Lester Roloffs Rebekah Home for Girls Survivors-Cult-mindcon

[rebeccaramirez]

Actually, the staff and director are HAPPY to see the "students" make mistakes and start the program again. It means more money!  

Oh, many times I witnessed the staff make up a stupid excuse to punish or demote a girl.  I have seen girls go from helper to buddy or detention for no good reason.  Maybe she was hungry and had to steal food, or maybe she felt sick and couldn't eat all of her food, or maybe she was having a bad day because she felt unloved - all punishable actions by Victory's standards.  The staff lies to parents and the parents don't know any better because they don't have proper communication with their children.  Many times, parents are trapped into feeling that they have no other choice except to keep the child there after a year because they have already invested so much money, and are hoping that one day their daughter will CHANGE.  

My experiences have shown me that change can not be forced, only encouraged.  In addition, the person expected to change, must have the genuine desire to make changes.  These behavioral modification programs are merely a money pit for parents, a holding cell for adolescents, and a joke to real therapy.  Yeah, it may keep teenage girls out of trouble, but at the expense of their quality of life, later on, as adults.

[girlfriday]

You have a very valid point! My parents kept me at Victory for 22+ months, way past when they initially promised I could come home. Most girls stayed past their year. Since communication is so stifled, my parents listened to Mrs P when she recommended that I stay there til graduation. I had been counting down the days til my year and when I got busted 3 weeks before I was to be sent home (buddy, dorm silence, etc.) they let me come home for a visit to california and Houston since they already had the plane tickets, then sent me right back! My aunt wanted to keep me in Houston and not put me on the plane but my mom made her do it. They said if I was good I'd get to come home at Christmas. Christmas came around and they let me come hopme for a week, then sent me back til I graduated. If they had told me from the beginning that I would be there til graduation, my PACES would have been done by my year!

[Anonymous]

Palmers had three daughters, no sones.

[Anonymous]

Was Michele Dupre the girl who got licks just before they moved to Missouri? I remember a fair skinned girl with blonde hair who was in lock-up and came out with burst blood vessels on her legs. I don't think she went to Missouri. Maybe she went home.

[Anonymous]

i was told that there was a Palmer Senior and then a Palmer junior...

thank you for telling this part....
no sons??
this is not what i have always heard, i have heard there are two mike palmers, one the father and the other the son...

i was under teh impression that Mike Palmer "SR" was best buddies with Lester Roloff....

thanks
Rebekah Survivor to Overcomer
1970's

[Anonymous]

that's a little far fetched, I believe.
I was in REbekah in 84-85 and I don't support the homes simply because I don't believe in parents sending their children away simply because they can't handle them anymore.  The rules in the homes, although strict and hard to follow, are really biblical.  I admire Roloff for having the conviction to follow them.  The sad part of that is that he really believed that by making teenagers live by those rules for a year, they would become better people.  If a person does not truly intrinsically accepted these values, that person will not only not change, but grow to resent it.  The real crime in these homes was mind control.  It became a place where bullies could have total authority if they followed the rules to the dorm parent's standards.  Weaker girls were picked on and humiliated.  I will not say there weren't abusive methods of punishment, that would make me a liar.  I will not say people were not molested, I can only say I wasn't and I never heard of anyone experiencing it while I was there.  I know a lot of things were kept silent because it wouldn't have been good for the homes if anyone got wind of it.  But a lot of other accusations are merely speculation and we shouldn't say it unless it actually happened to us, or we are certain, without a doubt that it occured.  Otherwise we are slandering, which makes us just as bad as anyone else.

[Anonymous]

There was a michelle dufrene, but she left before the move and I understand she came back when they were in missouri.

[Anonymous]

I don't agree that the punishment at these schools is "Biblical."  Nor do I agree that Lester Roloff should be praised for standing up for in his belief in abuse.  People have all kinds of beliefs that are just plain wrong - standing up for them strongly is hardly praiseworthy.  Picture Jesus doing what Roloff and his progeny did.  Roloff would not hesitate to call a girl a whore - Jesus said that he without sin should cast the first stone.  Roloff condoned child abuse - Jesus said that whoever hurts one of his children would be better off dead.

In 2004, the United Methodist Church passed two resolutions against corporal punishment.  Among its reasons for passing the resolution against the use of corporal punishment in schools and child-care facilities: schools and child-care facilities are the only American institutions which make purposeful physical pain legal; it is humiliating and degrading and often causes physical injury; it would not be condoned by Jesus of Nazareth; it sends a message that hitting a smaller and weaker person is acceptable; it is most often used on poor children, minority children, and disabled children; it is more worthwhile to teach self-discipline than to teach submission through fear; and it discourages the enjoyment of learning.

The same can be said about emotional and mental torture.

Don't admire someone who preaches that we need Jesus, and at the same time ignores His most basic teachings.

On 2005-01-23 12:51:00, Anonymous wrote:

"that's a little far fetched, I believe.

