http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/pm/200910/20091028-pm-6-mercy-ministries.mp3

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

MARK COLVIN: A controversial counselling centre linked to the evangelical Hillsong church says bad publicity has eroded its funding to the point where it’s now shutting down completely.

PM understands that the consumer watchdog the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) has been investigating Mercy Ministries. The reason: media reports that young women seeking psychological and medical support were instead essentially enrolled in a bible program. Some young women say they couldn’t leave the treatment centre and that staff would “exorcise” them. But Mercy Ministries denies those claims.

Meredith Griffiths reports.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: According to its website, Mercy Ministries is a Christian organisation that helps young women suffering from eating disorders, self-harm, abuse, addictions or pregnancy. But around March last year, stories began emerging about what was going on inside the program’s residential treatment centre in the Sydney suburb of Baulkham Hills.

TANYA LEVIN: The women had been promised they would see a team of doctors and psychologists and dieticians to work on the issues that they had come into Mercy Ministries with and when the women arrived at Mercy Ministries, they found out over the course of time that there was actually no professional intervention, the only intervention they got was from a Pentecostal Christian perspective.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Tanya Levin is a social worker who the women contacted because they knew she was also a former member of the large Pentecostal church, Hillsong which supports Mercy Ministry. Mr Levin says she’s since been in touch with 15 to 20 of Mercy’s clients.

TANYA LEVIN: They learnt that they had been brought in for reasons of sin. They needed to repent, the needed to become born again. Oftentimes, this involved exorcisms.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: She says the women weren’t allowed to leave the centre.

TANYA LEVIN: It seems that with the extreme levels of deprivation, isolation, the women had to submit their Centrelink payments so that they had very little of their own money.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: The women’s complaints have not gone unheard. PM understands that the Australian Competition and Consumer Competition has been investigating Mercy Ministries for more than a year. Now Mercy Ministries has announced it will cease operations in Australia because it’s no longer financially viable.

The executive director, Margaret Stunt, says the bad publicity has had an effect on donations. Around the middle of this year, it lost the support of one of its biggest funders, the coffee chain Gloria Jean’s which used to advertise the service in its branches.

That’s where 26-year-old Sarah Goodson heard about Mercy Ministries. She was disappointed to hear it’s shutting down.

SARAH GOODSON: It literally saved my life.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Last year she spent eight months at Mercy’s residence in Baulkham Hills being treated for anorexia. Sarah Goodson says she went to the doctor a lot in that time, and saw a dietician every two weeks. She says the clients had a choice about whether or not they signed over their Centrelink benefits and they were free to leave every weekend.

During the week, could you physically leave the property if you wanted to?

SARAH GOODSON: No because mainly the program runs during the week and that’s when you’re getting counselling and working on the issues that you have.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Sarah Goodson says she was never exorcised and she never witnessed one.

Was there a lot of biblical influence though?

SARAH GOODSON: Yeah. Because it’s a Christian-based program and because when you first enter that program you know that it’s a Christian-based program.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: The Hillsong church released a statement last night saying it’s cutting ties with Mercy Ministries to protect the reputation of the church.

EXTRACT FROM STATEMENT (voiceover): Hillsong is not under investigation but a number of key people from Hillsong church over the years have been involved in Mercy Ministries. It is wrong that anything Mercy Ministries may or may not have done could overshadow so much of what we as a church stand for: loving God and helping people.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: The church’s leaders have encouraged people to assist any investigation into Mercy Ministries and says Hillsong will now be developing tighter guidelines about what other organisations its staff can work with.

MARK COLVIN: Meredith Griffiths.

The article can be found here http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2009/s2726767.htm<!–

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By Meredith Griffiths for PM

Posted Wed Oct 28, 2009

The ABC understands that the consumer watchdog ACCC has been investigating Mercy Ministries, after media reports that young women seeking psychological and medical support were instead essentially enrolled in a Bible program.

Some young women say they could not leave the treatment centre and that staff would “exorcise” them.

But Mercy Ministries denies those claims.

According to its website, Mercy Ministries is a Christian organisation that helps young women suffering from eating disorders, self-harm, abuse, addictions or an unwanted pregnancy.

