'All for ourselves and nothing for other people' seems in every age of the world to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind. -Adam Smith "All the 'truth' in the world adds up to one big lie." Bob Dylan "Idealism precedes experience, cynicism follows it." Anon

October 25, 2010

Child sacrifice: a review of the documentary All God's Children - the ultimate sacrifice

Chain The Dogma    December 22, 2009

by Perry Bulwer


Child sacrifice. The phrase may evoke images of Old Testament or New World rituals, or perhaps more modern images of misguided believers in 'faith healing' allowing children to die without even basic medical intervention that could have saved their lives. Those are examples of literal child sacrifice, where children are purposely killed or allowed to die because of superstitious belief that it will please a god. But the notion of 'child sacrifice' is also used metaphorically by some religious zealots indoctrinated to believe that parental duties are less important than their godly duties.

The documentary, All God's Children: the ultimate sacrifice, which examines abuses perpetrated against missionary kids isolated in a boarding school in Mamou, Guinea operated by the Christian and Missionary Alliance, opens with a discussion of the metaphor of a father sacrificing, or giving up, his son to save the world. It is such a powerful metaphor that it formed the foundation for three 'great' Abrahamic religions, and continues to compel mothers and fathers to break their natural parental bonds and abandon their children, to 'sacrifice' their kids in order to further their perceived, or more accurately, their misperceived spiritual mission. As one adult survivor of the horrendous abuses at the boarding school featured in the documentary asked his father: "How many African souls were worth my soul?" That was not a rhetorical question. The effect of religion related abuse on many survivors is a devasting loss of faith.

The sad tales of extreme emotional, psychological, physical, sexual, and spiritual child abuse recounted in the documentary are all too familiar to survivors of religion related child abuse, as well as to the health professionals who assist their recovery and the advocates who assist their search for justice and accountability. Those abuses all have similar characteristics, regardless of the particular religion, denomination, or sect, and survivors use similar words and phrases to describe that abuse, such as "mind control", "soul control" and "mental rape", each of which is heard in the documentary. The descriptions of corporal punishment, furthermore, clearly describe extreme physical abuse that was tantamount to torture and was intended to coerce, intimidate and humiliate, and could just as easily be describing abuse by Catholics, Baptists, the Hare Krishna, the Twelve Tribes, or the Children of God/The Family International. Regarding that latter group, they have an historical connection to the Christian and Missionary Alliance, but more on that later.

Just as vile as the physical and sexual abuses, perhaps even more so for some, are the accounts of psychological and spiritual abuses, or "soul control" as one interviewee put it. Children as young as 6, abandoned to the care of uncaring strangers, and experiencing separation shock were told to just get over any natural feelings and emotions. Siblings were prevented from comforting and supporting each other. The Alliance, and the boarding school they were virtual prisoners in, was the children's entire world, their 'family', which they were taught was the 'Body of Christ. They referred to all adults as aunts and uncles, who in the children's minds stood in place of God. As one survivor put it, when she was being violently raped by a staff member, it was the "face of God" that was causing her pain. In that totalitarian environment, where their guardians were their abusers, children could not turn to their teachers or dorm 'parents' for help or comfort. They were physically and spiritually threatened into silence, a silence that lasted long into their adult lives.

That long-term effect of child abuse is another way in which these survivor stories are so similar to those of other survivors. Many buried their shame, fear and anger for years, unable to express or process the abuse suffered during what must have been a terribly confusing childhood. After all, the children were experiencing the exact opposite of the gospel of love their parents were busy preaching to others. One survivor recounts that years later, back in the U.S., he laughed out loud when conversing with someone who said they had a happy childhood. The notion of a happy childhood was so oxymoronic to him that he actually thought the person was joking, as he had no idea it was possible to be a happy child. How sad is that? This same survivor also exhibits signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a common diagnosis for abuse survivors, when recounting with teary eyes and quivering voice how he struggled with suicidal thoughts, and how traumatic triggers, such as evangelical church hymns, immediately remind him of the "mental rape" he endured.

