If Teen Challenge were to legitimately evaluate their recovering graduates on a monthly basis as opposed to doing so by questionnaire (An honor system!), and included the students who quit the program before graduation, their “success rate” would be approximately 5% - the same as the national average for secular programs. Teen Challenge is described on one web site as "A 'faith- based' drug rehab program owned by the Assemblies of God denomination and well known for years for fudging its success rate figures." In a February, 2005 issue of Dissident Voice, journalist Amy Sullivan wrote in "Faith, Fabrications, and Fantasy" that "Teen Challenge's much ballyhooed 86 percent rehabilitation rate falls apart under examination -- the number doesn't include those who dropped out of Teen Challenge and relies on a disturbingly small sample of those graduates who self-reported whether they had remained sober, significantly tilting the results." In 1995, Aaron Bicknese, a doctoral student at Northwestern University, tracked down 59 people one to two years after they had completed Teen Challenge's yearlong residential program. He compared them with a similar group of addicts who had spent one or two months in a hospital rehabilitation program, and found that Teen Challenge graduates reported returning to drug use less often than the hospital program graduates, but not less than the hospital program graduates who continued attending Alcoholics Anonymous support groups. Social scientists have pointed out that the 86 percent success rate of Teen Challenge is misleading. It does not count the people who dropped out during the program. And like many religious and private charities, Teen Challenge picks its clients. In the program's first four-month phase, 25 to 30 percent drop out, and in the next eight months, 10 percent more leave. This raised questions for David Reingold, a researcher at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. A study Reingold completed of social services in Indiana found that religious programs are more likely than their secular counterparts to limit the clientele they serve. As a result, Reingold said, ''It's an extreme exaggeration to say that religious organizations are more effective.'' This is a business whose number one purpose is to increase its assets. Teen Challenge gets the vast majority of its residents either directly from the jails or from courts which sentence them to a live-in program in lieu of jail. They promote themselves as a "Christian Life School," but at Teen Challenge, Almighty God runs a distant second to the almighty dollar. Teen Challenge students are forced to sign up for food stamps and turn the card over to the staff, and if they become sick or injured and cannot make money for the ministry, they are unceremoniously dumped at the bus station, regardless of whether or not they have any money. The bottom line is, they are there to make money for that ministry. If they can’t, then they’re gone. One can never get a genuine impression of what Teen Challenge is like unless they've actually been enrolled there. It's not unlike reading about the smell of a dead body; it pales in comparison to actually experiencing it. Teen Challenge Riverside’s commercial business operations, including but not limited to conducting banquets at Benedict Castle and operating a mobile car wash, are in violation of the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation v. Secretary of Labor (1985) by not conforming to minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act. These requirements apply to workers engaged in the commercial activities of a religious foundation, regardless of whether or not those workers consider themselves “employees.” The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment do not shield an outfit like Teen Challenge from these requirements. Many of those who represent Teen Challenge have the IQ of a pencil eraser. They have placed boundaries on their minds, and attempt to place those same boundaries on the minds of those they come across. Their beliefs are two-dimensional, simplistic, and pathological. "There are no bars on the windows, no locks on the doors," was the pseudosermon of Teen Challenge instructor/advisor Ahmed Morris, "you can leave any time you want." Of course, if you chose to leave, you were "going against what God wanted." The barriers they tried to erect in each individual’s mind were far greater than any outside one. They wanted you to submit to the assumption that Teen Challenge and its representatives truly spoke for God, and that you would be a fool not to accept every single thing they told you. To disobey them was to disobey God! To question them was to question God! Any type of rational criticism or disbelief was condemned as being "of the flesh," or "of the devil." At a recent Sunday worship service, the minister told the students that if they voted for anyone who was pro-choice, they were going against God. Another "non-profit" ministry breaking the law which requires them to keep silent on political affairs. The only thing Ahmed Morris possessed that was bigger than his mouth was his opinion of himself. He told us a fairy tale one day about being "offered the chance to run a rehab in San Diego for $150,000 a year," but turned it down because "God wants me here." Nonsense. The only reason Morris existed at Teen Challenge is because no other place wanted him there. As of March, 2007, Morris - thank goodness - was no longer at Teen Challenge; he was taking up space in the Sacramento area. This certainly was a "blessing" for the current students at Riverside. Staff members in places like Teen Challenge are forbidden to use alcohol or drugs, naturally. Yet on no less than four occasions, I observed Ahmed Morris (photo, right) with watery, bloodshot eyes and heavily slurred speech, the last being when Morris visited our class is May 2003 and giggled and slurred his way through an account on squirrels, who were causing problems on the grounds and had a date with the exterminator. It was difficult to keep a straight face, as Morris was totally oblivious to how loaded he