That this story and the related piece are appearing in this paper is quite remarkable. For about 35 years prior to his retirement in the past year Frank Miele (miley) was the Hagadone Papers Managing Editor for this paper. He was very conservative, and Christian, treating the paper as his personal political fiefdom. He was also short in stature and small of mind. You can find the archives of his personal editorials in the Opinion section. He now has gigs at Heartland Diary and RealClearPolitics. He was given to citing the writings of randos from the late 1800’s to support his philosophical rantings about how he thought contemporary life should transpire. Articles like this would be super shortened if they appeared at all.
Whitefish receives a bit of a bad rap given its association with Ryan Zinke, Richard Spencer and his parents, Whitefish Energy, etc. It’s a resort community in a resort destination area where low-wage workers are priced out of the housing market and all kinds of people with money come to establish seasonal homes. But it is not the only town in the Valley where conservatives of means or a just a camper and a truck come these days. Doomsday prepper and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin is in Kila. FOX Iraq War cheerleader Gen. Paul LaValley is in the Bigfork area. So is conservative movie producer Gerald Molen. White supremacyst April Gaede ( of Prussian Blue fame) is in Columbia Falls.
The Daily Inter Lake spoke with nearly two dozen sources, some of whom have been involved with the ministry since 2000, who claimed they were verbally and emotionally abused by Potter’s Field founders Michael “Mike” and Pamela “Pam” Rozell. Dozens of personal stories have been shared in the past few weeks on the religious blog site, phoenixpreacher.com.
Among the allegations were reports that Potter’s Field staff members worked 60 to 80 hours in a week, suffered sleep deprivation and were paid well below minimum wage. Dawn Marie Grice, who worked with the ministry for 11 years, said “I only slept four hours a night for years.”
Former employees reported they signed a form agreeing to consider anything beyond 40 hours a week as “volunteer work” and were encouraged to commit extra time to benefit the ministry’s charity work.
Multiple sources detailed how the Rozells would schedule commitments late into the night and early in the morning, during the interns’ limited time outside of their scheduled MudMan hours. Rozell would also allegedly wake up interns and hold impromptu hours-long meetings in the middle of the night on many occasions.
Potter’s Field Ministries was founded as a touring ministry in 1992 by the Rozells. It has since grown to include Potter’s Field Ranch west of Whitefish, the Selah Fellowship in Whitefish, international outreach programs in Central America, Asia and Africa, the IGNITE internship program and MudMan Burgers.
www.dailyinterlake.com/…
The comments are worth reading, last I looked.
Officials with Calvary Chapel recently announced on the website, phoenixpreacher.com, that “after prayer, much consideration, and a unanimous decision, Mike Rozell and Potter’s Field Ministries has been removed from the official list of affiliated Calvary Chapel pastors and churches. We find that the Potter’s Field form of discipleship training and methods of ministry are not compatible with the Calvary Chapel form of ministry taught to us by Pastor Chuck,” the online post stated.
Don McClure, a leading pastor with Calvary Chapel, confirmed the departure, adding that the “whole experience has been very painful for a lot of kids.”
Calvary Chapel, which has a presence in the Flathead Valley, was reportedly a significant donor to Potter’s Field Ministries over the years. McClure declined to provide an exact amount donated to Potter’s Field over the years.
And Calvary Chapel isn’t the only financial stakeholder in Potter’s Field Ministries.
The ministry is multi-faceted and has existed in the Flathead Valley community for a couple of decades, and according to publicly available tax information, just a portion of the organizations owned by the Rozells collectively have raked in upwards of $5.5 million in grants, contributions and donations from donors large and small in recent years.
www.dailyinterlake.com/...