The Beardslee, Shellrude and Darr families left North America for West Africa during the 1950s. They followed what they believed to be “God’s Calling” – to spread Christianity throughout the world. Their children however - starting at the age of 6 – were required to attend the boarding school in Mamou, Guinea, run by the
Christian and Missionary Alliance. Cut off from their families for 9 months out of the year and without any reliable means of communication, the children quietly suffered emotional, spiritual, physical and/or sexual abuse at the hands of the all-missionary staff.
All God’s Children tells the personal story of the first boarding school for children of missionaries to be investigated for abuse at the hands of the parents’ missionary colleagues. The survivors and parents share their journey of
seeking justice, redemption and healing. [more inside]
posted by PeterMcDermott
on Jan 30, 2012 -
9 comments
Joe Paterno, Head Coach of the Penn State football team, and
Graham Spanier, Penn State President, have been
fired by the Penn State Board of Trustees amid allegations that they did little to address the (alleged) sexual molestation of children at the hands of
Jerry Sandusky, the ex-defensive coach of the team. And as day follows night,
Penn State students rioted,
overturning a
news van, shattering car windows, and tearing down street signs.
Previously
posted by sutt
on Nov 10, 2011 -
819 comments
Tennis player and coach Bob Hewitt is a member of the
International Tennis Hall of Fame who has held all the men's doubles and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. Hewitt, who was
born in Australia but became a South African citizen by marriage, also captained the 1974 South African Davis Cup champion team.
The Boston Globe reports that Hewitt's lengthy coaching career in the US and South Africa has long been accompanied by allegations that Hewitt sexually abused
his female students, mostly adolescents but one as young as 10. Hewitt denies the charges.
posted by catlet
on Aug 29, 2011 -
13 comments
"For the progress of humanity, work alone is not adequate, but the work should be associated with love, compassion, right conduct, truthfulness and sympathy. Without the above qualities, selfless service cannot be performed."
On
Sunday morning, Indian guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba
passed away. He leaves behind a massive
empire, several million
mourning devotees worldwide, an
extensive religious philosophy, a great deal of
controversy and a legacy of large-scale philanthropic projects in India, including
free hospitals and mobile medical facilities,
a free university and schools, and other efforts which included supplying
clean water to hundreds of rural villages.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Apr 25, 2011 -
41 comments
In
"My
Lie" author Meridith Maran reveals her own painful history with
recovered memory: she accused her own father of molesting her, and
years later learned that her recollections had been false.
Interviewed today on
NPR,Maran
equates her journey through the recovered memory movement to the
persistent political lie that President Obama is a Muslim.
[more inside]
posted by pianomover
on Sep 23, 2010 -
67 comments
Three months from today,
Gaile [Part I]
Owens [Part 2] will be dead in Tennessee after 25 years on death row. The mother of two boys went to the rough side of Nashville to find a hitman to kill her abusive and cheating husband. Due to a series of events, the jury never heard of or believed the abuse. She pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence, but will die on September 28.
[more inside]
posted by daninnj
on Jun 28, 2010 -
38 comments
The End of the World Cult is a 2007 documentary about the Lord Our Righteousness Church, aka the Strong City Cult, as they count down the days before the end of the world on October 31st 2007. The film features unusually good access and especially focuses on the creepy sexual relationship cult leader Wayne Bent has with his mostly female followers. If you watch the film and are hankering after justice, you'll be pleased to know that yesterday Bent was
sentenced to eighteen years prison for sexual relations with minors. Oh, he also has a
blog.
posted by dydecker
on Jan 1, 2009 -
38 comments
Jack Chick and his cracktasticness has certainly
been covered on Metafilter before. However, in one fell swoop, his cracktasticness has not only squared but cubed. Chick's pamphlet,
Lisa (curiously absent from the
tracts on his site), features a father who gave herpes to his little daughter and then pimps his daughter out to his similarly pedophilic neighbor (who thinks the "pretty juicy gossip" is "pretty kinky") in exchange for the neighbor's silence. Two months of abuse later, the family doctor discovers Lisa's herpes, and does not report the father to the police, because ... well, you'll see. (Makes
the Old Ones look better and better.)
posted by WCityMike
on May 24, 2008 -
49 comments
Sexual abuse amongst the Amish has traditionally been handled by the Amish. However, some victims are breaking with their communities and exposing their cloistered world to legal authorities and losing their entire family in the process. (Nerve.com link, relatively SFW)
posted by nathan_teske
on Jul 2, 2004 -
10 comments
Jesse Friedman's Web Site from the incredibly powerful and amazing documentary
Capturing the Friedmans. A "documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middle-class Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes." When watching the film from start to finish I went back and forth on their guilt or innocence and when the film was over I'm still not sure. In the time of the mass media hysteria and questionable police tactics what would you have done?
posted by suprfli
on Mar 26, 2004 -
3 comments
Brain tumor suspect guilty, again. A follow-up to
this, wherein a man tried to blame his brain tumor for his walking uninvited into his neighbors' house and getting into bed with the wife, who freaked when she realized what was going on. Last week, he was convicted of stalking. On Monday, the judge convicted him of sexual abuse and burglary. The previous story left some unanswered questions. I can't answer all of them, but there's more info inside.
posted by diddlegnome
on Feb 7, 2002 -
2 comments
