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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Melania And Brian Have Something In Common

July 18, 2016

Special Commentary

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They say, ”Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” The portion that was in question made it very clear that Mrs. Trump’s speech was identical to the First Lady’s. Now I can understand why Mrs. Trump would want to emulate Michelle Obama. It’s very obvious that Mrs. Obama has been a great first lady for the past seven years. So for the next few days, Melania will have to face the pressure of deliberately stealing her speech.

You may ask, ‘How does Melania Trump’s situation relate to Pimppreacher.com?’ I’m glad you asked. Just like Melania we have our own little plagiarist that we have been dealing with since February. And just like the Trump campaign, Brian Carn has played the denial card over and over again. Many of his surrogates have echoed his denial all across social media. It’s been about six months since Ms. Justice broke this story. The video has been viewed over 120,000 times, yet there are those who still have questions about the validity of the video. So in this commentary I want to go in depth to revisit this controversy.

False ‘Profit’ Brian Carn preached a New Year’s Eve service at the Word Of Restoration International Church in Houston, TX on December 31, 2014-January 1, 2015. Towards the end of the service, Carn took it upon himself to offer predictions for the coming year. But what Carn didn’t disclose to the congregation that he in fact stole those predictions from a psychic named Cheryl Lynn. From our investigation, we found out that Cheryl Lynn offers predictions nearly a year in advance. The prediction video that is in question was published to her YouTube channel on March 29, 2014. So we deducted that between March 29, 2014 and December 31, 2014, Carn viewed the video in question and then stole the predictions from that video. Not only did he steal it almost word for word, but in the same sequence.

Here are screens hot from YouTube of the two videos in question. You will notice the published date right below the video in the description.

From whiterosepro1 YouTube channel

From Praise Worship YouTube channel

Listed below are the predictions given by Cheryl Lynn and stolen by Brian Carn:

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Cheryl Lynn (Predicted February 8, 2014, published on YouTube March 29, 2014)

1. Worldwide Pork Contamination

2. The rise of George P. Bush, the death of George H.W. Bush and Jeb Bush taking control of the family.

3. Extreme weather hitting the east coast, many power outrages, Wildfires in California, The houses fall in Boca Raton, FL.

4. Medical breakthroughs for Aids, MS and infertiliy for woman 30+

5. The feminization of men and women become more masculine

6. Gay marriage will flourish, heterosexual will decline

7. Health scare for the Pope and dark Pope after.

8. China, Japan and India lots violence

9. The mental decline of Kanye West, Miley Cyrus poses nude

10. The Tonight Show being successful

11. Vince Vaughn declines in comedy and increases in drama

12. Elton John ulcers

13. Jennifer Aniston flatlines

14. Johnny Depp raises again

15. No Middle East peace for Americans

16. Cyber attacks, school shootings and terrorist in Virginia and Connecticut

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Brian Carn (predicted on December 31, 2014 or January 1, 2015, Earliest publishing on YouTube January 6, 2015)

1. The Lord said Dangerous to eat pork

2. The Lord said George P Bush rise to power and George Sr. dies

3. East Coast a lot of storms and POWER OUTRAGES, houses FALL in BOCA RATON, a lot of FIRES in California

4. The Feminist movement will come forth, the homosexual agenda will FLOURISH

5. He [Lord] told me, HEALTH SCARE for the Pope. The Lord said the NEXT pope will be DARK.

6. Three countries to watch: CHINA, JAPAN, AND INDIA.

7. Bad vision (from God) that Kanye West loses his mind, and Kim and Kanye will break up. God Hand is on Kanye’s life.

8. There will no PEACE in the MIDDLE EAST

9. A lot of violent school shooting and cyber attacks GOING BACK TO CASH.

Terrorist group in VIRGINIA OR CONNECTICUT. The Spirit told him they were just gathering right now.

10. Plane crash around Ukraine and Russia

11. The Lord said pray for Kenya and Poland pronounced ‘Pahlind’

12. A major preacher going to have stroke. It is judgment.

As one can see in the videos, Carn used nine of the predictions given by Cheryl Lynn. And all nine predictions were given in the same sequence. Within the sequence, the same wording was used (in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS). The only real deviation in the predictions was about Kanye West. He stated that his marriage to Kim Kardashian would end. Also, it appears the “Lord” catered His word to that audience. Its interesting that Carn omits the predictions about the white celebrities. As if the congregation doesn’t care about Miley Cyrus, Elton John, Vince Vaughn, Jimmy Fallon, Jay Leno, Johnny Depp and Jennifer Aniston.

Carn has boldly denied these allegations. “I don’t follow witches… witches follow me.” He has also justify how the coincidence could have occurred. But the holes in his argument are very huge. For instance, God give you and Cheryl Lynn the exact same predictions in the exact same order with very, very similar language. So his denial and explanations never passed the smell test.

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Now for a moment, let’s take Carn at his word. He received these predictions directly from God and Cheryl Lynn somehow magically tap into their conversation. From the nine predictions given by Cheryl Lynn and Brian Carn: Listed below are the ones that came to pass:

…

NOT A ONE! There was no worldwide pork contamination, George P. Bush did not rise, George H. W. Bush is still alive as of this writing. There were no massive storms that hit the east coast; the houses did not fall in Boca Raton, FL. There was no health scare for the Pope. There was no terrorist attack out of Virginia or Connecticut. Finally, China, Japan, and India did not have any major reportable violence in 2015.

If you want to challenge me on the other predictions well they still don’t pass the measuring stick as well. The feminism movement and the homosexual agenda has steadily gained momentum since the 1960’s. By the time ofthese predictions were given, the case allowing gay marriage was already on the docket of the US Supreme Court.

There are ALWAYS FIRES IN CALIFORNIA. It doesn’t take a psychic or a prophet to predict that California will have more fires. That information is readily available to anyone. With a quick Google search you can find that CA is in a severe drought and you can draw this conclusion: less water = more fires.

More than likely, everyone reading this post has NEVER known a time that there was PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. In our lifetimes, there has always been conflict in the region. So to predict that there will be no peace in the region is idiotic. Now what would be a bold prediction is to PREDICT PEACE in the region. Not even Cheryl Lynn or Brian Carn would be that bold to say anything like that. Nobody is that foolish.

If I was Carn, I would flat out repent. At least you can salvage your credibility. Also, he could spin this against the psychic. ‘Had I listened to God and not the psychic, I would be correct.’ However, Carn is playing the denial card. Truthfully, the black church is so forgiving that he could retreat somewhere for a few months, claim he rediscovered his anointing, and the church would welcome him back no questions asked.

Since he is continuing to use the denial card, he makes a mockery of God’s Name. By saying, “the Lord said,” when He didn’t say, presents God as a liar and void of His Word. How can anyone say they are believer in Christ and defend this man? Brian is openingly and defiantly mocking God at the expense of the believer. I personally believe that the Lord is sending his judgment against ‘Profit’ Carn. Possibly, the next wave of punishment could be Brian being the one stricken with a stroke, incapacitating him from preaching. Then maybe this prophecy will come to pass becoming a self-fulfilling one.

Brother Leonard The TruthSeeker

#melania trump #brian carn #false prophet #plagiarism #plagiarist #cheryl lynn #rnc2016

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Thrown Out Of Church And Into The Hospital

False Profit Brian Carn at New Life Evangelistic Center

July 17, 2016 JACKSONVILLE, FL.– If you are an avid reader of Pimppreacher.com, then you are very familiar with this commonly used phrase, “Touch not my anointed…” Typically, we hate it when people use this verse out of context. But for this particular story, I am specifically taking this verse out of context. Latiesha Brown, former girlfriend of Brian Carn, was recently accosted by his security team in a recent ‘One Night With The ‘Profit’,’ service at the New Life Evangelistic Center in Jacksonville, FL.

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Brown had originally approached me with her story about her relationship with Carn a few months ago. At that time, I believed it was not a story that we typically publish. We tend to focus on news issues on Pimppreacher.com. After listening to Ms. Brown tell her story about her treatment by church security this past Monday, we need to address this situation. How can you demand that the ‘anointed’ shouldn’t be touch, yet you have three men strongarm and manhandle and woman and her seven-year-old daughter?

Brown told me that she went to confront Carn about a false prophecy he propheised to her that did not come to pass. Instead of listening to her, he told his security to “GET HER OUTTA HERE!” At his command, three men immediately grabbed Brown by her arms and dragged her out of the sanctuary. Brown then described how two other men then grabbed her daughter outside of the sanctuary.

Brown and her daughter went to a nearby hospital for their injuries. According to their hospital releases, they suffered multiple contusions, a strained neck at the hands of the security guards.

As of this writing, Ms. Brown has obtained legal counsel. They are currently exploring legal actions against Brian Carn, his security team, and the New Life Evangelistic Center.

This thug-like behavior is despicable. Having men putting their hands on a woman and child is just plain ugly. Carn should be ashamed to have cowardly men attacking this woman and her child. But what’s more appalling is the reaction of the audience. They literally cheered and went into a praise break because of this incident. HORRIBLE! How can any woman in that sanctuary be alright with watching three men manhandling a woman?

After I watched the video, I was sickened by the actions of the security thugs. But I was really heartbroken by the response of the congregation. This church has lost all its common sense and have condoned an assault in their presence. This proves that this institution of church have been brainwashed to protect only the leaders. She only spoke against Carn, but she received a trip to the emergency room. When does the anointed ever extend to the believer? So the next time the preacher tells you to tell your neighbor, “I’M ANOINTED AND HIGHLY FAVORED!” Think about Latiesha and her anointing being abused by Brian Carn and his so called security.

In the coming days, we will have a personal account of this story directly from Ms. Brown. We will have her tell story from the beginning. She is ready to expose the hypocrisy of Brian Carn and we are ready to hear her story.

Follow Pimppreacher.com for more updates. If you want to see a preview of what she is going to say watch this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/WTt-GZRkFII

Brother Leonard The TruthSeeker

#brian carn #false prophet #false prophecy

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pimppreacher · 8 years

Video

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As of the posting of this video, False Prophet E. Bernard Jordan is currently having a conference called ‘Prophecology.’ Jordan along with other false prophets are gathering in New York City to propagate their own form of blasphemy. But what many don’t know is that Jordan is currently selling his 2 million dollar parsonage and it selling for about 300,000 below its market value. So basically, Jordan is throwing a rent party to recoup his loses.

#e bernard jordan #false prophet #pimp preachers #prophecology

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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46 Year-Old Pastor Raymond Vincent Gets 10 Year-Old Girl Pregnant {Video}

PimpPreacher.com Marlene Taylor N.Y. Bureau 07/02/2016 A 46 Year-Old Pastor, Raymond Vincent Gets a 10 Year-Old Girl Pregnant Police Say.

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From Media 24 You Tube: Published on Jul 1, 2016FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Fort Lauderdale police say Raymond Vincent impregnated a 10-year-old girl earlier this year and then fled to Haiti.

COMMENTARY

Okay, first. I want to know...

Again, where are the mothers in these churches? What are they doing? Why are they so lax? We know this pastor is a pedophile. Yet, where were the women of the church that this man Raymond Vincent had access to a 10 year old girl? He was a youth pastor? Get rid of that position! 46-Year-Old Pastor gets 10 Year Old Girl Pregnant. Fort Lauderdale detectives from special victims unit met the girl at Broward Health Medical Center. This most certainly is not a pastor. By no mean! Police were asking anyone with information to call Detective Elijah Thomas at 954-828-6093.

