Refuge -- brainwashing teenagers in TN, not licensed by stat

[Anonymous]

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... 0614144750

There is a poor guy whos blog is on here. Apparently he is 16 and gay, and just told his parents that he was gay, and they decided to lock him up and brainwash him into being heterosexual. I can't believe how sad his entries are. He also posted a copy of the program rules here that he got from his parents' email. Sounds really really screwed. I feel so very sorry for this guy. Apparently there's been some protests and stuff and the media also picked up the story. I hope this place gets closed down, it tears me up to think kids are in this place getting their lives ripped apart.

[Anonymous]

Somewhat recently, as many of you know, I told my parents I was gay. This didn't go over very well, and it ended with my dad crying, my mom tearing, and me not knowing what I'd done - or what to do. It kind of.. went away for about a week or two I think. They claim it's beause they didn't want to interfere with my last week or two of school.

Yesterday they told me that I couldn't go anywhere until I got a job. Out of the blue. Because I'm the most irresponsible child my dad knows - as he told me - mainly because I forget to unload the dishwasher sometimes... it doesn't matter that I have to clean up after my sisters and myself everyday. It just doesn't.

Well today, my mother, father, and I had a very long "talk" in my room where they let me know I am to apply for a fundamentalist christian program for gays. They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they "raised me wrong." I'm a big screw up to them, who isn't on the path God wants me to be on. So I'm sitting here in tears, joing the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs - and I can't help it.

I wish I had never told them. I wish I just fought the urge two more years... I had done it for three before then, right? If I could take it all back.. I would, to where I never told my parents things and they always were mad at me-- It's better than them crying and depressed cause they will have no granchildren from me. It's better than them telling me that there's something wrong with me. It's better than them explaining to me that they "raised me wrong."

[Anonymous]

http://www.petitiononline.com/FeeZach/petition.html
http://www.petitiononline.com/savezach/petition.html

[Anonymous]

http://www.detourmemphis.com/

BUMP. Sign the petition.

FREE ZACH and all the other kids too

[Nihilanthic]

REPOST :razz:

I already made something about this, and yeah, its a freaking joke that its legal. At least the poor kid made a blog post before going out so people could find out, and protest.

Maybe if a kid who went to a WWASPS program, or whatever, was able to tell the world before being sent off, there might be more attention... I just wish I could reach out to the protestors and let them know about all the other places they should be picketing.

Faith is a cop-out. It is intellectual bankruptcy. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits.
--Dan Barker, author and former evangelist

[Antigen]

Damn! Check this out!

Refuge rules

1. HONESTY AT ALL TIMES.




2. IF IN DOUBT, DON¹T. ASK FIRST.



3. All clients are expected to memorize the Program Expectations as they summarize the spirit and heart of the rules of Love in Action.

4. All Refuge program members must complete four MI's (Moral Inventories) per week unless otherwise instructed. Detailed instruction on writing MI¹s will be provided within the first few days of beginning the program.

5. Refuge clients will be prepared to give an Introduction (³Intro²) at every Intro Rap. Detailed instruction on giving an intro will be provided within the first few days of the program.

6. To make special requests of the staff or inform the staff of something (e.g. asking permission to leave the safe zone for some reason, informing the staff of a breach in program rules, etc.), Refuge clients must communicate appropriately. This means filling out a Chain of Command (C.O.C.) form. All C.O.C.¹s must be signed by the Refuge client¹s parent or guardian before being submitted to a staff member, or the C.O.C. will be returned with no answer. All C.O.C.¹s must be concise and not ³story tell² or ³whine.² Such will be returned with no reply.  

7. No continuing education while in the program.  Home-school Refuge clients may be allowed to continue their studies during the program, pending approval by LIA staff.  

6. Refuge clients and their parents/guardians are required to attend Love in Action¹s host church, Germantown Baptist Church, on Sunday mornings.  More information about GBC can be found online at http://www.gbconline.net.

