MIND CONTROL TACTICS THAT TEEN CHALLENGE USES

Using Mind Control - The BITE Model, how many and which mind control techniques do you feel that Teen Challenge uses? (I highly recommend that you ask previous Teen Challenge members or compare Teen Challenge's Daily Schedule, Overview of the Teen Challenge Program and their Student Guidelines to help you decide.)

I have compared the Teen Challenge Daily Schedule, Overview of the Teen Challenge Program and the Student Guidelines to the BITE Model and was absolutely convinced that Teen Challenge uses the majority of these mind control tactics! Print them all out! I think you will be convinced also!

THE BIZARRE REALITY BEHIND THE DOORS AT TEEN CHALLENGE

I found this post at Topix.net and it seems to depict one aspect of the very bizarre reality of what it's really like behind the doors at Teen Challenge...

"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 Bootcamp 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 Challenges 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
Friday Mar 23, 2007

BBB WISE GIVING ALLIANCE: INVESTIGATE TEEN CHALLENGE BEFORE YOU DONATE

BBB Wise Giving Alliance: Investigate Before You Donate

NATIONAL CHARITY REPORTS INDEX - This page lists the current BBB Wise Giving Alliance reports on charities and other organizations that solicit nationally.
http://www.give.org/reports/index.asp

TEEN CHALLENGE'S REPORT: http://charityreports.give.org/Public/Report.aspx?CharityID=1300

BBB WISE GIVING ALLIANCE STANDARDS FOR CHARITY ACCOUNTABILITY:
http://www.give.org/standards/newcbbbstds.asp

JOURNALIST MAY CHANGE YOUR MIND ABOUT ALL THE TEEN CHALLENGE HOOPLA!

Read one journalists view that may change your mind about all the Teen Challenge hoopla!

Blog article:
http://vkshashikumar.blogspot.com/2007/02/eagle-on-altar.html

Newspaper article:
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main.asp?filename=ts013004shashi.asp

NOTE: This is an absolutely incredible article and I highly recommend reading it in its entirety!!!

CHURCH-BASED PROJECTS SUCH AS TEEN CHALLENGE LACK DATA ON RESULTS

Excerpt from: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n721/a01.html

The truth, Mr. Johnson and many other social scientists say, is that there is little reliable research proving the effectiveness of religious programs. They also add that there is scant evidence showing which religious programs show the best results and how they stack up against secular programs.

"From the left to the right, everyone assumes that faith-based programs work," Mr. Johnson said. "Even the critics of DiIulio and his office haven't denied that. We hear that and just sit back and laugh. In terms of empirical evidence that they work, it's pretty much nonexistent."

"They'll hand you a three-page in-house report," Mr. Johnson said, "showing that they reached 1,300 people that year. But what does 'reach' mean? That's not going to cut it."

Social scientists have pointed out that the 86 percent success rate of Teen Challenge is misleading. It does not count the people who dropped out during the program. And like many religious and private charities, Teen Challenge picks its clients.

Before they are accepted, most of the addicts have already been through detoxification programs, said the Rev. John D. Castellani, president of Teen Challenge International U.S.A. In the program's first four-month phase, Mr. Castellani said, 25 to 30 percent drop out, and in the next eight months, 10 percent more leave.

This raises questions for David Reingold, a researcher at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. A study Mr. Reingold has just completed of social services in Indiana found that religious programs are more likely than their secular counterparts to limit the clientele they serve. As a result, Mr. Reingold said, "It's an extreme exaggeration to say that religious organizations are more effective."

PROOF THAT COURTS ARE SENTENCING PEOPLE TO TEEN CHALLENGE

I have received several inquiries regarding this particular quote that is on the side-bar of my blog:

"What's worse, is that I have heard that some Probation officers are CHOOSING Teen Challenge and demanding graduation OR else their "person on probation" goes to prison / jail. In other words, sign onto the "Assemblies of God" religion, walk the walk, "speak in tongues" etc.... or you'll go to jail. Doesn't this smack of civil rights violations!!!??? " posted by Cherokee lady of Fowler, CA Tuesday Jan 23

The inquiries were about whether a judge can really sentence you to go to Teen Challenge or not. The answer is yes, a judge may court order you to complete Teen Challenge. If you do not complete the program you will violate your terms of probation and then you will have to complete your full jail or prison sentence!

