Comments on: Christian boot camp pastor accused of dragging girl behind a van

by: smartalek

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:52:04 +0100

I’m trying real hard to have a degree of sympathy for the parents who might feel that they have no other options but to send their “out of control” kids to such places. I’m trying to view the parents, as much as the kids, as the victims of a horrible scam, one in which the kids are forced into compliance with the scam to keep the parents ignorant of the realities. (If you haven’t read the stories linked to above, they’ll curl your hair if it’s straight, and straighten it if it’s curly.) But in the Age of Google, I’m just not quite able to get there…
WTF is wrong with these people?

by: Bitter Scribe

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:08:43 +0100

OK, Byron, what “facts” do you think could possibly justify this kind of abuse? Lay ‘em on us.

by: kac90b

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:44:13 +0100

If you really want to be sickened by this whole faith-based crap, read With God On Their Side by Esther Kaplan. It is WAY worse than you think.

by: the opoponax

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:57:14 +0100

Question — is this a court-ordered kind of thing (A la “Scared Straight”), or something voluntary people send their kids to when they exhibit “problem” behaviors?

Not that one is any better than the other, really, but I’m having a hard time picturing parents that would do this to their kids. Oh, wait, no, I know several people who got sent away to programs not too much friendlier than this when their parents found out that they shoplifted, drank under age, smoked weed once (maybe, or had friends who did, or liked Cheech & Chong too much), etc. So no, actually I’m not surprised at all that people can be this barbaric to their own children.

CPS should take custody of teenagers who are sent to these camps, as a matter of course.

by: Dark Avenger GTGCM

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 02:17:02 +0100

If she hadn’t survived, the charges would be more than aggravated assault.

According to the last paragraph the young lady in question was hospitalized.

Since the assault took place about 2 months ago, one hopes that she was discharged after making a full recovery or sent home to finish said recovery.

by: byron

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 23:27:47 +0100

Hey there Meri, you should probably hold the contents of your stomach until all the facts come out.

by: Bach-us

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 23:19:14 +0100

Did she survive?

by: Meri

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:28:51 +0100

Not many stories do this, but this one makes me actually physically feel like throwing up.

by: car

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:39:36 +0100

DAS, can you please go work for the DNC now? Or whisper into their heads in the night? Or something? That seems to be one of the Dems’ biggest problems, that they have no idea how to use language to frame things to their own advantage.

by: Damian

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:03:18 +0100

The scary thing is that if someone opened up a place like this and it wasn’t faith-based, they would find it virtually impossible to get government funding but slap the word “ministries” on it and GWB can’t get money to you fast enough. Disgusting.

Actually, there’s quite a few non-faith-based programs of this kind, many based offshore so as to avoid American laws against abuse and torture (sound familiar?) Google the phrase “Tranquility Bay”.

How many of them stop being youth offenders after that, and how many leave more fucked up because of the abuse?

From what I’ve heard, most leave the program so broken that they’re unable to exist as individuals - they just stare at the floor, afraid of everything.