Here is the trailer from docs.msnbc.com

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The documentary contains the stories of several survivors of Teen Mania receiving counseling after their time in the program. The film was very well done, I was impressed. One participant, Mica, is the author of the alumni blog and she has been out of the group several years. She is directly responsible for giving former members the forum to tell their story and share with the world the inner workings of the group. The documentary also contains footage from the website for Teen Mania that explains their presentation of their message. As I watched the show, I was very glad that footage from Teen Mania was used to allow others to see the presentation used to recruit young people. There were glorious scenes of worship services where many young people appeared caught up in the rapture of the moment. There were also scenes of the physical and emotional abuses contained in the ESOAL program.

I found this ESOL film on Mica’s blog. Many scenes appeared surreal even after reading Mica’s blog. The scenes showing the hardships and the “training” conditions reminded of scenes from basics at Parris Island or worse.  

 

   The counselors for the survivors were Doug and Wendy Duncan. Their website is found here: http://www.dallascult.com/ . A paragraph from their website follows:

“Doug and Wendy Duncan are former members of a religious cult, the Trinity Foundation, in Dallas, Texas. After leaving the cult where he was a member for over twenty years, Doug earned his master’s degree in counseling and is now a licensed professional counselor in the state of Texas.       Wendy is a licensed social worker and holds a master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is also the author of I Can’t Hear God Anymore: Life in a Dallas Cult, the true story of the couple’s involvement in and eventual separation from a cult.”                 

   The counseling sessions included the survivors Teen Mania openly talking about their experiences and their struggles after leaving the group. The Duncans used the outline from the work of Robert Lifton explaining the eight criteria for mind control. (link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Reform_and_the_Psychology_of_Totalism .) The sessions included comparing the experiences of the survivors with the criteria Lifton documented were mind control techniques. Naturally, as I listened to the survivors I compared their observations with my experiences and found many common points. Close to the end, one survivor is encouraged to realize what happened to her was not her fault. Mica speaks up to say that they were all guilty of wanting to be a good person, a good Christian and to help other people. She also regretted the years spent not knowing it was okay to enjoy her life. She could walk free from the guilt and shame and not fear being judged. (paraphrased) Another survivor expressed her feelings about sharing her story on Mica’s blog and that it helped validate her experiences.  

  This documentary helped me understand my involvement in Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) and how to look at others who remain in the group. Members of mind control groups have no idea the severity of the measures being used against them and are taught to blame themselves for not being able to submit or believe the strange doctrines or participate in the strange practices of such groups. Doug Duncan concluded that all eight of Lifton’s characteristics of mind control or thought reform were present at Teen Mania. After reading Lifton’s work and remembering my experiences inside WOFF, I have come to the same conclusion about my time in WOFF. As a regular member inside WOFF, I was under mind control measures – daily.   

   At the end of this documentary, there was a disclaimer stating that the producers requested a second interview with the leaders of Teen Mania to allow him to answer the claims of survivors and they refused. I am not sure when/if this will be aired again. If you are interested in learning more about the group, please, read Mica’s blog.

    Thank you, for taking time to visit and read this blog. Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. The author is not a licensed mental health professional and encourages those that need professional help to seek it. The intent of the material is to inform and be a resource. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. There are readers at WOFF. Comments are invited from all readers, including present or former members. Polls are not scientific and no private information is gathered.

     Look on the right side of any post for the option to subscribe by email for notifications or RSS feeds notifying of new postings. It is a great feature. Also, find more posts by selecting “Categories”.

     Guest posts reflect the opinions of the writers. Their opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of John Huddle or any other persons affiliated with this blog.

       Please, take time to read the Terms of Use for this personal blog. As mentioned, for posts written by John Huddle, any information about WOFF is from his memories and recollections as perfect as that may be or not be.  Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 359.

Protesting the Dallas Acquire the Fire Posted by Recovering Alumni | Labels: protest
Note: If this is your first time here, click the ‘Allegations’ tab at the top or the ‘true stories’ category on the right to read about the abuse. (see the original blog for links)

On Saturday, some local alumni and I held a protest at the Dallas Acquire the Fire. We wanted to raise awareness about the dangers of the Honor Academy so we made signs and printed out flyers that had the blog address on them. Before the protest, I went online to make sure I understood my constitutional rights to peaceful assembly and free speech.    

According to the law, I have the right to protest and hand out leaflets on public property, such as a public street or sidewalk. Luckily, the Dallas Acquire the Fire event was held at the Gexa Energy Pavilion in Fair Park.