Well, some people say they get depressed when they hear reports like this. But hopefully, you'll make sure that you're not one of those people that are afraid to confront your own pastor. Hopefully we're not among those people who hear rumors or see facts about sexual abuse in a church but claim we should just " Pray " . God is not taking care of what he put us down here to take care of. Sometimes " just praying " is an excuse for our own lack of courage and conviction. Sometimes we '' just pray '' because that's all we're willing to do and we don't care enough yet to act. I can tell you about times I was " just praying" about this or that for years and nothing happened. Nothing happened until I did something. If any man or woman is a suspected sexual molester in a church, call Child Protective Services IN ANY STATE until you reach someone... and let them INVESTIGATE. Mothers, fathers? Somebody make that call.

46-Year-Old Pastor_______ gets 10 Year Old Girl Pregnant ...

Think about it, any pastors name can be inserted in the blank space above.

Any pastor....It’s all very possible. What are you going to do to prevent a rape or impregnation of a minor in you’re church?

#molestation #child safety #Church Abuse #pastor rape #youth pastor #46 year old pastor impregnates #sexual assault

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Christian Author Mack Major Makes Ridiculous Claim: Says Female Masturbation Summons Demons {Video}

PimpPreacher.com Marlene Taylor N.Y. Bureau 6/25/2016 Christian author Mack Major makes a ridiculous claim. He says “ female masturbation summons demons “. What? Who is Mack Major? Why does he consider himself an expert on sexual matters in the Kingdom of God? Ladies, why do you trust him? Why would you engage Mack Major in any sexual conversations on his Facebook page? Where are these woman’s husbands?Why would single women give Mack Major their ear? This is the kind of thing that can happen in churches. Pastors will counsel a woman on sexual matters. Suddenly, the next scandal you hear is about how sister so and so is pregnant with the pastors child. Meanwhile, the pastor is already married. Maybe the sister is married and her husband was in the dark. Yet, one day he finds out that his wife is pregnant with the pastors child.

Yes, God cares about what we do with our bodies. But why do these freaky deak’ pastors and authors get in the mix? Our bodies don’t belong to them. The word of God does not say “ some were given the calling to become sex counselors “.

No wonder there’s so much sexual abuse and pastors who sleep with their members in these churches. We have pastors and people like Mack Major advising on sexual matters which the apostles never did. You will not find scripture where the apostles take on the role of sexual counselors.

Is there a book of the Bible on oral sex? Is there a book of the Bible dedicated to masturbating? Is there a book of the Bible that tells you the names and personalities of all the sex demons? No, there is not! Do you see the apostles in scripture writing and selling books on lawful and unlawful sex? Do we see the apostles in the New Testament going around writing and selling such books on sex demons ? Next thing you know they’re molesting some young boy or girl in their office, God has something to say about what we do with our bodies? Yes, he does. You and your husband can go to God in prayer concerning sexual matters.

The Bible is silent on advising married couples on oral sex and sexual positions. The Bible says nothing about sex demons and how they operate. If the Bible is silent then why is Mack Major or any pastor speaking? Why would anyone addressing grown adults on what to do with their private parts? Preaching the gospel is what we were called to do. So, why would any Christian take on the role of sex counselor? None of these pastors or Christian authors will confront their “ leaders “ on the sexual abuse of children inside the buildings. Hypocritical! Oh, but they have so much to say about what men and women should do in their bedrooms. Something is wrong! Mack Major can say all he wants to defend his actions. Mack Major can defend his position until the cows come home. His sexual abuse counseling “ ministry” is not supported by scripture.

Anyway, Mack Major can thank Young Turks for some free publicity. Mack Major has absolutely no biblical support for his ridiculous claims. NONE! Mack Major is making money from men and women who flock to hear his non-biblical dribble. He has a ready market just waiting to hear what he’ll say next. Here’s the deal: the Apostles never addressed topics like this. Obviously, Mack Major is nosy, has an obsession with sex and is swimming in waters that do not concern him. Even his name sounds suspect. Mack Majors? He sounds like a porn star.

The church is going to start being compared to radical Islam. Religious fanatics! First, we had pastors coming out after the Orlando shootings declaring God supports mass shootings of homosexuals. Now, we have someone named Mack Major with his religious, sexual obsessions fanaticism.

Young Turks did a video and commentary on Mack Major. Unfortunate! His ludicrous “ how to have Christian sex “ books are on sale now. Foolishness! The man is making money.

Mack Major says “ female masturbation summons demons “. Please! He has not one jot or tittle of scripture support for his claims. Oh, and male masturbation doesn't summon demons? Who knows what his thoughts are on that. I personally don’t care. When I have personal questions about sexual issues, I don’t go to pastors and I sure don’t seek out Mack Majors. Believe me, God answers prayer. We should know this.

Too bad Mack Major is getting so much publicity. He’s making the church look silly. Even the world knows that our calling is to preach the Gospel. Watch the video below of “ Young Turks”. Listen to their synopsis of Mack Major, and his ridiculous claim that female masturbation summons demons. The church system has a history of shaming women. Mack Major is on a mission to shame women even more. He’s not leaving the men out either. After all, he also feels qualified to tell men what to do with their sexual organs.Grown men will refuse to run behind Mack Major for sexual advice. Women with good sense wouldn’t give Mack Major the time of day.

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Mack Major has no biblical support for anything he claims. If married folks or singles need information on sex and God’s view please check your own Bibles. Go to God yourself in prayer and leave Mack Major in the dust.

Mack Major is trying to make a living off the backs of Christians.The Christian bedroom police are obsessed with everyone else’s sex life. That is all! We’re all adults. We don’t need pastors or anyone else snooping around in our bedrooms. We don’t need pastors, Mack Majors or anyone else advising us on sexual issues.

Mack Majors, has a lot of female fans on his Facebook page sucking up the manure. He has male fans too! Well, thank God the rest of us know better. In the black exploitation film " The Mack " pimps organize a team of women and quickly rise to prominence. Does Mack Majors have a lot of female supporters who buy his books?

Christian Author Says Female Masturbation Summons Demons? Well, obviously Mack Major writes on topics that also pertain to women.

Some points to think about concerning any claim Mack Major made or may make in the future concerning demons. lust and other topics:

First, lust is not a demon and neither is sex. These are our OWN feelings, our OWN desires. No wonder church members are always making excuses in church when somebody gets pregnant by the pastor. People think a " sex " demon came along and forced the pastors into sleeping with a member or sexually molesting a child, It wasn't pastors fault it was a " sex " demon. Meanwhile pastor got carried away with his OWN lusts.We can get carried away with our own lust! Sex demons have nothing to do with the works of our OWN flesh. Galatians 5:19-21

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Can someone give me the book, chapter and verse explaining sex demons and how to invite them? Yes, thanks. I'm also inquiring about the three or more scripture references that clarify and explain the sex demons. Welp, there are none! Because Jesus gave us several examples of casting out demons in the Bible. Let's study those scriptures we do have. Also, the apostle never got all nosy and all up in a married couples sex life.

They gave no books like ” The Book of Sex Demons “ or “ The Book of Oral Sex “, or “ The Book of Masturbation “. They did preach the Gospel though. I suppose they believed that adults with any questions could certainly go to God with those questions. The Bible lists spirits and give names for those spirits that can afflict. The sex demon is not listed. Sex is not a demon and let’s take responsibility for our own lusts and desires. No, the devil did not make you do it, you did that on your own. We all make choices. If we would just study the scriptures that were ALREADY given we’ll find a lot of insight on demons, demon possessions and how the works of our own flesh drag us into sin. Every sin we commit is not the work of demons. Let’s not act like EVERY move we make is controlled by demons. Anyway, some people aren’t satisfied with what scripture already said, they have itching ears and seek much more.

#mack major #female masturbation #Church Abuse #domestic violence #female masturbation summons demons #huffington post

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Fort Worth Pastor Praising Orlando Shooting Deaths Does Not Represent the Gospel: Churches Are Praying for Families And Survivors {Video}

PimpPreacher.com Marlene Taylor N.Y. Bureau 6/21/2016 The Fort Worth Texas pastor praising the Orlando Shooting Deaths does not represent the Gospel of Christ Jesus. You Tube message below:

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http://www.11alive.com/news/local/buford/satan-made-gays-church-sign-vandalized/250364895

https://youtu.be/HAkwUl77Oyo Miz Justice on Brian Carn Homosexuality Orlando Shootings

#fort worth pastor praising orlando shooting #pastor jiminez #westboro baptist church #hate speech #pulse shooting #pulse nightclub

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Pastor Sexual Relationships PreventionTips: Stop Hugging Up the Women in the Church! {Video}

PimpPreacher.com Marlene Taylor N.Y. Bureau 06/09/2016

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#pastor sexual relationship prevention tips #sexual relationships in church #sexual abuse #church abuse #child sexual abuse #Bishop Eddie Long

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Demoy Nash: Allowing Foxes in the Hen-house?

Pimppreacher.com 06/08/2016

YALLAHS, JAMAICA: Demoy Nash, a well-known Pentecostal minister, believes true forgiveness includes allowing people convicted of certain crimes to work in church positions where the offenses may be repeated.

According to Nash in a recent church service on the island nation, God is the one who adds to the church and people are not to stand in the way of God’s calling on someone’s life. To do so would mean “killing love and confession,” Nash declared. Nash even went so far as to share that a pedophile (in his/her past life) could become a Sunday school teacher, and a convicted thief may still be used of God to handle the church’s finances.

Reaction from church members throughout Jamaica has been mixed with a greater show of support for Nash. Various parishioners interviewed agreed the church has become judgmental and condemning, and doesn’t permit God to fully use people to their potential.

Commentary

Before going further in the commentary, let it be made clear the story originated in Jamaica. Laws and church policies may very well be different, and any readers who have a better understanding of that nation’s laws are welcome to share. In the United States, we have various laws and regulations that are designed with the intent of shielding organizations from shady characters entering the mix. For example, we have laws forbidding convicted pedophiles from having any access to children. This sounds cruel, but the seriousness of the crime must be recognized along with the fact many pedophiles repeat their crimes. Handling finances is another example. It takes a high degree of trust to place someone in charge of a treasury. The temptation to misuse and steal is high, and a system of accountability must be enforced to preserve the integrity of the funds. Case in point: who today in his right mind would allow Bernie Madoff to handle their investments? The broker embezzled billions of dollars from clients and is reaping the rotten fruit of his labor in prison.

The Bible teaches that one reaps what he sows. Sometimes a man or woman will still pay the consequences of their past lives after receiving Jesus simply because of the law and penalties for violation. Nash’s comments are scary because he encourages accountability and discernment to be tossed aside in the name of “love and confession,” inviting the fox to enter the hen-house. We who have God’s spirit in us have a duty to protect others, especially children, from these wolves!

Help stop pulpit predators – like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Source: Jamaica Gleaner website

#demoy nash #pedophiles #thieves #jamaica

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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JAMES FORTUNE WANTS TO TEACH US ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE!! [VIDEO]

Pimppreacher.com 05/11/2016

James Fortune took to Periscope yesterday to let us know he will not be silent on domestic violence anymore. He is getting so much information about what he is learning in DV Rehab, that he wants to share what he is learning with the world. Sir, what?

