http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/16/1231608986802.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Time to have mercy on the broken of mind and spirit

January 17th, 2009

“Ever wondered how to exorcise a demon? There’s a handy publication that guides the uninitiated, with subheadings such as “doing the actual deliverance”, “identifying additional demons” and “what to do with obstinate demons”.

The claim the service is free is also untrue. Residents are required to transfer Centrelink benefits to Mercy Ministries.

Social security-funded exorcisms. That’s your taxpayer dollars at work, folks. Yet no one, beyond the brave young women who spoke out about the abuse, has done anything to stop it.

A couple of politicians have expressed concern – the former Democrats senator Lyn Allison said: “It is high time this religious group was investigated and called to account for what their victims describe as emotional and spiritual abuse”, and the South Australian Labor MP Ian Hunter described Mercy as a “money-making cult, posing as a Christian-based counselling service”.

This sorry saga has exposed the weakness of our complaints bodies – few, if any, are prepared to investigate despite detailed complaints from several young women over their alleged mistreatment.

Neither the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission nor the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would disclose whether they had investigated Mercy, and the Queensland Health Quality and Complaints Commission said it would “monitor the operation of Mercy Ministries and is in the process of conducting further assessment of the Ministries’ practices” but stopped short of proceeding with a resident’s complaint.

In March last year the federal Minister for Human Services, Joe Ludwig, said: “I am very concerned about these serious allegations, and I have asked Centrelink to investigate its payment arrangement.”

So has Centrelink investigated? “Centrelink conducted a full investigation into the appointment of Mercy Ministries as nominees for Centrelink payments,” the general manager, Hank Jongen, said. “Investigation of the current customers reveals nothing untoward. There are no records of any complaints about the nominee arrangements.”

Nothing untoward? Casting out demons, isolating young women from their parents and friends, preventing them from accessing psychiatric care and medication, inappropriately supervising doctor’s visits – how is any of this not untoward?

Again, it is left to the consumers to hold these groups to account. Forget the eating disorder, the depression, or the related alcohol or drug problems – take on the money-making machine of the Hillsong Church, the coffee chain Gloria Jeans and their related entity, Mercy Ministries, because the Government bodies established to monitor their activities are busy doing something else.”

Tim Brunero
16 November 2008

Handbooks allegedly used to perform exorcisms on sick girls at the controversial Mercy Ministries residences in Sydney and on the Sunshine Coast have been leaked to LIVENEWS.com.au.

Mercy Ministries, which is bankrolled by the Pentecostal Hillsong Church, has previously denied performing exorcisms on residents.

The documents, obtained clandestinely by a girl who “escaped” the group’s clutches, shows counsellors how to rid ‘demons’ from girls struggling with anorexia, depression and drug addiction.

Mercy Ministries’ activities hit the headlines in March this year when former residents claimed they were subjected to exorcisms, were cut off from friends and family and had to sign over their Centrelink payments to the group.

Some of the young women say they had little or no access to the promised psychologists and other mental health professionals but were instead counselled by bible studies students whose solution to all problems was prayer.

Earlier this year the then head of Mercy Ministries, Peter Irvine, said exorcisms were not practised at the residences.  Mercy Ministries has been forced to shut their Sunshine Coast residence.

“There’s no exorcism, no driving out of spirits it’s not how the program works,” he told Today Tonight’s Marguerite McKinnon earlier this year.

But the handbooks tell a different story and corroborate accounts given to LIVENEWS.com.au by former residents of Mercy Ministries.

In the handbook, under a section entitled ‘Identifying Additional Demons’ those practising the exorcism are advised to ask the demon’s name, but not for any more details.

“They sometimes talk: they may threaten the person or you.  They have been know to say, ‘I am going to kill you,’ and other unsavoury phrases.  Command them to be quiet in the Name of Jesus,” the book advises.

Later, the book, Restoring The Foundations, published by an American Christian group, warns those exorcising demons to be firm.

