I recently attended a Teen Challenge center in High Ridge, MO. In my short stay I was told that if I did not "get saved" that I would be kicked out of the program. I was also informed that if I did not speak in tongues and flop around on the ground and be "filled with the holy spirit" that I was not worthy of getting into heaven. The director of students, a man named Paul, was totally condescending. He told me repeatedly that I was a liar and a no good criminal and that maybe since I wouldn't conform to their way of doing things that I needed to go spend time in jail. Teen Challenge Mid-America is a cult and has no place as a rehabilitation facility. It is nothing but a bogus organization centered around money and forcing others to live according to their standards! Feel free to use this e-mail on your site. I believe that what your doing is important to keep other people that truly need help from their addictions from stumbling into the psychologically brainwashing program known as Teen Challenge. Matt W. Small Town, IL scooby8_my_doobie2007@yahoo.com I’m not a Teen Challenge hater....I’ve only been in one. For a year. I saw kids get their noses broken, kids get beat and mentally abused. They refused to allow me to call the teen abuse hotline. They refused to allow me to call my lawyer. I know for a fact their success rates aren’t as high as they say. I was a sneaky kid. I snuck into the office, read files. In short they are nothing but con artists, or they really are just insane. Either way I have had first hand knowledge and I know exactly how West Florida Teen Challenge in Bonifay operates. And nothing anybody does or says could ever take away the nightmares or truth about what happens in that "cult". Pastor Dave Rutledge and his family are con artists. And if they could read this I would tell them if they ever walked into the store I manage it would be well worth the assault charge. Because they deserve it. For everything they did to me and are doing to other kids right now at this very moment. Christopher Perry I was a client at the Sanford, Fla. Location, and I have to agree 100% that the place is crooked. I was there when the news was investigating the whole telemarketing scheme. The place went on the news and said that they didn't sell anything. BULLCRAP!!!!!!!! I worked briefly at the call center located on the property and sold timeshares to people over the phone for a whole whopping 33 cents a day!!! We were trying to pitch a timeshare opportunity at either Disney World or Universal Studios, with an option of either Daytona Beach or a rental car for a week with unlimited miles. The thing that got me later on was the DIRECTOR of the place got on Channel 9 news and said we don't sell anything! Jeff Florida I just endured 15 months of pure hell at the Dublin campus in Georgia. I totally agree with your views on that money making machine hiding behind a mask of god. It really makes me sick, and that is one corrupt campus. I’m sure you heard about the whole scandal with Mitch Melton, the executive director that they fired for drinking and doing drugs along with the entire staff body down at Savannah - and all the money that disappeared while he was director. It makes me sick to even think about the place, and it’s a part of my past that I’d like to block out. Matt Georgia If this program is Christ-centered, then I do not want to be a Christian. The program is a facility to launder money of the unfortunate. I was allowed after 3 days of incarceration to go to the chapel, and on the 4th god spoke to me and told me to get the hell out of the place. Everything you wrote on this web site - unlike their percentage rate of 86% - is 100% accurate. The most disturbing event of my life. “Brother Francis.” Ya, right, they don’t know what brotherhood means, dropped off at a bus station, no money or cell phone, left that with my fiancé when she dropped me off 4 days earlier. Their last comments: "How are you going to get a bus ticket dude, there are no people here to PANHANDLE for money..." Christ provided and I made it home 38 hours later - normally a 5 hour ride - overnight at South Station in Boston. Francis New England I did the 4 month thing at Nashville after I had graduated. After being called a whore and a tramp, plus having my money stolen by Brenda and the two British people, I was through. Nikki Knoxville, TN I was introduced to Teen Challenge via a casual acquaintance, who described it as 'religious', but did not specify that all activities not related to 'Born Again' philosophies might as well be considered ground to a halt - including one's mind. I found incorrect Biblical reference in program material upon which one was tested in an autocratic atmosphere that appears to consider even other Christian denominations exclusionary and misguided. We were even told specifically how to pray. I was forced to remind these clinically underqualified people that my Constitutional rights were protected for not agreeing with everything they did. The Philadelphia intake director, a 'Miss Jerri', has a Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde personality that precludes rational thinking. She appears to have a hidden agenda of harassment, until people decide that she is crazy. With an MS in counseling, I am more than qualified to find her methodologies inappropriate and similar to brainwashing. She attempts to conceal her contempt for others with hidden bathroom cleaning inspections. After four days of this Nazi tactic, the game is over - for Teen Challenge. No one in their right mind would submit to such harassment except as a result of brain washing. They should consider revising their website to say 'Born Agains only need apply'. They are revoltingly grandiose in their pretense that emotional abuse will create humility. Robin A. Albright, MS