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You all can see the video for yourself. However, instead of listening to what he learned in Domestic Violence Rehab School, let’s not be distracted about the real issue here: James Fortune himself and his conduct that appears sociopathic. He’s not doing any of this because he admitted he has a problem and volunteered to seek help. All this attendance is most likely court-ordered. Now I can give him credit if I thought he was really learning something. But that remains to be seen until we see his life break the pattern of being a repeat offender. You can’t be in the Rehab and then want to teach people at the same time talking about “helping somebody”.

But I refuse to spend any more time in breaking down this video because it is nothing but a red herring because he has taken a big hit in his career. And instead of him getting a real job, he insists on continuing his “gospel music” profession. Instead, let us examine the traits of a Sociopath to make sure we are not being deceived.

Psychology Today states there are ways to “Spot a Sociopath”:

· Superficial charm and good intelligence

· Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking

· Absence of nervousness or neurotic manifestations

· Unreliability

· Untruthfulness and insincerity

· Lack of remorse and shame

· Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior

· Poor judgment and failure to learn by experience

· Pathologic egocentricity and incapacity for love

· General poverty in major affective reactions

· Specific loss of insight

· Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations

· Fantastic and uninviting behavior with alcohol and sometimes without

· Suicide threats rarely carried out

· Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated

· Failure to follow any life plan

I am not going to say anything else except that church leaders are failing in a big way by not speaking about these topics themselves at leadership conferences. But I digress. Can I give him the benefit of the doubt? Perhaps. But that takes TIME. There has to be a pattern of peace and a pattern of atonement. What has he done to help his stepson that has needed skin grafts because of his abuse? Why can’t he admit what he did to his wife and take full responsibility?

I call hogwash on this video, but yall keep on trying to restore James Fortune to fame. Only Jesus can do this if only he would just submit and SIT DOWN SOMEWHERE!!

UGH!!,

Ms. Justice,

Churchfolk Revolution

#james fortune #stellar awards #dove awards #bet awards #james fortune and fiya #td jakes #mega fest #kirk franklin #donnie mcclurkin #yolanda adams #tasha cobbs #tina campbell #mary mary #the word network #TVOne #tbn #gospel music #fred hammond #domestic violence

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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EDDIE LONG RELEASING NEW PERSONAL BIO BOOK!!!

Pimppreacher.com 05/07/2016

Our Pimp Preacher Mascot, Eddie Long, has decided to write and release a new book called The Untold Story. His subtitle of Adversity, Pain and Resilience is simply bait. You can bet your bottom dollar he will not discuss his sexuality and his affinity for boys. He will not be disclosing his mastery of how to groom preteens and teen boys how to get into grown men. And still, it makes you wonder .... what WILL he say? This is one of the most calculating moves he has made in a while. Why do I say this?

Back in February, brows were raised when he was captured on video with this performance:

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Discussing it among my colleagues, we all agreed that he had some type of angle in this video, but we just couldn’t figure out why. We thought he was about to do something big though like launch some new ministry. Eddie does nothing like this without some type of strategy behind it. Well now we know -- he’s releasing a book he wants you to buy. Well I hope he addresses some key questions I have had for some time.

Question #1: Why do you refuse to repent?

Question #2: Why do you continue to wear that ridiculous New Birth Jewelry? Did it/does it give you super powers to carry on? Or are you holding on to an empire long past?

Question #3: Have you spoken to Centino since this whole scandal?

Question #4: Why didn’t you take an extended leave of absence afterwards?

Question #5: Who are you accountable to for checks and balances?

Question #6: Whatever happened to Renny McClean?

Question #7: Have you ever considered closing the doors?

Question #8: Why write this book now instead of five years ago?

Question #9: Do you ever visit your friend Ephren Taylor in jail?

Question #10: What are your desired outcomes with this book?

Just a sample list, but Eddie would never sit down for an interview unless they are puff-ball questions highlighting his feigned comeback. In short, I predict Eddie will attempt to re-paint himself through this book as a victim that overcame. But if he did not tell the truth, there is nothing to see here.

Ms. Justice,

Churchfolk Revolution

#eddie long #vanessa long #new birh missionary baptist church #elder bernard williams #centino kemp #false teacher #false prophet #td jakes #neil ellis #prophet bernard jordan #ephren taylor #renny mcclean #apostle maldonado

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Jack Schaap: Sued for Investment Fraud!

Pimppreacher.com 05/06/2016

HAMMOND, INDIANA: Jack Schaap, the disgraced former pastor of First Baptist Hammond, Indiana, has fallen even further from grace.

First, Schaap was removed as pastor and sentenced to 12 years in prison for sex crimes with an underage girl. Second, his wife Cindy divorced him. Now, Schaap has been named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit filed on May 5, 2016 by four former parishioners. They allege Schaap and one of the deacons were part of a Ponzi scheme, causing a loss of at least $400,000.

Deacon was one of Schaap’s cronies

(Kimmel is shown on the left being followed by his attorney after his conviction.)

Thomas Kimmel, the other defendant in the lawsuit, was hired by Schaap in 2006 to provide financial counseling for FBCH members. He even had an office at the church’s main campus in Hammond. Kimmel was a member of the Board of Deacons; he also served on Hyles-Anderson College’s Board of Directors. Hyles-Anderson College is located in Schererville, Indiana and is owned by FBCH.

The Claim

In the lawsuit filed at U.S. District Court in Hammond, the plaintiffs alleged Schaap encouraged parishioners to seek financial help with Kimmel, and specifically promoted investing in a company called Sure Line Acceptance Corporation. Kimmel was sentenced to 22 years in prison and ordered to pay $16.5 million in restitution for his role in the Ponzi scheme in 2014. Kimmel traveled across the USA for 20 years, holding conferences about “God’s Plan for His Money.” Kimmel would receive endorsements from church leaders including Schaap, who hired him full-time at FBCH.

Commentary

When churches get involved in matters like personal investing, the unsuspecting parishioners think they’re getting a good deal because they are working in the framework of the ministry. Unfortunately, as we see way too often, church leaders become greedy and use this as an opportunity to fleece the flock even further. Kimmel’s victims lost college funds and retirement savings because of his scams. They were left penniless. One can only hope some justice will be served and more victims will be able to recoup their losses.

Help stop pulpit predators – like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Source: Chicago Tribune website Source: Raleigh News & Observer website

#Jack Schaap #Thomas Kimmel #first baptist church hammond indiana #ponzi scheme

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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PASTORS WHO DUMPED THEIR “FIRST LADY” FOR UPGRADES

Pimppreacher.com

Divorce happens -- even to pastors. This is life. But what happens when the pastor gets rid of the old wife only to pursue another woman? This happens more often than we think. Not only is the family devastated but church is often in the awkward position to choose sides between the woman they knew as “First Lady” and the “Man of God”. Nine times out of ten, the pastor is still embraced while the wife, now EX, is cut off from the support of the congregation altogether. Take this Jerk above for example: Higher Living Christian Church’s Pimp Andre Landers, who recently announced to the congregation that he and his wife (that has struggled with cancer) were divorcing. This he did, without even notifying his wife. Please see below the post she made about it on April 23:

Kim Landers, the now Ex-Wife of Pimp Andre, recently survived a double-mastectomy. Compounded with this, she had to go through the scandal of her husband deciding to be with another woman in front of the whole congregation. Simultaneously, Pimp Andre announced on Facebook he was already in a new relationship:

Except for Ira, look at all the church folk that are congratulating him on this madness. Terrible.

Pimp Andre was also spotted by a witness at Saks Fifth Avenue in Atlanta shopping with his new girlfriend yesterday in the middle of the afternoon before driving away in his new Corvette. When I asked the witness how this could be in the middle of the day, and he said they both “work” at the church. So much for full-time ministry.

There are plenty of Pimps that came before Andre that paved the way with this behavior including Clarence McClendon and Israel Houghton in recent memory.

But this Andre guy is supposed to be a pastor? First Lady Landers was cast aside without a thought or a goodbye to her church family. It appears she will be replaced soon and we, the Body, don’t have sense enough to ask questions or rebuke him. If Pimp Andre was going to do this he should have also resigned his position to live his new life. Jesus didn’t sign off on this, but we as church people do. We celebrate this dysfunction while locking out the first, First Lady. Andre is obviously not ashamed. But we should be for ignoring our responsibility to protect the widows and orphans.

Wishing Lady Kim Landers all the Best,

Ms. Justice

P.S. Let us know if we can be of any more assistance to you.

#pastor andre landers #higher living christian church #new birth missionary baptist church #eddie long #kim landers #cogic #pimp preacher #clarence mcclendon #israel houghton #lakewood church #joel olsteen #john gray #jamal bryant #bishop george bloomer #the word network #tbn

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Mercy Ministries Exposed: Nancy Alcorn’s Juvenile Prison Style Homes for the Mentally Ill? {Video}

PimpPreacher.com Marlene Taylor N.Y. Bureau 5/05/2016

Mercy Ministries known as Mercy Ministries Multiplied operates several treatment centers for mentally ill clients. These are live-in treatment centers operated by people claiming to be Christian. Obviously, this organization is having a few issues that they’re unwilling to address. Mercy Ministry Survivors have been forced to turn to the open ears of the web for support and comfort. Since 2008, survivors have been telling their personal stories about spiritual abuse at Mercy Ministries.

Apparently, none of the complaints by Mercy Ministry survivors have been heard by anyone from this organization. I don’t know where Nancy Alcorn is but she ought to attend to these complaints. Nancy Alcorn is the CEO of Mercy Ministries. Every leader I know is willing to hear and attend to the people they serve. When we’re interested in serving to the best of our abilities, we listen to both praise and complaints.

Why do we do this? We do this because the core of our intention is to both serve and improve our programs and services. Yet, Mercy Ministries refuses to even post a social media response to those complaining. How odd for a group that claims to love people. How odd! I caught up with another Mercy Ministries survivor. I asked them what it was like living in a “ Christian “ treatment center for those suffering from mental illness.

As you listen to their survivor story, you’ll see that Mercy Ministries Treatment centers are run like juvenile prison homes . What’s the connection? Why is a residential treatment center for people suffering from mental illness run like a juvenile prison home? Why is this important? It’s important because Nancy Alcorn the CEO of Mercy Ministries once worked in a juvenile prison home. She apparently picked up some of the rougher and more loveless techniques for handling broken people. When you listen to all the Mercy Ministries Survivor stories, you’ll understand what I mean. I think it’s time for Mercy Ministries to be investigated, don’t you?

Do people with mental illness have a criminal mentality? Are people with mental illness liars, thieves, robbers and murderers? Are all mentally ill people law breakers with a history of gang membership?

Before you read the testimony from a Mercy Ministry survivor, I’ll let Nancy herself tell you about her job with the government, working with girls in juvenile prison homes. Listen as she tells you how she came up with her programs for the mentally ill. Please see the video below:

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Did you listen? Obviously, Nancy Alcorn’s juvenile prison home model for helping people with mental illness can’t work. After all, having a mental illness is not a crime. Read the survivor testimonies including the one below. You’ll see that Nancy Alcorn and her Mercy Ministry staff are behaving like prison wardens in their treatment of the mentally ill. Mercy Survivors have been complaining since 2008 about being prevented from taking their medication because some staff member wants to force them to trust God. Mercy Ministries Survivors have been complaining for years about the punishments they receive for breaking “ rules”.

