Teen Challenge: A typical week in the "Jesus Gulag"

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series, we focus on a typical week at Teen Challenge--and the extreme amounts of indoctrination, which often take up more than half of the waking hours of the day of participants.

A look inside Teen Challenge's system of coercion

Teen Challenge has--since multiple watchdog groups started to report on it--attempted to redact much of the especially damning information from its websites, but this is nothing that a little Googling--and a little bit of use of the Wayback Archive--can't fix.

The present website for a facility run by Teen Challenge Canada has a minimised version of their schedule--however, the original schedule is still online via the Wayback Archive and turns out to be rather more enlightening.

The schedule, per the Wayback Machine, strictly regiments the day of inmates from 6:45am to 10:30pm, and includes not only multiple rounds of "chores" but religious indoctrination of such a level that it may well make a monastery, much less the typical Catholic parochial school, seem downright secular in comparison.  The schedule also shows that--despite its claims--Teen Challenge does largely act as a "kiddie boot camp" rather than as a typical rehab facility.

The day starts at 6:45am, when "reveille", erm, "wake-up" is called; all students are expected to get up promptly and have roughly a half hour to get dressed, get their beds made, get themselves clean, and so on.  The only exceptions to this were on Saturday with the "old schedule"; this has been removed in the "new schedule", with kids getting up at the crack of dawn 7 days a week.

At 7:15am, all students are required to go to chapel for a half hour for prayer and the first of multiple daily rounds of "Bible study":

During this time we want our students to seek a personal relationship with God through prayer and Bible reading. We believe that regular daily devotions are essential to the Christian life, and it is our prayer that the habit of rising early to seek the Lord will be maintained by students for the rest of their lives.

After breakfast from 7:45 to 8:15 (hope you eat fast, kids!  Oh, and in the "new" schedule they only get 25 minutes rather than thirty to eat up), the kids are sent on chore duty; chore duty is basically KP duty where kids clean up the facilities.

After KP duty is completed at 9, segment 2 of religious indoctrination Assemblies-style begins--with a mandatory visit to either Praise and Prayer (which is essentially an Assemblies altar call/adult Sunday school class) or Chapel (which is a full-length Sunday-morning-style Assemblies church meeting).  "Praise and Prayer" lasts a half-hour (till 9:30), Chapel till 10:45.

After this, people are either sent on "Testing/Work Duty" on Monday/Wednesday/Friday (the site does not elaborate what is involved straightaway) or (on Tuesday/Thursday) yet more indoctrination--a mandatory "lecture" course essentially consisting of Neopentecostal Dominionism 101:

The class times are structured differently for Induction & Training Phases. We have two different types of classes here at the Teen Challenge Farm. They are called Personal Studies Class (PACE) and Lecture Classes.
Curriculum includes courses on the basics of the Christian faith, anger, lust, failure, and evidences supporting the Christian faith. The majority of our curriculum is the Teen Challenge curriculum used in Teen Challenge centres worldwide.
Periodically, guest teachers will be invited for a special one week seminar. The program schedule will then be altered to make provision for this training.

Save for "Wednesday Church" days, this typically lasts from 9:30 am to 11:45am--after which inmates get 15 minutes of free time, and then an hour of lunch.

After lunch, it's back to work--work at the "company store", that is, or (on alternating days) even more indoctrination.  On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays inmates are sent to work duty for Teen Challenge--all of which is entirely unpaid (of note, even folks in state prison get a token fifty cents per license plate to use in the commissary):

A regular part of the Teen Challenge Farm program is work therapy. You will be assigned a job to do at work detail, which you are responsible to carry out thoroughly. You may be on the same job for a period of days or even weeks. We are here to teach you not only the spiritual aspects of living, but responsibility, dependability and accountability, which are important in living an effective and satisfying Christian life. This means you must learn good work ethic (habits).
Your job will normally consist of either kitchen, maintenance, working on one of our work contracts, or one of the shops on the property. These include vehicle donation department, livestock, wood shop, lawn maintenance, or just plain cleanup.
You will not be paid for any work you do while in the Teen Challenge program. The tasks you complete during work detail help you to grow and develop Christian character. These are also ways of making an offering back to the Lord for what He has done for you while in the Teen Challenge program.

(Italics Teen Challenge's emphasis; bolded text my emphasis)  

Of note, there are reliable reports Teen Challenge also has inmates fill out paperwork for social welfare payments for the disabled (SSI, etc.) and forces inmates to turn over their SSI/social welfare payments to Teen Challenge.  This evidence includes requirements for admission to a different Teen Challenge facility, that explicitly discuss signing up people for SSI and taking almost all the check:

3. If you are on S.S.I., or receive a monthly check, you will be required to pay a monthly housing allowance to Teen Challenge in the amount of $340.

