MK forum

There are now significant additions to the IHART website.

http://www.ihart.care/

Of particular interest to me is the Frequently Asked Questions section. I am quite concerned about some of the content I see here. Please take a look at this section and consider my concerns.

1. What is IHART?

Please notice that IHART now stands for Independent Historical Allegations Review Team. The word "abuse" has been changed to "allegations". Think about the significance of this change. The focus has shifted from the fact that known abuse has occurred, to allegations ... a word which is defined in the dictionary as "a claim or assertion that someone has done something illegal or wrong, typically one made without proof".

Note also that IHART is now defined as "a process". IHART is not an organization, company, or group. It is a process. The IHART process now appears more closely linked to New Tribes Mission than what was visible before. Indeed, the changes in IHART in the last couple of months seem to make it clear that IHART has always been, and will continue to be, somewhat controlled by NTM. NTM had the prerogative to replace Pat Hendrix with Theresa Sidebotham. Pat did not leave of her own volition.

The second paragraph under #1 talks about the fact that most historical allegations are unlikely to generate criminal prosecutions by the authorities. I myself have reached the same conclusion. I have explored every option I can think of to get a confessed ex-missionary pedophile (Les Emory) arrested and convicted, and have been unsuccessful. It is important for us to accept this reality: the missionaries who abused MKs overseas, prior to the passing of the Protect Act, are probably not going to be penalized by our judicial system.

I am suspicious of the last sentence in this section, which reads, "IHART makes it possible for those historical allegations to be handled to the extent allowed by law with care and professionalism." My concern is that if IHART is guided by United States law, and not the law of morality, the law of Scripture, or the law of the Holy Spirit, then essentially, nothing done by the missionary perpetrators we wish to see punished was technically illegal. And by the same token, other missionaries in positions of authority, who should have protected the children of decades past, and should have dealt severely with those who were hurting children, are also not technically guilty of doing anything against the law.

You may think my cynicism is excessive. I have only reached this point after years of travel down a long, never ending path of disappointment and frustration.

This is only the first question in the list of twelve questions in this section of the IHART website.

More analysis to follow.

Before I continue, I will point out again, that the only people who have been officially notified of the existence of this IHART website, to my knowledge, are the members of New Tribes Mission. Donors have not been notified. People like myself, who have for years been on a list that the Child Protection department has, of people who want to be kept updated on MK abuse issues, were not notified. Some MKs who participated in an abuse investigation have recently been contacted and notified about the login process for updates on their investigation.

Which leads me to ask this question: for whom is this website designed? Is it hoped that the readers of this website will mostly be members of NTM? Members that the mission is struggling to retain, by assuring them that NTM is doing the right thing by the MKs, and that all is well?

It is a good thing that New Tribers who think and care about the issues that concern us here, regularly read Fanda Eagles as their source of reliable information.

Keep thinking, my brothers and sisters. Please, keep thinking. And keep caring.

http://www.ihart.care/faq.html

2. What are the goals for the IHART process?

The original goals for this process have not changed. They are:

1. to be certain that there is no current member of New Tribes Mission USA who has abused children

2. to give victims an avenue to tell their story

3. to offer a means for counseling for any victims who desire it

4. to learn from the past to make the organization as safe as possible for all families.


"To learn from the past to make the organization as safe as possible for all families." I will take a moment here to say very clearly and very personally that even if this one thing is the only successful accomplishment we can see, it will be worth the struggle. I do believe that the MKs of today and tomorrow are safer and more secure than many MKs of the past ever were. This is a victory, and a huge one. Young MKs, we count you as part of our family! We know the joys and the complexities of being a Third Culture Kid. Your lives are enriched by your cross cultural experiences, and we celebrate that with you! We hope that our efforts to raise awareness of the potential for danger and abuse mean that your childhood has been full of memorable adventures and as free from fear and pain as possible!

Now ... back to my critique.

Four goals are laid out clearly here.

No current members of NTM-USA who are child abusers.

Victims tell their stories ... presumably to investigators ... it would appear that the hearers of these stories will be a very small, limited audience.

Counseling for victims. This process is already in place, and has been made available by NTM for quite some time. Be aware though, that there is a limit ... counseling help has been capped, in at least some cases.

Make NTM safe for all families.

Okay....

Is that it?

What about our other concerns? The fact that the culture of the mission itself set the stage for rampant abuse of children? That things we were taught and the examples of our peers and mentors led us missionary parents to condone harsh corporal punishment dealt out by us and by others? That our children suffered abandonment in horribly unsafe environments because of the pressure for missionary parents to place their children in isolated, poorly-supervised boarding schools?

And what about the culpability of those in positions of authority who knew that innocent children had been -- or were being -- abused? The leaders who looked the other way, or punished the victims instead of the perpetrators? The field committees who shuffled missionary monsters from one job to another, one base to another, or one field to another, without addressing their vile behavior? The Executive Committee members who knew of many cases of abuse and sin, and chose not to penalize the guilty?

If IHART is going to address only four goals, just the four they have listed on their website, we are in trouble, folks.

We are in big trouble.

4. What is Ms. Sidebotham's role as IHART Coordinator?

Ms. Sidebotham's focus is to coordinate the process for conducting a thorough investigation according to the Best Practice Standards developed by the Child Safety and Protection Network.

