"We respond perfectly every time now"

A recent Whispers to Roars post discusses Ethnos360's response to the 2019 NBC article about abuse in Ethnos360/New Tribes Mission. Click over there to read the full analysis of Ethnos360's response, which reportedly included calling a meeting of members, telling them it was lies and exaggeration (before knowing what would even be reported), strongly discouraging students and members from reading/watching the report, calling it slander, and claiming these women sharing their stories were "wrong." The public-facing response was a bit more gentle, but the organization was adamant that this was all "historical."

Since then, under the current leadership, innumerable cases of abuse have come to light, including two lawsuits, and it has become more and more difficult for them to claim it's all historical. If you examine the more recent emails Ethnos360 has sent out to respond to allegations of abuse and failed response, a clear pattern emerges. Their template includes some variation of

1. These are lies, slander, exaggeration, etc.

2. We never knew anything about this, or if we knew, we did everything right.

3. We have good policies and are committed to keeping children safe.

4. If you have any questions, concerns, suspect abuse, etc., contact us.

Once you see it, you can't unsee it. It sounds nice, but critical thinking produces doubts. How could every single accusation be slander, lies, or exaggeration? How can they honestly claim they've handled abuse appropriately every single time they've been notified? Does that mean they're perfect? If their policies are so good and they are committed to keeping children safe, why does this keep happening? If this is true, why has leadership been repeatedly accused of responding poorly? Why is the solution to bring concerns to them instead of law enforcement? Are there any examples of them saying go to law enforcement first (especially in jurisdictions where mandatory reporting is the law)?

We have multiple documented instances of failure to respond to abuse, but one stands out as directly contradicting this narrative -- their response to Josh Weeks, which included moving him from one location to another after displaying concerning red flags and reportedly being caught abusing a child, only to harm another child at the location he was moved to. This situation has been used by Ethnos360 leadership as an example of how they handle abuse well, and yet a child was abused because of these failures. If they cannot identify and acknowledge any area where they could grow in this situation, how are we to believe they are accurately assessing their abuse response?

It seems silly that an organization with this history, especially one accused of repeated abuse cover-ups by leadership (and with no known cases of active leadership receiving consequences), would expect us to believe that they always respond perfectly and no longer make any mistakes. Against better judgment, it seems that members, churches, and supporters believe this narrative.

It's virtually impossible that, in an organization this size, every single allegation is a lie, and they have responded to abuse perfectly every single time. It's even more unreasonable to believe this could be true when they draft the response before the allegation, and the allegations against their leadership are "investigated" by their own members. They may not describe themselves as perfect, but when they say they didn't do anything wrong time after time, when they don't admit to any shortcomings, mistakes, or areas in need of growth, that is how they are presenting themselves. Do you think it's reasonable to trust an organization that claims they're perfect and has yet to take any accountability (unless they are blaming members/leaders in the past)? Is it wise to trust an organization that continues to allow leaders to remain in positions of authority who have been accused of failing to respond to abuse or covering up abuse dozens of times?

At some point, we have to be realistic. No organization is perfect, and the one claiming to be is probably the least safe place for children.

Click to see leadership emails that demonstrate this pattern

*for additional analysis of an Ethnos360 leadership response, "Leadership Says There Were No Reports. Their Internal Email Raises Different Questions"