“The minister’s attitude is one of commanding,” it reads.

“He needs to be firm and prepared to press in.  He does not need to be loud.  (Demons are not deaf.)  The ministers’ commanding attitude resembles that of a person speaking to a little “yappy” dog commanding him to go home and stop barking.

“We also want the ministry receiver to set his will to resist and then command the particular demon or grouping of demons to leave him, in Jesus’ name.  This is repeated until the demons are gone.”

Later in the book, those performing the exorcism are given more complex techniques in a subheading called ‘What to do With Obstinate Demons’.

Later a list of ‘Scriptures that Demons Hate’ is provided.

“But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you,” is one such passage singled out.

The emergence of the exorcism handbook lends weight to other claims made by girls who went through the Mercy Ministries program.

Megan Smith (not her real name), who spoke to LIVENEWS.com.au earlier this year, said her panic attacks only got worse.

“I was self-harming,” she said.

“I was cutting my arm with anything I could get my hands on – scratching with anything from my nails to paper clips.

“I never really had a problem with self-harm beforehand.  When you tell them about self-harming they said I was trying to get attention and I was taking their valuable time away from girls with real problems.”

Finally, she was subjected to an exorcism.

“The counsellor gave me a list of different demons – demon of anger, demon of unforgiveness, demon of pride, there were lots of them and I was told to go away and circle the demons I had in me or around me,” said Smith.

“I was really scared… they cast demons out of me, one by one, and they became quite excited and animated during the process, and spoke in tongues.

“It was the counsellors and myself and they put their hands on me and started praying one by one for each of the demons that were on the list to be cast out of me.

“After each demon was cast out I had to say ‘I confirm the demon of X has been cast out of me in the name of Jesus and is unwelcome to return.’

“The whole time I was there, all I heard was that I’m demonic.

“Even after the exorcism, when I had the next anxiety attack, I was told that they had already cast the demons out, so therefore I was obviously either faking it, or I had chosen to let the demons come back, in which case I was not serious about getting better.

“They kept telling us that the world can’t help us, professionals with all their ‘worldly qualifications’ can’t help us, only Mercy could because only they have God’s power.

“So when I was kicked out for being ‘demonic, unable to be helped, not worth a place at Mercy’ and because I had taken too long to pray to become a Christian… it left me worse than I had ever been before in my life.

“They told me I would never get better now because I had blown my chance.  I started cutting my arms and wrists more than ever, with their voices echoing in my mind as I did it.”

Suicidal and self-harming after being removed from the program, which she now thought was her only hope, she went to see a “proper psychologist to prepare me to go back to Mercy to help me fit in better.”

“The psychologist had never heard of them but told me to stay away from them… that person helped me more in the 40 minute session – really listening to me and understanding me.”

LIVENEWS.com.au has contacted Mercy Ministries for comment and is still awaiting a response.

All seven parts of the interview can be heard below.

The original interview can be found here.

Mercy Ministries promotional brochure obtained from a Gloria Jeans Coffees outlet in NSW, 2007 (click for larger.)

Imagine a young woman’s horror then, as she enters the program and finds that she has no contact with psychologists, mental health professionals or social workers, and that the only counselor she is permitted to see during her time at Mercy Ministries is unqualified and unregistered.  In Australia, despite advertising that the program was free (presumably to attract more donations from the public,) Mercy Ministries charge the girls for their services from a girl’s Centrelink sickness benefit (welfare cheque).

Let’s discuss the type of counseling offered to young women in the Mercy Ministries program.  Mercy Ministries advertise that they offer “Christian based counselling” however, they do not go into specifics when describing the type of counseling given, nor the qualifications of their “counselors.”

Mercy Ministries use a counseling program known as “Restoring the Foundations.”

Our purpose is not to argue the virtues of such a counseling program when it is being used with a person’s informed consent; rather to explore whether Mercy Ministries is being upfront about the types of practices being used in the ‘counseling’ they are performing, and whether a young woman who goes to Mercy Ministries seeking the promised professional treatment, is properly informed before she walks through the doors.

