We need to be aware of what these
hideous christians are doing.

Sorry for the way this post disappeared for half a day. We made a small edit to it, and for some reason that un-posted it and it had to be retrieved from the depths of our database. I’m trying to figure out what happened; it seems to be the result of a change in behavior in the new Wordpress upgrade, but I’m not sure yet. Thanks for your patience.

Nicole - thanks for your thoughts on the matter. You’re spot on about the restrictions put on people in secular group homes and similar facilities, and to some extent, rehabilitation has to occur with the patient in isolation from the influences that caused them to be there in the first place. But as you also mentioned, the problem is when that isolation is used to promote a religous or political agenda, which in this case could result in severe distress and do more harm than good. You also make a good point about other organisations like Mercy in the US. I’m sure there are other organisations like it in Australia too, but the media coverage on these, if anyone has come forward to complain, has not been as great as it has with Mercy. Perhaps the fallout from the Mercy case will encourage other people to come forward.

AndyD - I take your point about the ACCC and petrol :) But concerning Mercy, even the attempt to hold a religious organisation to the same standards as a secular one is refreshing. And again, the media fallout is immense. Mercy was not widely known, nor was the Hillsong-Gloria Jean’s-Mercy Ministries link, until these reports started appearing in Australian newspapers.

Sean - I have checked out your blog. Thanks for pointing it out to us. I’ve put a link to it and the mercysurvivors.com website at the bottom of my post.

And Scott - by ‘programming’, I assumed they were referring to neuro-linguistic programming:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming#Submodalities

Either that, or they think nerds are evil. I think I prefer the latter - it would give me great pleasure to be something Mercy disapproves of :)

“Dungeons and Dragons”

These people are clearly going to hell.

But this is baffling:

“Programming (color, number, location, etc.)”

Programming? As in computers, compilers, and linkers and C++ (oh my)?

Anyway, welcome to the BCS blog, Sumen. I look forward to reading more of your stuff here and there at your own blog.

At least this last Easter we had the “Petrol Commissioner” telling us he’d be keeping a close watch on prices. I hope he borrowed binoculars and an extension ladder.

But back to the subject at hand, almost… If phone-text companies can run ads on Oz commercial television selling an “Is your partner a cheat?” scam, what chance is there, seriously, of getting an arm of the Pentacostal Church shut down for “trying” to sort out girls with issues?

YEARS ago the Mercy site DID advertise to treat “lesbianism”. I would have to say sometime between 2001 and 2003. They had a before and after picture and testimony of a women- the before picture showed her dressed in mens clothing with a crew cut and the after picture showed her dressed in flowery clothes with curls. They have also had references (again, in the past) to treating “survivors of satanic ritual abuse”. I am an advocate and currently working with a girl who is on the waiting list to go to Mercy, she thinks it’s going to save her. I’m afraid that, with the severity of her “issues”, she will be kicked out and that act could trigger her to commit suicide. I would much rather her decide to get serious about her outpatient treatment and look into a supportive living arrangement until she is more able to take care of herself, but then again she has to make these choices.

Anyway, it’s a creepy organization. But the US has a lot of organizations just like Mercy, so in reality if Mercy is going to be analyzed we are also going to have to analyze places like Teen Challenge (btw: Mercy Ministries could be considered the illegitimate child of Teen Challenge as the founder came up with the idea for MM while working at TC).

I totally understand about the anger thing. I could barely finish writing this post.