Teen Challenge: Rehab or Cult Acquisition Front?

Teen Challenge in the U.S.A. - Nationwide

Teen Challenge is a national faith-based residential drug treatment program that is in many states including CA, WA, TX, AL, AZ, AR,CO, CT, ID, IL, IA, KS, KY, LA, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY,OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, UT, VA. The programs have no medical component and center instead of around prayer, Bible study and religious conversion.

The official Statement of Purpose of Teen Challenge is, "To evangelize and disciple those with life-controlling problems." The publication, "The Teen Challenge Therapeutic Model" states, "Traditional residential substance abuse rehabilitative structures clearly do not provide an analogy for the Teen Challenge model. Teen Challenge is, in all issues of therapy, direct and indirect, a purposeful comprehensive focus on the whole life of the student relative to that student’s functionality as a Christian disciple [after s/he is evangelized]...

Teen Challenge currently operates five drug treatment centers in Texas – none of which have a state license, but only two of which have formally registered their status as a faith-based facility exempt from state licensing. As exempt faith-based drug treatment centers, Teen Challenge facilities are not required to have licensed chemical dependency counselors, conduct staff training or criminal background checks, protect client confidentiality rights, adhere to state health and safety standards, or report abuse, neglect, emergencies and medication errors. Even prior to seeking an exemption from state licensing, a 1995 state inspection revealed that Teen Challenge was not compliant with numerous state health, safety and quality of care standards. Teen Challenge USA has been reported to be abusive and has even hired staff even though they were already registered child sex offenders.

There is a direct recruitment of ex-convicts as ministers and also as staff for Teen Challenge centers. Teen Challenge New England boosts that over 90-98% of their staff are former “graduates” of the Teen Challenge drug addiction program. Teen Challenge New England was at the time directly recruiting from within the prisons – including an in house program at Dartmouth House of Correction. Also the court system court still orders persons into Teen Challenge in lieu of jail time. 

See the 185 page May 2008 Doctors Thesis of Rodney Hart – former “recovered graduate” of Teen Challenge and Director of the Teen Challenge New England.

www.tcnewengland.org/.../Rodney%20Hart%20Thesis%20-%20Front%20Matter%20&%20Chapter%201.pdf

FORCEFULLY ADVANCING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: TEEN CHALLENGE NEW ENGLAND— A SYSTEMIC APPROACH FOR KINGDOM GROWTH A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GORDON-CONWELL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY RODNEY B. HART MAY, 2008


Also see The Texas Faith-Based Initiative at Five Years:Warning Signs as President Bush Expands Texas-style Program at National Levelwww.tfn.org/site/DocServer/TFN_CC_REPORT-FINAL.pdf?docID=201

"Texas Freedom Network, a 23,000-member non-partisan grassroots watchdog group based in Austin conducted a five-year study of the policy and found, “As exempt faith-based drug treatment centers, [such] facilities are not required to have licensed chemical dependency counselors, conduct staff training or criminal background checks, protect client confidentiality rights, adhere to state health and safety standards, or report abuse, neglect, emergencies and medication errors.”http://www.schaler.net/inthenews/washblade.htm