Plus, more and more complaints from Mercy Survivors paint a story of abuse and all types of forced actions against them. We simply can not force anyone to trust God while forgoing medications. Mode of treatment is and should be left to freedom of choice. It is not a crime to have a mental illness. We can not punish people for having symptoms or relying on medications. People with mental illness should NOT be treated like criminals. IT’S JUST THAT SIMPLE!

Please continue and read the following testimony from a Mercy Ministries Survivor about her disturbing experiences at Mercy Ministries:

What was it like for you at Mercy Ministries? Did your condition become worst? What else can you tell me about the questionable activities and abuses of Mercy Ministries Multiplied?

FULL TESTIMONY from a Mercy Ministries Survivor Continued...

Absolutely 110%. Not only did my existing condition become worse, but I also developed new issues, and grappled with further layers of trauma and the impact of that. It's been 10 years since I graduated. It was not an easy road. I had a major breakdown in that time which took me a long time to recover from. I would not attribute that entirely to Mercy trauma but certainly a portion of it. I was less well adjusted coming out than when I went in, and less able to cope with the curve-balls of life.

10 years on, my life is in a fairly good place. I have been married 8 years, I have a baby now, I have a house, a well paid job. I am still impacted by my mental illness (bipolar disorder) which can mess with my ability to self care, but that is not something I attribute to Mercy Ministries.

Mercy Ministries did not give me bipolar disorder. But when an illness is poorly managed or not managed for a period of time, it can make things worse in the long run and worsen one's prognosis.

But again, I still would have had this illness with or without Mercy Ministries.

I’m still very affected by the trauma of the power dynamics and the different abuses I went through at Mercy Ministries. It's not an every day thing, but two or three times a year, something comes up in life, the sh*t that i guess happens to most people from time to time, people who are abusive or bullying or controlling or when I am a victim of an institution, I tend not to cope with it very well at all, it hits me pretty badly. I had a bad experience with a psychiatrist last year and am still pretty messed up over it. I think i would have coped less poorly had I had not gone through a similar kind of abuse at Mercy Ministries Multiplied.

Examples of punishments and discipline...

Punishments at Mercy Ministries could include writing scriptures that aligned with whatever staff told you. We could be forced to write a report along the same lines with supporting scriptures and often were. We were give extra chores (depending on severity of the offense, the chore could be quite a big one). We could be punished and put on a separation contract with another resident. We could be denied shopping trips, weekend leave and put on probation. We were being screamed into submission by program staff, counselors and program director’s. Lastly, punishment also included dismissal from Mercy Ministries.

And when you I say "rules". some were cut and dry and easily understood, and others could seem to be made up on the spot depending on the staff member, her mood, and whether or not she liked you. I remember a girl being reprimanded for coughing during class for example.

I was issued two written reports and i think a chore (scrubbing tiles around pool) for being "un-submissive", "unteachable" and having a "spirit of rebellion" for letting a new night staff member know that we normally went to bed half an hour later on weekends. The reason for me being in trouble kept changing between 3 different things - the way I said it was rude, the fact i said it at all was rude, or that I said "just to let you know" is rude.

I disagreed with all and that made me rebellious apparently. I was hauled into four different meetings with program staff where i was interrogated broken down, and screamed at by the program manager until I made a false confession of guilt.

Medications...

I was not on medications at the time. The only medications I remember taking at Mercy Ministries residential treatment was an occasional Panadol (which I did not pay for), and a Ventolin for asthma which I did pay for.

Tips for improving service to the mentally ill for churches and Mercy Ministries...

I think the church can sometimes be either ignorant of mental illness altogether and lack interest in what it is or in their understanding of Mental Illness. This can create a culture of disinterest or a culture of not talking about mental illness or acknowledging it is an important issue. Some churches and church leaders have over simplistic ideas (often well meaning) about mental illness and its causes (eg, this idea about some singular root cause that goes back to some traumatic childhood event. And of some church leaders and Christians believe that mental illness is the byproduct of somehow letting demons into your life.

Some churches think if you truly have Jesus or are truly filled with the Holy Spirit then should be no room for mental illness. Some churches and church leadership get filled o with hostility and judgment, or they can hear about a program like Mercy Ministries and not pay attention to critical information, or first-hand testimonies available on the subject. They think it is somehow an attack on God's work if we critique a ministry.

I think the church could do better by discussing issues more openly and acknowledging mental illness from the pulpit. Leaders need to make direct and responsible statements on the matter, to correct poor attitudes and judgments toward the mentally ill in their congregation. Christian leaders need to attempt to understand the complexity of mental illness and medications. They need to dispel unhelpful and un-biblical myths, and do their due diligence before supporting/endorsing organisations like Mercy Ministries

Spiritually, I’m still a Christian, but my view of my faith has taken on a much different flavour. I feel less naive and more cynical than before Mercy Ministries. I’m still Christian but many Mercy Survivors are not. I can definitely understand why. It's a very difficult thing to salvage and separate from lies after an experience like Mercy Ministries.

if you asked me about my faith when I first left the program, I was still heavily brainwashed, very heavily conflicted. I felt like I was in two different minds and living two different realities that could not integrate with each other. One was what I knew at my gut and heart level, the whole time, the other is what had been imposed on me by Mercy Ministries and the fear and control and silence that was over me like a thick blanket, suffocating the other "me".

If i was asked at the time, I would have said there were no problems and no abuse. I would have said that I was the problem for rebelling. I would have also said that I deserved what I got, that it was the hand of God, that staff spoke and acted for God and they were my God ordained authority for that season of my life.

A while after, when I finally "came out" about all that happened and got some healing and perspective, I would have said the problem lied within the behavior of "a few bad eggs" (staff members) at the Sydney home.

When the articles came out in 2008 about the Australian abuse scandals, I realized that I was not the only one, it affected the other homes too. I would have told you the problem lied within the Australian off shoot of Mercy. I would have told you that this could never happen in the US homes. If it did, surely it would have been an exception.

Then I saw The Nashville Scene article about even more extreme things happening, including a psychotic girl who jumped two stories onto concrete and Nancy Alcorn(CEO) of Mercy Ministries tried to cover up and monitor phone calls. I almost didn't believe it, and I would not have, except that other things in their stories were so strikingly similar to the Australian homes. It was uncanny, down to the words staff used, that it could not be a mere coincidence.

Then I took over Mercy Survivors six years ago, and came across so many more stories. There were dozens of stories, particularly from the US homes, some stories going back to Mercy's early days in the 80s, and some stories involving direct personal involvement of Nancy Alcorn (CEO).

http://www.MercySurvivors.com

I was some what skeptical at first because i was programmed to think the best of Mercy Ministries and that anything that happened that i knew of must have been isolated events and a diversion from the true core of Mercy and what Nancy would have wanted.

And now... i know the truth. I know that Mercy is and always has been a corrupt organisation, and that the dysfunctional, authoritarian and abusive culture among staff (that filters down to the residents ultimately) stems from Nancy Alcorn.

Commentary: My name is Marlene Taylor. I have experience working and volunteering for an organization called NAMI, The National Alliance on Mental Illness. I know good and well that a treatment center for anyone with a mental illness should NOT be run like a juvenile prison home. The testimonies I share from Mercy Ministry Survivors literally break my heart. I have nothing to go by other then the tragic testimonies of those who’ve fortunately made their way out of Mercy Ministries. Nancy Alcorn (CEO) is not responding.

So, please tell me, what are we to do other than side with the survivors. Mercy Ministries and their supposed homes for the mentally ill need to be examined under a microscope and investigated. Surely this organization is not afraid to listen to the cries and complaints of those speaking out. After all, a leaders goal and intent of the heart always includes making room for improvement. By the mouths of many witnesses, Mercy Ministries stands accused? When will they answer? When? At this point, all I can do is recant the cries of those who survived. Shut down Mercy Ministries!

Signed,

Marlene Taylor

Church Folk Revolution

Pimp Preacher dot com.

#mercy ministries #mercy suvivors #mercy multiplied ministries mercy multiplied #nancy alcorn #shut down mercy

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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JAMAL BRYANT AND OTHERS GET NEW DAYTIME TALK SHOW ON FOX!!! [VIDEO]

Pimppreacher.com 05/02/2016

Who signed off on this? Somebody get Michael Scott:

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I just want to say this is most likely going to be a whole lot of horrible. No women. Just a whole lot of Church Disease DEFCON 5 with a half-teaspoon of scriptures. Please do not give advice about Beyonce, Politics, or other current events. I just cannot. And this is all I am going to say about this. I do have some hope that E. Dewey and Jamal will at least keep it interesting, but I can’t take it. But I guess we here at Pimppreacher.com along with others have created this monster. It premieres July 11 in New York and LA to start. Let the games begin.

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Yall Be Careful Out Here,

Ms. Justice

Churchfolk Revolution

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Mercy Ministries Exposed: Mercy Survivors Testimonies Part 1 {Video}

PimpPreacher.com Marlene Taylor N.Y. Bureau 5/02/2016

Mercy Ministries Exposed!

This is My INTERVIEW WITH ONE OF THE MERCY SURVIVORS. Alicia H spent almost five months living in a Mercy Ministries home in St. Louis, Missouri. The program is free! Alicia recounts some of her experiences. She also shares her testimony on You Tube with us. Mercy Ministries is a Christian, residential mental health treatment center based in Tennessee. They offer other services but this article keeps its focus on one of their mental health treatment centers. Complaints about this ministry have been coming in ever since 2008. The complaints have not been addressed by Nancy Alcorn, CEO of Mercy or any of her staff. This article will help you understand why survivors of Mercy Ministries need to be heard.

.Here’s the Mercy Ministries website if you need further information:

http://www.MercyMultiplied.com

And now, let’s hear from Alicia H about her experiences at Mercy:

1. Alicia, when did you live in one of the Mercy Ministries mental health treatment center homes? Alicia: Nov 2010-thru March 2011

2. Which facility? Did you live there? Alicia: St. Louis, Missouri

3. Were you prevented from taking medications?

Alicia: They changed my medications often without consulting my doctors at home. They made me see a doctor they picked. The doctor they picked did not take both of my insurances, They made me pay tons of out of pocket medical costs to try to get me off medication. They said I didn’t need medication. I was not allowed any privacy. Seeing a doctor there was confidentiality. Mercy Ministries(Mercy Multiplied) had my medications so messed up. I was a walking zombie.

I needed a cpap machine to sleep. My roommate often complained about the noise from it. So when certain a staff worked, I wasn't allowed to use it. Then when the nurse heard she always tried make it right but I lost sleep . I was not allowed to keep my inhalers with me for asthma. They were locked up, so my asthma was out of control. Mercy Ministries staff called it anxiety and accused me being an attention seeker.

4. I’m truly sorry to hear this Alicia. Were you isolated from family members? Alicia: I was not allowed to have communication with my family. They told me I had to cut ties. We even prayed to cut ties.

5. Were you told you had a demon? Alicia: Yes, on many occasions

6. Were you told that sin caused your illness? Alicia: They told me that the abuse from my childhood was my fault that unforgiveness was making me sick, I had already forgiven my family. They also told me the sins of my family cursed my health.

