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:
- 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.
- Residents are expected to complete assigned scripture memorization, study guides, quizzes, and final tests for each course.
- During Group Studies, all students should sit at the tables and participate in class.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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