Tuesdays and Thursdays equal "PACE" training--which is exactly the same as the "Lecture" series above, only focusing almost entirely on the PACE curriculum used by Teen Challenge.  There is surprisingly little info available re this curriculum, save from walkaways of Teen Challenge programs; it is apparently available only via the group, and is apparently copyrighted by the Assemblies of God (in a similar manner to how the internal "super secret scriptures" of Scientology are behind a "copyright and trade secret" firewall, aside from those revealed by the Fishman Affidavit et al).

This continues on until 5pm (with a 15 minute break); on "PACE days", there is also a mandatory PE period from 4 to 5pm.  After this, inmates get free time and supper from 5 to 7, after which they get "Study Hall" save on Friday nights.  Of note, the 6pm "free time" slot is the only period where phone calls are allowed--and generally only one a week, if that many.  Phone calls are reportedly monitored, so people cannot report abuse to parents and/or other authorities.

"Study Hall" is not exactly what you'd expect.  Rather than a chance to brush up on "readin', writin' and 'rithmetic", Study Hall turns out to be--you guessed it--yet more Assemblies 101:

At 7:00 PM we have study hall or recreation scheduled. During study hall you are expected to complete homework from your Lecture and PACE classes.

From 8:15 to 8:45 snacks are provided (literally as long as breakfast or supper last), and at 8:45pm (until 9:15) a second mandatory "altar call" devotional period is held.  

At 9:15, there is a segment which surprisingly little is given about titled Dorm Life:

At 9:15 pm all students are required to start getting ready for bed during a time we call "dorm life".

Don't ask me what that's supposed to mean, but I'm willing to bet there's at least SOME religious indoctrination there--at least based on the general pattern I'm seeing (one that's starting to make even the little "God Warrioring for Tykes" Assemblies-linked Bible camp that was the subject of the movie "Jesus Camp" seem less restricted).

From 10:00 pm to 10:30 (which is the official "lights out" time), quiet time occurs, wherein inmates are literally not allowed to do anything but sleep, pray, or read Assemblies-approved versions of the Bible:

At 10:00 pm, we call "quiet time" in the dorms where no talking is allowed and students must either pray quietly, read the Bible or a Christian book, or sleep.

(And yes, I do feel rather safe in putting that "Assemblies-approved" caveat there.  The official Bible version used in Teen Challenge is Fire Bible Student Edition, an official Assemblies version of the NIV (itself fairly skewed towards a neopente dominionist viewpoint)--and a Bible version so skewed between its text and its concordances that it can literally be considered the "marching orders for Joel's Army".  A different Teen Challenge facility in west Pennsylvania explicitly states an NIV is required as well.)

As a very rough estimate, at minimum students are subjected to 3 3/4 hours religious indoctrination daily (on Mondays and Fridays); on Wednesdays this total goes to 5 hours daily, on Tuesdays and Thursdays to 8 3/4 hours, and on Sunday to 8 hours.  Even Saturdays are not a respite; even on this relative day of rest, 2 1/4 hours are dedicated to indoctrination into the Assemblies.

A third document from the St. Louis Teen Challenge center (which is apparently one of the few who will accept people on psychotropic meds--that is, if they can hit them up for an additional $200 per person) gives some additional details on the specific coursework given at Teen Challenge:

Group Studies for New Christians (G. S. N. C.)
Group Studies is a lecture/discussion class designed to broaden the student's understanding of vital life issues and illustrate how the application of biblical principles can improve the student's ability to cope with these issues. The Group Studies curriculum consists of 12 one-week courses and one two-week course.

1. Residents are expected to complete assigned scripture memorization, study guides, quizzes, and final tests for each course.

2. During Group Studies, all students should sit at the tables and participate in class.

3. The entire 14-week curriculum must be completed before transfer to Mid-America Teen Challenge.

E. Personalized Studies for New Christians (P. S. N. C)
Personalized Studies is comprised of several learning activities designed so that each student may work at his own pace. The student is responsible to complete learning contracts consisting of scripture memorization, Bible reading, Bible lessons, personal reading, sermon note sheets, and character development activities.

1. Learning contracts are structured to each student's aptitude and ability. If a student does not complete at least three contracts before his required four months, he will then be given an extra month to complete the third contract.

2. If after this extra month the student still has not completed his third contract, he will then be reviewed by the staff, and a decision will be made concerning his possible transfer to Mid-America Teen Challenge in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, or dismissal from Teen Challenge.

Note here that there is practically no non-religious education--no maths, no sciences, pretty much nothing but consistent "How To Be A God Warrior" type stuff.  (Yes, there's a reason that even Texas--a state whose educational system has been under severe pressure from dominionists for years--found Teen Challenge's programs to constitute educational neglect.)