Teen Challenge Houston was the most terrible brainwashing experience I've ever had. I left, and they put me out on the street at 11 at night in a bad neighborhood and wouldn't let me use the phone. I had nowhere to go to, so I sat there crying for an hour until one lady came out and said they told her I couldn't use the phone, but she was gonna let me anyway. I came the next day to get my stuff and they told me I’d have to wait until a director or someone else was there. So I make my hour drive back home, call them and find out what time to be there. They said after 5, so I show up, they still wouldn't give me my stuff, and Rex tried to fight my little brother when he told him we’re not leaving without my stuff. They had all my belongings - my clothes, purse, money, checkbook credit cards, everything - and my meds, which I had to have. Rex still wouldn't give me my stuff; he said it wasn't his problem that I chose to leave. Anyway, we had to call the police, and finally they made him go in and get all my stuff. Pretty sad Christian, right? Long story short, TC Houston is full of a bunch of insane hypocrites. Don't send your children there. D.G. Texas A couple of years ago, a friend of mine checked herself into Teen Challenge in Bakersfield's female program. She wasn't ordered there by the court or anything, but did so voluntarily because she really wanted help. Having gone through this program yourself, I know I don't have to go into details with you about the rules they had; the Bible verses, the lessons, the homework, the prayers and the punishments that were meted out if you did not meet those standards. Religious principle wasn't taught to them in a loving way, but pounded into them, and drilled into their heads!!! There was something so fake and felonious about that to me. I was raised in a religious environment, but I was taught to believe that our God is a LOVING and FORGIVING God. To me, this method of teaching HIS principles was akin to Communism and Jihad. They sometimes did and said horrible things to her - things that were only meant to break her will, but it seemed to me that they sought to make her feel filthy and sinful and not worthy of God's love. It annoyed the hell out of me that they would beat her down and make her feel so unworthy. It didn't make sense to me that they would want to do that to someone. She often told me she felt like she was living in a prison camp, rather than a loving nurturing Christian environment. If they saw her looking out the window in her room at how pretty the sky looked that day, they accused her of "thinking about worldly things" and drilled her about what she was thinking as she looked out the window. They accused her of "plotting" to leave or run away. And even the slightest sign of objection to their methods brought on further "punishment" and admonishment. I did not approve of the tactics they used; they did these things to hold people prisoner there for as long as they could. They made them feel inferior so they would be scared to go anywhere else, and they sent them out like little soldiers to collect money for them. If our story can help you in your quest to expose this program for what it is, you are welcome to use it. Sincere Good Luck to you .... J.P.S. California I was in TC in FL in the 80's. I was 16 yrs old. The 3rd day I was there we had to go to church and give our little speeches about how great everything was. I didn't feel good and kept telling them my stomach hurt...bad. They made me get up there anyway or I would get kicked out. I got up there and lied my tail off so I wouldn't get kicked out. Talk about feeling like a hypocrite. They told me how wonderful I did. That stomach ache I had...I started my period (I thought). Three weeks later after spending most of the time in bed in so much pain I could have kicked the walls down, begging them to take me to the doctor, they wouldn't take me. They said it was God getting the evil out of me. My parents finally were allowed to visit, and when they were leaving I ran outside and begged my mom to take me to the doctor. Of course my mom, being a mom, went ballistic when I told her what was going on. She took me to the doctor. I’d had a miscarriage because my blood type was not compatible with the baby's. I had to have a Rhogam shot because I am A-negative blood type. The doctors I have talked to since then have informed me that I could have died also. I had a miscarriage because they would not take me to the doctor. If they would have taken me to the doctor at the beginning of my symptoms I could have had the shot then, and then another shot every 3 months until the baby was born. I blame myself for getting pregnant but I blame TC for the miscarriage because they would not take me to the doctor. M.W. Florida I went to the Western Michigan Teen Challenge in Muskegon, Mi. Spent 11 months to the day. I was the head of fundraising for 3 months so I had access to information that most students do not. I could write a book about that place. Mostly about the amount of resources they solicit and are given, and how these are handled. They place a huge emphasis and priority on tongues. I could write pages just on their inappropriate use of the gift of tongues. After a chapel service I was called into Pastor Sam's office and he asked me if I needed to talk about anything. I said yes I was concerned about my relationship with my family and my daughters. He said they that "it didn't matter at that time" but he wanted to hear me speak in tongues. When I questioned him about the use and my understanding of that gift per the Bible, he yelled at me "how dare I question him, now let me hear you speak in tongues!" Some the information I have is of a financial nature. What they would tell church congregations was needed to run the place and what