The documentary also reveals a similar pattern of recovery and advocacy that has occurred with other survivor groups. Emotions and psychological pain can only be bottled up for so long, and eventually some survivors begin connecting with each other, comparing stories, identifying abusers and organizing. For some, it was not until this process started that they began to recognize their childhood mistreatment for what it was, severe child abuse. However, any relief this initial recovery process may have brought them was tempered by the Alliance's response to their complaints, which was typical of most religious institutions confronted by allegations of systemic child abuse. For ten years a small group of survivors presented their complaints and allegations to the Alliance leadership, and for ten years they were ignored. A handful of survivors are shown protesting outside a general meeting of 4000 Alliance members. Except for one woman who stood with the protesters because her son had been sexually assaulted in one of the 12 boarding schools the Alliance operated, the survivors were completely ignored by Alliance members. For the survivors, this was simply adding insult to injury.

It was only after the survivors began a campaign to shame the Alliance in the media that any effort was made to address their complaints. The Alliance finally agreed to set up an internal Independent Commission of Inquiry. The survivor group, knowing how difficult it is for many to speak about their abuse, had hoped for at least 20 victims willing to testify, so were surprised when 80 agreed to do so. The Inquiry found that for several decades there had been consistent, systemic child abuse, and that it was not a result of just a few bad apples, which is a common excuse many abusive religious institutions give. So far, so good. The Alliance even agreed to set-up a weekend retreat for survivors of the Mamou school to help with their recovery, but that is as far as the Alliance has moved toward effectively addressing and correcting the specific issues raised by those survivors.

An Alliance leader, Peter Nanfelt, did offer an official apology at the time of that weekend retreat in which he expressed remorse and regret. However, as with similar apologies made on behalf of abusive religious groups, some survivors appearing in the documentary found the apology unsatisfying and self-serving. One referred to it as a "political" gesture by a "good politician", since Nanfelt had done everything he could, from 1987 onward, to stonewall any investigation into the abuse and keep it out of the media. The apology only came after the Alliance was forced into a corner. Some survivors saw it for what it was, an attempt to get forgiveness from them in order to let the Alliance off the hook and absolve them from any blame, without having to substantially address the issues that forced the apology. On the other hand, at the time of the apology some saw it as a significant step forward and a hopeful sign that healing and recovery was possible. However, other than the weekend retreat, the Alliance did nothing for the survivors.

Survivors took the next step in recovery and set up an advocacy website, Missionary Kids Safety Net (MKSN). In 2005 they met with the Alliance leadership and presented suggestions for changes in the organization that would protect the kids of missionaries. As of 2008, when the documentary was made, those advocates were still waiting for meaningful results from the Alliance. On the MKSN website they have posted documents that shed more light on the Alliance's inadequate resonse to this abuse scandal. For example, the Alliance issued another official apology in January 2009, which they posted on their website. If their first apology was so appropriate and effective, why would they need to issue another one? MKSN's response to this latest apology details some common faults in such institutional apologies. For example, here are just some of the criticisms:

"anger that the apology was not more specific"

"a sense of evasion of responsibility"

"continues to try to essentially coerce forgiveness from a situation where it is the last step in a process – not the first, or even an intermediate, step"

"apology was not signed by any individual Alliance official"

"nor did it go out as a personal message to individual survivors who are known to the Alliance"

"extremely limited scope of its distribution. The Alliance evidently thinks that a carefully worded apology in its in-house publications, in some way neutralizes the issue"

"the chosen manner of distribution for the apology means it will not reach a large percentage of abuse survivors"

"I expect that the Alliance now will assert it has done enough with regard to MK abuse issues. As we’ve said before, unless and until the C&MA reaches out comprehensively to all former students, submits allegations to a truly independent investigative process, and meaningfully engages a broader spectrum of the survivor community, gestures such as this will not have the impact you intend."

