Podcast 12 Transcript--Awaken the Good—Heal the Body: A personal exhortation to specific leaders

Podcast 12—Day 33/40

Awaken the Good—Heal the Body
A personal exhortation to specific leaders

Opening
Welcome to Into Integrity.
This is Kelly O’Donnell.
Thanks for joining us as we follow Jesus, living integrity and confronting corruption.

Our theme is Awaken the Good—Heal the Body: A personal exhortation to specific leaders.

We call upon people and specific leaders in particular to take note of their responsibility to do good and to help bring healing in the protracted NCI fraud and the related wrongful dismissals. We also share five key messages from PETRA People postings. They provide principles and guidance for good practice in confronting corruption and acting with integrity.

Our prayer is that these materials, will help awaken the good in you, and help you bring healing to the Body of Christ and your own organizations. And we pray for courage, conviction, contrition, and change—Spirit-birthed, authentic repentance:

First, to acknowledge—I was wrong, I am responsible
Second, to apologize—I am sorry, I ask forgiveness
Third, to amend—I will change, I will restore

See the related PETRA People posting on “Lessons for Leaders” (23 July 2015). It features eight principles for dealing with mistakes and wrongdoing in organizations.

Today is day 33 of the 40 day FAST. We invite you to join with us and others during Part Two of the FAST now, 6-26 December 2019.

A reminder of the purpose of the Into Integrity FAST. It is to call attention to--and confront--the lack of disclosures by specific organizations, leaders, people affected by the international Nordic Capital Investment KB fraud (NCI) as well as the related dismissals that Michele and I have received. This is a combined food FAst for genuine contrition and a hunger STrike for resolute action by specific people and organizations primarily within the Church Mission Community (CMC).

You can access a transcript of this podcast with more resources and links on the Into Integrity weblog.

It’s time for solidarity.
Awaken the good. Heal the Body.
Take a stand, speak up, and live in integrity.

 I want to respectfully address several leaders who I believe need to step forward, awaken the good, and help bring healing. Erik Spruyt and other past and current Board members of Mercy Ministries/Le Rucher. Lynn Green, Iain Muir, and John Dawson, among others, in Youth With a Mission. Donovan Palmer and Don Stephens, among others, in Mercy Ships. And leaders (past and present) in Youth for Christ, and Crossroads Church in Ferney-Voltaire France. All of the people/organzations that I have just mentioned have already been addressed in many ways over the years via letters/emails, the PETRA People website and weblog, the Shine the Light–Together Petition, and the Into Integrity podcasts and blogposts. 

Will you consider: Changing your course and bringing into the light publicly how NCI has affected you and how you have dealt with it over the years--verifiably disclosing and authorizing internal and independent reviews?

 I also want to respectfully ask Bill Taylor, Bertil Ekstrom, Rose Dorsett, and KK Rajendran, who are current or past members of the World Evangelical Alliance--Mission Commission, to review and reconsider my wrongful dismissal in view of the NCI, fraud and overlapping dysfunction and deviance. Their joint letter to me in November 2006 was wrong. The subsequent avoidance to meet with Michele and me (as the paper trail shows, through December 2007) was wrong. And the letter of dismissal in December 2007, especially as the international NCI fraud was coming into the light, was wrong. The 2006 letter in particular  was used against Michele and me, especially YWAM leaders, to avoid addressing the multi-million dollar NCI fraud that was rampant in YWAM and other organizations. We and others were in the process of exposing NCI in 2007-2008 in cooperation with government investigations (especially Sweden and The Netherlands, and also France, USA, and UK). 

We can only wonder what could have happened if specific leaders would have stood by our side, would have met with Michele and me and others, and would have joined together in solidarity, to get informed and take a stand to expose the nefarious, unfolding NCI corruption. We believe that it could have turned the tide in support of the official government investigations and the vulnerable victims including ourselves. It could have encouraged organizations to verifiably disclose and authorize independent reviews, could have educated the international Church Mission Community about fraud and good practice, and helped prevent further corruption.

