MK forum

Posted yesterday by tow mater under Vianopolis:

"Tribers will never change.

It is imperative that they defend the mission to the bitter end.

Many of the missionaries believe the mission has made a mistake in even "reaching out" to the MKs.

Many of the missionaries believe that all allegations of abuse were handled properly by the mission from the beginning.

In other words, the window dressing stuff the EC/EB was involved with last year does not reflect the will of the majority of tribers."

Ironman, do not expect a response to your appeals. Tribers have assumed a besieged position. The gates are barred. No emissary is coming out to negotiate.

We on the Fanda Eagles blog are now the enemy.

1/17/2010 Chris Horgan on About (comments)

I read this blog and know it is all true.
It was my experience too.
I left ntm in January 1992. Even today the shame I feel at allowing myself to be part of an organisation that is as controlling and abusive as ntm is haunts me.
I was told the ntm leadership were the holy spirit in my life, amongst many other things.
I was part of the leadership and a committee member in Australia. After I left I found as many people who suffered under ntm when I was a part of it, whether they were still members or not, and asked their forgiveness for my actions.
I know of people that have ended their lives, and some that have tried. I know of people who are so damaged by their experience they cannot speak of it. I know of people who cannot return to their faith.
This is not a christian experience.

The true heroes are not the "famous" or the "gifted," Ironman.
It is becoming more and more apparent that
the" little" men and women of NTM---
the faithful ones
the compassionate ones
the transparent ones
the ones who were not that noticeable
the ones who stood up for what is right
the ones who had good ideas
the ones who were practical and offered suggestions
even those who got kicked out---
(How was that said? "They stepped out." Or "They left the work.")
were the TRUE heroes and the ones worthy of being followed.
Maybe you are one of those true heroes, Ironman.
I think so.

@ mosquito bite

I'm flattered, but I am in NO sense of the word, a hero.

I have never been a member of NTM, only an NTM MK. Although its true that as an MK I did stand up for what I felt was right and what I felt NTM leadership was doing wrong, I certainly was not alone. In fact, one of the things that I look back on now as proof that NTM is systemically flawed and incurable in its mindsick disease is how in my years growing up as an MK, that the vast majority of MK's I grew up with actually saw how screwed up the leadership structure was and how the overall atmosphere was one of oppression and guilt mongering. A host of us tried, much to our dissmay, to make these issues known to leadership. The result? We got hammered even harder with labels of rebellion and sin. The leadership just added more controlling rules.

How is it that so many young adults could see the obvious, try whole heartedly and honestly to address these concearns to leadership, and they in turn treat us like we were of the devil. Somehow we were the problem. We were the reason their job was so tuff. We were almost, in the way, if you will, of them having a good day. Thats how it came across. It seemed like we couldn't wait to leave home(graduate high school), and they couldn't wait for us to leave too. Some of the MKs did get sent home early, over some of the most ridiculous reasons known to man. As one person on this blog put it, you can't make this stuff up.

This is messed up stuff. I often wonder now, how far away the mission was from taking that terminal step...the drinking cool aid, "Laced flavor" step. We may never know, but looking back, we were too close for comfort.

So I was only one voice in a chorus of already loud voices. That was decades ago. We were ignored and told to get back in line. Having ears they could not hear and having eyes, they could not see. Blind leading the blind...

It scares me to think how close we were to God growing up, and yet how very far away the mission was from true Godliness. I can't help but feel that a lot of us "escaped", but unfortunatly many did not. They are living with the emotional and mental and physical scars to this day. The currrent version of the Mission may have changed thier tune, but its still the same old dance moves...dogging the law and skirting responsibility, all the while stepping on the toes of the abused.

I am no longer proud of my heritage as an NTM MK. I loved being an MK and still do have many fond memories of that expereince, all leadership issues aside. Now,? the Mission disgusts me! I believe the Mission was at one time in its past a work of God even though I would take issue with some of its founding philosophies. Originally it was on mostly solid ground in its doctrine and practice, but it lost its way a long time ago and now good intentions of reaching the unreached are not enough. I know there are still good people in NTM, people I love dearly. I just wish they would all wake up, realize what the heck is going on and then get out and get on with Gods work another way. NTM is irrepairable. It needs to shut down.

An average and concearned citizen(and former inmate),
Ironman

Ironman!
You just said that you fit the picture!
Everything you described says, "Hero."
We did it as adult miss.
You did it as a kid-------an even bigger hero!

And yet we hear of another mass killing at a school. Some disgruntled student, probably more than a little unhinged takes out retribution.

Is there perhaps a lesson in this for NTM. How many angry and hurt MKs are out there and of those how many have been deeply psychologically traumatised. Has NTM ever heard of David Bain, an MK who was convicted of shooting 5 of his family members (long story, best googled)?

This would be a good time to reflect, think how many other ticking timing bombs are out there with lit fuses and start seriously thinking about methods to "Dismantle the Bomb".

From NTM.org.../our heritage:

"New Tribes Mission continues to trust God, and God continues to be glorified. Today more than 3,000 missionaries serve throughout the world, and training programs in more than a dozen countries prepare missionaries for service among the thousands of tribes who have yet to hear."

Good to see that NTM is trusting God - perhaps NTM will be in heaven after all?

Is "God continues to be glorified" meant to reflect a result of what is before the comma? Or just a mutually exclusive statement of fact.

No sign of dismantling here. Hmm...let me check somewhere else.

I was investigating NTM's claim that there are 2,500 unreached people groups. Not that I suspect that claim to be false, but I wanted to see how many unreached people groups NTM has claimed there were in the past...you know, to see what kind of progress is being made (afterall, NTM has 3,000 missionaries planting churches all over the world and has 12 missionary training centers around the world). So, I Googled "New Tribes Mission 1996"...I didn't find what I was looking for, but 4 links in a row popped up whose titles I found to be interesting:

"Get me out of here!"

"It started out so well"

"New Tribes Mission High School - Vianopolis"

"Here Today and Gone Tomorrow"

NTM, as has been stated elsewhere, please dismantle the bomb - or have bomb dismantling experts dismantle the bomb for you.

correction: Yahoo search