7. Parents and guardians are expected to attend the Friends and Family support group on Thursday nights from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., held at the Love in Action campus.  Refuge clients will be supervised during this time by a Love in Action staff member.

8. Refuge clients and their parents/guardians are expected to attend Love in Action¹s Open Meetings whenever they occur,  held on the first Tuesday of every month at Kirby Woods Baptist Church at 7:30 p.m. *

9. Refuge clients are expected to maintain a committed pursuit of a positive and thankful attitude.

10. Absolutely no journaling or keeping a diary outside of the MI process unless directed or approved by staff.

11. Absolutely no calling staff outside business hours unless it is an emotional, therapeutic, or physical emergency, or unless prior permission from staff has been obtained.

12. Additional (i.e. beyond one per week) one-on-one counseling sessions will be granted by C.O.C. appointment only.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... 0604221047

* Anonymity Anonymous
return undef() if /coercion/i;

[GregFL]

Ah fuck, I just read this. I haven't been this upset in a while....


 :cry:

[GregFL]

this is the program for homosexuals...right down to open meetings and moral inventories, but with the added "benefit"of biblical tyranny.


Sigh....I just can't believe it.

[Nihilanthic]

I guess I'm more jaded than you, greg.  :sad:

But yeah, its real, a program explicitly for homosexuals to be made straight, reeks of straight... do these people all meet up and think up how to do this? Or is it accidental how all these orgainzations run together regarding how they operate?

*UGH* the most ironic pet-peeve of mine is that this is quickly getting attention, versus all the other kids not getting nearly as much. I guess homosexuality is a more en-vogue issue for the radical/liberal element of the USA? lol.

For the community to have 10% to 25% of its men unable to vote or unable to access credit or other privileges of citizenship for the rest of their lives in some states creates a permanently diminished
group within society.
http://www.urban.org/authors/travis.html' target='_new'>Jeremy Travis, Urban Institute

[Anonymous]

Why would his parents start crying, what's the big deal. It sounds like the parents have the problem, send them to boot camp.

[Antigen]

More than likely, whoever started this program went through a Synanon based program at some point.

I am not a vegetarian because I love animals;  I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.  
-- A. Whitney Brown

[webcrawler]

On 2005-06-15 16:48:00, GregFL wrote:

"this is the program for homosexuals...right down to open meetings and moral inventories, but with the added "benefit"of biblical tyranny.





Sigh....I just can't believe it.



"

I guess they don't find it amusing to watch Queer Eye for the Straight Guy either.

[Anonymous]

I just read the rule list... No continuing education? What's that about?  And, "absolutely no journal or diary?"  What if the kid keeps a mental journal like Dostoyevsky did in prison? No. ABSOLUTELY no journal or diary, sorry kid, we're gonna hafta lobotomize you... or atleast drill a spike into that part of the brain.  You read the rules.
But I...
Quiet fag, or you want I should call a full Love in Action meeting right now?
No! Anything but that!
Why, you never even requested a Chain of Command form!
Really, I'm not... No journal here, I was just thinking about, uh, girls?
Liar! We know you know the rules. You memorized the Program Expectations, because that's the third rule. And what's that there?
Nothing, honest.
Dir-ect violation of rule one, liar, oh my GOSH!  It's a book on carpentry.  What did we tell you about continuing your education?
But Jesus was a...
This has nothing to do with Jesus!  Now go be straight.

[Anonymous]

Two of the staffers say they are from Second Chance Ministries...and they left and helped start up the Refuge. I'm wondering if that place was a straight spin-off?? It says it was a drug addiction treatment center, then maybe they just applied it to being gay. Just in time for them not needing to be licensed by the state either, I think that federal legislation passed the very same year they opened this place up. And it's licensed by a Christian licensing organization, not the state.

[tommyfromhyde1]

On 2005-06-16 09:57:00, Anonymous wrote:

I'm wondering if that place was a straight spin-off??

Strip out the Bible quotes from their rules and
it's all Straight program-speak.

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
--Denis Diderot, French encyclopedist