7. Did your symptoms become worse because of the abuse at Mercy Ministries? Alicia: My PTSD got worse. When I had flashbacks, Mercy Multiplied Ministries tried to make me feel shame and humiliation, They often said I didn't want to be in the program. Also, Mercy Ministries did things that were acts of public humiliation. This caused me more trauma.

My eating disorder got worse at Mercy Ministries. I went there due to extreme episodes of starvation. Then mercy continued to cause further harm with use of excessive exercise. They focused on my BMI as my worth. Public humiliation and much more made things worse. They caused me to have a lot of emotional damage that took a long time to undo.

8.Alicia, What is your life like now? Alicia:Well, I have finally recognized that God is not disgusted with me. After Mercy Multiplied Ministries, I lost a lot of friends, My social interactions are a challenge. It's hard to put words to what life is like for me today.. I have overcome a lot but my life is complicated. It's hard to explain!

9. Were you punished for breaking rules? Alicia: My counselor and the nutrition coach held private meetings with me. They told me that had extreme expectations. I got told a lot that I didn’t want to be in the program. They called secret meetings to humiliate me over health stuff I couldn’t control. I was mandated to take two showers a day. I had very extreme exercise plans. If I didn’t do what was asked of me,Mercy Ministry staff threatened probation or some extreme punishment.

10. How did you pay for medications at Mercy Ministries? Alicia: I had medicare part D insurance however they often filled my medications at out of network pharmacies. This cost me extreme amounts of money. They ignored my secondary insurance when something wasn’t covered by their pharmacy They made doctor change my medications to something else. Instead of finding a solution or letting me go with a pharmacy where my medications would be covered.

11. How do you think the church can better serve those with mental health issues? Alicia: Have compassion. Don’t judge and realize were all imperfect people in an imperfect world. Mercy Ministries needs to acknowledge that we all have hurts habits and hang ups.

12. Has your faith changed in any way because of the abuse you experienced at Mercy Ministries? Alicia: Well, I think my faith has been challenged. I know it challenges my career as an author. My silence has forced my creativity into the ground. It also caused me to mask a lot of how I truly feel about life and certain religious topics.

13.Mercy Survivors view this organization as an abusive Christian program. In your own words, where do you think Mercy Ministries went wrong? Alicia: I think Mercy Ministries started out okay but greed and deception got in the way, They put themselves on a pedestal and took God out of it. Mercy Multiplied Ministries cannot heal. They can act as a vehicle to help facilitate change. However, God is the ultimate healer. No one can claim to heal. Personally, it has to do with intimacy with God. The abuse happens because Mercy Ministries think they’re higher than God . When in fact they are not! When anyone has to bow to an authoritative figure like Mercy Ministries, it causes problems.

Mercy Ministries IS NOT God, They do not hold the golden ticket to healing. However, they are religious powerhouse that used fraud to work their way to the top manipulating other religious leaders to believe their lies. Plus, because they are backed by big names they can get away with this since the houses look so nice. After all, us Mercy Ministry girls, scrub the floors to make the houses we lived in look neat and tidy.The supporters don't see beyond the masks Mercy Ministries puts on. Abuse will not stop until crap is brought to the light .And the abuse might not stop, even then.

Speaking Out about Mercy Ministries by Alicia H on You Tube...

Dear reader, as you listen, please note that there is no bitterness or anger in this young woman’s voice. All I hear is a plea! Alicia H just wants to help others. She is encouraging us to call Mercy Ministries to account by speaking out. I believe we should do just that! What do you think?

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Please go to http://mercysurvivors.com for additional articles from Mercy Survivors.

Partial list of people listed on Mercy Ministries promotional materials as supporters include:

Dave Ramsey Financial Expert and Author of The Total Money Makeover

Sue Semrau Head Women’s Basketball Coach, Florida State University

CeCe Winans Grammy Award-Winning Recording Artist

Niki Taylor International Supermodel

Victoria Osteen Co-pastor, Lakewood Church

Joyce Meyers

#mercy ministries #mercy multiplied ministries mercy multiplied #mercy suvivors #shut down mercy #no mercy

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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Mercy Ministries Multiplied A Religious Cult Abusing Mentally Ill Members with State and Private Monies? Part 1 (Videos)

PimpPreacher.com Marlene Taylor N.Y. Bureau 04/28/2016- Mercy Ministries Multiplied and Nancy Alcorn...From Wikipedia: Since early 2008, Mercy Ministries have attracted considerable media attention in Australia, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom, drawing criticism of their employment of unqualified staff, overall medical negligence, and the use of demonic deliverance in their approach to treatment. Mercy Ministries also opened homes in St Louis, Missouri and Sacramento, California in 2005 and 2009 respectively, To date, Mercy Ministries has disclosed anticipated homes to be opened in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Los Angeles,Florida, Vietnam, Peru and South Africa according to Wikipedia and the Mercy Multiplied Ministries tour scheduling website:

http://mmoa.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=TourAHome

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Ministries

So, apparently even Wikipedia knows about the criticism Mercy Ministries has been receiving as late as TODAY. Mercy Ministries Multiplied has reports coming in all over the internet. This organization needs to be investigated. I'm hearing reports personally from those who have been crying out about the abuse and possible misuse of funds coming out of this so called Christian Ministry. What gives them the right or clearance to treats the mentally ill? Mercy Ministry Multiplied and Nancy Alcorn? Why have we been hearing so much about them since 2008? Why have they received so many complaints from X-members calling themselves Mercy Survivors? What is going on? Mercy Ministries recently changed their name to Mercy Ministries Multiplied. Why?

Mercy Ministries Survivor on Today Tonight: YouTube

I'm reporting as a concerned person who used to work with the mentally ill for an organization called NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness. What I’m hearing is horrendous. I’ve heard complaints from at least six people personally complaining to me. Unwanted exorcisms?

What is going on? We can’t “ gang rush “ people into deliverance. People have a right to medications. It’s their choice. At risk populations are to be protected from abuse. I think a representative from NAMI needs to go in and help Nancy Alcorn and Mercy Ministries follow humane protocol if the stories I’m hearing are true.

What is NAMI?

If the Bible is the book Mercy Ministries Multiplied and Nancy Alcorn (CEO) follow, God promises to hear the cries of those who cry out in Psalm 40: 1-3.

So, if God hears, answers and puts a new song in his children’s hearts, why is Mercy Ministries Multiplied ignoring the voices crying out? Some people aren’t crying out. OK! This is fine and good! But why is it that Nancy Alcorn of Mercy Ministries Multiplied is trying to hush up anyone who speaks about the inner workings and reported abuse at Mercy Ministries Multiplied? This is what I’m hearing. Could this be true?

Obviously, from all the survivor blogs on the net, we can see that something is amiss at Mercy Ministries Multiplied. And...quite a few people are not being heard. It’s now 2016. Bloggers have been crying out for seven years or more. When? When will Mercy Ministry Multiplied survivors be heard?

Mercy Ministries also opened homes in St Louis, Missouri and Sacramento, California in 2005 and 2009 respectively, To date, Mercy Ministries has disclosed anticipated homes to be opened in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Los Angeles,Florida, Vietnam, Peru and South Africa according to Wikipedia and the Mercy Multiplied Ministries tour scheduling website here:

http://mmoa.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=TourAHome

From what I hear, these poor people have been threatened and told if they dare report Nancy Alcorn, staff of Mercy Ministry or anyone working with this organization they will be sued. This, plain and simple is coersion and abuse. Is this what’s going on? Does Mercy Ministries have a silent gag order in place? Why are some Mercy Ministries Multiplied Survivors so afraid to speak out? Meanwhile, other Mercy Survivors are blogging daily through their tears? This is 2016 and I’d like to know when will Mercy Ministry survivors be heard. I’m pretty sure Jesus would like to know too. A lot of people would like to know because they’ve been hearing complaints about this ministry for years.

Nothing I'm saying here has not been recorded on the internet. Mercy Ministries Multiplied is known....Their actions are horrendous! In this day and age, I'm surprised that this type of archaic abuse is going on or being implied. I want to know the facts! Don’t you?

I have been told that clients with mental health issues are prevented from seeing family members at Mercy Ministries Multiplied. They are prevented from taking prescribed medications and told to trust by their faith.These infractions are both illegal and should in no shape or fashion be taking place. People have rights! Is Mercy Ministries taking tax payers dollars and private funding to do this? Is Mercy Ministries using medicaid monies to pay for medications?

Are they preventing clients from getting the help they request. If it’s Jesus Nancy Alcorn believe’s in, Jesus never forced anyone to do a thing. And what is Nancy Alcorn and Mercy Ministries afraid of? Why is it that members with complaints can go nowhere but to the internet? Perfect love casts out fear according to the scriptures Mercy Ministries Multiplied say they believe.

If it is Jesus Mercy Ministries and Nancy Alcorn believe in, Jesus never forced anyone to act a certain way or do a certain thing. If you're gay then it's your choice what you do. If you wish to take medication, then you have the right to that choice. Forced faith is no faith at all. Members at Mercy Ministries Multiplied can be denied medications? .... told to read scripture only. Punished for minor infractions?

Denied counseling when they need it in 2016? Forced to pay for services out of pocket when they have no money? Forced to live in host house, forced to adhere to every law in this place? Denied access to grief counseling when needed? Called devils, told they’re in sin? Told mental illness is a demon? Forced into beliefs and not given their civil right to choose what they will believe? What in the world am I hearing in 2016?

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These are the reports I'm getting. And what private or state organizations are supporting these horrific abuses? Who are these supporters? Why are these supporters not reading and paying attention to the slew of civil rights infraction reports splattered in articles all across the web. Why? Are the survivors of Mercy Ministries Multiplied not important enough to be heard?

Mercy Multiplied Ministries also opened homes in St Louis, Missouri and Sacramento, California in 2005 and 2009 respectively, To date, Mercy Ministries has disclosed anticipated homes to be opened in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Los Angeles,Florida, Vietnam, Peru and South Africa according to Wikipedia and the Mercy Multiplied Ministries tour scheduling website:

http://mmoa.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=TourAHome

Mercy Ministries Survivors You Tube 2015

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Obviously they need to be heard. Who? Who are these doctors I’m hearing about that are accepting state medicaid from these clients? Who are these doctors accepting any kind of funds/insurance, private or otherwise from Mercy Ministries Multiplied? When will we all get some clarity and confirmation regarding what we’ve been hearing?

Dehumanization of Mercy Ministries residents 2014

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I've worked in the mental health field. I know very well that one can not administer medication without the use of licensed counselors, doctors and proper government clearance. So, why? Why would I be hearing reports that counselors at Mercy Ministries live-in mental health treatment centers are administering medications without license? Without staff licenced in the mental health field. Do they talk about the world and dcotors in a negative light yet still, administer medication? If this is happening how is this happening? Why is it happening?

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So Mercy Ministries Multiplied and Nancy Alcorn (CEO) actually throw people out on the street who are suffering from Mercy Ministries Multiplied? Why? because they refuse to read scripture, refuse to have the faith these people demand? Oh no no no! By the blood of Jesus who shed his blood on Calvery we know right from wrong. Don’t we?