was actually coming in was a lie. They don’t tell people they have vacation houses in Florida that the ministry pays for, etc. T.J. Michigan I’m so grateful to find this site. I feel confirmed that I’m not crazy; what I saw and felt while briefly employed at Teen Challenge Canada was truly happening and not imagined. The organization here is just as “legalistic” and work driven as described on this page. The men are convinced the harder they work the closer they are to God and the further away they are from their addiction. For being honest and sincere, which I have been taught Christ calls us to be, Teen Challenge terminated me, and escorted me off site, in a matter of 1 hour. I shared that I didn’t agree that I personally was cured from my addictions. I shared that I found Christ in A.A and believed others could have that same amazing experience. I shared that because addiction is an illness not a moral sin, and that I continue to grow and learn from my mistakes and don’t benefit from being punished. God forbid anyone ever share in honesty with these people. I also pray for all families who send the sons, brothers, or husbands on site believing that they are safe when in reality their very souls are being filled with fear, and they are being used to “provide employee paychecks.” That is the bottom dollar. Teen Challenge needs a challenge from the government. A.A is the solution for those needing recovery; I can say I have 10 years of sobriety with a deep faith in Christ that was FREE! Olive Foam Lake, Canada I just finished restoration at Teen Challenge in Hot Springs, Arkansas. You would constantly hear staff tell you that if you leave Teen Challenge early there is no way you will make it out there, that you will fall, that it was God that brought you there. It is a cult brainwashing you and they don't help you with what your problem is. They have exaggerated their figures of how much it costs for just one student. In Hot Springs they say it is $1,200 a day. I don’t know where they get their figures. They won’t take you to the doctor if you need to go, and it only costs $5 to go to the one they take you to. If you don’t have the money in your account they wont let you borrow it from another student no matter how badly you have to go. They take 80% of any money sent in to you. If you don't have the money or can't make them money you are kicked out. The bottom line is the almighty dollar not the almighty savior our Lord Jesus Christ. I was told about your website while in the program by a good friend of mine, and was told to keep silent about it while in the program. I told my wife, and she too was very interested in checking it out. The truth about the program must come to the light so others will know the real Teen Challenge. If you want to you can put it on your website. I just want others to know the truth and as my wife as always told me is that the truth don't hurt nobody. Jason Corley Teen Challenge is run like an organization that is extremely Bi-Polar and “refuses” to seek help. It is just like a “cult” operation, training its participants to perform tasks mindlessly without question for the staff authority. I had a bunk mate next to me that was pscytsophrenic and was constantly under pressure to be “prayed over” to be healed so he would not have to take his medication that helped to stop the voices. The one here in Sanford is one sick place, no doubt. Mark Lake Mary, FL I took my child to Midland Tx Teen Challenge. It was a MISTAKE!! They took his mouth wash and shaving cream. They told him that his past life was all a mistake and if he wanted a life he had to give all to Christ. He had to pray for 5hrs a day or he didn’t get to eat and had to wear a yellow vest so he was know as a outsider and no one was allowed to talk, look speak of him he was a ghost. There was no heat, no hot water. Left over food cold cereal. It was 38 degrees outside. This place is a nightmare!! There was no Christ like atmosphere and they call it a boot camp for Christ. When he left they called him a fool and a joke and that he would never make it in life. Hollie Irving, TX My 24 year old son was just granted a program change from Teen Challenge. I had to hire an attorney, as they do NOT believe in any other rehabs. (NOR do they believe in 12 step programs) Once they got wind that he had requested me to ask probation for a change, they told him "Pack your bags, I'm sending you to prison". How Christian of them, huh? They primarily teach healing by Jesus Christ, pressure you to speak in tongues, pressure to recruit you to be "trained" by THEIR religious program (TCMI) to be a staff member. It is NOT a drug/alcohol rehab, as all they offer is hyper-religiosity to replace drug addiction. The residents and interns work and make them money. My observation from my son's ordeal is that if you don't succumb to the brain-washing, you will be ostracized and mentally tormented. Those that have a prison/jail sentence looming, (if you "fail" your program) empowers them. It is IMMORAL how they give probation "bad reports" for those that don't sign up for the "speaking in tongues", and these poor souls who suffer from addiction end up in prison. Residents are told that they need to be "broken" some more in jail, and that they will return. I feel that Christians that donate and support Teen Challenge are not aware of the abuse that goes on. For those who can't sign up for their "truths", the retaliation is scary. Because the courts refer to this program for alternative sentencing, it is an issue that needs to be looked at very closely. I am appalled by the whole organization. I don't believe that some of the "nice" directors at the top of the food chain are completely oblivious to what is happening in there. When they hear untruths being spoken about a resident, instead of