was. Could this have been a manifestation of the Holy Spirit? I doubt it. Some Teen Challenge staff members cling to the supposed "infallibility" of the Bible to the point of absolute silliness. Any science that contradicts the scriptures is perceived as being wrong. Assistant Director Marty Coleman told our class that sciences like physics and chemistry were “junk,” and they “should be tossed in the trash.” A Boeing 757 weighing over 100 tons can take off in New York and land in London due to a little something known as aerodynamics, which is a branch of physics. I guess Coleman figures they lay hands on the thing and pray it into the air. There were some individuals at Teen Challenge who weren't at the back of the line when the brains were being passed out. Or the kind hearts. I had been at Benedict Castle for about a week when I saw one of the students directing traffic for an event. He was talking to a pretty brunette in a white Honda, someone who had an extremely pleasant personality. "Who was that?" I asked him after she drove away. "Mrs. Sullivan" he replied. I had never met Mr. Sullivan, but I knew he had to be an all right guy if he was married to this nice lady. I was right; Kerry Sullivan was one of the most reasonable staff members that I met at any of the Teen Challenge locations. Neither he nor his wife were the overly pious types that rub people the wrong way; they were just a very nice couple that were also Christians. Zak Sutton was another normal human being who lived at the Castle. I figured he was a regular guy from day one; anybody who drives a Camaro and rides a motorcycle more than likely has his head in the right place. Like Kerry Sullivan, Zak guided us along without being all preachy. He wasn't some lop like Ahmed Morris who had nowhere else to go and made us suffer for it; Zak even bought a big bag of Meow Mix for the resident cat (a calico that I pampered the entire time I was there), and would only accept three or four dollars from me when I offered to share the cost. The only thing Mike De La Vega had in common with Ahmed Morris is they were both second phase instructors; all similarities ended there. Mike was the anti-Ahmed, a guy who led by example. He earned a bachelor's degree in Pastoral Ministry while I was there, and was headed to Fuller Theological Seminary, a place with many well-known alumni. Mike was a normal, non-pretentious man who always gave us good answers to tough questions, and without being the constant irritant that Morris chose to be. Stan Williams was my advisor. Stan was a good, reasonable man who tried to help students, not browbeat them into submission every waking moment like Morris or the dreaded Paul Montoya. Montoya was the kind of guy who always had his rear end handed to him when he was younger, and now he was getting even with the world. This sixtysomething bigot actually got angry at my roommate Ed Mimms for developing walking pneumonia after washing cars in sub-freezing temperatures! In early 2007 Montoya was still there; a young man named Ty said that he was still at his acid-tongued best, accurately describing him as "a psycho." This young man was granted a program change after his mother read this site and contacted an attorney. Upon hearing that an attorney had called about the program change, Montoya told him, "Pack your bags, I'm sending you to prison!" This sort of behavior is quite common; multiple reports exist of Teen Challenge trying to have people imprisoned for dropping the program. Unfortunately for Montoya, Ty was able to leave the castle and go to a secular program which uses 12-step principles, and the last time I spoke with his mother she told me that he was doing quite well. Teen Challenge interns are no different than staff members; some are good, some are not. An intern is someone who has completed the one-year program and is now starting a four-month residency, which will allow him to graduate and go on to TCMI, the Teen Challenge Ministry Institute, which is located in a dump known as South Gate, CA. One intern, an insecure bully named Ryan Simmons, had an interesting occurrence while at TCMI; he was shot by someone trying to "rob him on his way to the store." It turned out that he was buying drugs and the deal went bad. Trying to cure (or even control) addiction through prayer is like trying to eat soup with a fork; after a while, you begin to realize that it's not happening! Something is wrong here, your common sense tells you. "Don't listen! Common sense and logic are tools of the devil; they'll keep you from getting into heaven" is what we were taught at Teen Challenge. Participating in intercessory prayer is a colossal waste of time also; the 2005 Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) concluded that intercessory prayer has no effect on a person's recovery - from substance abuse, disease, or infirmity - whatsoever. The last thing that anyone needs in medicine is some wacky cult ministry getting in the way of sound medical practices. Despite this, Teen Challenge continues to solicit prayer requests via email. Programs like Teen Challenge that claim to "take authority over you in the name of Jesus" do so as a deception; the survival of their "ministry," and most importantly, their income, are dependent solely on concealing the fact that it does not work. Anyone who begins to see through their scheme is immediately threatened with Jesus. That's right! Jesus is not a caring and forgiving savior to them; he is a pit bull on a leash. Sociologist Mark Chaves of the University of Arizona said in 2001, "There has not yet been any research that gives clear evidence that faith-based partnerships are more effective than current models." There are two weekly worship services at the castle; Sunday mornings, which are fairly normal, because that's when parents and other prospective "contributors" (see money) generally attend, and Thursday evenings. "Thursday Night Madness" is what we called it, with its con artists, pretenders, and plain old sinful liars, it was the Pentecostal equivalent of a circus sideshow. We saw all kinds at those services: The pear-shaped