Attention Nancy Alcorn, CEO of Mercy Ministries Multiplied,

If there is any love, any concern for the rights of others, any compassion, any civil humanity within the ranks of Mercy Ministry Multiplied, why is Mercy Ministries Multiplied ignoring complaints? Why? Have you threatening to sue the Mercy Survivors doing the reporting? Why? Why the shut down of voices crying out to me and others across the web?

You have a history now, so you might as well openly address every cry you are hearing. What kind of leader refuses to hear the cries of those they lead? If I refuse to hear, if you refuse to hear and if anyone refuses to HEAR the cries of the poor or needy, what then? Proverb 21:13 is a lesson for us all that we can fall short of. But we do have chance to correct ourselves.

List of Mercy Ministry Multiplies Survivor Blogs, Complaints, cries, record of abuses, non-compliance etc. All recent, all tragic and all need to be heard, examined and investigated...

http://mercysurvivors.com/

The Dark Side of Mercy Ministries - Rewire

https://rewire.news/article/2012/02/21/dark-side-

https://unmaskedthehiddentruthbehindmercyministries.wordpress.com/

Mercy Ministries Multiplied CEO Nancy Alcorn

Mercy Ministries is a Nashville, Tennessee based group which was accused of misrepresenting their counseling and recovery services to ...

At Mercy Multiplied, troubled young women come to believe ...

www.slate.com/.../at_

Mercy Ministries Multiplied CEO Nancy Alcorn

_multiplied_troubled_young_women_c...

Slate4 days ago - Mercy Ministries, a network of in-patient facilities that treat young women with mental illness, addiction, and life trauma, and which has the ...

Shut Down Mercy Multiplied - Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/stop

Mercy Ministries Multiplied CEO Nancy Alcorn

On 22 September 2015, Mercy Ministries officially announced their name change on social media... The first thing you will notice is that Mercy Ministries (now .

Schedule a Tour - Mercy Ministries - Run for Mercy

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Schedule a Tour. If you are interested in touring either the Mercy Ministries Corporate Headquarters in Nashville, TN or one of our homes in Nashville, TN; ...

Mercy Ministry: So Horrific They Have A Survivor Network ...

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-so-horrific-they-have-a-survivor-...

Oct 26, 2015 - Mercy Ministries (now Mercy Multiplied) is leaving a trail of survivors now speaking out on the internet.

Mercy Ministries Multiplied CEO Nancy Alcorn

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pimppreacher · 8 years

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“The Mercy Girls “ {Video}

This investigative piece by Jennifer Miller was originally appeared as a cover story in Slate, and can be viewed here. It was republished on http://mercysurvivors.com/

These young women enrolled in an influential Christian counseling center for help. That’s not what they found.

1. “He grants sleep to those he loves”

Life wasn’t easy for Hayley Baker before the rages began, but it was tolerable. She attended a small Christian college near her home in Folsom, California, where she majored in architecture, studied astronomy in her spare time, played the harp, and taught herself to make sushi. But Hayley also suffered from major depression, social anxiety, occasional suicidal ideation, and an eating disorder. Doctors couldn’t agree on how to help her—since childhood, they’d cycled her through 15 different drugs—though most attributed her problems to childhood abuse. Caretakers had repeatedly molested her between the ages of 3 and 6, and she’d been humiliated at age 4 by a babysitter who tied her to a chair and taped her mouth shut while the sitter’s own kids ran around her in circles. Her anxiety became so extreme that she dropped out of school.

In her mid-20s, Hayley was diagnosed with a heart condition, which doctors told her was a side effect of her medications. But when she stopped taking the drugs, she lost control, punching walls and cutting herself out of frustration. Once, her mother became so frightened for her own safety that she called the police. Hayley spent the night in the psychiatric ward. Meanwhile, the family could barely cover its expenses, let alone Hayley’s therapy. “It was a dark time,” she says.

Then, in 2009, something cut through the darkness like a signal fire. Mercy Ministries, a network of in-patient facilities that treat young women with mental illness, addiction, and life trauma, and which has the backing of some of the most prominent names in evangelical Christianity, was opening a new residence in Lincoln, California, close to Hayley’s home. Hayley knew about Mercy because a Christian band she liked, Point of Grace, supported the program. And she learned online that Mercy’s unusual fusion of biblically inspired healing and what it described on its website as “best-practice clinical interventions” could help hurting women like herself “break free from the destructive cycles controlling their lives.” Mercy’s literature boasted that its four U.S. residences were state-licensed and that 80 percent of its counselors had master’s degrees in psychology, social work, or a related field. Hayley’s family believed that the Lincoln home would provide her with a truly integrated approach to mental health—the secular and the spiritual. Best of all, Mercy was free.

Hayley, who is a devout Christian, believed God had answered her prayers. “I thought the new home was a sign,” she says. “I wanted to believe that God would make a change in me. I wanted it desperately.”

Like all new applicants, Hayley landed on a waitlist. She was instructed to read books by Mercy’s founder, Nancy Alcorn, and testimonials from Mercy graduates who had overcome all manner of mental illness and trauma. She discussed audio sermons and response papers over the phone with a Mercy intake representative. After seven months, Hayley’s acceptance letter finally arrived.

Compared to the tidy bungalow where Hayley lived with her mother, Mercy’s sprawling, light-filled facility was magnificent. On the first day, the staff was every bit as welcoming as Mercy’s literature had promised. But that night, alone in a strange dorm room, Hayley roiled with panic. She asked attendants for her prescription Xanax but says they refused. Instead, they offered to pray with her and gave her a sheet of paper titled “Peaceful Sleep,” with a bolded line from Psalm 127:2: “He grants sleep to those he loves.” Hayley tried to pray, but sleep didn’t come. For the rest of the night, she lay awake, still panicking, wondering if God had abandoned her.

Over her seven months at Mercy, Hayley says staff often denied her requests for Xanax, instead emphasizing prayer as a better way to treat the panic attacks. She also says she was punished with extra reading and chores for infractions as minor as sharing her CD player. When her brother died unexpectedly a month into her stay, Mercy didn’t bring in the certified grief counselor that her parents had requested, she says. According to Hayley, Mercy staff unswervingly held her and others to a one-size-fits-all counseling curriculum. Six years after leaving Mercy, Hayley continues to wrestle with mental illness.

Mercy—which, after 32 years of operating as Mercy Ministries, rebranded as Mercy Multiplied this past October—touts that upward of 3,000 women have come to one of its centers somehow broken and left feeling whole. Hayley desperately wanted to be one of them. Instead she says she encountered a program that demanded total submission to its methods and to God. It was, and is, a place that treats the devil as something frighteningly real—the kind of approach that may work for many residents but overwhelms others with guilt and fear.

In a larger sense, Mercy illustrates what happens when a hard-line, religiously oriented organization inserts itself into a gaping hole in the United States’ mental heath system. Because organizations like Mercy are barely subject to government oversight, it’s likely not an anomaly.

For all these reasons, Hayley and others want to drag Mercy’s transgressions into the light. In the years since her time at the Lincoln facility, Hayley has connected with a group of Mercy alumnae, their families, and former staff. They call themselves the ��Mercy Survivors,” and since 2009 they have communicated through two private email lists. The 14 former residents and five families I interviewed for this story—all members of those lists—say that Mercy emphasizes faith healing, despite marketing language that suggests a strong embrace of scientifically based treatments. They say the program pressures, guilts, and spiritually manipulates residents into following a counseling model that treats every problem, from anorexia to childhood abuse, the exact same way. They say Mercy staff’s lack of formal clinical training puts mentally ill or traumatized clients at greater psychological risk, even pushing them deeper into depression and addiction. Some say that under the guidance of their counselors, several Mercy residents falsely accused their families of horrific abuse. Parents have watched their daughters vanish from their lives after exiting the program, in some cases without any explanation.

These accusations shouldn’t damn all religiously based therapy. Academics in psychiatry, neuroscience, and biomedical ethics acknowledge that purely secular mental health approaches may have little success with devout patients. The fusion of secular and spiritual interventions has been shown to succeed where the former alone has failed, sparking a debate among mental health professionals over the most effective ways to combine the two. Proponents of such joint approaches are now actively trying to bridge the wide historical gap between the secular mental health community and the church.

At the same time, the booming field of strictly Christian counseling is almost entirely unregulated by the medical and psychological establishments, in part due to a lack of consensus among Christians about what “Christian counseling” should look like. It is here that a program like Mercy can flourish, by harnessing Christian skepticism of the country’s secular mental health system while simultaneously taking advantage of that system’s language and regulatory holes.

Hayley Baker and the other Mercy Survivors did not understand that impersonal medical bureaucracy offers certain standards and protections that a religious organization lacks. What they saw was an organization that claimed to be an engine of God and that would heal them.

2. “Jesus did not say to medicate a demon”

With its purported emphasis on clinical best practices, Mercy plays both sides of a tension within modern psychiatric practice that stretches back to its roots. The first psychiatric communities were church-based—the Catholic Church provided unprecedented care for the mentally ill in 14th-century Geel, Belgium, and 19th-century Quakers started America’s first psychiatric facilities. But the “fathers of psychology,” like Sigmund Freud, Ivan Pavlov, and Erich Fromm, were atheists. “Many saw faith as mental illness,” says Matthew Stanford, a Baylor University psychologist who studies the fusion of secular medicine and religious belief, as well as CEO of the Hope and Healing Center in Houston. “Freud thought religion was neurosis.”

Meanwhile, some faithful were angered by the growing popularity of psychotherapy and believed that proponents of psychopharmacological treatment were playing God. This response crystallized in the 1970s with the Biblical Counseling Movement, founded by Jay Adams, a Presbyterian pastor who believed mental illness was a sign of spiritual and moral corruption. Mercy doesn’t fit squarely in the Biblical Counseling camp, but at least some of the time, it channels the movement’s suspicions of mainstream care. When Mercy’s leaders speak to mainline Christians, they present themselves as “integrationists” in favor of fusing spiritual and secular health interventions. But when Mercy’s founder, Nancy Alcorn, addresses a more conservative audience, she offers an entirely different message.

Alcorn became born again as a young woman, after injuries ended her dream of playing college basketball. She went on to work as an athletic director for at-risk youth at the Tennessee Department of Corrections and in the Emergency Child Protective Services unit at Nashville’s Department of Children’s Services. But in 1983, she claims in her writings, God told her that if she committed to healing troubled girls free of charge and without government funding, then he would personally set up “divine connections” to help her succeed. The first Mercy home opened in Monroe, Louisiana, that same year.

Divine or not, those connections have grown Mercy’s operating budget to $8.5 million (and Alcorn’s salary to $242,598 as of 2014, according to tax documents). Its funding stems from churches nationwide and wealthy Christian power players such as personal finance guru Dave Ramsey, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, Grammy-winning gospel singer CeCe Winans, and Los Angeles Rams coach Jeff Fisher, who donates annually to Mercy through a celebrity softball game fundraiser. Popular Charismatic Christian movement evangelist Joyce Meyer has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mercy and helped open the program’s residence outside St. Louis. Mercy runs four homes in the United States (three solely for adults and one that also houses pregnant teens) and has affiliates in Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. It has also purchased land in North Carolina and Florida for more homes. (Alcorn declined to be interviewed for this article.)