This program is far from the typical example of “Christian based counseling” as Mercy Ministries describes it.

Sections within this counseling program are entitled:

• Sins of the Fathers and the Resulting Curses
• Ungodly Beliefs
• Soul/Spirit Hurts
• Demonic Oppression

Source:  What is Restoring the Foundations Ministry?

More about Restoring The Foundations can be read here

Many former residents have spoken about exorcisms (the casting out of demons) that were performed on them during their counseling sessions at Mercy Ministries. Mercy Ministries Australia has categorically denied performing any such practice.

Let’s have a closer look at some of the Restoring the Foundations counseling materials that are worked through during counseling sessions at Mercy Ministries:

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Dozens of young women who were treated at a Mercy Ministries facility have come forward to speak out about the abuse and neglect they experienced during their time in the program.  These women come from a variety of different experiences.  While many of these women chose to leave the program due to the lack of much needed medical treatment, others were dismissed with no follow up, and others have ”graduated” from the Mercy Ministries program.

If one thing remains clear, it is that Mercy Ministries’ claims that 95% of young women who enter their program “successfully graduate,” or that they come out unscathed from their experiences, is nothing close to the truth.

Mercy Ministries Australia’s response on television program Today Tonight:

An excerpt from a letter recieved from television program Today Tonight on 20 March 2008:

In the days since Today Tonight did a story on Mercy Ministries, we have been inundated with responses, so much so it’s raised serious questions about the figures we received from Mercy Ministries claiming to be the total number of girls who graduated and “failed”.

Executive Director of Mercy Ministries Peter Irvine claimed since the organisation began in 2000, 96 women had graduated, six failed and only two had come forward to complain… Since our program aired, a greater number of women have since contacted our program citing mistreatment by Mercy Ministries.

These girls did not receive professional treatment whilst in the care of Mercy Ministries, they were denied such help and instead were put in the care of people whose only training was from an in-house program – a far cry from the medically based expertise needed to treat serious problems of sexual abuse, drug addiction, and psychological trauma.  It also contradicts the program guidelines outlined on the website.  Even the website acknowledges that such conditions need professional help…

Kind regards,

Marguerite McKinnon
Journalist
Today Tonight

Tim Brunero
18 July 2008

Exorcisms to cure mental illness and drug addiction, locking vulnerable people away from friends and family, prayer as a solution to all problems – sounds like psych ward from last century.  But actually it’s just the ‘Mercy Way’.

The once mighty ‘Mercy Ministries’, a secretive outfit that purports to treat young women with mental illness, is now in serious trouble.

Bankrolled by controversial Pentecostal group the ‘Hillsong Church’ and Hillsong-aligned Gloria Jean’s coffees the group has been the subject of a number of complaints to authorities.  They’ve already closed one of their two facilities.

Women who’ve been through its programs say the main ‘treatment’ they were prescribed were exorcisms and prayer study, supervised by bible studies students.  That’s whether they were dealing with anorexia, anxiety disorders or substance abuse.

And all the time being kept virtually as prisoners – cut off from the outside world with no TV or newspapers, with severely restricted access to friends and family and made to even ask permission to go to the toilet.

Nowhere was the promised phalanx of mental health professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and dieticians.  Just bible studies students whose answer to all questions was more prayer.

Three former residents told LIVENEWS.com.au they were left in a worse state after going to stay at Mercy Ministries – which still operates in a house in Sydney’s Glenhaven.

Meg Smith (not her real name) says she went to Mercy because of the group’s promise of free treatment for her anxiety disorder and panic attacks.

But she quickly became disheartened after “free” meant signing over her Centrelink payments to the group and “treatment” didn’t include proper access to doctors, psychologists and social workers.