Fair Park is a 277-acre National Historic Landmark, owned by the City of Dallas and operated under the management of Fair Park Administration a division of the Park and Recreation Department.

Given the fact that Fair Park is publicly owned property, I did not anticipate any trouble from the police. That was naive.

When we first arrived around lunchtime, we stood just outside the entrance/exit of the arena, on what we believed was a public sidewalk. Within one minute, a uniformed police officer came and told us we had to move and that we were actually on private property. If you watch the video, you’ll notice that the officer refused to answer our questions about who owned this supposed “private property” and even more infuriatingly violated the free speech rights of the teens who wanted to speak with us. He ended by telling us that we had to keep moving, we were not allowed to stand still. I asked him if that was the law and he said it was. (I later discovered this was bull.)

(video broken into two parts to protect identity of other protestors)

We were confused by this officer’s directions because it did not reflect our research, but we complied anyway and moved to a significantly less impactful spot, standing on the sidewalks where cars pass as they come and go from the event. At this location, it was impossible to talk to people unless they walked about 300 feet out of their way to specifically speak with us.

At first, the officer confirmed to us that this location was acceptable. By this time, many cars and buses were leaving for lunch so lots of attendees were able to see our signs as they left the property. As a line of cars exiting the premises grew, some rolled down their windows and asked us questions while they waited. We answered them as quickly as we could without causing them to delay traffic, usually by handing them a flyer and suggesting they visit the website. About 10-20 minutes after the officer moved us to this location, he came back and told us we had to move again. He told us that we were on “private property” since the owner mowed the grass adjacent to the sidewalk, that we were “standing still,” and that we were “blocking traffic” and therefore not allowed to be on the sidewalk that we were currently occupying. At this point, I knew he was in the wrong and that I was doing nothing illegal. I walked past him, on the sidewalk, towards the arena, instead of away like he wanted me to. He threatened to call a squad car on me. I responded by telling him I wasn’t going anywhere. He specifically told me I could be there, I knew it was a public sidewalk and he had already watched us protest here for 10-20 minutes. He called the squad car, which did not intimidate me in the least. When he realized I wasn’t going to budge, he gave us new instructions not to talk to anybody in a car or hand out our flyer to them. I told him we would comply. He also mentioned that we could be in the parking lot area as long as we did not have our signs.

At this point, we had about 4 officers standing around us – and there were only 4 of us. And we were doing nothing illegal! For the first time, I can understand why people don’t like police officers.

Shortly after, the squad car showed up, and of course, his bluff was called and they didn’t even talk to me, much less arrest me.

As the youth groups were returning from lunch, one pastor said that he wanted to talk to us. My husband explained that we couldn’t block traffic to talk at length, so he laid down his sign and went into the parking lot to speak with the youth pastor. Less than a minute after starting the conversation, Heath Stoner arrived on the scene and told my husband “You can’t be here.” My husband replied, “I paid to be here” which apparently caught Heath off guard. He then slithered off to get a police officer, while some current staff member tried to convince my husband that the HA is awesome (lol). This officer then escorted my husband off the property but failed to give his name or badge number when my husband requested it.

Except for that original officer intermittently harassing us because we were at times, standing still, the rest of the day was thankfully, much less dramatic. Throughout the afternoon, groups of teens and adults would come talk to us and ask us what we were about. We had some good conversations and were able to share our concerns with many youth pastors and teens. We even had a couple of Teen Mania staff members come talk to us in a very respectful way and bring us some water. That was a nice gesture on their part and reminded me how sincere and genuine the lower level staff members and interns are.

If there was one thing I could change about our protest, I wish we could have made it clear via signage that we are Christians. It seems that many attendees assumed we were against Christianity and Jesus instead of understanding that we are protesting because of our Christian convictions. Overall, I was really surprised how little we were insulted. For every insult that was hurled at us, we got about five “Jesus loves you!” I’d say thats a pretty good percentage for a Christian crowd.

Now that we’ve had time to reflect on yesterday’s events, we plan to seek clarification on some issues related to our constitutional rights as Americans.

1) Is the original sidewalk where we stationed ourselves truly private property? How is that possible given that the entire area is publicly owned by the city of Dallas?

2) Was the primary officer on the clock representing the Dallas Police Department or was he working as a security guard for a private entity?

3) Why did a uniformed officer fail to identify himself when requested?