The 61-year-old Alcorn resembles a smoothly preserved woman of about 45, her cornsilk hair and tanned skin as flawless as her favored leather jackets and vests, her friendly twang and photogenic smile masking the fierce intensity of her faith. She believes that mainstream programs like the ones she used to administer don’t address the generational patterns and underlying traumas that make young adults unstable. “In secular treatment, the focus is on changing behavior, which is temporary and gives surface results,” she writes in her book Ditch the Baggage, Change Your Life. “Behavior modification is not the answer. It offers no heart change.”

The seven-part counseling model Alcorn created was originally called Restoring the Foundations. It leads residents through steps including choosing to forgive one’s abusers, eradicating negative self-perceptions, and overcoming toxic behaviors that Alcorn believed passed spiritually through the family line. Through Jesus Christ, Alcorn writes, women can overcome oppressive forces in their lives, which she describes as the schemes and deceptions of the “enemy.”

Mercy doesn’t require its counselors to be licensed mental health practitioners, which Christy Singleton, Mercy’s executive director, confirmed in an email. Moreover, Mercy’s licensed counselors or those in training are forbidden to practice psychotherapy, alleges one former counselor who worked for the organization between 2011 and 2012. “They say they do clinical interventions, but I wasn’t allowed to use my clinical experience,” she says. (She requested anonymity so as not to jeopardize her current employment as a secular psychologist.) Instead, the counselor said, executives in Nashville instructed her to walk each woman through the same seven-step counseling model and assign a prescribed regimen of readings, response papers, and audio sermons, which residents were meant to complete as homework before their weekly one-on-one counseling sessions.

Alcorn doesn’t describe the doctrinal origins of Mercy’s counseling in her writings, but Stanford says the Mercy model appears to combine two religious philosophies, Theophostic Prayer Ministry and Restoring the Foundations Ministry. (Alcorn’s original counseling model and RTF Ministry share a name and are similar but not identical.) Both are rooted in the Charismatic Christian movement, which believes in spiritual warfare, the gifts and healing powers of the Holy Spirit, prophesy, the laying of hands to anoint or empower an ailing individual, and salvation from demonic forces through deliverance. “We’re talking about demons in the literal sense,” says Stanford. “[Practitioners might say] ‘You have a spirit of depression,’ meaning an actual demon is causing you to be depressed. Or you could be experiencing depression because generations ago in your family, someone gave an opening for the demonic.”

Multiple former Mercy residents told me that staff members shouted at demons to flee their bodies. Bethany M., a 2007 resident of Mercy’s St. Louis home (who asked that Slate withhold her last name due to privacy concerns) says staff threatened to expel her from the program if she didn’t let a visiting evangelist lay hands and prophesy over her during a sermon. When mononucleosis swept through the Lincoln home, Hayley says staff blamed the outbreak on evil spirits and asked the residents to walk through the halls calling for the spirits’ banishment.

Mercy’s public statements on demons are inconsistent. Its website states that the group does“not perform or endorse exorcisms.” And Singleton says Mercy neither emphasizes Charismatic teachings nor mandates the laying of hands on residents. The enemy, she says, isn’t some evil force “but the lies we tell ourselves.” Yet in a 2008 speech at the Capital Christian Center in Sacramento, Alcorn said that Mercy “deals with areas of demonic oppression.” Then she laid out her feelings on the matter: “If there’s demonic activity, like if somebody has opened themselves up to the spirit of lust or pornography or lots of promiscuous sexual activity, then we’ve opened the door for demonic powers. And secular psychiatrists want to medicate things like that, but Jesus did not say to medicate a demon. He said to cast them out. And that’s supposed to be a part of normal Christianity.”

2-10-08 Nancy Alcorn of Mercy Ministries

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Today, the sixth step in Alcorn’s seven-step counseling model is called Freedom From Oppression—but before 2009, it was called “Demonic Oppression,” according to three former residents. Mercy changed the name shortly after administrators at Mercy-branded facilities in Australia were found to have stolen residents’ welfare checks and local papers reported that employees at these homes were practicing exorcisms. Sarah Grech, a co-manager of the Mercy Survivor network, who lived in Mercy’s Sydney home in 2006, knew of girls “who were kind of pounced on without notice, being held down to the floor, with staff screaming at the girl saying ‘shut up!’ when she tried to speak or protest because that was seen as a demon speaking.”

After Australian authorities shut down the country’s two residences, Alcorn said that Mercy had no direct relationship with those facilities. Yet Charisma magazine, a leading publication of the Charismatic movement, reported that Alcorn visited Mercy’s Australian homes 22 times between 2001 and 2004.

Why would Mercy publicly distance itself from a form of treatment it appears to believe in? Candy Brown, a professor of religious studies at Indiana University, speculates that the organization downplays its Charismatic influences because such things might make mainstream Christians—men such as Gov. Haslam and Coach Fisher—uncomfortable. “Anytime you’re talking about the demonic or deliverance, it’s very controversial,” she says. “And if a group is trying to solicit donations from a broad spectrum of evangelicals, they wouldn’t want to advertise that.”

3. “The choice is yours“

With its lofty ceilings and ski-lodge stonework, Mercy’s 22,000-square-foot Lincoln home, located about 30 miles north of Sacramento, has the look and feel of a vacation retreat. When I visited in November 2013, residents in their late teens and 20s were sprawled around the premises on couches and armchairs. They read from assigned books and listened to sermons on portable CD players. Multiple times a week, they also worked out at a local gym, took classes on money management and nutrition, or studied for their GEDs. They cooked communal meals, cleaned their bathrooms, and did laundry. They bunked two to a room and were allowed to call home once a week, on Sunday.

During my tour, the staff repeatedly stressed that residents knew they had signed up for a biblically based counseling program. “The last thing we want is for women to be surprised,” said Singleton, who had flown in from Mercy’s Nashville headquarters to meet me. “It’s assumed that people who are coming to Mercy know that ‘best-practice clinical interventions’ really means Christian counseling.”

But even within the religious community, “Christian counseling” can mean just about anything. It could range from “didactic Bible-oriented counseling”—that is, treatment hostile to secular medicine—to psychotherapy that’s simply “informed by Christian values,” says John Peteet, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. There’s no agreed-upon definition, whereas clinical interventions andprofessional counseling staff have very strict meanings. “From a professional ethics perspective, what’s on [Mercy’s] website is deceptive,” says Baylor’s Stanford, a devout Christian, who himself believes in the healing power of prayer and the existence of demonic forces. Because Mercy doesn’t actually require its counseling staff to be licensed, they’re not subject to state-administered standards of clinical knowledge, a minimum number of training hours, or legal oversight. That, says Stanford, means “they’ve overstepped their bounds.”

As members of the Mercy Survivors group tell it, much of Mercy’s Christian counseling methods did indeed come as a surprise. Hayley was particularly bothered by step five in the seven-step treatment. Here, a Mercy counselor asks a resident to recall a traumatic memory or to let Jesus reveal a moment of past trauma and then imagine that Christ is there, absolving her of any guilt related to the event. “I couldn’t make up Jesus saying something to me,” Hayley says. “I didn’t blame myself for the abuse.” Hayley says she appealed to her counselor, who replied, “This is what we need to do. This is the only way.” Week after week, Hayley repeated the exercise but to no avail. (Peteet, of Harvard Medical School, allows that some patients could benefit from this kind of visualization—“but if it’s being presented as the only way to go for everybody, that would concern me,” he says.)

Other women described feeling similar pressure to follow the counseling model or risk being called insubordinate. When Lily Mershon entered the Lincoln home in 2009 at age 23, she was anorexic, barely weighed 80 pounds, and had no health insurance. Because Mercy homes aren’t licensed by state departments of health, they can legally only accept people who are deemed medically stable. But Lily had convinced her doctor to sign off on the medical records, telling him that the program was her only option. Then, just after Lily was admitted, she realized that she had forgotten to bring her Adderall. The Mercy staff wouldn’t immediately connect her with a doctor and instead had her sign a form confirming that she’d willingly given up the pills. Lily soon decided she wanted to go home. “They prayed over me and put hands on me,” she says. “They made me feel like this was my only chance to live and if I left [early] there would be no more chances.” And so she stayed.

Whenever Lily brought up her anorexia, her counselor would say, “Have you prayed about it? Have you talked to God about it?” “And I thought maybe I’m the weird one for not having this open heart,” Lily says. In order to please her counselor, she began praying out loud and saying that God had spoken to her. The performance eventually felt real; it was, she says, “a slow brainwashing.” Mercy would later present Lily as a model of success in its promotional materials. Today Lily is married and has a young son but continues to struggle with anorexia and describes herself as emotionally broken. In fact, she’d purged daily while at Mercy and says her counselors never noticed. “I don’t trust people anymore,” she says. “I feel very empty inside. I’m trying to get better for my son.” (Asked about Hayley, Lily, and other former residents, Mercy declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing its clients.)

At Mercy’s St. Louis home, Bethany M. experienced a similar cycle. If she didn’t participate enough in group therapy, the staff reprimanded her, which pushed her to cut herself—the very reason she’d come to Mercy in the first place. After months of this, the staff discovered her cutting; Mercy was legally obligated to admit her to a state psychiatric facility, which it did. But upon release, Bethany begged Mercy to take her back—and the organization complied. “They made Mercy seem like God or even above God,” Bethany said. The way she’d come to see it, getting kicked out would mean that God had rejected her. But her cutting continued, and Mercy released her for good. “I felt like I’d lost my life,” she said. To fill the void, Bethany turned to drinking and drugs.

“The way the spiritual is executed is very abusive,” says the former Mercy counselor. “Taking women who have very severe mental health issues and saying they’re not choosing freedom when they’re not ‘healed’ in a certain period of time—it puts the problem back on the girls. And they’re already really broken and hurting.” She says women like Bethany who don’t graduate believe “it’s their fault,” and those like Hayley and Lily, who do graduate, “struggle because they’re supposed to be healed and they don’t know why they’re not.”

4. “The Lost Girls”

According to her parents, Ellen developed endometriosis at age 16. The painful disease required hormones, medications, and surgery and sent Ellen into a depression that a series of doctors were unable to cure. But at the age of 20, Ellen discovered Mercy Ministries and asked her parents if she could attend. She and her parents are devout Christians who believed Mercy would provide a valuable mix of spiritual guidance and mental health support from board-certified psychologists. Ellen applied in May 2010, arrived at the Lincoln home the following October, and graduated eight months later.

After Mercy, Ellen no longer seemed depressed, but she was acting strangely. One day she was affectionate with her parents; the next day she was reserved. Then she left their home in Elk Grove, California, moved in with a family friend, and sent her parents a letter that changed their lives. In it, Ellen described multiple ways in which her parents had abused her, including rape at her father’s hands and sex trafficking. “If any of this was true, we should be in jail. We should be hung,” says her mom, Sherry. Hearing this from her only child, Sherry says, “just broke me.” (No charges were ever filed. I spoke to Ellen’s parents, pastor, best friend, and the family she moved in with, all of whom affirm Sherry’s side of this story. Ellen, who has since changed her name, could not be reached for comment.)

Ellen’s parents begged for an explanation and finally received one. At Mercy, Ellen had met with her counselor and, as she described it, emptied herself before the Holy Spirit. “ ‘Whatever the Spirit told us, that’s what happened,’ ” Sherry recalls her daughter saying. “She called this event her ‘deliverance.’ ” Ellen and her parents met a few times after that but could never reach an understanding. In March 2012, Ellen sent her parents a note saying that she was leaving California and not to contact her again.