Sadly, this issuing of multiple, self-serving apologies for the same offences is nothing new. The Alliance seems to have copied this tactic from the leaders of the cult Children of God, now known as The Family International, who have issued numerous apologies for similar child abuses as those documented in All God's Children. One survivor of that cult abuse critiques those apologies and her criticisms are very similar to those above by the MKSN advocates.

I purposely make a connection here between the Christian and Missionary Alliance and the Children of God, now The Family International, because the founder of that cult, David Berg, had been a minister with the Alliance for a few years in the late 1940s and early 50s. He wrote that his mother's evangelical faith healing ministry began with her own healing from a back injury after her husband was handed a tract written by A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Years later, after working in his mom's ministry, Berg became a minister with the Alliance and was placed at Valley Farms, Arizona. He was eventually expelled from the Alliance over doctrinal disputes and sexual misconduct with a teen employee of the church. A little more than ten years later, on the beaches of California, Berg began attracting followers to his extremist brand of evangelism from amongst the hippies and unaffiliated Jesus freaks and an abusive cult was born, one might say, from a 'seed' planted by the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

Berg's cult quickly became known for its manipulative, abusive tactics, and accusations of 'brain-washing' were frequently made against it, what survivors featured in the documentary might call "mental rape" or "soul control". However, it wasn't until children began being born and raised in totalitarian environments that the worst of the abuses began occurring. It is not surprising that the systemic child abuses detailed in All God's Children are in many respects the same as those within the Children of God/The Family International. Christian dogma, such as 'sacrificing' or giving up your children in order to do God's work, adhered to by both groups, is directly responsible for many of the systemic abuses committed within them.

And one final note on this connection. On the front page of the Christian and Missionary Alliance website, they offer this description of their organization: "The Alliance is a unique missionary denomination—a maverick movement..." That language is eerily similar to language used by the current leaders of The Family International to describe Berg's extreme doctrines. In a press release they describe the group's desire, not to distance themselves from abusive doctrines, but instead to preserve the group's "... uniqueness and unconventional doctrines". Too bad that the abuses these bad religions cause are not unique as well, instead of being all too common.

For more information on All God's Children: the ultimate sacrifice, a documentary by Scott Solary & Luci Westphal, visit their website at: http://www.allgodschildrenthefilm.com/

For related news articles go to: "Report reveals dozens of missionary kids in Africa criminally abused at New Tribes Mission school but no one ever charged"
https://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.com/2011/01/report-reveals-dozens-of-missionary.html

8 comments:

  1. Hi, I would like to correct the link that is given for Mk Safety Net. The correct link should be: http//www.mksafetynet.net

    Thanks.
    Joel C.
    MkSafetyNet Board Member

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That link above no longer works. The new link for Missionary Kids Safety Net is: http://www.mksafetynet.org/content/missionary-kids-safety-net

      Delete
  2. Mounties investigate abuse allegations at Three Hills Bible college

    By Deborah Tetley And Jeremy Klaszus, Calgary Herald November 19, 2011

    RCMP are investigating allegations of abuse dating back several decades at a central Alberta Bible college. Mounties in Three Hills began looking into the allegations this week after administrators at Prairie Bible Institute directed the RCMP to rumours swirling on the Internet and after a complaint was filed.

    ...

    It's a difficult time at the Christian college, said Linda Brinks, a member of the board. "Nobody wants to hear that maybe hurtful things happened to anybody at any time and there's a sense of grief that there's people out there maybe carrying pain around and have for a long time," said Brinks, who has been appointed by the board as a contact person for the public and other potential abuse victims. Brinks would not speak to the number of possible victims, although one website dedicated to discussing the allegations says there are dozens of cases of abuse, including physical, emotional and sexual.

    "Our desire is to be as open and transparent as possible and we're not desiring to cover anything up, but so far, they are just allegations," she said Friday. Brinks said school officials are confident in the investigation. "The RCMP are the right people right to now investigate," she said. "We trust that anyone who is still hurting will get some closure in their life, whether through pressing criminal charges or through dialogue with the school. We hope the investigation will provide answers to questions about who was abused and who was guilty of it."