The work program indicates that people who do not perform sufficiently well will be deprived of food:

Work Experience Program

The work experience program at Teen Challenge of St. Louis is directed to bring about a change in lifestyle and work habits. Work detail tests your maturity as a Christian and puts into practice what has been learned from the Bible. During work detail, a resident learns patience, tolerance, industry, faithfulness, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, and punctuality. The Bible emphasizes the importance of work in the verse that states, "He that will not work shall not eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10).

(Emphasis mine.)

The rest is remarkably similar to that guideline as given by Teen Challenge Canada, with the additional note that they have apparently hired a nurse (likely to take advantage of Missouri's broad loopholes re "faith-based" children's homes and rehabs).

Tomorrow--a further look into life in "Jesus Gulag", with an in-depth view of what actually goes on in Teen Challenge.

Previous posts in this series:
Part 1: Teen Challenge: The Assemblies' own "kiddie gulag"
Part 2: Teen Challenge: Coercive groups disguised as rehab

•  Tip jar

  Tomorrow we'll be going into much more detail on some of what goes on in the typical Teen Challenge facility--due to length I've split up the schedule and actual descriptions.

  by dogemperor on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 02:05:25 PM PDT

  •  Thanks for splitting this part up.

    This part alone was almost too much to handle, and more than enough to prove your point.

    by Neon Vincent on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 04:45:54 PM PDT

•  I've met the guy who runs our local

  Teen Challenge and I found him creepy as all hell. Thanks for telling us what this group is all about; it's good to know that I wasn't being overly judgmental with my negative reaction to them.

  by beltane on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 02:14:20 PM PDT

•  Shocking Stuff

  Thanks for your work in exposing the Dominionists.

  These people are deeply sick.  

  by willb48 on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 02:37:03 PM PDT

•  couple of questions...

  Some things are not clear to me.... probably you set the context in an earlier diary when I wasn't looking.

  - what is this camp? (rehab? or vacation bible school? or pseudo-seminary?) - how long does a kid stay there? - do they make it appear that the kids can leave if they choose? - what do the kids think they are getting into? - do any non-assemblies families get sucked into this stuff?

  thanks, as always, for interesting reading!

  by Lefty Mama on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 02:54:01 PM PDT

  •  Glad to answer

    a) The camp is advertised as a "Christian discipleship community" internally, and externally it is marketed as a "faith-based" rehab facility and/or as essentially a "Bible-based" behaviour modification center.  

    In practice, Teen Challenge operates as a highly abusive "behaviour mod" center which also has a function as a pseudo-seminary, at least in the higher divisions.

    b) As for how long a kid is there--minimum internment for "graduation" is one year, two-year terms are not uncommon, and the ultimate goal is to get people in permanently as staff.

    c) The model of "choice" is not exactly accurate when dealing with Teen Challenge.  People are told they can leave, but that they will end up being possessed by demons and will end up dead if they do not leave; in addition, a non-negligible number of people were not placed there of their own volition (teenagers and persons sentenced to Teen Challenge as part of "alternative sentencing), and those persons know that if they leave they will likely either end up in prison or sent to a different facility.

    In addition (and this will be mentioned more in depth tomorrow), Teen Challenge holds all funds of persons interred in their facilities and reserves the right to not return belongings and funds if they are felt to "owe money" to the group.  In other words, someone leaving Teen Challenge may well end up completely destitute (as in homeless, with only the shirt on their back).

    d) Generally the kids don't have much choice, nor do the prisoners--in general, if it's promoted at all, it's sold as merely a faith-based rehabilitation facility or as an alternative to jail or juvenile hall.  Even the few adults voluntarily entering the facility often have little idea what they are truly getting into.

    e) Non-Assemblies families are increasingly being sucked into this--both by Teen Challenge advertising to parents of "out of control" youth and by the increasing use of Teen Challenge as "alternative sentencing" in the legal system.  (Of note, it should again be emphasized that Teen Challenge does not reveal in most of its literature that it is an Assemblies of God ministry; you have to go to the Assemblies of God's website for that info, for the most part.  This is very similar to how Narconon's known links to Scientology were not publicised by that particular abusive "faith-based rehab" chain.)

    by dogemperor on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 03:08:10 PM PDT

    •  NOW my hair's on fire!

      Thanks for the clarification - scarier than a slasher movie. It is terrible that they hide their affiliation - can't imagine Catholics doing that, for example.

      by Lefty Mama on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 04:16:42 PM PDT

      •  Hiding their affiliation

        That's because they know what they are doing is both immoral and illegal.

        by Spoc42 on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 02:28:35 AM PDT

      •  Actually, it's rather easy to imagine.