 We turn now to Five Key Messages from the PETRA People Network Weblog. These are excerpts from five blog entries that we believe are very relevant for awakening the good in us all, and for bringing  healing to the Church-Mission Community. We address them to everyone listening, and especially for thel consideration by the specific leaders/organizations mentioned previously in this podcast. The five messages address: 

1. Looking Good versus Doing Good

2. Good Principles and Good Practices

3. Tricks for Feigning Good Practice

4. Rationalizing Our Responsibilities

5. Awakening the Good in You

 Message One: 

Looking Good versus Doing Good  (PPNet, June 2012)

Looking Good. “But at any time an organization makes a seriously wrong decision, its leaders should call for an intensive postmortem. Such learning opportunities are too often overlooked. The tendency is simply to call on the public relations department to spin the matter, to make another inadequately thought-out decision, and perhaps to scapegoat, even fire, a few staff members. Because most companies cover up their mistakes instead of learning from them, systemic flaws in information flow tend to remain to do their damage another day.” (pp. 22-23) Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor (2008). Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, James O'Toole, and Patricia Ward Biederman (Note for more quotes from the book Transparency, click here)

Doing Good. NCI is an international fraud which has only partially been dealt with by Sweden. Unsubstantiated broad assertions without clear documentary backing and which do not fit with the documentation, might look good, but they are not helpful. Financial policies look good, but they require responsible and ethical action to apply them. Money flows have gone to Mercy Ministries associations and Board members, the NGF foundation, and Le Rucher as well as to YWAM personnel and projects. The fuller story needs to be disclosed and its broader nature investigated. Those organizations and individuals receiving NCI monies that are net positive especially need to help recover funds. Both the governments and people in the church-mission community have important roles to play. No one here is implying intentionality or criminality. But there is an ethical and probably legal need to disclose and return money.  And until this happens, a huge dark shadow will continue to hang over the church-mission community in addition to the people/organizations affected by NCI.

[Leaders and everyone in the international church-mission community (CMC) must resist the temptation of trying to look good, by whitewashing tough realities and slanting the truth about inadequacies, mistakes, and wrongdoing.  We have to do good, and be good.]

 Message Two: 

Good Principles and Good Practices (PPNet, April 2014)

There are a growing number of efforts across sectors to prevent and deal with corruption.  This entry highlights 10 of them, many having a global reach. We strongly welcome these efforts and encourage people to rally behind them!

To be effective, major anti-corruption efforts need consensus on guiding principles, unity in public support, and commitment to practical applications. Practical applications can be very challenging though, where these hindering factors exist: limited experience/interest in dealing with corruption; risks of reprisals and lack of whistleblower protection; threats to livelihoods, revenue streams, status, reputations, public opinion, and power structures; and desires to maintain the belief that one’s personal/organisational “world” is safe, good, and impervious to corruption. The result of these hindrances is often a substantial and deceptive gap between our good principles and our good practices—ultimately at the expense of vulnerable people, especially the poor of the world.

[Leaders and everyone in the international church-mission community (CMC) must unite against corruption and live in integrity. Do what is right, even if there are risks. Act resolutely to protect vulnerable people. We can close the gaps between good principles and good practices.]

Message Three: 

Tricks for Feigning Good Practice (PPNet, February 2016)

Ten Tactics for Feigning Good Practice

Here are some tactical tricks that illustrate what not to do when we and organizations are called upon to transparently give an account—be it via routine self-assessments, post-mortem reviews of mistakes, or special requests to explain our actions. These tactics are intentional illusions and manipulative maneuvers that seemingly protect ourselves and our organizations. Ultimately, however they undermine our credibility, conscience, and anti-corruption safeguards. Don’t go there. And don’t remain silent when you see them.

                  

--1. Delegate the matter to someone else internally--diffuse it, distance yourself from it—and do everything to avoid an independent review.

--2. Avoid, reword, or repackage, the issues--obfuscate the facts, or at least talk tentatively or vaguely about some mistakes maybe in the past and that you or someone could probably have done a better job…but go no further; rationalize and/or disguise any culpability.

--3. Focus on minor or “other” things so as to look like you are focusing on the central things, punctuating it all with the language of transparency-accountability.

--4. Appeal to your “integrity and to “acting with the highest standards" without demonstrating either.

--5. Point out your past track record. Highlight anything positive that you are doing/contributing now.

--6. Ask and assume that people should trust you without verification or at least offer some general assurances that you have or will be looking into the matter and all is OK.

--7. State that you are under attack or at least that you are not being treated fairly or that people just don’t understand.

--8. Mention other peoples’ (alleged) problems, question their motives and credibility; dress someone else in your own dirty clothes, especially if they are noisome question-askers or whistleblowers.

--9. Prop up the “good old boys’ leadership club,” reshuffle the leadership deck if necessary yet without changing leaders or their power or how they can cover for each other in the name of “loyalty” and on behalf of the “greater good,” and try to hold out until the dust settles and the “uncomfortable” stuff hopefully goes away.

--10. So in short, don’t really do anything with real transparency and accountability; rather, maintain your self-interests, lifestyle, affiliations, and illusions of moral congruity, even if it means recalibrating your conscience—essentially, acting corruptly via complicity, cover-ups, and cowardice.

[Leaders and everyone in the international church-mission community (CMC) must recognize that there are lots of illusions to cover up poor practice. Recognize them. Don’t imitate them.  And expose them when we see them.]