“The ‘counsellor’ I had was not qualified to treat mental illness… nobody there was.  She was in the middle of a mercy ‘in-house program’ to teach her how to prayer counsel,” says Smith.

“I spent months there and the only ‘therapy’ I had was prayer readings and an exorcism.”

She paints a disturbing picture – where a group of vulnerable girls isolated in a suburban home and forbidden to leave or form friendships on pain of being expelled – followed a punishing daily routine.

A seven o’clock wake up call and a stint of cleaning was followed by bible reading.

After that came a “praise” session where the girls would stand in a circle, eyes closed, singing along to Christian music and jumping on the spot with arms outstretched.

After locked food cupboards were opened for a piece of fruit or a few tablespoons of yoghurt it was back to class – usually taking notes from audio tapes by Joyce Meyer, an American evangelist.

After lunch, homework, letter-writing and recreation were followed by more cleaning and bible study.

Smith began to get worse.

“I was having lots of panic attacks… they seemed to be getting worse at ministry,” she said.

“I couldn’t work out why, apart from being away from friends and family and my support network.

“I was self harming – I was cutting my arm with anything I could get my hands on – scratching with anything from my nails to paper clips.

“I never really had a problem with self harm beforehand.  When you tell them about self harming they said I was trying to get attention and I was taking their valuable time away from girls with real problems.”

Finally Smith was told she would have to have what she describes as an ‘exorcism’.

“The counsellor gave me a list of different demons – demon of anger, demon of unforgiveness, demon of pride, there were lots of them and I was told to go away and circle the demons I had in me or around me,” said Smith.

“I was really scared… they cast demons out of me, one by one, and they became quite excited and animated during the process, and spoke in tongues.

“It was the counsellors and myself and they put their hands on me and started praying one by one for each of the demons that were on the list to be cast out of me.

“After each demon was cast out I had to say ‘I confirm the demon of X has been cast out of me in the name of Jesus and is unwelcome to return.’

“The whole time I was there, all I heard was that I’m demonic.

“Even after the exorcism, when I had the next anxiety attack, I was told that they had already cast the demons out, so therefore I was obviously either faking it, or I had chosen to let the demons come back, in which case I was not serious about getting better.

“They kept telling us that the world can’t help us, professionals with all their ‘worldly qualifications’ can’t help us, only Mercy could because only they have God’s power.

“So when I was kicked out for being ‘demonic, unable to be helped, not worth a place at Mercy and because I had taken too long to pray to become a Christian… it left me worse than I had ever been before in my life.

“They told me I would never get better now because I had blown my chance.  I started cutting my arms and wrists more than ever, with their voices echoing in my mind as I did it.”

Suicidal and self harming after being removed from the program, which she now thought was her only hope, she went to see a “proper psychologist to prepare me to go back to Mercy to help me fit in better.”

“The psychologist had never heard of them but told me to stay away from them… that person helped me more in the 40 minute session – really listening to me and understanding me.”

Smith, who is on the mend after a long process, is not alone.

Other women who spoke to LIVENEWS.com.au described being “literally bible bashed” and supervised during limited visits to GPs and psychiatrists.

One Patricia (not her real name) says when she approached staff with problems she was asked if she had prayed about it.

“In the end I stopped going to staff members because they just didn’t seem to help me and that’s one of the things they commented on… but how can you when they’re not actually helping you?” she said.

“I went to the psychiatrist three times in eight months I was there to get medication – and I was always accompanied in the session by a staff member.

“Once I told the psychiatrist what I was feeling and when we got back to the house I was yelled at because I hadn’t told the staff there… Now I go to the psychiatrist every two weeks – that’s the kind of care you need when you’re acutely unwell.

“Four to six weeks after I got kicked out I tried to kill myself and I almost succeeded and it was because I didn’t think I could live or get better without Mercy because it was just so ingrained into me.”

Since the former clients of Mercy Ministires began telling their stories, high profile “sponsors” listed on their website have disappeared.  No longer do Rebel Sport, Bunnings Warehouse or LG electronics have anything to do with with the group.