        From the Rule of St. Benedict

        From Easter until the Calends of October,
        when they come out from Prime in the morning
        let them labor at whatever is necessary
        until about the fourth hour,
        and from the fourth hour until about the sixth
        let them apply themselves to reading.
        After the sixth hour,
        having left the table,
        let them rest on their beds in perfect silence;
        or if anyone may perhaps want to read,
        let her read to herself
        in such a way as not to disturb anyone else.
        Let None be said rather early,
        at the middle of the eighth hour,
        and let them again do what work has to be done until Vespers.

        The Hours can be found here.  Roughly nine hours a day are spent working, three hours resting during the day and four hours are spent praying.  Matins interrupts the night's rest, though the Rule fixes seven hours between Compline and Matins.  

        The current practice at Andechs Monastery appears to be less demanding, or at least easier to understand.  

        7:00 Matins
        7:30 Breakfast (innovation)
        8:00 Work
        11:50 Noon prayer
        12:00 Lunch, more prayer
        ???? - 5:45 pm:  Work
        6:00:  Vespers with Eucharist, dinner in silence, followed by recreation (talk of the day's events) and Compline at 7:45 pm.  

        The above routine is taken on voluntarily by adult men who, in sound mind, devote themselves to God.  

        Again, it is very interesting to see Catholic or even pagan practices adopted by conservative Protestants who hold no truck with either;  and in the case of the Catholics the excesses were discarded!
         

        by Yamaneko2 on Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 10:34:32 PM PDT

        •  There's still a number of important differences

          There's a number of (IMNSHO) important differences of note:

          a) The schedule is not as emphatic on indoctrination (in fact, dare I say it, a modern monastery as noted above has less hours of indoctrination per day, much less per week, than Teen Challenge's program--this, in and of itself, shows very damningly the extent of indoctrination).  Even the old monastic schedule shows far less indoctrination--bookreading is encouraged (which in old monastic circles was not restricted to the Bible, but also often included preservation of scientific and historical information as well--in some ways in the Middle Ages, monasteries served as de facto universities); Teen Challenge explicitly restricts reading material to an Assemblies-approved version of the NIV and courses specifically promoting a very specific Biblical interpretation in lieu of almost all educational content.

          b) As noted, monks are generally doing this voluntarily, with full knowledge of what is involved in monastic vows, and with the explicit intent of living a monastic lifestyle in service to God.  The same cannot be said of Teen Challenge; Teen Challenge has a substantial part of its population there involuntarily, they are deceptive in recruitment, and it is little-publicised that much of the purpose of Teen Challenge is to operate a de facto "missionary mill" for the Assemblies of God.

          c) As I'll get into tomorrow, there's evidence of rather rampant religious abuse--including, specifically, the use of cell groups and promotion of a highly militarised version of neopente dominionism.  This is in general not true of Roman Catholicism (outside of some ultramontaine groups like Opus Dei who have been linked with coercive tactics and outside of "cuckoo church" cell-groups linked with--ironically--an Assemblies of God frontgroup called FGBMFI); despite the Catholic Church generally being theologically conservative, there is generally not the repetitive reports of coercive tactics on multiple levels of the sort that occurs in the Assemblies (even the documented abuse in Opus Dei is not this severe; much of what goes on in the Assemblies approaches and in some levels surpasses the levels of abusiveness documented in well-known coercive groups like Scientology and the Moonies) nor the consistent use of "God Warrior" imagery.

          In other words, people are being subjected--often involuntarily and often involving people far under the age of majority or consent--to a lifestyle that is not only more severe than either historical or modern-day monastic lifestyles, they are forced into this without full knowledge and being forced into a group that has been documented (both in regards to multiple frontgroups, and increasingly in regards to the base theology in the main denomination) as sufficiently abusive as to constitute a "Bible-based" coercive religious group.

          Thank you for posting info on this--this helps bring home just what sort of holy hell people are being put in re Teen Challenge.

          by dogemperor on Thu May 01, 2008 at 12:40:30 AM PDT

    •  alternative sentencing

      Uh... What year is this?

      by debedb on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 02:28:29 AM PDT

      •  2008, last I checked.

        And yeah, diversion into "faith-based" programs as a form of alternative sentencing--literally telling offenders "You can go into Teen Challenge in parole, or you can go to jail"--is increasingly common.  (I would blame the drug war, but there are known sex offenders who are also being sent to Teen Challenge facilities as either alternative sentencing or mandatory post-prison "counseling".)

        by dogemperor on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 10:48:52 AM PDT

        •  And how is this

          constitutional?

          by debedb on Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 10:48:19 AM PDT

          •  Technically, it *isn't*.

