How NTM is the Perfect Hiding Place for Child Abusers

Warren Kennel

As yet another child sexual abuse scandal emerges from a New Tribes missionary, my mind is whirring with questions. For example, how does a large organization like New Tribes Mission, with such nice people and such a clear focus, become the perfect hiding place for abusive people like Warren Kennel? Why does this keep happening? I can only speak from my own experience, but we left NTM two years ago, immediately after graduating from their Missionary Training Center. I have given this a lot of thought ever since, and I’m sure I’m not done thinking about it. I want to open up my thoughts in this post so that other people who have knowledge of NTM’s structures can chime in and let me know of their perspective.
To write this blog post, I’ll be referencing the example of Donna Beach. If you would like to know all the ins and outs of this problem, feel free to read the GRACE report, but here’s a quick summary: She is a statutory rapist. She committed her crime with a student at NTM’s boarding school in Senegal (aka Fanda). NTM chose to keep her on staff after the GRACE report was released.

So how does something like that happen? Here we go…

1. Bear with me through the technical jargon of this point, but I was told that Donna Beach is not with NTM-USA (Update: Ten minutes after posting this, I checked to see if this was true. I am not entirely sure, but I now believe she may be an NTM-USA missionary and I'm not sure why I might have been given false information while in training.). NTM is divided by country. Each country has different leadership, but works together. If I was in the remote jungle, I could have co-workers from NTM-Australia, NTM-Germany, etc. NTM-USA might have fired her (They actually had full knowledge and decided to keep her around, including Paul Wyma, who instructed everyone to “leave the lid on this,” during NTM’s first “investigation.”), but by the time the report was released, they had no authority to. Her sending country’s board decided that they disagreed with GRACE’s recommendations and kept her around. Is that NTM-USA’s fault? No. But it does point to a problem. An NTM-USA missionary who has a problem with Donna Beach has no say. Their hands are tied. The abusers have power. 
2. Why would any leadership, USA or no, decide that Donna Beach could stick around as a missionary? A missionary?! There are several leadership committees in the NTM world that are ok with her because child protection knowledge varies from country to country, and it seems that Donna Beach’s leadership believes that she has changed and is now capable of mission work. Willful or not, blindness ties up their hands. The abusers have power. 
3. Some  people in NTM plow over individuals for the sake of their end goal, so if a missionary speaks up with a problem, they risk being shamed, silenced, and ignored. Don’t believe me (and I don’t recommend that everyone read this part; it involves the death of an infant. Skip to part 4 if you think this subject would be hard for you.) When I sat in classes at New Tribes Bible Institute, I listened to a missionary tell the story of how he let an indigenous baby cry to death for 3 days in the jungle because he didn’t want to risk tarnishing his reputation by going against the cultural guidelines of superstition. He told the story as an example of his faithfulness to the goal and to God. What kind of organization would let someone like that stay on the mission field? What kind of organization would allow this missionary to teach other missionaries what it means to be faithful? One that prioritizes goals over individuals. The victims’ (like the MKs and that little baby) hands are tied as long as they submit to NTM leadership. The abusers have power. 
4. Many NTM missionaries disassociate themselves from the evil side of their organization. They know they can’t do anything, so they shut up, keep the end goal in mind, and keep working. After all, the very structure of the leadership defies change, but tribal people are dying without Jesus. They do their best to separate their own ministries name from the names of the abusers, as they build their life’s work inside of the organization they verbally distance themselves from (“NTM has done more good than bad,” or “That was a different missionary. My team is different.”). They do this instead of standing up actively to fight the abuse. They tie their own hands. The abusers have power.
5. NTMers can be unaware of this continued problem. Like I said, this organization has a lot of nice people in it. They assume the organization is inherently good and that they now do their best to keep up with child protection. I know I was shocked when I pushed and pushed to find out whatever happened to the GRACE recommendations. First, I didn’t know who to ask after we left the organization, so I wrote on NTM’s Facebook page asking where the recent Fanda updates could be found. They deleted my post and private messaged me (I found out later that what they said privately wasn’t even entirely true). This smelled funny to me. So I wrote to an MK who sent me to the Fanda forums. That was when I discovered NTM’s communications with MKs concerning Donna Beach. If you are with New Tribes today, I beg you to read this. Then I beg of you to make a stink. Throw rotten tomatoes at your leadership for their shameful response to the recommendations given by GRACE. Leave in protest if you have to (You don’t need New Tribes Mission in order to be a missionary). Anyone who supports NTM missionaries, write to the organization and tell them you will do so no longer and tell them why. Tell your churches’ mission boards this story. The monster will only stay alive if we all keep feeding it, so do whatever it takes. Your hands are not tied. Abusers should never be given power