woman with the hideous blonde bleach job who was losing her hair, but claimed she had the power to heal others! And there was Penguin, a short, stocky, tattooed ex-convict who took stories from the Gospels, fast-forwarded them to contemporary times, inserted himself into the hero's role and expected us to believe him. Then there was a joker named Bobby, a Teen Challenge graduate who "warned" us about "the evils of masturbation." Ooh, heavy stuff, huh? Obviously an expert on the subject, Bobby accused us of masturbating in the house of God. "I know you're jackin' off in there," he ranted. Some of us could barely contain our laughter, and many others just shook their heads in amazement. Things get kind of weird when someone insists that you're doing something of this nature without having any type of reasonable or logical proof that such an act is taking place. To this very day staff and interns get in students' faces about masturbating, asking them if they're doing it, or - gasp! - thinking about it. Strange. Do Teen Challenge staff and interns actually believe that through threats and intimidation they can terrorize someone into sobriety, if not salvation? Do they also believe that they can harass and abuse people and simply walk away unscathed? Believe me, once they read this they'll realize they haven't gotten away with anything. On a recent graduation day, the speaker told the graduates who didn't sign up for TCMI that to show their appreciation for what Teen Challenge "had done for them," they were to sign over their very first paychecks to Teen Challenge. Money-grubbing lunatics. Students were told that once they enter Teen Challenge, they should not even consider leaving, because seven times the demons of addiction would come back and get them, and, after they do their prison time - if they live - God will call them back to Teen Challenge. They were left with the caveat that one "can never run from Teen Challenge." There is a simple solution: Don't ever go there in the first place. |
| Behind the Walls: The Teen Challenge You Won't See |
| Michael Kincheloe Exposes An Abusive Christian Program |
"O, that way madness lies..." -Shakespeare
Teen Challenge is an Assembly of God ministry which promotes itself as being "the proven cure for the drug epidemic." They claim to have an 86% student
"cure" rate after five years under their tutelage, and have absurdly claimed this very same "cure" rate every single year for over thirty years. This claim stems
from a 1975 National Institute on Drug Abuse Report where 86% of the Teen Challenge graduates in the study indicated on a questionnaire that they were
drug-free, but a subsequent urinalysis showed the number to be substantially less. Undaunted, Teen Challenge has continued to claim an 86% "cure" rate in
spite of what the urinalysis showed.
Teen Challenge is an Assembly of God ministry which promotes itself as being "the proven cure for the drug epidemic." They claim to have an 86% student
"cure" rate after five years under their tutelage, and have absurdly claimed this very same "cure" rate every single year for over thirty years. This claim stems
from a 1975 National Institute on Drug Abuse Report where 86% of the Teen Challenge graduates in the study indicated on a questionnaire that they were
drug-free, but a subsequent urinalysis showed the number to be substantially less. Undaunted, Teen Challenge has continued to claim an 86% "cure" rate in
spite of what the urinalysis showed.
| Sanford, Fla. Teen Challenge Scam Exposed! Action 9 reporter Todd Ulrich in Orlando, Fla. uncovered an unlicensed telemarketing operation at the Sanford TC. Men convicted of financial crimes took customers' credit card information over the phone. They were paid 33 cents a day for a 40-hour work week. They were instructed to lie to potential customers about timeshare vacations from the "Disney Planning Center Resort." Further investigation revealed that the timeshare company has no relationship to Disney. Sanford Teen Challenge director Wayne Gray resigned in the wake of the scandal, and then fled when approached by Todd Ulrich for a follow-up story. Florida's Division of Consumer Services, which regulates telemarketing, is continuing its investigation. |
| Convicted Sex Offender Heads Teen Challenge in Maine Registered Sex Offender Shondi Fabiano and her husband, Peter (photo, right), are the directors of the Teen Challenge in Winthrop, Maine. Shondi Fabiano (mug shot, left) was convicted of Second Degree Child Molestation in Rhode Island. She is listed on the National Sex Offender Public Registry. http://www.nsopr.gov One angry resident told me that "The community does not want Peter and Shondi Fabiano running their evangelistic mission" there. |
| Minnesota Teen Challenge Gets Greedy, Loses Its Shirt Minnesota Teen Challenge invested in Tom Petters' unconventional investment plan, and are worried they will lose millions now that the Petters is the subject of a fraud probe. Fidelis Foundation of Minneapolis holds $27.6 million in Petters Co. notes that may ultimately be worthless, including five notes for $5.7 million to Teen Challenge. Fidelis is serving as an investment agent for Teen Challenge. Anyone who has ever been a student at MNTC, please contact me. |
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SANFORD TEEN CHALLENGE SUPERVISOR BUSTED FOR DUI!
Inmate Information:
Booking #: 200900003384
Name: DANNY MCCRIMON
Date of Birth: 9/17/1959
Arrested by: Florida Highway Patrol - Deland
Arrest Date: 3/8/2009 6:58:00 PM
Arraignment: 04/06/09 09:00 - 2009MM002604A
Is being held on a SEMINOLE county bond in the amount of $2,000.00
Inmate Account Balance: ($35.83)
The Charges are: D.U.I
John Polk Correctional Facility
Inmate Information:
Booking #: 200900003384
Name: DANNY MCCRIMON
Date of Birth: 9/17/1959
Arrested by: Florida Highway Patrol - Deland
Arrest Date: 3/8/2009 6:58:00 PM
Arraignment: 04/06/09 09:00 - 2009MM002604A
Is being held on a SEMINOLE county bond in the amount of $2,000.00
Inmate Account Balance: ($35.83)
The Charges are: D.U.I
John Polk Correctional Facility
| McCRIMON'S BOOKING PHOTO March 8, 2009 |