            In a strict sense, it isn't constitutional at all--but thanks to having a very dominionist-friendly (and specifically Assemblies-friendly) person in the president's seat (and a Congress that was dominated until 2006 by a steeplejacked political party), "faith based" groups not only seem to have been exempted but have been recipients of (unconstitutional) federal funding.

            by dogemperor on Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 01:08:53 PM PDT

•  The website says it's for over-18.

  Is that not true?

  by SensibleShoes on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 03:00:02 PM PDT

  •  It is not entirely true.

    Some of the websites claim they are for over-18, but it is routine for Teen Challenge to have teens sent to their facilities if their parents commit them or have them sent there.  (Quite often there are different websites maintained for the "teen" and "adult" Teen Challenge programs.)

    by dogemperor on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 03:09:33 PM PDT

  •  An example of one of the separate sites

    Here is an example of Teen Challenge Minnesota's site--there are separate sections for adult and child admissions.

    by dogemperor on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 07:26:34 PM PDT

•  Excellent work, as usual,

  dog.  Sometimes I think that you are the only one with the determination and expertise to reveal these activities, and I very much appreciate your efforts.  Warmest regards, Doc.

  by Translator on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 03:23:32 PM PDT

•  Surfed in from Mr. 618's place

  ...who says that you're a survivor of this Dominionist bullshit. So I follow the link, see your profile, click on today's post and, Wow. I never knew these assholes actually existed and that they were so institutionalized. Sort of reminds me of the Hitler Youth League, especially in the last days of WW II. Little boys blubbering in oversized Nazi uniforms, fearing the inevitable, which was getting killed by Soviet soldiers overrunning Berlin.

  Or is that too dramatic of an analogy? Whenever I read about Killer Klowns such as these, the spectre of Nazism always follows.

  JP
  http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogs...

  by jurassicpork on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 04:12:08 PM PDT

  •  Too dramatic? no

    but the timing is off.  Think 1937: things are good, power is still accruing, often in pseudo-legal ways, the cadres are growing and the likelihood of seeing some action is increasing.  Kristallnacht is calling to them...

    by Snarcalita on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 11:17:37 PM PDT

    •  Actually, if we're going to use that analogy...

      If we're going to use the analogy of certain fascist regimes in middle Europe in the 30s, there is a very good argument to be made that we may already be at the Kristallnacht period and have been for some time...with LGBT people in particular playing the part of "Jews", if we're going to label neopente dominionists as "fascists" and Joel's Army in particular as "brownshirts".

      Since around the 1980s, domestic terrorism has been increasingly popular in the "Joel's Army" community (with one particularly notable "anti-abortion" group, Operation Save America, having definitive links to the Army of God domestic terror network).  What has not been well publicised is that not only have these terror attacks included women's clinics, but also LGBT bars and gathering places and--increasingly--adult bookstores as well.

      This would specifically include, of note, at least one very influential politician who received $20,000 from the Assemblies in what is likely a very illegal political donation in the election that he lost to a dead man.

      More directly analgous is the anti-LGBT hategroup "Watchmen At The Walls"--a group that has been linked to anti-LGBT riots (complete with literal poopflinging), is linked to the hate murder of Satender Singh and the beating of another gay man (who ironically was a walkaway from an abusive neopentecostal dominionist group), and which has at its heart a particular form of Holocaust revisionism common in neopente dominionist communities (namely, the claim that gay men were not only not victims in the Holocaust but were its instigators, and have been the architects of all manner of crimes against humanity and "anti-Christian" initiatives since the beginning of time--taking, almost word-for-word, the anti-Semitic claims that spawned the Holocaust and replacing the word "Jew" with "Homosexual").  "Watchmen" has substantial Assemblies and "Assemblies daughter" support--including not only a regional Assemblies of God head being a known supporter and member but throughout lead denominational leaders as well.  (The known Holocaust-revisionist work "The Pink Swastika" was also written with the assistance of at least two Assemblies-linked groups.)

      It is worth noting in this regard that one of the attendees at the last conference in question--where "Watchmen At The Walls" leaders were giving talks on "Developing Political Leaders"--was none other than the head of the US Missions Office of the Assemblies of God--the exact same division where Teen Challenge is under.

      There is even a rough equivalent to Hitlerjugend among some of these groups.  In addition to known "Bible boot camps" receiving funding from a known Assemblies funding-front and promoting literal "God Warriors With Guns" (as I'll go into later this week, Teen Challenge also notably does this), there is also a "Christian Alternative" to Scouting that the Assemblies of God operates (Royal Rangers) that not only operates a paramilitary training camp for its equivalent of Eagle scouting but has literally had its members protesting in support of hatemonger Fred Phelps and against a Gay/Straight Alliance in public schools.

