The $75,000,000 Lie: Ethnos360's Financial Motive for Covering Up Abuse

The underbelly of Ethnos360, formerly New Tribes Mission

They called it an affair.

This single word—soft, romantic, implying mutual desire—has been used to describe what happens when an adult missionary forces himself on a child. I've heard this language repeatedly in stories from high-control religious groups like Ethnos360, where grown men abused underage girls and boys. "Affair" suggests consent. But how can a child, who has no autonomy over even the simplest parts of their life—where they live, what they study, when they do chores—possibly consent to an adult's sexual advances?

The answer is: they can't.

The Truth Behind the Euphemism

When leadership calls child sexual abuse an "affair," they aren't just softening the truth—they're erasing it. They avoid reporting to law enforcement. They protect reputations, marriages, and the mission's image. But what about the victims?

Take the girls who took their own lives after being raped: one by the tribal people and the other by a prominent member of the mission. Neither were believed. There was no affair in either of these cases—only abuse, coercion, and betrayal.

Or the teenage girls who were told it was their fault—that they were seductive, that their bodies were the problem, that they should have dressed more modestly to protect "Godly men." To them, I say: It was never your fault. You were a child. He was the adult. The blame lies entirely with him.

The same goes for the teenage boys shamed into believing they were sinful for "allowing" abuse. Or the women from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Panama, Brazil, Philippines, Venezuela and more exploited by missionary men who wielded power, privilege, and cultural imbalance like weapons. These weren't affairs. They were crimes.

Why They Lie

The reason is as cold as it is simple: money.

Ethnos360 operates on a budget fueled by donor support of $75,000,000. If churches knew the truth—that the organization has a systemic child sexual abuse problem—the funding would dry up. So instead of justice, victims get euphemisms. Instead of accountability, predators get protection.

But words have power.

Calling rape an "affair" doesn’t make it one. A child cannot consent. A missionary abusing their authority is not a lover—they are a criminal. And every time leadership uses this language, they compound the harm, telling victims their pain is a secret to be managed, not a crime to be punished.

To Those Who Were Silenced

To the young women who are no longer here: I believe you. I wish I could have told you that while you were still alive. You deserved so much better.

To every survivor who was gaslit, shamed, or ignored: This was not your fault. The lies they told were never about you—they were about protecting themselves.

And to the leaders who still call abuse an "affair": Stop. The truth will come out. Because language matters, and no substitute can hide the fact that what happened was not romance—it was rape.

https://www.ecfa.org/MemberProfile.aspx?ID=45379