4) Did a uniformed police officer(s) violate our civil rights of peaceful assembly and free speech? Did they properly exercise their power or engage in bullying, intimidation and harassment by making up laws that do not truly exist (constant walking, “private property,” etc.)

I plan to contact Dallas City Hall and the Parks department and will update you when I know more.

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    This was a very eye-opening example of what I believe is the effort of the police to shut down free speech using the excuse of “public safety”. This example would not be considered unique or unusal. I applaud the protestors for their even tempered approach in an effort to comply and yet be persistent to get their message out.

    Thank you, for taking time to visit and read this blog. Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. The author is not a licensed mental health professional and encourages those that need professional help to seek it. The intent of the material is to inform and be a resource. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. There are readers at WOFF. Comments are invited from all readers, including present or former members. Polls are not scientific and no private information is gathered.

     Look on the right side of any post for the option to subscribe by email for notifications or RSS feeds notifying of new postings. It is a great feature. Also, find more posts by selecting “Categories”.

       (Please, take time to read the Terms of Use for this personal blog. As mentioned, the information about WOFF is from my memories and recollections as perfect as that may be or not be. ) Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 286.

Is Teen Mania a Cult? Part 1

Posted by Recovering Alumni | Labels: cult, Honor Academy

This question has come up time and time again. As an intern, we joked about how the townsfolk nearby thought we were a cult. It was funny, because of course we weren’t a cult!

It wasn’t until several years later, when I came across a long list of cult characteristics that I began to seriously ask this question. I was really surprised to find that many of the characteristics on that list were present in the Honor Academy. Unfortunately, I can’t find that exhaustive list, but here is one provided by the International Cultic Studies Association – with my Teen Mania specific comments in italics.

– The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.

True. Whether or not its explicitly encouraged by the leadership, interns highly venerate both Ron Luce and Dave Hasz. In fact, I’ve seen an Honor Academy Alumni website forum where interns felt the need to clarify that Ron Luce is not God. Of course, nobody “says” he is God, but his teachings and personality (as well as Dave Hasz, the director of the Honor Academy) have become so synonymous with God and with God’s will that it becomes very hard to make a distinction. If anyone criticizes or questions anyone in leadership, they are immediately pounced on by fellow interns and told they should only speak about it privately to the person in question. The assumption is always that the concerned party must have misunderstood or that the leadership has a valid (unknown) reason for doing/saying whatever they did.

– ? Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

True. This was exceedingly true during my time there. When I brought up legitimate questions about what the leadership was doing, it was made very clear to me that I was “in rebellion” and “not submitted” or that I was “stirring up division.” This kind of attitude further reinforces the point above that whatever the leaders say is God’s will and you shouldn’t go against it.

?– Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

True. Debilitating work routines are the norm at Teen Mania. Nearly every moment of an intern’s day is scheduled, usually leaving less than 6-7 hours for sleep. I wouldn’t say that meditation, chanting, etc were used to suppress doubts so much as the teaching that you need to obey the leadership.

Click to Read: Is Teen Mania a Cult? Part 2

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   We are not posting the comment string attached to each post as they are lengthy. Please, take time to read them as certain comments are very insightful, some are not. There are four parts to the series and encourage readers to read the series and learn of this group. Here is an update posted form November 2010:

      Update Nov. 2010: After over a year of running this blog, hearing stories from many former interns and dealing with TM leadership, I am more certain than ever that the environment at the Honor Academy is very dangerous – spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically.

Teen Mania has repeatedly refused to repent for their past abuses and continues to foster an authoritarian environment where interns are taught to ignore their own discernment and bodily pain. Under no circumstances would I recommend that anyone participate in this program.(emphasis added)

   We will be monitoring the site and post further updates. One of the main features of this site is the stories of survivors of the group. There is much insight to be gained from these stories. We will post further on subjects related to these concerns. Comments from Teen Mania survivors and present members are welcome.

  Thank you, for taking time to visit and read this blog. Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. The author is not a licensed mental health professional and encourages those that need professional help to seek it. The intent of the material is to inform and be a resource. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. There are readers at WOFF. Comments are invited from all readers, including present or former members. Polls are not scientific and no private information is gathered.

   Look on the right side of any post for the option to subscribe by email for notifications or RSS feeds notifying of new postings. It is a great feature. Also, find more posts by selecting “Categories”.

    (Please, take time to read the Terms of Use for this personal blog. As mentioned, the information about WOFF is from my memories and recollections as perfect as that may be or not be. ) Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 262.