      As if this weren't enough of a frightening parallel, the Assemblies has talked (among its own) of--whenever they were to get control of things either by hijacking the military or hijacking the political process--setting up the process of forcing people to convert or die...literally (it's not uncommon to hear in the "non-sanitised-for-TV" sermons on how they intend to kill "witches, homosexuals, feminists, atheists, and Godless liberals" who won't convert once they get control).  The same regional Assemblies head who is linked to "Watchmen At The Walls" has already on national TV called for rounding up non-dominionists and sending them to INS deportation camps as well as revoking the US citizenship (even birthright citizenship) of non-dominionists.

      So yes, there are some fairly extensive parallels there.  I am not saying they are Nazis by any stretch...but there are some notable parallels.  (I myself am of the opinion that, to quote a famous phrase, "When fascism comes to the US it will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross".)

      This is, in fact, part of why I can't really stay silent about this anymore.

      by dogemperor on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 10:47:00 AM PDT

•  Btw, have you ever seen this website?

  http://www.teenchallengeexposed.com/

  Real interestin' readin', from another survivor of Teen Challenge.

  JP
  http://welcome-to-pottersville.blogs...

  by jurassicpork on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 05:02:28 PM PDT

  •  Yup, seen it

    In fact, some of the material I'm covering in this series is sourced from Teen Challenge Exposed (that site, and Investigating Teen Challenge, are the two primary "watchdog" sites out there investigating abuse in this program; Teen Challenge has so far managed to slip under the radar of most groups like ISAC monitoring these facilities (though this will certainly be changing--I'll be forwarding links to ISAC once this series is wrapped up).

    by dogemperor on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 05:26:44 PM PDT

•  American madrassas.

  Disgusting. Avoidable.

  by LightningMan on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 08:51:12 PM PDT

•  This stuff has no place in America

  All of these facilities should be shut down and the people running them should be imprisoned.

  by Brad007 on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 09:39:14 PM PDT

  •  walking a dangerous line with that

    for the institutions that stick with 18 and older, it's getting into freedom of choice issues.  Use the Law to shut down the Dominionist related camp this year, a few years on it could be the Quakers. Short term swings in popular political sentiment are common, don't bank on the public always making wise choices or even making ones you approve of.

    Another reason to fight these things using exposure of what they really are, rather than sending the troops in, is the current religious views of the US. The majority of the population considers itself aligned with churches of at least Evangelical leanings and/or socially conservative.  It would be fairly easy to convince many of them that attempts to legally tightly control or shut down these camp were actually "war on Christians".  This is something you really don't want,  if you think the current crop of conservative religious   crazies are bad you certainly don't want to invite a Nehemiah Scudder into power - something that taking these groups on without sufficient public preparation could bring on.

    by wondering if on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 10:10:42 PM PDT

    •  Freedom of choice?

      More like freedom to preach hatred towards non-Dominonist Christians in this country. Seriously, Teen Challenge is breeding the next generation of Hal Turners/John Hagees/Pat Robertsons.

      There's a line that was crossed a long time ago. We have this crap in our military too.

      by Brad007 on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 03:59:21 AM PDT

    •  Polititians love abusive programs

      When they fund this stuff they get to look tough and "compassionate" at the same time. The abuse isn't a bug, it's a feature. The more abusive it is, the more it punishes the dirty hippies. Also, I suspect that most such "theraputic communities" are designed to make most people drop out so that they can justify throwing them in prison anyway.

      by spacecadet1 on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 04:53:06 AM PDT

  •  But it's been here and going strong

    for at least 25 years, and it's place is, among others, a strange castle-like building 2 miles from my Mom's house in Riverside, CA.

    Teen Challenge 'recruits' are also seen soliciting donations at her local grocery store.  No doubt part of work detail.  Creepy.

    by El Sobrante on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 10:21:28 PM PDT

•  Not just a religious issue

  There are other programs for "unruly" teens that are just as bad, if not worse, but without the religious slant. Many of them are overseas, such as "Tranquility Bay" in Jamaica: kids are forcefully abducted, hauled outside the reach of U.S. law, mistreated, malnourished, and brainwashed.

  This isn't a religious problem, it's a youth rights problem. The law turns a blind eye while parents force their teenage children into situations that would be unequivocally considered torture if they were over 18. The parents are often unaware of the full extent of these programs -- usually because the operators carefully control all contact between inmates and their parents -- but they're still complicit.

  There need to be serious legal consequences not only for the operators of these programs, but also for the parents who sign their kids up for them.

  by jmcgrew on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 09:56:56 PM PDT

  •  It's worth pointing out

    that there is nothing in the law that allows parents to "authorize" third parties to do anything to their kids that would be considered abusive if done by the parents. Yes, that's not enforced as well as it should be, but the fact is that what's taking place at these facilities is illegal.

    by ebohlman on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 10:51:51 PM PDT

    •  Agreed.