I was in REbekah in 84-85 and I don't support the homes simply because I don't believe in parents sending their children away simply because they can't handle them anymore.  The rules in the homes, although strict and hard to follow, are really biblical.  I admire Roloff for having the conviction to follow them.  The sad part of that is that he really believed that by making teenagers live by those rules for a year, they would become better people.  If a person does not truly intrinsically accepted these values, that person will not only not change, but grow to resent it.  The real crime in these homes was mind control.  It became a place where bullies could have total authority if they followed the rules to the dorm parent's standards.  Weaker girls were picked on and humiliated.  I will not say there weren't abusive methods of punishment, that would make me a liar.  I will not say people were not molested, I can only say I wasn't and I never heard of anyone experiencing it while I was there.  I know a lot of things were kept silent because it wouldn't have been good for the homes if anyone got wind of it.  But a lot of other accusations are merely speculation and we shouldn't say it unless it actually happened to us, or we are certain, without a doubt that it occured.  Otherwise we are slandering, which makes us just as bad as anyone else."

[Anonymous]

Hey that last post there is astounding! you go!....
i was in teh homes under the Camerons, (70's)...and i have to say that i have paid a huge price tag in emotional pain since then,

wow, you are sooooooo right!!!
just because someone believes something and stands up for it, does not make it correct,

bible study should be exercised by those who say roloffs ways were biblical!

i think the Holocaust began simply because some maniac thought he knew the truth too....
!!!

roloff was a CULT leader/....the compound in Corpus has all the hallmarks of a CULT

they do NOT teach thier followers to think independantly, JESUS TEACHES US TO THINK
the Bible tells us to think, to not believe everything, just because a very pesuasive leader gets up and can move a crowd, dont mean a dog gone darn thing!!!!

WISDOM IS PROVEN BY ITS CHILDREN!!!
that phrase was spoken by JESUS CHRIST

now, you wait till some of them get out and then wait again till some of them hit the real world of adult life, and lets us then gauge if Roloffs ways helped them

roloff twisted scriptures, i have spent hours going over his sermons....and i can tell you, that he loved to quote multitudes of scripture, about 6 to 8 verses a paragrah...and then insert his one statement idea....twisting the meanings, and distorting what the original writter meant int he context of the scripture....

go study it for your self...
look up the meanings of words,

 ::bandit::

Lester Roloff could take WORDS, and he laid it down in the night time tapings in the dorm, the twisted meanings, so that when the WORDS were spoken by him or staff,
most of us, reacted just as they desired, turnign into robot mini-roloffs versions of whatever he believed to be truth...

bet you never heard teh GOOD NEWS MESSAGE of real hope in roloffs,

i all i ever heard were hammers coming down on my spirit,....

it left me shattered

Isaac Asimov:
Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

sometimes we have to look beyond the limits set by people whose aim seems to be to control everyone....and realize Christ came to set us free, to be free from others so we can serve by the rule of Love, and not by the rules that keep us bound by religion...

Roloff cult people let thier sense of morals get in teh way of truly helping hurting kids....
to the point of ridiculousness...like Jesus spoke to the pharisees...those selfrighteous religious "nice folk"... and told them that they were white washed graves filled with dead mens bones!
why? they did all the "rules" of thier religion...they paid thier tithes and were at every service!!!
WHY , tell me WHY these "nice religious folk" were not the first in the line to heavens gates??? and in fact the Living Word, (Jesus) stood and told them they were FULL of dead mens bones!!???

i think because they let thier 'sense' of right and wrong, get ni the way of truly serving with real love
and i think they had hidden agendas

and i believe with all my mind and heart, that teh truth is STILL TO BE HEARD bout the hidden things gone on in teh Compoundin Corpus Christi Texas!!!

John Burroughs:
Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.
Frederick Douglass:
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.


it is OK to speak out our minds and show how we feel, or else, how can the systems of abuse be stopped, and changed into systems that help heal WHOLE FAMILIES???

Jawaharial Nehru:
A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the sound of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.


SURVIVORS NEED TO SPEAK UP MORE!
find teh freedom to express the truth....
on all sides of the issues...
Susan B. Anthony:
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations... can never effect a reform.

Abraham Lincoln:
The United States government must not undertake to run the Churches. When an individual, in the Church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest he must be checked.

AMEN ! ABE!!
 :tup:

[Anonymous]

here name was shelly booswa...that is not spelled correctly.she was from louisana..she did not go to missouri.whomever this is you were in that hell hole the same time i was.......contact me
email [email protected]
would love to talk to someone about the after effects of having to endure that place.
it has been 20yrs since i was there,and i still think about it from time to time.it is something i can never forget.

[Anonymous]

When she came to school she showed me her legs. I felt sick that someone would do this to her.

[Anonymous]

Tom Dye died in Missouri. Mrs. Frye is also dead. Mrs. Ruggles is in California. Mrs. Harman was so nice!

[Anonymous]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roloffhomes/

This is a group on yahoo for anyone who had been through the Roloff Homes.

[Dear Gabby]

Need commen ground with someone that understand's Without Judgeing.                     [email protected]

_________________
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[Dear Gabby]

[ This Message was edited by: Debi Baker on 2005-01-29 16:26 ][ This Message was edited by: Bluemoon2157 on 2005-07-10 08:29 ]