Last week, Truth Wins Out expressed concern that the ex-gay Exodus Global Alliance is helping to draw youths with drug and alcohol problems into involuntary and antigay “Teen Challenge” programs in the United States and New Zealand.
Now we learn from Ken Avidor (via Pam Spaulding) that U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is requesting $500,000 in U.S. taxpayer money for Minnesota Teen Challenge, a pray-away-the-drugs program whose parent organization — strangely enough — hires ex-gay speakers, utilizes ex-gay media, and is operated by the Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination.
The “Teen Challenge” network apparently offers no reputable professional counseling; instead, its amateur employees program youths with church ideology while blaming teens’ problems on “Satanic” influences such as Halloween and Harry Potter. It offers no well-designed tracking of success and failure rates; its reports and supposed success stories appear to consist of isolated anecdotes and head counts which exclude youths who failed to complete a treatment program.
Treatments, by the way, reportedly include up to a year of residency in isolation, denial of medical treatment, and relentless assaults upon Jewish and other non-evangelical faith perspectives. Supporters include U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s rumored choice for drug czar, former congressman Jim Ramstad.
Maia Szalavitz of The Huffington Post is alarmed at Teen Challenge’s substitution of brainwashing for sound medical treatment:
Further, according to Teen Challenge, “Addiction is a sin, not a disease.” Consequently, the program does not allow the use of medication.
Beyond this, it humiliates and attempts to “break down” people with addictions, using techniques that I have covered extensively elsewhere that are known to do more harm than good.
Since half of all addicts have a co-existing mental illness which often requires medication, banning it is not exactly evidence-based practice. And since there are medications that can help treat particular addictions, this is even more absurd. Given that Ramstad sponsored a bill to change the name of the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the National Institute on Diseases of Addiction, it is deeply troubling that he’d support an organization which views it as sin.
Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent says that Teen Challenge’s acceptance of past and future federal subsidies obligate it to submit to public scrutiny and accountability:
If you accept taxpayer money, you have to accept that you’re going to receive public scrutiny. That simple point seems to be eluding Minnesota Teen Challenge (MNTC), the faith-based drug treatment program which secured a federal earmark in early 2008 arranged by Rep. Jim Ramstad and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, for its “Know the Truth” program which aims to prevent drug use.
Operating close to the border of church and state, the group’s members are unrealistic if they think their work is not going to get attention.
…The point of my article was not to suggest that MNTC was not successful or beneficial, as Scherber implies. Rather it was to point out the overtly religious nature of the organization and that the program has historically been controversial. In the interest of brevity, I left some examples out. For instance, MNTC’s stance on Halloween verges on the comical (”Halloween is a day set up totally for Satan … The more people who go out dressed as demons, ghosts, witches and goblins, the more glory Satan receives”). …
I don’t question that faith-based programs can be very effective for those that share the programs’ faith. Faith is a huge motivator in people’s lives. I think MNTC has been very effective for the clients it serves. However, I don’t think it’s appropriate for judges, prosecutors or public defenders to suggest the program as an alternative to jail.
In economic boom times, taxpayer dollars should be restricted to professionally operated and audited facilities with solid, evidence-based performance records. In troubled economic times, taxpayer dollars should not be wasted on one prosperous denomination’s religious indoctrination centers.
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This absolutely must not happen, and any organisation carrying out should be shut down, and possibly prosecuted.
Seung Hui Cho was one such person who was metally ill, and was taken from one church to the next to ‘exorcise his demons’, instead of getting 21st century medical help he badly needed from qualified professionals. He went on to kill 32 people at Virginia Tech last year. The story is explained in this commentary:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/05/AR2007050501221.html
It is bad enough that such ‘faith healing’ groups are likely to cause severe psychological damage. The fact is, they are lethal to the community at large.
How many more High School massacres are needed before people wake up to this?
Comment by adrianT — December 30, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
Can I not pay taxes?
I mean, it’s not like us gays are treated equally in the United States anyway, yet we’re pretty much paying to live here by paying our taxes. Part of being an American Citizen is having that equality.
Why should someone have to pay for something they do not get?
Comment by James — December 30, 2008 @ 7:47 pm
This is very distrubing.
Comment by Jeff — December 31, 2008 @ 11:44 am
Obama is a religious zealout who supports “faith based initiatives” like these.
Comment by edweird — December 31, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
I agree with Edweird. One of the many disturbing things about the new president is his avowed commitment to BUSH’s Faith Based Initiative – in whatever form. It was a shocking revelation. Camps like this should not only be denied ANY tax-payer money, they should also be shut down and demolished 0 just like Abu Grahib prison. It is a symbol of ritualistic abuse against gays and drug users in need of genuine COMPASSIONATE help.
Comment by Rob — January 2, 2009 @ 1:16 am
“It is a symbol of ritualistic abuse against gays and drug users in need of genuine COMPASSIONATE help.”
************
“Ex-gay camps” is just a friendlier way of saying “concentration camp”. They’re told how to dress, what personal interests they can have, what music they can and can’t listen to, even the position which they must sleep.
Do you see any “de-blacking” camps, for African Americans who choose to talk all unintelligible, like “gangsta rappers”?
I’d love to hear the outrage if Atheists ever opens “ex-christian camps”, which reverses the fundie crap drilled into people’s heads since birth.
Comment by Scott — January 2, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
Obama has nothing to do with this post, so the comments are unneccessary.
For the record, Obama is no zealot. He has a strong, pro-gay rights voting record, both in the Illinois state legislature and as a federal Senator.
I’m surprised that Klobluchar is doing this. She has a pro-gay record. Perhaps she is not aware of all the things that this organization does. I think this is where TWO should lobby Senator Klobluchar.
Comment by Tricky — January 4, 2009 @ 8:25 pm
In particular, perhaps you might want to make these points in terms of Teen Challenge’s counselling services (sic):
Do they abide by a Code of Conduct that outlines client rights? Can I have a copy?
Do they have professional indemnity and public liability insurance?
Are they a financial member of an accredited professional body?
Do they receive regular professional supervision and guidance?
Are their qualifications from an accredited program?
Have they completed any training as a counsellor?
Comment by Craig Young — January 7, 2009 @ 4:33 pm
[...] October 2008, Truth Wins Out reported: …We learn from Ken Avidor (via Pam Spaulding) that U.S. Senator Amy [...]
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