Gloria Jean’s coffees, which once had collection boxes for the groups in all their stores, and whose former managing director, Peter Irvine, was a director at Mercy, still maintains conspicuous support.

The group have closed their Queensland centre but the Sydney facility remains open for business – still without scrutiny from government authorities.

Ready to continue to dispense their peculiar kind of care to the most vulnerable.

Ruth Pollard
7 June 2008

Mercy Ministries, the Gloria Jeans and Hillsong-supported religious program under investigation for its controversial use of exorcism to treat mental illness, has announced its Queensland home will close.

A Herald investigation in March revealed that young women who entered the program were forced to sign over their Centrelink benefits and were virtually cut off from the outside world without medical or psychological treatment.

Since then more than a dozen young women have come forward to make complaints to various government bodies, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission and the Queensland Office of Fair Trading.

Various businesses listed by Mercy Ministries as sponsors have abandoned the organisation and it appears the resulting drop in support has forced the closure of one of its two houses.  The Sydney house at Glenhaven remains open for business.

In a statement posted on its website this week, Mercy Ministries said: “After careful consideration, the board of directors of Mercy Ministries Australia has made the decision to close its Sunshine Coast home due to strategic and resourcing issues.  The effective closure will take place at the end of July 2008.”

The executive director of Mercy Ministries, Mark Caldwell, did not return the Herald’s calls, so it is unclear what the future holds for the organisation, or whether it will go ahead with plans to open houses in other cities.

The Hon. Ian Hunter is a Member of the Legislative Council and chairperson of the Social Development Committee.  Below is an extract from a Matter of Interest speech made before the Upper House on Wednesday, 30 April 2008.

I was shocked and dismayed at recent reports in the Sydney Morning Herald from journalist Ruth Pollard about the activities of a secretive religious organisation called Mercy Ministries, which takes young women with emotional and mental health problems and attempts to cure them through prayer and exorcism rather than through qualified medical or psychiatric treatment.

I am also concerned at reports that they are considering opening similar centres here.

Mercy Ministries takes in women from the ages of 16 to 28 offering support from, in their words “psychologists, general practitioners, dieticians, social workers, [and] career counsellors.”

Another dimension to this is that Gloria Jeans cafes throughout Australia have been promoting this Ministry through their outlets.

Gloria Jeans is the major sponsor of the program, a program which we shouldn’t be surprised has close links to the Hillsong Church.  Gloria Jeans reportedly contributes 90% of all money the Ministries receive.  On their website, Gloria Jeans describes the Mercy Ministries as:

… a national charity that provides a free residential program for women in crisis, aged between 16 and 28 years.  At Mercy Ministries’ homes, young women receive support and counselling to help deal with eating disorders, self harm, abuse, depression and life controlling issues.

The truth though has been revealed by whistle blowers who say that they came out of the Ministries’ program suicidal and more depressed than ever, convinced that their problems were due to demonic possession and Satanic control.

Now I have no problem with church groups supporting the vulnerable in our community, indeed I admire them for doing so.  But when the services they provide – with the continued backing of corporations such as Gloria Jeans – claim to be medical and psychiatric, but are actually based on this sort of superstitious nonsense, we really must speak out.  This is the worst sort of American theological hooliganism which I had hoped we in Australia were immune to.

Ruth Pollard’s articles detail the experiences of three young women in particular, who spent time in the program because of various psychological disorders.  They were subjected to a regime of prayer and Christian counselling.  They were subjected to exorcisms which were supposed to expel the evil demons which they claim cause bipolar disorder, depression and eating disorders.

They were effectively isolated from the outside world in what Pollard calls a “humidicrib of Pentecostal religion.”

According to Mercy, 96 women have “graduated” from the program however what it doesn’t say is that many others have been expelled with no support or follow-up care.  According to reports published by the ABC many girls have left the Mercy Centre suicidal after being told they were possessed by demons.

