious Institutions.
Perhaps the lesson here is that this is a very big issue, involving many people, both victims, perpetrators and those who have been in charge and needs to be exposed fully to ascertain what, how and why so much abuse occurred.
While we may not agree with the attached report in its entirety, it is a valid opinion and interpretation of facts and figures. And all such evidence/information is well worth treating as admissible in the aim of a true and thorough investigation.
It is also a vast improvement to have someone who can communicate involved, for a lack of communication has got us so far into this mess in the first place and is a good step in resolving at least some of the hurts of the past.

Okay.

First paragraph, first page:

"This article offers ministry leaders lessons from the Catholic sexual abuse scandal. These lessons are more necessary than ever as the dramatically declining settlements from Catholic institutions push plaintiffs' attorneys to develop new markets including Boy Scouts, Southern Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Orthodox Jews, some Protestant denominations, and missionary-sending organizations. 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."

Customarily, an author lays out their objective at the beginning of an article. So it would appear that the above quote is designed for that purpose: to describe what the authors intend to prove by their article, titled "Are Protestant Ministries a New Market? Lessons Learned from the Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal".

"This article offers ministry leaders lessons from the Catholic sexual abuse scandal." Intended audience: ministry leaders.

"Dramatically declining settlements from Catholic institutions push plaintiffs' attorneys to develop new markets." The suggestion here is that greedy attorneys are the ones propelling the recent focus on child abuse. Do the authors really think that it was attorneys who started the Fanda Eagles blog, or attorneys who have kept some of us here writing and posting for years on end? This is all happening because attorneys are worried about their incomes, and we are being manipulated by attorneys to produce new "markets" for them??

"The Catholic prequel shapes allegations now surfacing against Protestant boarding schools." Protestant boarding schools. Okay, MKs. They mean Fanda, and Vianopolis, and Escuela Hogar Misionero, and Numonohi, and Oliguti, and Aritao. The Catholics shaped you allegations? Your reports of beatings and sodomy and rape and emotional abuse and terror and isolation and abandonment? The Catholics shaped that?? What does that mean? Nussbaum and Sidebotham don't think it really happened? They think the Catholics are telling you what to say??

"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." Yes. There it is. You ministry leaders, your first concern should be whether or not you might go bankrupt. Not the children. Oh no, not the children. These two ATTORNEYS are writing this article, in order to do you a big favor, which is to save your millions from OTHER ATTORNEYS who are manipulating gullible people into trying to get your money.

Oh, threewillows! What have you done??? I cannot even look at the first page of this article without my blood pressure shooting up!

Gotta step away for a bit.


.

Oh, the irony here!

Two attorneys write an article directed toward ministry leaders (and mission leaders), warning them that there are other attorneys who are plotting to use allegations of abuse to try to drain their coffers.

Three years later, one of the attorney authors of this article is hired by New Tribes Mission to coordinate investigations into abuse allegations reported by MKs who are now adults.

Talking about "developing" a "market".

I don't even know what to say.

Instead of thinking that attorneys are creating an industry to prompt or advance lawsuits that may target a religious or other entity I see it more as necessity prompted by circumstance like OSHA, unions, women's vote and the like. Societal changes sometime advance at a slow and painful pace with much kicking and screaming involved. But these changes are necessary and driven by light shining into darkness.

Also delving into the emotional abuse that was the cultural norm at the time we can see that what effect it had on the general NTM child population now. Emotional abuse as a crime is described as violent, threatening or they cause the person to fear for her or his safety. This is true of the time. Children were threatened with violence and the follow-through known to us as spankings but in reality they were beatings most of the time. In addition, what NTM child wasn't threatened with hell fire? If not for you because luckily were saved then for your jungle friends. If this scenario doesn't satisfy the "threatened with violence" then I know of children threatened with guns. More insidious and common though were the ever present threat of God swooping down to end your life because you weren't walking with God. This was an ever real and present threat.

Until later.

indeed. at numonohi we were drenched with both fear and guilt at every turn. it is what we breathed. it was emotional abuse. with long term consequences. ntm's culture of boarding school was despicable.

"Some allegations of abuse in missionary boarding schools conflate actual abuse with typical MK psychological issues or confuse the two."

"For a missionary child to face a boarding school separation is no more abusive than for military children to have their fathers sent to Iraq for a year. However, some claimants and some investigators are confused about this."

It is hard for me to believe that an MK actually wrote these words. An MK named Theresa Sidebotham.

Does anyone know who this comprehensive report was written for and who paid for it. It is a substantial work written by two people who I would humbly suggest did not do this for no $.

Understanding the above questions might prove good insight into the opinions expressed.

And probably worth remembering that this report is opinion based on interpretation of statistics, not fact just because the writers are well qualified.

Click on this link:

http://telioslaw.com/attorneys-advocate ... blications

“Are Protestant Ministries a New Market? Lessons Learned From the Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal,” a paper presented at the 2011 conference of the American Society of Missiology (written with L. Martin Nussbaum).

This paper was written to present to the American Society of Missiology.

And what is that?

Here is their website:

http://www.asmweb.org/content/home