Here are several court files that prove this:

STATE OF OHIO v. BARTLEY S. MEADOWS (One count of felonious assault and one count of aggravated burglary.)
http://www.fifthdist.org/november62006/meadows.pdf

STATE OF FLORIDA v. KEVIN DANIEL SMITH (Willfully violated two of the conditions of his community control.)
http://opinions.1dca.org/written/opinions2005/8-19-05/04-0847.pdf

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v DAVID BENJAMIN TURNER (Violated the terms and conditions of his probation in all four cases- felonious larceny, larceny of a firearm and possession of stolen goods. Eight consolidated charges, including breaking and entering a motor vehicle, breaking and entering a residence, felonious larceny, and felonious financial card theft.)
http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/coa/opinions/2002/unpub/010134-1.htm

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. RONALD EUGENE PURDY (Probation violation for aggravated burglary, a Class C felony.)
http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/tcca/PDF/023/purdyr.pdf

STATE OF MISSOURI v. RICKY LEE BEACH (First degree armed robbery.)
http://www.courts.mo.gov/courts/pubopinions.nsf/ccd96539c3fb13ce8625661f004bc7da/b2c22848c6f236e58625729100751e26?OpenDocument

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. BILLY M. HIGGINS (The defendant was convicted on December 10, 2001, of one count of delivery of .5 grams or more of cocaine, a Class B felony, and one count of delivery of under .5 grams of cocaine, a Class C felony.)
http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/tcca/PDF/041/Higginsb.pdf

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. GREGORY SCOTT ALLISON (Burglary, a Class D felony, and misdemeanor theft.)
http://www.tncourts.gov/OPINIONS/tcca/PDF/021/allisong.pdf

EVIDENTLY ADULT TEEN CHALLENGE PARTICIPANTS SIGN AWAY ALL THEIR RIGHTS TOO!

Excerpt from page 14 of the Saint Louis Teen Challenge Application: "In consideration for the opportunity to obtain this counseling, I promise that I will not take any legal actions in the future for anything said, done, or omitted by my case manager, Teen Challenge of St. Louis, their agents, or family members during this case management program. I agree to hold Teen Challenge of St. Louis, their agents, and family members harmless for any legal claims of negligence or damage of any sort, which a person could assert, related to the Teen Challenge of St. Louis case management programs."

Excerpt from page 15 of the Saint Louis Teen Challenge Application: "8. I release Teen Challenge from all financial or legal responsibilities in case of accident, injury, illness or other misfortune."

Link location: http://www.saintlouistc.org/pdf/stltc-application.pdf

TEEN CHALLENGE HAS A PARENTAL RELEASE OF LIABILITY AGREEMENT!

This excerpt is taken from page 17 of this Teen Challenge Application!

PARENTAL RELEASE OF LIABILITY AGREEMENT

"I/We, ______________________________________, parent(s), guardian(s), or conservator(s) of _____________________________, a minor child born on _______________, hereby agree that he/she can enroll in Minnesota Teen Challenge Academy (MTCA), a 12-month Christian residential rehabilitative program. I/We further agree that I/we relieve MTCA, its Staff, Employees, Students, and Board Members from any responsibility or liability for any damages to him or his property during his residence at MTCA or during any related travel and/or activities. I/We also agree to release, hold harmless, and relinquish all rights to pursue any cause of action whatsoever against MTCA, its Staff, Employees, Students, and Board Members if a student voluntarily leaves MTCA or for any damages incurred during his/her residence."

Link location: http://www.mntc.org/pdf/LC_Adolescent.pdf

Why would Teen Challenge require a parent to sign this? This is absurd!!! This truly opens the door to exploitation, mistreatment, and abuse!!!
~

NOTE: I am adding a link that I found at Find Law to show you just how long and complicated your case can become regarding the signing of a Parental Release of Liability Agreement. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=co&vol=2002sc%5C724&invol=1

I think you may have to register at the FindLaw website to review this case so I am posting the specifics so you can find it just in case the link I posted doesn't take you directly to it-

Cooper v. Aspen Skiing Company.
SUPREME COURT, STATE OF COLORADO Two East 14th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80203 Certiorari to the Colorado Court of Appeals Court of Appeals Case No. 99CA187	Case No. 00SC885

"THINK" BEFORE YOU OR YOUR CHILD JOINS TEEN CHALLENGE

Here is a START Fact Sheet with warnings to parents considering Residential Placement. If you are a parent or an adult who is considering committing either your child or yourself into the Teen Challenge Program, I strongly suggest that you also read this fact sheet.