    President Mark Maxwell posted a letter on the institute's website stating the alleged incidents date back several decades. "The individuals purportedly involved are no longer at Prairie," reads the letter, dated Nov. 15. "Nevertheless, we feel it is appropriate to respond and to emphasize our commitment to seeking truth and transparency."

    Maxwell said in an interview that he's not aware of any criminal activity in the school's history, but he believes the online allegations seem "real enough" to warrant concern about the school's past. "I want to know the truth," said Maxwell, who has been the school's president for about a year and a half. "I want to know who's been injured. I want to know who did it, and help bring that to resolution."

    Catherine Darnell, 56, started the Facebook group in September for alumni of the college, located northeast of Calgary. Darnell says that as a child, she suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse from staff at the nondenominational Protestant school, which for many years was known for its strictness and insularity. "[I started the group] to open up dialogue regarding abuse and hopefully to get people to come forward if they've been impacted," said Darnell, who now lives outside Fergus, Ont. She says her abusers are now dead.

    Linda Fossen, a Prairie alumnus who has written about being abused by her father - who also was a student at the school - says she has heard from more than 80 victims, mostly staff kids who were sexually abused. Earlier this week, Fossen, who lives in Florida, filed a complaint about the abuse with Three Hills RCMP. In addition to the Facebook page, Fossen keeps a website in which she has posted all her correspondence with school officials.

    In one dated Nov. 11 she told Maxwell she was going to make the allegations public. "Like Penn State University has found, there is a day of reckoning," she wrote. "The day for Prairie Bible Institute survivors has come." ...

    read the full article at:

    http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Mounties+investigate+abuse+allegations+Three+Hills+Bible+college/5738167/story.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Arrests made following three human sacrifices carried out by followers of Saint Death cult

    The Associated Press HERMOSILLO, Mexico March 30, 2012

    Warning: This story contains graphic details

    Eight people have been arrested for allegedly killing two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman in ritual sacrifices by the cult of La Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, prosecutors in northern Mexico said Friday.

    Jose Larrinaga, spokesman for Sonora state prosecutors, said the victims' blood was poured around an altar to the saint, which is depicted as a skeleton holding a scythe and clothed in flowing robes.

    The grisly slayings recalled the notorious “narco-satanicos” killings of the 1980s, when 15 bodies, many of them with signs of ritual sacrifice, were unearthed at a ranch outside the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

    While Saint Death has become the focus of a cult among drug traffickers and criminals in Mexico in recent years, there have been no confirmed cases of human sacrifices in Mexico to the scary-looking saint, which is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Worshippers usually offer candy, cigarettes and incense to the skeleton-statue.

    Mr. Larrinaga said the first of the three victims was apparently killed in 2009, the second in 2010 and the latest earlier this month. Investigations show signs of brutal ritual sacrifice.

    “The ritual was held at nighttime, they lit candles,” Mr. Larrinaga said. “They sliced open the victims' veins and, while they were still alive, they waited for them to bleed to death and collected the blood in a container.”

    Authorities began investigating after the last victim, 10-year-old Jesus Octavio Martinez Yanez, was reported missing March 6 by his stepfather.

    Investigations led authorities to the altar site in the Sonora city of Nacozari, about 110 km south of Douglas, Arizona.

    Larrinaga said the arrests were made after tests by forensic experts on Thursday found blood traces spread over 30 square meters around the altar.

    Those arrested included Silvia Meraz, who Mr. Larrinaga said spread the blood around the altar, and her son Ramon Palacios, who allegedly killed the victims. The spokesman identified them as the leaders of the cult.

    Mr. Larrinaga initially gave The Associated Press the wrong name for the suspected male leader, saying it was Martin Barron Lopez. The spokesman later corrected the suspect to Palacios and said the name he wrongly gave out was that of the last victim's stepfather.

    Ms. Meraz answered questions to reporters when she was shown to news media Friday.