investigating the situation, I've seen them back up their staff and chastise the resident that is being abused. If you stick up for yourself, you will be severely punished. I never knew something like this could grow and exist in America. Teen Challenge had my son sign a waiver to give up all of his rights. Also the waiver stated that he could not sue them. Isn't THAT interesting? Now I understand and appreciate organizations that oppose faith-initiative money being handed over to these types of abusive cults. Brenda Clovis, CA Very good article! Validated many suspicions. Keep on writing! " J." - Florida I was at Teen Challenge in Nashville, and I can honestly say that I left because I felt as if I were part of an infomercial for Teen Challenge to receive money. We were guests at many churches in and around the area and each time we were all herded to the front of the church and without choice and whether or not we were okay yet we were to tell our story of how the program had completely changed our lives, even if we had only been there for two days. I can understand the God part of it because I do know that he is the only one that can completely heal us of our addictions, but come on....once you get out of there you need to have been taught the skills to live in the real world and not the world of Teen Challenge where each and every move you make is monitored and punished. You cannot force someone that has no Christian background to stand up in a church and praise God and beg for money to help others like themselves if they haven't even gotten the help they need yet. It is like Bible College and Military Boot Camp all rolled into one and for someone who may not even know who they are yet it can be so overwhelming. I do know it helps some people, because I have seen it, but I also know that it can drive some people right back to the world they came from because if you feel that it is not the place for you and discuss leaving with them you are given the third degree and told by EVERYONE you come on contact with on your way out that you are making the worst mistake of your life and that you will never make it. You will die if you leave there because Satan will attack you so hard that you cannot possibly survive. That IS NOT what an addict who is really trying to get better needs to hear. You cannot scare someone into getting sober. It is a hard thing to do in the first place and to me compassion and love go a lot farther than bullying someone into becoming a "Robot " for the sake of Teen Challenge's survival as a program. Let time be the proof, when many who have been helped simply let others know that Teen Challenge may be what they need, because it helped them. If you have more people dropping out of the program then staying and "Graduating" then there is obviously a problem. Rene Trenton, TN I went to the TC in Sanford. I was there for 5 months and left the program. I just can’t see how someone can work for free and have all of their liberties taken from them for a whole year. I went into a federal program for veterans and now have a good job. Had I stayed there god only knows where I would be today. Alexander Matthews, GA I personally am GRATEFUL for Michael's Website. It validated what has happened to us, and many others. There are forums for defectors of cults, a place for people to vent. I believe it is healing. Also nice to hear that you're not CRAZY, as our experience w/TC was horrible. I do believe they profit off broken souls. And I pity those broken souls that need recovery from addiction, and are in a place where religious dogma is the only "cure" offered. It may work for SOME, but it also damages many mentally.... Yes, let's all write our local senators and ask for more secular rehabs! Cherokee Lady, Fresno, CA I went to a Teen Challenge centre in the UK and left after a week! I was given false info which led me to give up my flat, leave my family and job, all to return to nothing. I was told I could leave anytime I wanted but when I tried my money was withheld, I was not allowed to phone home and was told if I left the front gate I would be going into Satan’s arms once more!! Also they said I couldn’t have any love for my boyfriend if I left. Thank goodness I managed to get away. The girls there were all clones who ended up not being able to think for themselves in fear of going to hell. People really should get as much info as possible before going, and really think it through. Lindsey London, UK ...do yourself a favor, keep working that 3 step, thats about as far as your going, later nigga, hope to see ya in one of the rooms, NOT LOL Tom Mitchell Grace OverComers Christian Recovery Ministry, Dover Plains, NY Sanford Teen Challenge has 4 different phone rooms, or telemarketing rooms, here that you work 40+ hours a week in. You only get paid 33 cents a day, or if you’re lucky, you might hit a "spiff." If you get fired from your job, they tend to kick you out of the program, sometimes they'll give you a chance in another room. This gives testimony to the remark on the home page of the web site "almighty god runs a distant second to the almighty dollar." I am just trying to hang on to graduate, let alone work on any issues. I fear that if I "confess" any "sins" that they'll use it against me to kick me out. This is more like a work release center for the Florida Dept. of Corrections than a place to come and get help. Kyle Kiernan Michigan I know for a fact all the things posted on Teen Challenged Exposed are true. I lived it and everything said is right on point one hundred and ten percent. Believe that. fwatl Georgia LINKS Teen Challenge: A typical week in the 'Jesus Gulag' International Survivors Action Committee (ISAC) Investigating Teen Challenge Mercy Ministries Survivors |
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