MK forum

Here is a quick over view of RJ taken from their website.

Info
What is restorative justice?
Restorative justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behaviour. It is best accomplished through cooperative processes that include all stakeholders.

Practices and programs reflecting restorative purposes will respond to crime by:

1.identifying and taking steps to repair harm,
2.involving all stakeholders, and
3.transforming the traditional relationship between communities and their governments in responding to crime.
Some of the programmes and outcomes typically identified with restorative justice include:

Victim offender mediation
Conferencing
Circles
Victim assistance
Ex-offender assistance
Restitution
Community service


Three principles form the foundation for restorative justice:
1.Justice requires that we work to restore those who have been injured.
2.Those most directly involved and affected by crime should have the opportunity to participate fully in the response if they wish.
3.Government's role is to preserve a just public order, and the community's is to build and maintain a just peace.

Restorative programmes are characterized by four key values:
1.Encounter: Create opportunities for victims, offenders and community members who want to do so to meet to discuss the crime and its aftermath
2.Amends: Expect offenders to take steps to repair the harm they have caused
3.Reintegration: Seek to restore victims and offenders to whole, contributing members of society
4.Inclusion: Provide opportunities for parties with a stake in a specific crime to participate in its resolution

I have the good fortune to be in communication with several people on the forums either by pm or email. I feel very sad. I feel saddened by what they tell me. The heading for this section is "You have a choice." What does that really mean?

I was, and am, a fan of a television show called Babylon 5. It is a science fiction show about some big issues. For the first 3 years of its 5 year run it focused on a war between the forces of light and darkness. In order to keep that from being too simplistic the creator of the show gave those two sides a question which they would ask their followers. The light would ask, "Who are you?" while the dark would ask, "What do you want?"

The thing about the light side is that they were about order and control. The idea was to follow their orders without question. Their followers would have peace at the cost of self. The darkside would offer their followers anything they wanted, all their followers had to do was to take it. This led to war and chaos. In the end, our protagonists told them both to shove off. The protagonists would make their own choices and answer both questions. What is my point?

On a personal level, I am asking "What do you want?" Why are you here on these forums? What do you want deep down in your heart? Maybe you have not even been willing to trully look at what you want, maybe you have and know exactly what it is that you want. I trully would like to know. How do we make a choice when we do not know what it is that we want? How do you choose an action to get what you want when you don't know what you want? How can a group work together to reach a goal, no matter whether it be nobel or base, if they do not know what they mutually want?

I would love to know what every member of this forum wants. That is just me. I am incredibly nosey. Along with being nosey, I like to know where things are going. For all of our anger, pain, sadness, frustation, and sometimes even happiness, is there something we want other than what we see on the forums.

If you feel inclined to tell me what you want, pretend that I am a very dense 6 year old. Feel free to share here or tell me via a pm. If you have no intention of sharing what you want, Do you know what you want?

I want to help people get their lives back. I want to be helpful, not disruptive. I want to help others who have been hurt by NTO just as I was to find as much healing as I have found. Hopefully even more since I still have things to work on. I want NTO to pay for what they did, even to the point of ceasing to exist. I want the truth to be told to the world so that they can see what a bunch of hypocrits NTO trully has been and some still are. I want vengence against those who led so many people astray. I want a target for my anger, a target that when hit, it means something. I want everyone to know about the family friend who is too terrified to tell her horrific story. I want them to know her story and feel the shame. I want people to know about the cover ups. I want people to see the idol they have been worshipping, NTO, for what it trully is.

I want to be fully free of my pain and anger. I have come a long way, a very long way. I know this because no one has died. I want to know that the healing can begin for so many people. I want to see that the process of healing is trully starting and isn't just a shame. I want to see people stand up and say no more, never again, nunca mas. I want to see the people show "Who they are." Am I someone who is willing to pay the price or am I someone who watches as the next guy is beaten to death by the mob? Any current missionaries feel free to think about this as well, because you are watching. Are you recording this with your cellphones?

I want to be free, I want you to be free.

the words are truly and sham.

For me, in a word: Change. Real change, not just finding a fall guy, writing a couple more manuals and policies, and internal relabelling. I don't care if it happens through a complete internal overhaul of paradigm (sorry, it's my new favourite word...) and organizational structure or through a few sticks of dynamite.

That's what I want.

Why I want it is another story.

I have a choice. I choose not be bullied down the path of bitterness and strife by disgruntled former ntmrs who were not abused mks. They use scripture and verbage to cajole and bully until they get their way. To me it sounds exactly like the ntm I grew up in. They do not have my best interests at heart!

What is in your best interest Jerry? I honestly don't know, but would like to know.

XYZ wants GRACE.
Another wants the abusers to face the music. a pm.
Sitting Duck wants real change.
Ornery wants nto to move to China.
I want NTO to feel the pain they have caused others.
Someone else seems to want to redeem their past of looking the other way. my observation.

What do you want? What is in your best interest?

Sherpa, I think Ornery is questioning whether there is one current NTMer who would put their own position in the mission on the line by speaking out vocally on this site to defend the rights of MK abuse survivors to tell their stories and ask for what they need. Including asking for GRACE to be used for future investigations. This CLEARLY is what many of us are pleading for.
And I would agree with Ornery. Yes, I do have friends and relatives who are still with NTM. I love many current members of NTM. And yet, in this situation, none of them have taken a clear and public stand with us.
The pressure to protect the group (mission), and in so doing protect one's own position and even livelihood takes precedence over any professed concern about the needs of abused MKs.

Raz is quite correct. The silence is not getting any quieter.

I think this speaks to the fear that is still within NTM - fear of retaliation for unsolicited, non-NTM sponsored proactivity. Vertabrates are an endangered species within the NTM ecosystem.

If the missionaries will not speak up, it is time for the investors to pull the plug.

Spineless and the other statements were your's Sherpa. What I said was:

I want to see people stand up and say no more, never again, nunca mas. I want to see the people show "Who they are." Am I someone who is willing to pay the price or am I someone who watches as the next guy is beaten to death by the mob?

I believe in social action. Several of the guys here have mentioned violence if their children were threatened. A number of the women have made statements about protecting children. Most here have made statements that they will work to see the cycle end, including yourself. I am glad for that. When it comes to impacting policy of NTO, why are the streets so empty sage brush can blow down them. There is a thread which asks where are the men of NTO.

Where are the missionaries who created and followed policy? Maybe that is just me, I believe in making changes in this world. I look at Civil Rights movement, the various nationalist movements of the 50s and 60s, and democracy movements around the world. I have to ask what NTO people really believe? A person's actions show what thier faith is really like. Seriously some one count this, how many times in the Bible did an entity have to take action before the anything happened? The promise was given, but without action the promise would not have happened. How many times where the people brought together before a promise was fulfilled?

We stood up for truth over a period of about a year.
We knew it could end badly.
It did.
Our story is a testimony to the style of leadership that GRACE uncovered.
But God is bigger than these leaders and we live in freedom now--- with an absolutely exciting direction from the Lord.
We had support and understanding and encouragement from reasonable/ reality-centered and godly people in many parts of the world (none from nto) during this ordeal.
We want what Sitting Duck wants--a BIG paradigm shift and for the churches to wake up to what is going on.
We want to support and encourage others to the place of knowing they aren't crazy and that Jesus is the Truth Who will heal and restore them.