    “We all agreed to do it. Supposedly she was a witch or something,” she said, referring to the women victim. She did not respond to questions about the boys' killings.

    The other suspects, many of them relatives, included people ranging from a 15-year-old girl to a 44-year-old woman.

    The “narco-satanicos” killings of the 1980s were committed by a cult of drug traffickers who believed that ritual sacrifices would shield them from police. Victims of the cult, many of whose members are still in prison, included Mark Kilroy, a 21-year-old University of Texas pre-med student.

    The narco-satanicos have no connection to the Saint Death cult, which gained widespread popularity around the 2000, although the two share some similarities. Followers of Saint Death believe they gain protection by worshipping “Death.”

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/arrests-made-following-three-human-sacrifices-carried-out-by-followers-of-saint-death-cult/article2387972/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Child sacrifice continues with the forced circumcision of boys. A partial child sacrifice perhaps but symbolic and sexually very sick.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What Is a Missionary Kid Worth?

    Risks remain higher in cross-cultural contexts. And misconduct is harder to report.

    by Rebecca Hopkins, Christianity Today, November 21, 2022

    When Letta Cartlidge got on a plane as a teenager to leave her childhood home, she carried a secret. As the child of missionaries in Nigeria, she was sexually abused by a teacher at a school for missionary kids.

    As the plane rose above Nigeria, she believed she would have to carry that secret forever. She thought that if she ever reported him—if she even knew how to report her abuser—it would hurt God’s reputation.

    “We were in a culture where there was a looming God,” she told CT almost 30 years later. “And that looming God would punish us for disrupting the work of God.”

    Cartlidge would, eventually, decide that wasn’t true. As an adult she found the courage to lead fellow former Hillcrest School students in what she calls an “incredibly discouraging” year-and-a-half effort to bring to light more than 40 allegations of abuse spanning from 1961 to 1993. The alumni won a small victory in August, when the school board voted unanimously to approve an external investigation.

    It’s a step in the right direction.

    Missionary organizations and Christian nonprofits have started paying increased attention to the safety of workers’ children—“missionary kids,” commonly called MKs—and advocates say the past few decades have seen marked improvement. But the rates of abuse are still high.

    A recent survey of 1,904 adults who were raised in cross-cultural contexts found they were three times more likely to experience emotional abuse than children raised in their own culture in the United States. More than a third had suffered three or more adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, violence, or neglect. Almost 30 percent reported some kind of sexual harm.

    “A lot of people in the international world think of this as this safe bubble for kids,” said Tanya Crossman, coauthor of the TCK Training report. “Our data is showing the opposite. We want to pay attention and provide the preventive care and provide protective factors.”

    Not only do MKs and “third culture kids” (TCKs) suffer more abuse, but they also face extra obstacles reporting abuse overseas, advocates say. And when they do report, they risk being ostracized from the close-knit missions world.

    “How is it going on so long?” said advocate Michael Pollock. “All these kinds of abuse continue, and we’re still unwilling to look at it square in the face to call it what it is, and to deal with it in a way that brings healing.”

    Historically, missionary boarding schools have been especially vulnerable to abuse because they are very isolated, said Dianne Couts, president of MK Safety Net. They often developed a culture and religious rhetoric of control and discipline.

    Boarding schools were considered a necessity for missions to continue, and those who spoke out against them were often seen as a threat to the entire missionary enterprise, said Ruth Van Reken, coauthor of the bestseller Third Culture Kids. In her earlier book, Letters Never Sent, she wrote about her own difficult experience at a boarding school.

    continued below

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  6. Early whistleblowers including Couts and Van Reken brought attention and ultimately change to many MK schooling options. In the past, boarding schools were considered standard for the children of missionaries—often starting at age six. Now only 4 percent of the 170 schools accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International offer boarding options.

    And yet, homeschooled MKs still report the highest rates of adverse childhood experiences. Most forms of abuse and neglect are more common for them than they are in the boarding schools, international schools, or local schools that MKs have attended.

