You Made Your Concerns Public. Now What?

A couple weeks ago, I took this picture of the sunrise’s orange streaks then sent my kids off to their first day of school for the year. Now alone, I sat and stared at the weeks-long project on my computer.  My substack newsletter documenting my concerns about Telios Law and Mission Aviation Fellowship—the longest and heaviest one I’ve written—waited for one final step.

I mulled over some things that Gracia, a whistleblower from the International House of Prayer scandal, had told me the previous day about her grueling journey of speaking up.

Surprising me, she concluded, “It set me free.”

I thought of the burden of information I’d been carrying for five years and sucked in my breath. Then I clicked “send.”

What I most remember next was how quiet the house was. Finally telling that story took an explosion of courage and conviction and likely in some eyes, betrayal. I’d been fearing the moment, preparing myself for legal threats and scathing emails and further exile from people who were once like family.

But the house didn’t fall in on me and my heart didn’t stop and my kids were presumably safe as they chatted with friends on the way to first period. My husband and I had done the unthinkable. We’d gone public with concerns about not one but two trusted pillars in Christian missions, both an abuse investigator and one of the world’s largest mission aviation organizations.

And so far anyway, we’d survived.

I had ended that substack with this question. Now what?

Gracia had given me some possibilities of how the next weeks would unfold. I’ll share them here, mixed in with research, and what I’ve seen from watching other whistleblowers speak out.

• The Sound of Silence

  Within minutes of publishing my post, the silence filled with messages, both public and private, pouring in from new and old friends, former donors of our ministry with MAF, former and current missionaries, respected advocates, and leaders from other ministries. The posts from my modest social media platforms that are usually filled with photos of soccer games and mountain hikes were shared dozens of times. About 32,000 people have seen my X post. Thousands read my substack. The Kansas City Star reported that not only did I have concerns about Telios Law, but others have them too. Substack journalist Dr. Denouement offered important commentary and research connecting Telios Law’s Theresa Sidebotham to the International House of Prayer scandal and a pay-for-prayer organization.

  Dianne Couts, a leading advocate for missionary kids (MK) and one of the first whistleblowers to speak out on MK boarding school abuse, sent me a two-sentence email. I read it daily in the days to come.

  “You have been strong and of good courage,” she wrote. “And now, all you need to do is stand.”

  On the other hand, MAF leaders haven’t yet responded publicly to my heartfelt call for change. MAF’s director of communications emailed me to clarify a couple details in my piece. But no other MAF leaders or board members have contacted me or my husband since I made my post.

  After whistleblowers make the vulnerable move of sharing their concerns publicly, they hope the organization will genuinely apologize, lament the harm caused, hire someone trustworthy to audit the situation, take responsibility for the consequences of that harm on victims, and make substantive changes that protect others. Or at least, whistleblowers hope leaders humbly admit, we don’t get it yet, we don’t see it. But we see you. We know you from all those years when you served alongside us. We trusted your words to tell our story then. Now we welcome you to tell us this truth.

  But instead, I’ve observed organizational silence crush whistleblowers.

  “IHOP had loved me and I held fast to the hope that they still cared about me because I still cared about them,” Gracia had told me.

  Rather than care, she said she was on the receiving end of something else entirely.

  

  This is a screenshot of one of the many stories I was honored to get to write over the span of several years for MAF. I tried to write honestly but hopefully about life as a mom, pilot’s wife, and friend in Indonesia.

• The Problem of Reputation Management

  Gaslighting. Lies. Disparaging counter-accusations. That’s what Gracia said she saw in response to her whistleblowing.

  When an organization is in the midst of a scandal, they often respond with impression management or as researcher Wade Mullen put it, they “choose to prioritize managing their image over managing the problem.”

  Evangelical organizations can be more susceptible to impression management because of their tightly-knit “clan culture” and their propensity to protect a belief system rather than choosing transparency, Wade wrote in his dissertation.[1]

  Wade’s research has found that evangelical organizations use a variety of methods to distract the watching public from the truth that victims are trying to tell. Using real-world examples, he documented how organizations have buried the truth, denied their responsibility, made excuses, condemned the condemner, denied that anyone was hurt, and told stories of all the good they’ve done. His book, “Something’s Not Right” provides a deeper look into the topic.

  Some organizations spend money on crisis communications consultants to help them navigate media inquiries during times of overwhelming public attention, including scandals. Palmer Holt of InChrist Communications, is a crisis communications consultant for several missions organizations, including for MAF during MAF’s earthquake response in Haiti. In this training video, Palmer describes some of the strategies organizations use for, as he markets it, “reputation management and restoration.”

  For instance, some organizations “dilute the algorithm” to bury bad press, he said in the video.  He said he once worked with a mission organization that spent $30,000 a month for six months to move from Internet searches what he clarified was “phony information” that people in another country were saying about the organization.

  “It takes a lot of good news and neutral news to move that stuff away and it can be done,” he said.

  In his video, Palmer said he instead recommends that organizations plan ahead to avoid such costly remedies, don’t stay silent, and take responsibility for problems.

  “The quicker an organization can own their mess, the quicker they’re going to get out of it with the least amount of damage,” he said. “Own it to disown it.”

  At times Palmer spoke well of journalists in the video, advising organizations to serve them. But he also called journalists “sharks,” and showed a photo of disgraced journalist Matt Lauer as an example. In my opinion, Palmer’s advice is a mixed bag, contributing to an overall lack of serious discussion among Christian communications professionals on the ethics of spending donor money for reputation management.

  Organizational response matters, research shows. When people have been abused and then on top of that, mistreated by the leaders who are supposed to help, recovery from their post-traumatic stress is even harder, researchers Carly Parnitzke Smith and Jennifer J. Freyd found. These researchers coined the term “institutional betrayal” when they discovered that almost half of all victims of sexual assault in their study experienced betrayal by the authorities who were supposed to help.[2]

  Rather, Wade Mullen describes a healthier vision for organizational response to abuse: “(A)dopt truth-telling and transparency, irrespective of the impact on one’s approval, status, or image.”

  Or to put it simply, “(I)n choosing to focus on victims, the organization might need to forget about itself,” he wrote.

• The Voices of Others

  There was a moment in her whistleblowing when Gracia said she wanted to disappear. The criticisms were crushing and the betrayal was overwhelming and the risks were terrifying. But then she had what she now calls a “breakthrough.”

  Two things happened. First, she told me she started to see the criticisms for what they were—deception meant to distract from the truth.

  “If they try to come after you, they’re exposing themselves,” she said.

  Second, Gracia started hearing from other women with similar stories as hers. Her voice had helped them find theirs. And in turn, their voices helped her recover hers.

  I, too, have begun to hear from others with concerns, their stories haunting echoes of my own. I wonder, if we all spoke as one, would anyone listen?

  Gracia said she’s no longer trapped by what the naysayers threaten.  

  “What can they really do?” she said.

  For the record, I still feel a little nervous, vulnerable, and weary. But from where I now stand, bolstered by Gracia’s courage, Dianne’s wisdom, and your support, I can see something new and hopeful peeking over the horizon.

  Freedom.

  (Disclaimer: This is my own personal opinion, intended as general information, and not meant to replace legal or psychological advice for your specific situation. The opinions of people I interview are theirs.)

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[1] Wade Mullen, “Impression Management Strategies Used by Evangelical Organizations in the Wake of an Image-Threatening Event,” A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of Capital Seminary and Graduate School, 2018.

[2] Carly Parnitzke Smith, Jennifer J. Freyd in “Safe Havens: Institutional Betrayal Exacerbates Sexual Trauma,” Journal of Traumatic Stress, 2013.