MK forum

Boz' recent blogpost has now been shared over 2,000 on Facebook!

I wonder how many people have clicked on the embedded link in his article and found themselves here at Fanda Eagles.

There may be some new eyes reading now ....

This week's blogpost is written by Jonathan Hollingsworth, the young author of Runaway Radical.

Every word of this post is excellent, accurate, and is absolutely applicable to our struggle with NTM. Please take the time to read it.

"When Christians minimize wrongdoing, when they offer more grace to the perpetrator than to the victims, and when they collectively forgive someone who has never even hurt them in the first place, forgiveness becomes just another form of abuse."

http://boz.religionnews.com/2015/12/11/ ... ive-grace/

Yes! That is excellent.
And, yes, we are familiar with this approach.

Today's guest post on Boz's blog is excellent.

It is written by an attorney who has helpful insight into the challenges of getting justice in cases of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Some of the points he makes are very applicable to the situations we know about and discuss here: cases of adult MKs who are attempting to speak up about abuse they suffered in NTM when they were children.

http://boz.religionnews.com/2016/01/15/ ... eir-voice/

Since I know Theresa Sidebotham reads what we post here, I would like to request that she read what this attorney has written, and consider ways in which his insight could be applied to help IHART investigators as they interview MKs who have been abused, or who witnessed abuse.

"Childhood sexual abuse is recognized as a form of complex psychological trauma in that it typically involves repetitive, ongoing abuse, a fundamental betrayal of trust in a primary relationship, perpetrated by someone known by or related to the victim. The timing of the abuse events during a critical period of development during childhood has adverse long-term psychological and behavioral effects on the victims. Due to developmental impairments in cognitive functioning and language production related to the occurrence of the abuse events during childhood, some adult survivors may not be able initially to remember clearly and recount to investigators the details of the abuse events and recovered memories are often fragmented, incomplete, and nonspecific."

These sentences particularly caught my attention:

"Prosecutors should develop the skills to place recovered abuse memories in their proper context so as to explain delays, omissions, and/or inconsistencies in a survivor’s statements. Experts are often necessary to educate jurors (and judges) as to the correlation between childhood sexual abuse and traumatic amnesia. There must be a victim-centered approach at all stages that proceeds from the presumption that the survivor is credible unless the evidence proves otherwise."

It troubles me a great deal that IHART is now headed by the author of the article, "Are Protestant Ministries a New Market?", in which you can read the following: "The "theory of repressed memories is junk science. The almost universal human experience is that traumatic events are more memorable, not less.""

http://telioslaw.com/pdfversions/new-market.pdf

A person who is persuaded that the REALITY of repressed memories is nothing but "junk science" is not going to understand traumatic amnesia, will be skeptical of the fragmented memories of victims, and will instead believe the denials of the adults who traumatized those victims.

Yes, this troubles me a great deal, and it should trouble any person inside or outside of NTM who cares about the MK abuse victims from this mission. Presume the survivor is credible! Do NOT presume that the missionaries couldn't possibly have been capable of hurting small children! Because they were capable, and they did in fact do a horrendous amount of damage to many innocent lives.

Of course traumatic amnesia exists. That is why serious car accident victims often have little recollection of the event. The brain is an amazing organ and it does what it needs to to survive, which includes blocking out trauma so it doesn't have to be relived.

Maybe the lucky ones are those who cannot remember, or maybe not! There are MKs who have suffered one or more significant traumatic abuse events and have to deal with that. There are also MKs who even as middle aged adults are being abused by manipulative families, who suffer greatly for speaking out and daring to help other vicitims. For them the pain is ongoing and probably will be for a lifetime, because it can hardly heal when the scabs are being constantly picked at.
Imagine living a life where your family hates you for doing what is right! I know MKs this is happening to right now!

The only way I can rationalize this in my finite mind is to say over and over to myself, NTM is a cult, you did not join it of your own free will, so therefore you are not responsible for what it has done in the name of Jesus. But in Jesus name you must examine your own conscience and decide what role you should play in bringing this dangerous cult to it's knees!

I must be a Deja Doer, not a Didya see that and do nothing!

Yes, yes you are! Thank you for speaking out!!

Boz reminds us that many young adults of today have a different perspective on abuse in the Christian environment. They don't think like their parents' generation. They aren't going to cross the road to the other side in order to avoid helping a suffering survivor of abuse.

Maybe ... just maybe ... the under-30 group of NTM candidates and new missionaries will also refuse to accept the mission leaders' decisions about how to respond to MK abuse survivors?

http://boz.religionnews.com/2016/01/25/ ... ent-311167

I think Boz is right. There has been a general shift in society against child abuse. It is no longer the dark secret behind closed doors and law enforcers are coming up to speed with prosecutions. Historical abuses (especially those in foreign countries) are still an issue in some countries, but the trend is a good one.

Personally I think NTM still has the potential for attracting paedophiles. While it is making some appropriate noises with training programmes, until it actively demonstrates a very firm hand in dealing with offenders, it is bark with little bite. The obvious case being Scott Kennell. NTM has still not been able to answer the simple question of what they have done for his victims. Yes he is in jail, but hardly due to any great effort of NTM, to little to late again.
And then there was the Gary Earl fiasco, not dealt with at all properly. If this is as good as NTM can do, then the report card reads "must do better".