I also highly recommend that you print out and compare this fact sheet to the Teen Challenge Daily Schedule , the in-depth Overview of the Teen Challenge Program and the Student Guidelines. You will be amazed by how many of the warning signs that the START Fact Sheet points out that are happening at Teen Challenge!

Also, to get a better picture of the program, below I have included the Daily Schedule just in case Teen Challenge pulls it off of the only website they have it posted on. (It took a lot of searching through there many websites to find this schedule!)

This is the Teen Challenge Daily Schedule:

I recommend that you print this schedule so you can evaluate just how many hours per day and week that a person would be required to spend doing the religious aspect of the program. Lecture, PACE and Study Hall are all centered around the Bible. Add up those times with the amount of time a person would spend doing Devotions and Praise & Prayer and you will realize that the students pretty much 'live & breathe' religion the good part of the day, every day, for an entire year!!!

Also, check out how many hours are spent in church on Sunday! The students must attend church, not once, but twice every Sunday!!! This totals 6-1/4 hours of solid religious programing every Sunday, not to mention the 1/2 hour that is spent doing the daily Devotion forty-five minutes after waking up every Sunday morning!

This schedule reeks of total conversion to their specific religious belief system, which is the primary purpose of Teen Challenge! As I've stated before- Teen Challenge's main goal is to recruit you so they can convert you to their extremely 'hyper-religious' religion!

Link location of the Daily Schedule: http://www.tcfarm.org/About/daily.html
Link location of the Overview of the Teen Challenge Program: http://www.tcfarm.org/About/program.html
Link location of Student Guidelines: http://tcmid.org/documents/Guidelines_jan07.pdf

TEEN CHALLENGE SUCCESS RATES ARE FROM HOW LONG AGO? INVOLVING HOW MANY PEOPLE?

Teen Challenge continually boasts about their unbelievably high success rates. You've heard those success rates being told by Teen Challenge over & over again to promote their faith-based treatment program. So where do these unbelievably high success rates come from?

-The last statistically significant evaluation of the Teen Challenge program was in 1975, which was done by The National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago. They developed the survey instrument, located survey participants, conducted the personal interviews, and obtained a urine sample to test for drugs. The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded the first year of the study. The evaluation came from a sample of Pennsylvania Teen Challenge graduates from 1968!

FYI: 1975 was 32 years ago! 1968 was 39 years ago!

-A total of 186 persons, divided into 3 groups, were interviewed for this project:

• P1=70 people (students that entered Brooklyn Teen Challenge, but dropped out and never attended the Rehrersburg program.)
• P2=52 people (students that completed the Brooklyn program who later dropped out of the Rehrersburg program.)
  
• P3=64 people (graduates of the Rehrersburg Training Center program.)
  

The results claim that 67% of the graduates (P3) are drug-free as indicated by the urinalysis test, even though 86% stated they were drug-free on the questionnaire. So, that would mean that 67% of the P3 group, or 43 people remained marijuana and heroin-free 7 years after graduating from Teen Challenge.

So, if 43 graduates remained marijuana and heroin-free 7 years after this survey, what about the other 21 graduates and the remaining 143 people who dropped out of the program? Also, the test results do not indicate whether the graduates tested positive for other drugs such as alcohol, other narcotics or nicotine!

This study suggested that Teen Challenge had a success rate of 86%. But Bill McColl, executive director of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, dismisses both the statistic and the study. He states that the study was done too long ago and conducted with an extraordinarily small sample group. This leads us to believe that this study has almost no statistical validity. I tend to side with his opinion.

FYI: Upon doing an internet search of this study, I am only able to find 'excerpts' of this particular study only on the Teen Challenge websites, which leads me to once again wonder, "Why?"

TEEN CHALLENGE FAMILY MEMBERS HAVE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Family members who have loved ones in Teen Challenge programs across the country have many unanswered questions. Many seem to be crying out for help because they are not able to find out how their loved ones are 'really' doing! Please read the side-bar on the right to read excerpts from some of the family members comments and questions. These excerpts are linked to the original website that they were posted on, which is where you can read the full post.

