Ungodly abuse: The lasting torment of the New Tribes missionary kids
By Kate Snow, Aliza Nadi and Rich Schapiro
When the clock struck 8 p.m. inside the Aritao boarding school in the Philippines, the children would gather in a common area for their evening routine.
A nightly devotional. A Bible reading. Prayers.
The children were the sons and daughters of American evangelical missionaries. The sessions were led by mission caretakers known as the "dorm dad" and "dorm mom."
When the prayers were over, the boys and girls as young as 6 would march off to bed. Sometimes, the dorm dad would trail behind the girls, slip into their rooms and do ungodly things to them in the dead of night.
He would put "his hands under the covers and would touch me," recalled Joy Drake, who says the sexual abuse started when she was 9.
"I would pretend that I was sleeping because I was terrified that he would get angry or something worse would happen if I moved. So I'd hold my breath and wait til it was over."
The Aritao school was run by a Florida-based group formerly known as New Tribes Mission, one of the largest Christian missionary organizations in the world.
New Tribes missionaries have operated in more than a dozen countries, spreading the gospel in some of the most remote corners of the globe.
Devoting one's li...
Winter Appeal 2023
To our friends,
2023 has been a long year with many ups and downs for us all. As we close out the year, we at SNAP hope that you are feeling like you are on your way to being healthy, fulfilled, and happy. This past year has brought both successes and challenges. Thanks to the support you have shown in the past, we’ve been able to celebrate the good days and weather the stormy ones. Now, we are once again asking for your support as we work to support survivors new and old as we ‘Move SNAP Forward.’
At SNAP we are proud to have hosted a very well-attended conference in August 2023. This event allowed us to gather friends, survivors, advocates, and allies for a weekend of camaraderie and connection. We were so happy to be able to welcome many first-time attendees to gather in person and are already looking forward to the next conference.
To strengthen our movement for justice, healing, and prevention, SNAP will be expanding our peer support and providing more volunteer opportunities in the coming year. Through this great work, we are ensuring survivor voices are represented as we work for significant change that will benefit children and survivors.
Right now, survivors worldwide are getting the help they need from SNAP, and more and more reach out to us daily, but we need your help to keep those programs going and get our volunteers the training they need to thrive.
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Your donation ensures SNAP will be there for those who need us more than ever!
Warmly,
Michael W. McDonnell, C.P.S.
Interim Executive Director
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Thanks for your input and references. You can reach me at onergk69 so that I can send you 2 of my articles that you may find interesting; and can continue our exchange.
Rich, MSW
Thanks so much for your response. Hope we stay in touch.
Rich, MSW
Rich, MSW
The pattern is plain to anyone who has experienced abuse at the hands of religious authorities: 1) Clergy (Protestant missionaries) abused missionary children and threatened them to silence. 2) When victims eventually stepped forward as adults, the religious organization, in this case a USA based Protestant mission agency (New Tribes Mission, now called Ethnos 360) with several thousand personnel scattered around the globe, initially protected the clergy instead of the victims. 4) When the perpetrators were finally exposed, the organization moved the perps to new locations 5) without contacting legal authorities (police) in the countries where the abuse occurred, and apparently did not report the perpetrators to the police when the perps returned to the USA. 6) New Tribes Mission’s stonewalling forced victims to take their stories public via the media in order to 7) get the truth out to the public and 8) to receive some measure of justice since the statutes of limitation had expired and the abuse occurred overseas.
Sound familiar?
We at Missionary Kid Safetynet (MKSN) will never forget the kindness and concrete help we received from Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy back in the early 1990’s when we first formed in Chicago and began the fight for truth and justice with the evangelical Protestant missions community. Thank you! We are proud to be affiliated with SNAP.
Rich Darr, survivor, co-founder and current board member of MKSN.
SNAP helped start MK Safety Net a not for profit 501.c3 in the 90s. MKSN works with MK who have been abused in the mission setting.