This is a short one. Child Safety and Protection Network. Founding member: Scott Ross. Legal Counsel for the protection of New Tribes Mission USA.

Go figure.

7. Will all the information from IHART investigations be released?

When the process of independent inquiries was launched, it was determined that the privacy of those impacted by abuse was of utmost importance. In addition, the U.S. system of justice allows full reports after full judicial proceedings, but not otherwise. With this in mind, full reports with all information gathered will not be released by IHART or New Tribes Mission USA. A summary will be released at the conclusion of a regional investigation.

And there you have it. Any of you who are hoping a full report on the investigation you participated in, IHART has already anticipated your request, and there's your answer.

Nope.

8. Will the past events and actions reviewed in the process be judged by today's standards?

Current child discipline standards will not be used to evaluate events from decades earlier. The investigators are trained professionals who are using cultural and disciplinary standards of the time.


And here's where BIG RED FLAGS started waving, and HUGE CAUTION LIGHTS started blinking, and LOUD WARNING BELLS started clanging in my head!!!

What? What? Whaaat????

Be ready for this argument from NTM: Current standards are not valid for evaluating events from decades earlier.

If there was no explicit rule against beating children in Papua New Guinea FORTY times for a childish misbehavior, then those who whacked these poor defenseless children so hard they could not sit down did nothing wrong, and even though some of the sadists who brutalized children are still members of the mission, they are not child abusers, so there will be no consequence to them??

If the cultural standard on a certain field was that it was normal for married men to have sex with young teenaged girls, then the missionaries who engaged in this ungodly, sinful behavior with MKs in high school did nothing wrong, and they will not be exposed in an abuse report??

IF IT IS WRONG NOW, IT WAS WRONG THEN!!!

That's what I say!!

This is making me so upset the top of my head is about to fly off!

Theresa Sidebotham, you who understand abuse issues and protecting children, because you personally experienced an environment where child sexual abuse was endemic, and had to protect your own children in a similar environment, how can you agree to such a crock of nonsense?? God protected you from being raped in the country you lived in! He did NOT protect the children in the MK schools who were raped by their principal, or their dorm father! You protected your own children, and kept them safe. And now you are going to steel your heart to say that if people thirty years ago thought it was okay to humiliate a child for wetting their bed, or spank them for crying from homesickness, or make them eat their vomit because they gagged on their food, then those MK victims who are now adults have no recourse, will find no advocate, will get no justice?

I am beyond appalled. I am sick. Just sick over this. I need to walk away for a bit.

Continuing. From http://www.ihart.care/faq.html

The information I need to address under Question 9 is in the second half of the answer..

Each (investigative) group follows a 3-part process:

1 Conduct fully independent research of each allegation
2 Assemble the findings and deliver finalized reports
3 Recommend outcomes for any individuals who violated either the law or the policies of New Tribes Mission USA

It is extremely important to examine the wording in item 3: "Recommend outcomes for any individuals who violated either the law or the policies of New Tribes Mission USA."

If this is to be the one and only guide for recommending outcomes, then be aware that NTM may use this to avoid penalizing even those who are obviously guilty of hurting children. Because the standard will not be whether or not they abused, molested, beat, harassed, terrorized, humiliated or harmed children. It is very possible that NTM will wriggle out of dealing consequences out to their missionaries or former missionaries, based only on whether the specific thing they did violated any law or policy that existed at the time of the abuse.

This tactic has been used before. Anticipate that it will be used again.

What horrifies me about this is that nowhere do I see the standards we were taught to use in our mission training being mentioned. What about what we learned in Ethics class? What about what our Bible teachers and preachers proclaimed? What about the nudgings of your conscience? The whispering of the Holy Spirit? The verses from the Scripture that your translators are even now putting in print in tribal languages?

Your only guide is going to be the laws that were in place, and the policies of the mission at the time of the abuse??

Who thinks this is acceptable??

I declare to I do not!!

Oops.

I declare that I do not!

My Dear Raz,

I remember when I was a small child, the church we attended had a fancy dress and my religiously fervent father had another sibling and I carry a coffin with "The Wages of Sin are Death" written on it's side as our contribution to the event. Then we joined NTM, where it was confirmed over and over and over and over that this was indeed true and all that Brown Gold had to be told the same and errant MKs lived in fear of this maxim.

Please pray for my family as they now find that NTM has changed their theology and that "The Wages of Sin are no longer death", in fact it's not actually sin at all, but some allegations of which the penalty is well, not much at all really. In fact one can be saved from the former sin, now allegations by being washed in the legal words of well paid lawyers and those who employ their services.
It must be a terrible shock to realise that NTM has gone soft, or as the fervent would say "is committing heresy"

Ironically, this now places my family and myself on a similar theological course. For I still believe that the wages for rape, molestation and heinous child abuse, should still be a very stiff penalty (bearing in mind that capital punishment has been removed from the statute books for some decades).

Unless of course, I am now the only believer in my genetic line who still actually believes the Bible in this respect and the words of NTM are followed as the real truth, rather than the wisdom of Christ. And that could be a distinct, real and totally ironic possibility.

Cheers

Bemused the Believer (in part)

Raz, I share in your distress and despair.

These are ugly and foul words.