It’s nearly impossible to verify or disprove Ellen’s accusations, but the events described by her parents fit into a larger pattern that at least nine families of Mercy attendees have experienced: A young woman enters Mercy for issues unrelated to abuse and comes out accusing her family of horrific sexual violations. Of the nine families, seven have lost contact with their daughters.

Stories like this used to be common. In the 1990s, some psychiatrists used a treatment called recovered memory therapy, which encouraged patients to dig deep into their memories and find trauma that could explain their suffering. Instead, it led patients into their own imaginations; a wave of false memories of childhood abuse followed. Recovered memory therapy is now widely discredited.

The therapy isn’t mentioned anywhere in Mercy’s materials, and Singleton insists the organization has never used it. “Sadly,” she says, “our patients are often from fractured homes and challenging backgrounds and don’t need to be coerced to create accounts of heart-wrenching childhoods and upbringings.”

If that’s true, what explains these accusations and their striking similarities? It could be a confluence of factors, according to psychologists I asked about Mercy’s methods, and it may start with the organization’s emphasis on sexual abuse narratives. From the waiting list onward, women receive testimonials by Mercy girls who were molested, as well as books and sermons by author and speaker Meyer, who talks about being raped by her father. This focus on abuse stories—and the preaching of God’s power to heal such trauma—is central to Mercy’s counseling process, regardless of why a woman entered the program. This could create a culture of peer pressure, in which women feel they need to be saved from a sufficiently terrible event, psychologists say. A number of the women I interviewed describe an environment in which the more dramatic a woman’s graduation testimonial, the more she was considered the perfect “Mercy girl.”

“Any time there’s a power differential, therapeutic interventions are susceptible to manipulation,” says Keith Meador, the director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society and a professor of psychiatry and health policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “Secular or religious. That’s why it’s so important that there be systematic training, licensure, and regulation in any type of context of intervention.” Mercy survivors report feeling this power imbalance acutely—they came to believe that the staff spoke with God’s authority.

Affected families tell similar tales. One woman, Asja, went to the Lincoln home to work through complicated feelings about her childhood: Her father abused prescription drugs and alcohol, and her parents had split up. But after graduation, Asja cut ties with her family. Then, in a promotional Mercy article, she said God helped her overcome molestation at her mother’s hands. Asja’s sister, Danielle, theorizes that her sister had “heard a lot of bad stories and maybe [her accusations] were a way to fit in.” Another woman, Christina, went to Mercy’s California home in 2010 for an eating disorder. While there, she said she’d dreamed that her grandmother’s boyfriend had molested her. “Christina’s therapist told her that dreams were God’s way of showing hidden trauma,” her mother says. After graduation she moved in with another Mercy girl, who alsoreported being molested by her grandfather. Soon, Christina’s story expanded further: She claimed that she’d been raped by her father and sex-trafficked by her parents—the same accusations made by Ellen.

Of the nine severed families I spoke to, only two of the actual Mercy attendees were willing to discuss the incidents, both on the condition that they not be quoted or identified in any way. One offered a basic outline of how her accusation came to be. It began, she said, with nightmares she had at Mercy about being sexually abused by a neighbor. Her counselors interpreted this as evidence that she was involved in a sex ring. Under Mercy staff’s guidance, the woman says, she described horrific details about her life as a prostitute—which seemed and felt true at the time. But later, she says, she realized that her stories were nearly identical to testimonials that other Mercy graduates had written and were posted on the “Success Stories” section of Mercy’s website. That’s what caused her to begin questioning herself.

The second woman I spoke to went to Mercy to address her drug addiction and other self-harming behaviors, including multiple suicide attempts. Her counselor interpreted a cryptic dream as evidence that her father had raped her. The woman had no recollection of such an event but says she felt pressure to believe her counselor’s assessment; after all, the staff seemed to speak with God’s authority. Guided by Mercy staff, the woman sent her father an email accusing him of rape. It took many years of distance from Mercy for the woman to begin to doubt her accusation. And it was only after months of professional therapy and treatment for previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder that she was able to reunite with her parents.

Singleton wouldn’t discuss specific accusations of abuse, but allegations have been raised enough times that Mercy put this disclaimer on its website: “Mercy Ministries does not practice Recovered Memory Therapy.” This past October, when the organization rebranded itself as Mercy Multiplied, the disclaimer disappeared.

5. “Licensed by Jesus“

In 2011, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals received a call about Mercy’s home in West Monroe. The caller said the residence was operating without a license from the department, according to a DHH spokeswoman. But when DHH investigated, it determined the home didn’t actually need a license because it wasn’t providing “services for compensation.” Instead, the program was “operating in a way that is similar to a homeless shelter,” where residents receive food and lodging for free, according to the state’s DHH lawyers.

In an email last April, Singleton told me that Mercy’s three adult facilities are licensed by social services agencies in their respective states. But agency representatives at both Louisiana’s and Missouri’s departments of social services, health, and mental health could find no records of Mercy in their systems. When I emailed Singleton in April 2015 to ask for clarification, she stopped responding. When I wrote her again this month, a full year later, she said she had nothing to add. (At that time, Mercy’s website also said its homes were state-licensed. When Mercy rebranded, the licensing statement disappeared.)

Had the homes in fact been licensed, they would have been unusual among residential treatment facilities. Such residences are generally not equipped to care for women withserious mental health issues, according to lawyers for the National Disability Rights Network. In California, such facilities “cannot accept a resident whose primary need is acute psychiatric care due to a mental disorder,” says the California Department of Social Services. Mercy requires all incoming residents to provide medical histories and proof of medical stability. Yet the organization targets a client base whose untreated mental illness makes their physical or emotional instability a real possibility. Women like Lily, Bethany, and others interviewed for this story—all likely unstable when they entered the program—slipped in anyway. Of course, even facilities with licensed mental health providers can make assessment mistakes. But with no licensing body or standardized training available for Christian counselors, it’s likely that their clients will end up in programs that Meador says are “trying to do work that they’re not trained or equipped to do.”

Lily’s discharge summary—a one-page document signed by her counselor—is a snapshot of that problem. Upon graduation, her counselor wrote that Lily had overcome the following alphabetized list of issues: “Abandonment, all abuse, ADHD, anger, anxiety (social), apathy, attention seeking behavior, authority issues, Bipolar, Borderline, chemical dependency, compliance, depression, desire to be here, detox, eating disorder, family issues, general suitability, impulsive, lesbianism, lying, marital issues, medical suitability, occult, OCD, PTSD, relationship difficulties, rejection, self-harm, self-esteem issues, sexual promiscuity, stealing, and suicidal thoughts.” The counselor concluded that “[w]hen Lily chose to fully surrender to God, she experienced significant behavior and emotional changes.”

With Lily’s permission, I shared the document with Meador. “This lacks coherency in its run-on usage of a mix of clinical terms and is generally lacking in professionalism,” he said, after reading it. The discharge suggests that Lily’s counselor is working “in territory they shouldn’t be in.”

Christian counseling has two schools. One is open to a fusion of religious and secular approaches and is represented by the umbrella group the American Association of Christian Counselors, or AACC. The organization’s lengthy ethical code outlines the need for individualized treatment, of never forcing one’s point of view on clients, and making sure that clients are fully comfortable with the religious beliefs and practices used in counseling sessions. Singleton says the head counselors of Mercy’s homes are AACC members. But many of Mercy’s former clients allege methods that would be in violation of AACC guidelines.

The other school is entirely biblically based and comprises programs that disregard secular mental health practices. Some of these residential programs geared toward troubled teens across the country have been criticized for their harsh practices. In 2002, the St. Louis Post Dispatch ran a seven-part investigative series about Christian reform schools in Missouri. Two schools closed as a result. In 2012, Time ran a story outlining similar abuses in Florida. These programs focus on minors and don’t explicitly address mental illness, but like Mercy, their Bible-based approach appeals to a population that has little faith in secular support services.

Meanwhile, programs like Mercy are rapidly multiplying. In 1999, the AACC reported 15,000 members; today there are 50,000. And they’re embraced by an audience of believers—not just in Christ but in Christ-driven treatment. Forty-eight percent of self-described evangelical, born-again, and fundamentalist Christians believe Bible study and prayer can cure serious mental illness, according to a 2013 study by the conservative Christian body LifeWay Research. And in fact, spiritual interventions can be highly effective. A 2011 meta-analysis of 46 studies, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, found that that religiously or spiritually integrated therapies for individuals from devout backgrounds can have “better psychological and spiritual outcomes” than nontreatment controls. Meador says a program like Mercy could provide “substantive and enduring benefits” for some people—not necessarily those with serious mental illness but individuals facing various developmental challenges. “What they really benefit from is the structure, boundaries, and someone telling them, ‘This is how you live well.’ Hearing women say that the program saved their lives doesn’t surprise me at all.”

And many Mercy clients say just that. Ninety-four percent of respondents on 2013 surveys (commissioned by Mercy and conducted by independent firms) answered “yes” to the question, “Did Mercy Ministries help you transform your life and restore your hope?” Eighty-two percent said they were “well adjusted to life” after leaving the program. And 85 percent said they had spent time at other treatment centers before Mercy, without long-term results. Roughly 10 percent of Mercy’s total graduate pool responded to the survey,according to Mercy’s website.

Mercy contends that this overwhelmingly positive feedback proves the program’s effectiveness, even if some former residents don’t agree. “We’re [working] with women who need help from self-reported destructive patterns,” says Singleton. “They are going to be unhappy with us, if they don’t get to the place they want.”

6. “He will give you the desires of your heart“

Hayley eventually gave in. She says she stopped resisting her counselor’s instructions and stopped questioning the system. Maybe she was to blame for her own failure, she remembers thinking. Maybe she hadn’t tried hard enough. Before graduating from the Lincoln home, Hayley wrote the following testimonial: “Mercy has taught me a new way to live. I never thought that I would be capable of living a life on my own—a life dependent on God and not on medication or the approval of other people. A life filled with joy and peace instead of guilt.”

Mercy told Hayley that if she tithed to the organization, God would bless her. She donated $1,000. (Four women, each of whom attended a different Mercy home, told me the organization heavily stresses the importance of tithing to Mercy.) On her graduation day, Hayley’s parents presented her with a leather and gold-plate bracelet, etched with Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

But at home, Hayley’s anxiety and depression returned. She grew increasingly introverted, finding it impossible to trust anyone. Before Mercy, she’d suffered from low self-esteem; now, she says, she felt worthless. “I thought Mercy would be this place where the staff would love on you and be there for you,” she says. “Instead they beat the spirit out of you.” Mercy had taught Hayley the dangers of having too much hope and too much belief—not in God, she says, but in other people. These days, she believes that she alone—without regular therapy, Christian counselors, or Jesus—must forge her way forward.

Hayley is still living at home, still without a job, and her family remains in tough financial straits. She fills her days by cooking and practicing the harp. She’s planning to go back to school, possibly to study psychology. And she’s been writing about her Mercy experience, which she hopes to one day share with others—young women like herself who might believe they’ve found a godsend. Today, much of the graduation testimony she wrote sounds hollow, but her closing words are starting to ring true. “Through Mercy Ministries,” she wrote, “God has removed the tape from my mouth and given me back my voice.”

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