21 year old Naomi Johnson’s story is typical.

When she entered she was suffering from anorexia.  Because her family did not have private health insurance, after much searching, they found the Mercy Ministries website.

After 9 months in the Sydney Ministry, she was finally expelled, a broken woman. During this time she received no accredited psychiatric help, and was subject to exorcism to expel the demons of her anorexia.

Upon expulsion – she claims for smoking a cigarette – Johnson was so crippled by the experience she could barely function in the adult world.  Ms Johnson’s mother gives a harrowing account of how her daughter “went into that place as a young lady and came back to us as a child”.

Another former Mercy Ministries participant Rhiannon Canham-Wright has commented that “every time I had an asthma attack they told me to stop acting… I was punished; I had to do an assignment about why God believes that I was lying.”

Those who sign up for the Mercy Ministries program are:

- Forced to sign separation contracts agreeing not to see those who the Ministries view as “troublemakers”

- Prevented from talking about their past

- Given scant medical or psychiatric assistance

- Not allowed to get medical help for bipolar disorder, anxiety or anorexia.

Former participants have even told of being locked in their rooms and told that they were useless and not worth helping.

This horrific level of control and manipulation even extends to forcing those in their care to ask permission before they do things as simple as taking a garbage bag out to the bin or even clean their teeth.

“It was a lot to do with control and manipulation, and it just shows that they did have that power over us” says Ms Johnson.

But if all this wasn’t enough, not only are the organisers attempting to manipulate and indoctrinate innocent young women with their dangerous dogma, recent reports by the ABC have shown they are now attempting to make a quick buck out of it.

The Mercy Ministries have according to the report recently been referred to the ACCC after fresh claims that many young women enter the centres thinking they would receive free help when in fact Mercy allegedly claim carers benefits from Centrelink.

These events are not in the past.  These horrific centres are still operating in Sydney and on the Sunshine Coast and there are plans to open similar centres in Adelaide.  Mercy Ministries remains committed to continuing its operations despite intense controversy and, given these concerns, several corporations have acted quickly to cut their ties with Mercy Ministries but not Gloria Jeans coffee shops.

I’ll certainly be thinking twice about where I buy my next cup of coffee.

Ian Martini has stepped down as group CEO at Gloria Jean’s Coffees , reports the Australian Financial Review.

The company said in a statement “after much discussion with the board and for personal reasons, Ian will no longer be continuing as group chief executive”.

The business will be run by a senior management committee in conjunction with the company board represented by John Dwight.

Gloria Jeans has this week been embroiled in controversy over its sponsorship of Mercy Ministries – a ministry supported by the Hillsong foundation.

A recent Sydney Morning Herald investigation into Mercy Ministries alleges several young women suffering mental illnesses had been mistreated by the ministry.

Gloria Jean’s Coffees told the SMH it had no plans to change its sponsorship arrangements with Mercy Ministries, despite the allegations.

However several other companies that had been listed as corporate sponsors, such as Bunnings, Rebel Sport and LG have moved to distanced themselves from the ministry, the SMH reports.

Ruth Pollard
March 19, 2008

Further evidence has emerged that Mercy Ministries cuts off young women who fail to comply with its complex web of rules and regulations, as more former residents come forward to detail their time in the conservative Christian homes.

One 21-year-old woman who lived in the ministry’s Sunshine Coast house said she was expelled from the program without any warning.

The reason: “Because I was not trying hard enough, I was not far enough along in my journey and I had broken the forbidden rules of not talking about why I was there with the other residents.  I had also hugged two girls over the seven months I had been in the program. You even think about challenging them and they will throw you out with no hope, no follow-up and no place to go.”

She was told at 9.30am that she had to leave the house by 5pm.  In that time she had to pack her bags, organise flights from Queensland to the ACT and tell her family she had failed the program.