    According to the TCK Training research, MKs often live in isolated environments. And the more often they move, the more vulnerable they become to abuse.

    “The sense of reality and what’s true and real in a new situation is thrown up in the air,” said Pollock. “Their relational anchors get pulled up. And then structures of reporting, like who’s safe, may be missing or changed.”

    MKs are often put in close contact with other missionaries they don’t know but are expected to trust, he said. And their parents are often under a lot of stress and pressure to perform, with ideas about sacrificing their personal well-being for the gospel. Mental health care and social networks that prevent or catch abuse are weaker.

    “The way that missions is set up is fundamentally broken,” said missionary life coach and speaker Sarita Hartz. “The mission is placed above those who serve the mission. Missionaries are collateral damage.”

    The systems in place to protect MKs have improved dramatically in the past two decades. But survivors and advocates say the cracks are still glaringly obvious. The Child Safety & Protection Network (CSPN), for example, was founded in 2006 with 13 missionary organizations. Today, there are 130 member organizations.

    Many of those have, for the first time, hired a child safety officer. The International Mission Board, the missionary arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, is a member of the CSPN and hired its first abuse prevention and response officer in 2018.

    The network provides training and curricula, but it doesn’t actually investigate allegations of abuse.

    “We’re not the ones that hold that accountability,” said board member Tom Hardeman.

    continued below

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  7. Victims who believe their organization is mishandling abuse allegations often have no one to appeal to. Complaints can only be dealt with internally.

    “We have mission boards who are accountable to no one but themselves who are funded by individual independent churches who are accountable to no one but themselves,” said Couts.

    In 2003, president George W. Bush signed the PROTECT Act—Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today—into law. It criminalized sexual abuse by American citizens who are overseas but doesn’t apply to citizens of other countries. MKs who are abused by Americans can report it to a US embassy or call the FBI. If the abuser is not a US citizen, abuse victims can contact local police.

    According to victim advocates, however, reporting to local authorities can be fraught. Laws that define abuse and set age of consent vary, as do cultural norms around sex. It is often unclear what the repercussions of a report will be on the mission organization, and victims worry about upsetting the close mission communities that also function as their support system.

    “Life as you know it is contingent on nothing dramatic happening,” said victims’ advocate Michèle Phoenix.

    Many abuse victims feel responsible for what happened to them. MK victims can feel an additional responsibility to protect the missionary organization.

    “You’re trying to protect your parents,” said MK Safety Net board member Rich Darr, “but you’re also trying to protect all these ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles.’”

    Those “aunts” and “uncles” are also not required to report abuse if they become aware of it. There’s no mandatory reporting law internationally. According to Boz Tchividjian, attorney and founder of Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, mandatory reporting is critical for protecting children. He asked US legislators to pass an international mandatory reporting law in 2015, without success.

    “Good luck if you’re a survivor of child sexual abuse on the mission field overseas,” Tchividjian said.

    The difficult work of fighting to change things has mostly been left to survivors, adult MKs who are dealing with their own trauma and decide they have to do something.

    Wess Stafford, former president of Compassion International, recalled how difficult that decision was for him. He wrote his memoir and at first didn’t include how he was abused as a child at a missionary boarding school in Guinea.

    “It took me a long time to say, ‘You know what? All right. I don’t want to leave this world without having fought this battle,’” Stafford told CT.

    Cartlidge—who’s in the thick of pushing for accountability for historical abuse—spends her days waiting for responses to emails, wading through arguments over who’s responsible, and figuring out the next step in a process that has no standard procedures.

    But she’s not alone with her secret anymore. And she’s hopeful that more Christians will refuse to look away from scores of MK abuse survivors who are asking for help.

    “Most of your missionary kids are going to say, ‘Just be the church to us,’” said Darr, sitting next to Cartlidge in a Zoom interview. “We’re hurting. We need your help.”

    https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/december/missionary-kid-abuse-statistics-safeguard-prevention.html

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