Minnesota Teen Challenge is a Pentecostal drug and alcohol abuse treatment program, one of George W. Bush's beloved faith-based initiatives that purports to help teenagers overcome dependency. MTC believes that by recruiting youngsters into the Assemblies of God ministry, they will be cured of their addiction. According to Teen Challenge, "Addiction is a sin, not a disease."
Maia Szalavitz writes on Huffington Post: 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.
Truth Wins Out sheds some light on the operation: 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.
The evangelical program that's seeking half a million of your tax dollars works closely with Exodus International, the so-called ex-gay therapy group that brings misery to countless thousands each year by convincing them that they can "pray away the gay." The Official Teen Challenge Student Handbook instructs students to "conduct themselves in a manner pleasing to God" and strictly forbids any "homosexual behavior" (as opposed to, one must presume, "heterosexual behavior"). And Teen Challenge, which has earned the name of Jesus Gulag, really, really gets hysterical over Halloween: "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."
For those youths who won't get with the program, a little food deprivation soon has them back on their knees... in prayerful thanksgiving, of course.
A good use of your tax dollars? George W. Bush thinks so.
wow....ignorant people.....
Posted by: marc a hernandez | January 01, 2009 at 04:06 PM
Can someone please tell me why my taxes are being forked over to these religious nuts and others like them? If they wanna help people, that's great. Help people. Don't make buying into these churches' belief systems a prerequisite for assistance - of any kind.
Posted by: Bee Girl | January 01, 2009 at 04:12 PM
I don't have a problem with faith based programs... but this one sucks.
Posted by: Karl | January 02, 2009 at 03:32 AM
Obama needs to get rid of these brainwashing operations. There has to be a better way to help kids with drug problems. Christianists never offer help anyone unless they get something out of it.
Posted by: brad | January 02, 2009 at 05:33 AM
This is a true ABOMINATION! It is very sad that anyone, especially a President, would support a group who is potentially ruining the lives of youth...the future of this country. If they want to try to help people, I have no problem with that. But, if they want to use tax dollars to spread the disease of intolerance and misinformation, I have a huge problem with that.
Posted by: James Hipps | January 02, 2009 at 09:02 AM
everyone needs to watch the southpark episode where they send butters to a anti gay christian camp and thats a perfect example. christiians dont fix anything they just make everyone feel wrong
Posted by: krllu | January 02, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Honestly the best Faith Based program is called Celebrate Recovery. It's not a local thing, it's very big. I know of a few Baptist churches around my area that offer this program, but I don't know if it's a Baptist only thing. I would search around your town instead of going to a nut job like them. I agree, Obama needs to get rid of these kind of people. Along with the church that thinks Dancing is evil.
Posted by: Celebrate Recovery | January 02, 2009 at 10:09 PM
Faith-based treatment does not work in any case, and this case is an extreme example. When you look at faith-based treatment outcomes, they have a statistically lower long-term success rate than doing nothing at all. God or any other version of a 'higher power' simply does not work, despite all the lies and manipulations of data spewed by the 'true believers' in the 'recovery' community. Addiction is a neurochemical disease, and needs to be treated as one, not as a 'spiritual' problem, whatever that nonsense means.
Posted by: Dr. William Lumbergh, MD | January 03, 2009 at 08:43 AM
I have a problem with faith based programs. My problem is the doctrine of separation of church and state qwhich must be maintained.
Posted by: bob | January 03, 2009 at 08:55 AM
Seems like MTC would look around them at the economy and people's lives ruined by it & teach young people that Satan gets more glory - and long term dividends - from the everyday operations of US financial institutions than from that one day, Halloween.
Posted by: Dobito | January 03, 2009 at 09:49 AM
Someone ought to fund a program to cure religious idiots of their fanaticism with a fictional being.
Posted by: Jeff | January 03, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Im tired of all this religious bullshit.
Why are religious rights protected more that a gay persons rights?
Religion is based on myth not fact yet it is still accepted by a very wide margin of people.
Hopefully one day this type of ignorance wont go on.
Posted by: W | January 05, 2009 at 11:39 PM
religitards r stoopid.
Posted by: Phil E. Drifter | February 01, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Religitards are so afraid of death being the end that they believe these fantastic fairy tales about heaven so they can justify their hatred of others as preached in the bible, koran, etc. Tales passed down by primitive people who thought the universe was created just for us to live in.
Posted by: Phil E. Drifter | February 01, 2009 at 12:17 PM
It's unfortunate that these kids have to endure this indoctrination and the lies. Most of them probably don't have a choice in the matter. If I had to sit thru this Pentecostal b*llsh*t it would validate my need for drugs!
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