Message Four:
Rationalizing Our Responsibility to Confront the Deviant and Protect the Innocent(PPNet, April 2016)

Good Hand Washing: Ten Tactics for Feigning Responsibility. Here are 10 ways to rationalize away our responsibility for dealing with fraud and other forms of corruption. As we review them carefully, they can help us to see how we might be washing our hands but not washing our hearts when it comes to confronting deviant people and protecting innocent people.  The moral disease continues to thrive. This is especially true in the ongoing NCI KB fraud case, a key focus of this weblog. Note that these 10 “good hand washing” tactics build upon the 10 Tactics for Feigning Good Practice featured in the last entry (Feb-March 2016)—have a look there too.

I am not responsible and we are not responsible, because...
--1. It’s been a long time; it happened a long time ago….
So let’s wash our hands of it and pretend that it’s no longer relevant.
--2. It’s so common these days…
So let’s wash our hands of it and pretend that it is not really important.

--3. We’ve all moved on…new people are in our organization…
So let’s wash our hands of it and pretend that it no longer applies to us.

--4. No one really knows the full story of what really happened…
So let’s wash our hands of it and pretend it is all just too mysterious and confusing.

--5. Governments and local authorities are responsible…
So let’s wash our hands of it and pretend that we have no or little responsibility.

--6. We’ve already dealt with this matter…we even have annual audits…

So let’s wash our hands of it and pretend we have already done our ethical duty and good practice.

--7.  We are not responsible to some ad hoc group asking for disclosures…what right do they have …
So let’s wash our hands of it and pretend that accountability/citizens groups have no moral authority.
--8. People asking for transparency and accountability have problems… their motives are also wrong…they should forgive and move on…what do they really hope to gain from this matter?…
So let’s wash our hands of it and pretend that others are not qualified or justified to call for disclosures.

--9.  We are being harassed by people asking for disclosures….
So let’s wash our hands of it and pretend that we are the ones being mistreated, victimized, exploited.

--10. We are doing good things to help others…we are good people, good employees, workers, citizens...

So let’s wash our hands and pretend that our goodness in some areas exonerates us from conforming to good practice standards in other areas.

[Leaders and everyone in the international church-mission community (CMC) must practice the highest standards of transparency and accountability. We must acknowledge our own propensity for acting deceptively and cowardly (corruption) as well as our own capacity for acting truthfully and heroically (integrity).]

Message Five:
Awakening the Good in You (PPNet, October 2016)

 

Part One includes resources to help you understand ordinary heroism: the good and bad within everyone, the pressures to rationalize and support evil, and examples of ordinary people doing good. How do we awaken the good and the heroic in ourselves to help others, act with integrity, and confront evil? ...

 “Heroism can be defined as having four key features: a) it must be engaged in voluntarily; b) it must involve a risk or potential sacrifice, such as the threat of death, an immediate threat to physical integrity, a long-term threat to health, or the potential to for serious degradation of one’s quality of life; c) it must be conducted in service to one or more other people or the community as a whole, d) and it must be without secondary, extrinsic gain anticipated at the time of act.” The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (p. 466, 2008)

We are not aware of any further action undertaken by organizations to investigate and disclose how they may have been affected by NCI KB in line with the specific concerns in the petition. A few individuals over the past months have sent personal emails, but nothing official and nothing related to taking any action. Click here to see the paper trail: (August 2014--current). We thus continue the resolute, public call a) for assistance from all those affected in various ways by the NCI fraud; and b) for verifiable disclosures/independent reviews (transparency and accountability) by four of the organizations listed in the petition.

[Leaders and everyone in the international church-mission community (CMC) are “ordinary people”  who, like everyone else in the world, can awaken the good in them to courageously do what is right in spite of any external pressures and inner anxieties to do otherwise. The good and the heroic in us can trump evil.]

 Closing

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Into Integrity:
 Awakening the Good—Heal the Body: A personal exhortation to specific leaders.

You can access a transcript of this podcast along with related resources and links, on the Into Integrity weblog.

Our prayer is that these materials will help awaken the good in you, and help you bring healing to the Body of Christ and your own organizations. And we pray for courage, conviction, contrition, and change—Spirit-birthed, authentic repentance:

First, to acknowledge—I was wrong, I am responsible
Second, to apologize—I am sorry, I ask forgiveness
Third, to amend—I will change, I will restore

Thank you again for your encouragement, prayers, and support as we continue Part Two of the Into Integrity FAST (6-26 December).

It’s time for solidarity.
Awaken the good. Heal the Body.
Take a stand, speak up, and live in integrity.
And spread the word.