Another former resident confirmed allegations that the program did not employ qualified dietitians or psychologists.  “They believe that all you need is the Holy Spirit and God to overcome a major life problem like an eating disorder.  They truly believe what they do is right,” she said.

“One major issue that I struggled with throughout the duration of my Mercy stay was complete submission; being told how to dress, when to sleep, when to shower, when to wash your clothes, when to eat, how much to eat, when to change your sheets, what music you were allowed to listen to, what shops you could and couldn’t go into.”

She said residents were prevented from entering newsagents to ensure they were not exposed to the world outside Mercy Ministries.

Neither of the two women wished to be identified.

In response to allegations in the Herald this week, Mercy Ministries posted a media release on its website denying claims of a lack of psychiatric and medical care for its residents and saying it had received “overwhelming positive feedback from supporters, graduates, their family members and members of the community”.

Gloria Jean’s Coffees hit back at claims it has connections to Hillsong Church, saying on its website: “We are not religiously affiliated, or affiliated to any other beliefs or preferences.”

It said it donated $150,000 to $170,000 a year to Mercy Ministries, plus the donations made by the public to the money boxes in each cafe.

“Since then we have seen many young women’s lives transformed for the better … we have been in direct discussion with Mercy Ministries and we will be working with them to understand what elements of their program could have given rise to these very concerning claims.”

Along with many young women with serious complaints about their treatment at Mercy Ministries, the Herald has been contacted by some who had positive experiences.

“Mercy Ministries really showed me how to live, not just survive,” one wrote.  “They taught me about the love of God, and that changed my life. They showed me how to care for myself and others.

“They gave me medical treatment, counselling, psychiatric care and dietary care.  I never paid a cent before or after entering Mercy Ministries.”

Another who had been in the Sunshine Coast house said that before she entered Mercy Ministries she was a “lost little girl”, suffering depression, bulimia and self-harm.

“I am now a strong, healthy 21-year-old woman with a sense of my identity, and I’m currently studying and working, starting my career and life that is so promising for me – I am happy, free and am able to live a normal life again, that I can solely thank Mercy Ministries for.”

Barney Zwartz
March 18, 2008

Anxious parents, friends and relatives of young women involved with Mercy Ministries have kept the phones busy at a Melbourne-based international cult-rescue organisation.

Raphael Aron, director of Cult Counselling Australia, said Mercy Ministries was not a traditional guru or disciple cult but its exploitation of vulnerable people put it in the cult spectrum.

Mercy Ministries is an American-style fundamentalist Christian group treating young women for drug addiction and pyschological disorders using prayer, exorcisms and Pentecostal religion.

Yesterday it was revealed that some residents have their Centrelink benefits paid directly to the organisation, which has links with Hillsong, Australia’s biggest church.  Mercy Ministries yesterday said the report contained inaccuracies.

The group has facilities in Sydney and the Sunshine Coast, but has said it plans to expand into Melbourne.

“We’ve known about this organisation and been concerned about it for quite some time,” Dr Aron said.

“My experience of these groups is that they are well meaning but totally misguided.  They take away the women’s opportunities and give false hope, then the women find they hit a brick wall and have nothing.”

He said that quite apart from the religious elements, such as exorcisms and speaking in tongues, Mercy Ministries was medically inadequate, lacked medical professionals and was not accredited.

Dr Aron said that when such groups were made public there would be a rush of inquiries, and some would lead to his organisation working with families.

Mercy Ministries Australia director Peter Irvine said the organisation received overwhelming positive feedback from graduates, their families and the community.

He said it was founded in 2000 as a Christian-based charity offering a free six-month residential program.

“We provide a holistic, client-focused approach addressing physical, emotional and spiritual needs,” Mr Irvine said in a statement.

He said the group was funded mostly through donations and sponsorships, and worked closely with Centrelink.  “Where a young woman is eligible for Centrelink benefits this amount goes a small way towards providing 24-hour care seven days a week.”

Mr Irvine said residents knew the program details before they joined and could leave at any time.