      The problem is, there are tmultiple factors (which I will be getting into later in the series) that, in practice, make it extremely difficult to report abuse in these facilities:

      a) As I'll get into tomorrow, kids in these facilities are essentially held incommunicado--calls are only allowed to pastor and parents (who are often warned that kids will "squeal abuse" and to ignore it), and mail is screened incoming and outgoing.  And this is after a period of one to six months where the kid is held totally incommunicado.

      Needless to say, attorneys are never on the "allowed" list--just pastors and family members.

      b) Teen Challenge has specialised in setting up shop in states with relatively weak or even nonexistant protections for kids (and the big "ranch" facilities in particular are set up in states with little to no meaningful regulation).

      Missouri, for instance, does not have any regulations for inspection or reporting of abuse from "Christian children's homes" despite a number of discoveries of systemic abuse; all attempts to pass such laws have been blocked by Assemblies lobbying.  (It is of particular note here that the world headquarters of the Assemblies of God are located in Springfield, Missouri--and regulation that covers Teen Challenge could lead to the state of Missouri charging the Assemblies for transporting kids out of state for purposes of abuse.)

      Florida (and, formerly, Texas) have a setup that literally has the foxes watching the henhouse--in lieu of licensing, "faith-based" children's homes can join a group called FACCCA that is in theory supposed to be self-policing but has itself been linked to horrific abuse and has not ever shown non-members its standards for review.  (A similar system exists in South Carolina.)

      It has been estimated that fifteen states have laws exempting "faith-based" facilities to such an extent that child abuse laws would be very difficult to enforce.

      c) In some cases, it isn't the parents but the courts that commit people to Teen Challenge--as a part of "alternative sentencing" or "community sentencing".  In many cases, the choice literally is between Teen Challenge (and a reduced sentence) and the maximum sentence (and there are multiple cases of people on felony convictions who are de facto sentenced to a choice of Teen Challenge or prison and a felony record).

      d) A trick that Teen Challenge--and many, many other abusive "behaviour modification" facilities including WWASPS--do is to literally have parents sign over custodial rights to the facility "in loco parentis" (or, sometimes, fully) and then restrict the rights of the parents to inspect what is going on (a common requirement is that parents also participate in a separate program).

      e) In many cases, if parents discover abuse is occuring, they may have considerable difficulty with a lawsuit--Teen Challenge typically requires parents to not only waive most of their right to sue but requires a "Christian Conciliation Agreement" (a mandatory mediation agreement that is heavily skewed in favour of Teen Challenge) for any disputes.

      by dogemperor on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 11:02:21 AM PDT

•  make sure you save copies of Wayback stuff

  Wayback will remove it if pressure is applied they are asked by the content owner.  

  by wondering if on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 10:14:57 PM PDT

  •  I am, don't worry.

    Trust me, not only am I saving archives, but also recording in the post itself (making it harder to redact). :3

    by dogemperor on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 10:20:21 PM PDT

    •  need any mirrors?

      :)

      by debedb on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 02:31:41 AM PDT

      •  Mirror away, please :3

        Glad to have all the mirrors I can, seriously. :3

        by dogemperor on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 10:22:36 AM PDT

•  Hi ya again, dogemperor!

  It's me again, a survivor of Gospel Outreach, from way back in the seventies, as I have commented before.

  There are more parallels between G.O. and Teen Challenge than I can enumerate.  What distresses me the most is that Teen Challenge still functions, and is continuing to damage young peoples lives.

  How do we fight this?  What can I do to help you?  Please let me know.  I've been on the inside of these kinds of groups and I know how they operate.  If there is something I can do to help, please contact me.  quincyforrest at sbcglobal (dot) net.

  by cn4st4datrees on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 10:47:41 PM PDT

  •  A few things I can suggest

    For starters, one thing you may wish to do (as a walkaway and survivor) is to contact ISAC to get their attention on this group.

    Another thing, related, is to share your story with others--you will likely find you are far from alone, and just knowing you aren't alone helps as a walkaway.

    Thirdly, please contact your congressfolk and ask them to support HR 5876--right now, this is our best shot at shutting the entire "kiddie gulag" industry down or at least getting enough regulation in place that the worst offenders can be shut down.

    by dogemperor on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 11:05:48 PM PDT

•  Religion is the common thread

  running through such horrors as George Bush's glee in using torture, the bible boot camps and it's mind control techniques and other atrocities such as The Spanish Inquisition. Using torture to punish or murder is not a problem for this group. By controlling the mind and message horrors can be pasted off as god's will. So lord save us from your true believers as they are idiots(this line is snark).
  I came across the following quote while research another question. It seems to fit the discussion.    

