So all the staff at Wellsping were underpaid and Bob was raking in the bucks! Bob's problem goes a lot deeper than fraud and money...he is a meglomaniac who played on parent's fears and student's insecurities. My wife and I have forgiven Bob for his manipulation and deceit, so I'm not writing this to defame or slander anyone. The record needs to be set straight...on all accounts and Bob should face legal and professional scruitinity. My observation was that Bob was a master salesmen: your best friend when he needed your money, but also the most cruel / mean-spirited person one could ever imagine from an Edgar Allen Poe poem or the tales of the Marquis de Sade.
His fanatical control...even down to setting a lighting mood for the Saturday night " devotion sessions " ( his chair / throne was in the spotlight in a darkened room ) ... is/was so extreme that it cannot be exaggerated.
Now why would a parent, who recognized this , ever allow his/her son(s) to be a part of this charade? A fellow parent said it best for me...he said he didn't have his son enrolled for Bob's benefit...or because of Bob..but rather because his son was depressed and suicidal...and he felt his son was " safe " at Wellspring! No fear of a midnight call from the police that his son was dead...or " missing ". He got his son home as soon as possible...against Bob's protests that he was putting his son's life in jeporday
Contrary to what a few posters have said...we parents did not throw away our sons away like garbage...far from it...many of us sacrificed...even to the point of breaking.
Unlike Bob who filed bankrupcy, we paid our bills even if it meant taking a second or third mortgage.
I can personally attest to having paid more than $65,000 without dipping into my richly filled coffers...but from my hard-earned life savings!
Even now after several years, I'm not back to where I was before Bob's scam! And the worse part is that Bob ( and Chris ) didn't fulfill their part of the contract. When Bob went off the deepend in early 1999 with the rapid growth, military style marching and his run for public office...he put my son in jail! For what? Assaulting Chris & Bob! I don't think so.
Bob inferred many times that he had the local police, judges, and authorities in the palm of his hand...so you had better not contest his judgement of what was best...or maybe things would get worse...maybe even prison!
We arranged the release of our son and have been suffering since with the psychological effects on our son...lack of respect for authority and rejection of God!
Bob is a liar, thief, and a fraud. He will stand before God on judgement day..just like all of us will. May God have mercy on his soul!
I'm not including my name simply because it really doesn't matter...not because I've got an axe to grind or am hiding from other's criticisim. Let me sign off as a grateful parent who got his son out of Bob's evil influence " in-time ".
