New Tribes Mission Sweeps Child Sex Abuse Under the Rug

Adults who were abused emotionally, spiritually, physically and sexually while children in a New Tribes Mission boarding school in Fanda, West Africa are speaking out and seeking justice. The boarding school was for the children of missionaries with New Tribes Mission. It has long been the established practice for missionary children to be sent to boarding schools while their parents served in foreign countries. This practice is not unique to New Tribes Mission, but has been an established practice of most mission boards that I have ever known.

What makes this particular school and situation stand out is that there is now extensively documented evidence that the mission board knew of the sexual abuse by 1987 but did nothing about it. As of the present time, more than 20 years later, they have still taken no legal action and persist in ignoring the pleas of former victims for justice. They are making token noises about the systemic abuse but have done nothing definitive.

What will it take for New Tribes Mission to step up to God’s standards of righteousness? This is inexcusable. Any “work for the Lord” is tainted and polluted when the same people who claim to be winning the lost for Christ are simultaneously flushing other lives down the drain in some of the most destructive ways possible. A “little” poison in the brownies is enough to kill all who eat them. This is not just repugnant. It is a spiritual outrage that should appall anyone with a conscience. Yet, these leaders do not seem to see the situation with any sort of godly perspective. That fact should give anyone serious pause. The documented facts are enough to reveal there is no acceptable excuse.