  So what is the lesson of this unhappy history?

  Simply that the more closely religion and political power are mingled, the more frequently will both political and religious establishments make use of torture--with imagined impunity, but to the degradation of each in the end.

  David L. Kent is a Texas member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

  by AuntieM on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 10:51:24 PM PDT

•  Raised a Baptist preacher's kid in the midwest.

  This was my "family life" for the first 18 years of my life. Teen Challenge is only doing what many Christian parents do to their kids, with the help of their church, every day.

  by A Voice on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 03:12:20 AM PDT

  •  Oh, agreed.

    As an Assemblies of God survivor myself (which actually makes the SBC look liberal, and is closer to those "independent fundamentalist Baptist" churches in levels of sheer coercion) I can sadly agree that this isn't far from the typical family life in those groups.  (Then again, I've written about this in this journal before a lot.)

    Not noted here is that within Assemblies families, abuse often starts at birth--religiously motivated child abuse is extremely common and frequently even stated as Biblically mandated, with Bill Gothard's highly cultic childrearing system being a particularly popular system of "Bible-based" baby-beating (Gothard's system, in particular, along with abuse in another Assemblies frontgroup called Youth With A Mission (which is almost universally considered a "Bible-based cult") have been linked definitively to the murder-suicide of Matthew Murray).

    by dogemperor on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 10:22:05 AM PDT

•  Hi de

  Thanks again for this series and congrats on being rescued.  

  Re PACE curriculum, the "Christian" schools in my area say that they use this curriculum.  Didn't get a sample, as I didn't go that far, but they claim it is your basic reading, writing, math, history in packets that the child completes on his/her own at their own pace, therefore allowing all the kids to get what they need; i.e,, the slower learning kids don't hold up the faster ones, and the slower learning ones don't get lost.  However, I'm quite sure every subject is heavily "Bible=based."  Maybe will have to see if I can get hold of a sample.  

  Thanks again for your diaries, otherwise I might not have realized how insidious these things are.  

  by auroraborealis on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 05:24:35 AM PDT

  •  If you can, let me know

    I've done writing on A Beka, and a plunge into the academic insufficiency of PACE would be a good followup to this series.

    by dogemperor on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 10:14:44 AM PDT

  •  A note on the PACE curriculum

    Granted this was in 1982, but I was a student at an Assemblies church-run school and they used the PACE curriculum.

    EVERYTHING, and I mean EV-ER-Y-THING, in the booklets had some sort of tie-in to religious teachings. Reading  was taught through Bible stories. Math problems were written as religious treatises. History was re-framed to tell the Assemblies-approved version of how things happened. Science, of course, was rewritten from a fundamentalist viewpoint.

    I entered that year of school having skipped a grade in the public school I transferred from. When I went back to public school I was behind all the other kids academically because I had been taught NOTHING!!! Nothing but religious doctrine, that is.

    by ariadne137 on Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 02:47:44 PM PDT

    •  Thanks for details :3

      Thank you for pointing out more details on things re the PACE curriculum--and confirming that it is, almost entirely, religious indoctrination (specifically Assemblies religious indoctrination) rather than education.

      by dogemperor on Thu May 01, 2008 at 12:21:21 AM PDT

•  Catholic School...

  Just want to point out that no modern Catholic school resembles this in any way, shape or form. I teach in one. Our students have one 45 minute theology class a day. These focus on certain topics each year; the freshmen year is family and relationships; sophomore is church history; junior includes comparitive religions, and the senior year focuses on social justice. Additionally, there are ten minute all-school prayer services twice a week and an all-school mass on alternate Wednesdays.

  As for the PACE curriculum, if it does include normal school subjects, let me assure you as someone who formerly taught in an Assemblies high school that it is likely skewed toward the world view they want the kids to hold. We were forced to use the A Beka curriculum. Some of the gems in the 1982 World History text were that the French Revolution was good for Christianity because it "broke the hold of the Catholic church" on France, and that apartheid was good because it prevented South Africa from becoming communist.

  by BB Jam Fan on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 08:19:50 AM PDT

  •  Agreed.

    I've known people who went to parochial school--even exclusive Catholic parochial schools--and neither Catholic nor Baptist private schools are like this.

    I dare say this even goes a bit beyond the usual Assemblies of God private school in some aspects (typically they use A Beka--which I've written about before in old posts in this journal--but it would appear the Teen Challenge program doesn't even bother to use the pretense of academic education).

    by dogemperor on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 10:13:42 AM PDT

•  Amazing how anyone can view religion as

  anything but indoctrination into a set of mythological beliefs passed from generation to generation.

  Thanks for educating us on those who are the enemy to logic, reason and humanity's progress.

  by Boisepoet on Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 10:34:01 AM PDT