Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Teen Challenge

Trying to figure out your angle

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Firebird81:
I am a graduate of the southern California Teen Challenge and a former staff member of Los Angeles Teen Challenge. I am also a graduate of the Teen Challenge Ministry Institute. Because of Teen Challenge I have been clean for 13 years.

Surely, as with any program there are those who have complaints, but in all of my years working with TC and my experiences with other programs, Teen Challenge is by and far a much better organization than any other around.

Your website seems to make some revelation that TC is a home mission of the Assemblies of God. That's some great investigative work there.....considering that Teen Challenge has ALWAYS prided itself in being so and the AG has always prided itself in having TC as part of it's denomination. There's no great mystery there, nor is there any great mystery that it is Pentecostal based.

Teen Challenge is structured as a strict, somewhat regimented program for a reason, the same reason that most other long term programs are, hardcore drug addicts need a structured environment to help them change their lives.

I will gladly answer any questions you have about TC, as I am proud to have been a part of it. Literally 10's of thousands of others like me are out there. You apparently have a very distorted view of this great organization.

Firebird81:
Still waiting for a response, Karly. You were very quick to set up a blog attacking the Teen Challenge program, but as I see from another former TC family member's post, you don't seem to be in a hurry to learn the truth. The truth is, there's nothing to expose here. You want to know what's taught? Daily schedule? program structure? fundraising? I have all the answers you need.

Antigen:
I'll tell you what my agenda is for setting this up. I want to know what's going on in all these other Synanon based programs and I want anyone with an interest to be able to easily find out a broad range of views.

I have a theory. I think that, all of these programs we're talking about are remarkably similar in their core operations and methods. For instance, in Straight, we didn't speak in tongues. But you did have to "motivate" on cue to demonstrate without all the controls, both overtly mandated and compulsively enforced, the whole thing falls apart.

Can you articulate your agenda for posting here? Is it really that much different from my agenda in inviting you?

Firebird81:
Teen Challenge is not in any way shape or form a spinoff or based on the Synanon program. There is no coersion in Teen Challenge. People are not beaten, are not forced to disclose their deepest secrets to anyone. Counselors focus more on answering questions and helping guide students on the path of Christianity, although students with problems are certainly welcome to seek out their counselors and talk about it. People are not encouraged to no have i ever heard of anyone signing over their assets or property to Teen Challenge.

Teen Challenge is not communal. They do not want graduates of the program to remain in the program indefinitely. They want them to go and live their lives successfully and drug free in the real world. Teen Challenge does not use mind control techniques and does not abuse it's students. Think of Teen Challenge as a one year crash course in Christianity and you will have an idea of what the program is about.

Students attend classes on dealing with and overcoming anger, developing solid personal relationships with others and with God, on how to deal with abuses they may have suffered in life that influenced their life's decisions. They attent classes on practical ways to live their life according to Biblical principles. At NO time are Teen Challenge students forced to speak in tongues or any of that other pentecostal nonsense. Teen Challenge is far more subdued in those areas than some pentecostal churches are. While they Do believe in the baptism of the holy spirit, they do not force anyone to try it.

Teen Challenge is a 501c3 non-profit. They do not claim tax exemption because of being a religious organization. They had to prove that they met all of the requirements to receive charity status.

This program was started in 1958 in New York City after a small town pastor named David Wilkerson went there to reach 7 gangmembers on trial for a heinous crime. He failed to meet those kids, but quickly saw the need in the bedford-stuyvesant projects for help. He was laughed at and ridiculed but he established the first teen challenge and it has grown from there.

Every staff member of tc has been taught a Christianity based on love not wrath. Teen Challenge teaches it's staff that if you scare someone into the kingdom of God they can be scare out, but if you love them in, they will stay. Certainly there have been occasions where a staff member has acted wrong and if there is a pattern of problem, I can assure you that tc will not allow him to stay. All staff of every TC in the world go thru extensive background checks and are required to interview in front of a panel to determine that they are not a predator looking to harm kids in any way.

I appreciate you allowing me to voice this, and I hope I have or can shed some light on this program and what it is about to you. There is no comparison to be made with TC and Synanon or any other cultic group.

Antigen:
It is just bizarre that you would try to float that obvious bullshit. Just look at what former inmates and their families are saying. Sure, vountary with the other option being contracting hep-c by ass rape in prison. Sure, love and kindness to those who pretend to speak in tongues. Condemnation and humiliation to the rest. That's what you call "love bombing".

Look darlin, most of what you "know" simply isn't true. Art Barker had a remarkably similar cover story. So did Joe Ricci. I wouldn't be surprised a bit if they all, along w/ Bob Mehan and a few others, turned out to be CIA assets.

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