Upon reading the excerpts and original posts, you will also realize that many people are complaining about many issues, including:

• Teen Challenge staff are not returning phone calls to concerned family members.
  
• Teen Challenge staff closely monitor conversations and visits so as not to allow the person who is in for treatment to be able to tell their family members exactly what is happening or has happened to them (or others) while in Teen Challenge.
• Teen Challenge staff will actually disconnect telephone conversations when either party mentions something they do not think is appropriate.
  
• Teen Challenge staff reprimands your loved one using various forms of punishment as discipline that you may not approve of.
  
• Teen Challenge severely limits contact with the outside world during the entire one-year (or more) stay at Teen Challenge.
  
• Teen Challenge staff have also been accused of physical, mental and spiritual abuse.
• Very high drop-out rates that will completely change the publics perception of those incredibly high success rates that Teen Challenge continually boasts about.
  

It is also becoming quite clear to me that people are having a very hard time finding others who also have loved ones in Teen Challenge. You can only begin to imagine what they are also going through.

INVESTIGATING THE TEEN CHALLENGE PROGRAM

The Teen Challenge Program

Teen Challenge is offered as a Drug & Alcohol Treatment Center not only for teenagers, but also for adults. The program seems to be based solely on the fact that a person can literally 'pray away' their alcoholism and drug addiction. As far as I can tell, the program is not even certified because it uses pastoral counselors instead of licensed clinical counselors. This has led me to do some research to find out what Teen Challenge is really all about and I highly recommend that you do the same before either admitting your teenager or yourself into it! (I feel sorry for the people who join while they are incarcerated. Teen Challenge does alot of their recruiting in jails and prisons! Nothing like getting you when you're already down, hey?)

Based on my findings, I feel that Teen Challenge should be classified as a brainwashing cult. Why? Well, first click here to view their Daily Schedule. (If you spend some time exploring their many websites across the U.S. and world, you will find that this schedule is rarely modified and strictly adhered to. You will also find that their Daily Schedule is quite hard to find!) Note how the schedule incorporates the daily times for the morning Devotions, Praise & Prayer and evening Devotions. From what I've heard, after you wake up and right before bedtime are when your subconscious is the most susceptible to change.

I printed out the schedule so I could evaluate just how many hours per day and week that a person would be required to spend doing the religious aspect of the program. I also realized that Lecture, PACE and Study Hall are all centered on the Bible. So, if you add up those times with the amount of time you needed for Devotions and Praise & Prayer, you realize that the students pretty much 'live & breathe' religion the good part of the day, every day, for an entire year!!!

I was also amazed at how many hours are spent in church on Sunday! The students must attend church, not once, but twice every Sunday!!! This totals 6-1/4 hours of solid religious programing every Sunday, not to mention the 1/2 hour that is spent doing the daily Devotion forty-five minutes after waking up that morning!

This is an Overview of the Teen Challenge Program. Some of their websites call it 'The Student Manual'. This site calls it Student Guidelines. (I recommend reading both of them in their entirety!) Regardless of what it is called, it is also very hard to find because most of the Teen Challenge websites do not offer it! (I wonder why? Is it because they don't want the public to know?) I also wonder if new 'recruits' are informed of these very strict rules before they are admitted. Strict dress-codes, no television, no contact with boyfriend / girlfriend / friends, no speaking to the opposite sex unless you have permission, very limited telephone usage, 5-min. showers? The list of no-no's goes on & on!

Here is their Global Teen Challenge Worldwide Directory. If you dig deep enough, you may be able to uncover a few more of their secrets that aren't disclosed on most of their websites!

Another good place to start finding out more would be to read the Proselytizing Report about Teen Challenge from the website of The Rick A. Ross Institute For The Study Of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements.

Personally, I highly recommend doing some serious investigating before either admitting your teenager or yourself into it! And if you know someone who is incarcerated that is thinking about applying to this faith-healing treatment center, let them know what your findings are!

Also, ask questions! Ask others if they agree that Teen Challenge very aggressively pushes their religious beliefs upon those who do not share them and whose main goal is to recruit you so they can convert you to their extremely 'hyper-religious' religion. And don't forget to ask others if they sometimes have to behave like Holy Rollers / Jesus Freaks who roll around on the floor and 'speak in tongues' in an uncontrolled manner.

"Is this really what I want my loved one to experience?"