But around March last year, stories began emerging about what was going on inside the program’s residential treatment centre in the Sydney suburb of Baulkham Hills.

Tanya Levin is a social worker who the women contacted because they knew she was also a former member of the large Pentecostal church Hillsong, which supports Mercy Ministry.

“The women had been promised they would see a team of doctors and psychologists and dietitians to work on the issues they had come into Mercy Ministries with,” she said.

“When the women arrived at Mercy Ministries, they found out over the course of time that there was actually no professional intervention.

“The only intervention they got was from a Pentecostal Christian perspective.”

Ms Levin says she has since been in touch with 15 to 20 of Mercy’s clients.

“They learnt that they had been brought in for reasons of sin – they needed to repent, the needed to become born again – oftentimes, this involved exorcisms,” she said.

She says often the women were not allowed to leave the centre.

“It seems that with the extreme levels of deprivation, isolation, the women had to submit their Centrelink payments so that they had very little of their money,” she said.

 ACCC investigates

 The women’s complaints have not gone unheard. The ABC understands that the ACCC has been investigating Mercy Ministries for more than a year.

Now Mercy Ministries have announced it will cease operations in Australia because it is no longer financially viable.

Executive director Margaret Stunt says the bad publicity has had a bad effect on donations.

Around the middle of this year, it lost the support of one of its biggest funders, the coffee chain Gloria Jeans which used to advertise the service in its branches.

That is where 26-year-old Sarah Goodson heard about the service. She was disappointed today to hear that Mercy Ministries is shutting down.

“It literally saved my life,” she said.

Last year, she spent eight months at Mercy’s residence in Baulkham Hills being treated for anorexia. Ms Goodson says she went to the doctor many times and saw a dietitian every two weeks.

She says the clients had a choice about whether or not they signed over their Centrelink benefits to Mercy Ministries and that while they could not leave during the week, they were free to do so every weekend.

“You could not leave during the week because mainly the program runs during the week and that’s when you’re getting counselling and working on the issues that you have,” she said.

She says she was never exorcised and never witnessed one, but she says there was a lot of biblical influence.

“It’s a Christian-based program and because when you first enter that program you know that it’s a Christian-based program,” she said.

The Hillsong church released a program last night saying it is cutting ties with Mercy Ministries to protect the reputation of the church.

In a statement, it said: “Hillsong is not under investigation, but a number of key people from Hillsong Church over the years have been involved in Mercy Ministries. It is wrong that anything Mercy Ministries may or may not have done could overshadow so much of what we as a church stand for: Loving God and Helping People.”

The church’s leaders have encouraged people to assist any investigation into Mercy Ministries and says Hillsong will now be developing tighter guidelines about what other organisations its staff can work with.

The original article can be found here http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/28/2726973.htm

Tim Brunero
26 November 2008

Mercy Ministries kept saying there were no exorcisms.

The Hillsong-backed group seemed prepared to cop the charge that they forced sick girls in their Mercy Ministries residential program to sign over their Centrelink payments.

They seemed comfortable admitting that while they advertised girls would have access to psychiatrists and other health professionals, in fact, the only treatment they were really offered was housework and bible study.

But they didn’t want to own up to the medieval practice of exorcisms.

And you can’t blame them.  Who would want to admit they had been trying to cure anorexia, drug addiction and other problems with such hocus-pocus?

They’d already lost high-profile sponsors like Rebel Sport, Bunnings and LG after news of their activities broke earlier this year.

But the girls I spoke to earlier this year when the scandal hit the headlines were unequivocal – they had been exorcised.

And now they believe they have hard evidence – documents, taken from a Mercy Ministries residence by a girl who “escaped” the program, that give instructions on how to exorcise demons.

The documents, provided to LIVENEWS.com.au, are highly disturbing.

Under subheadings like ‘Identifying Additional Demons’ and ‘What to do With Obstinate Demons’ detailed instructions are given on how to rid a possessed person.

“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.  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,” says the book.

Megan Smith (not her real name) told me in March after her condition worsened at the group’s Sunshine Coast residence and she began self-harming she was exorcised.

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

“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.”

It sounds unbelievable that this group funded by a large influential church could be so irresponsible to think they could cure serious illness with prayer.

It’s one thing to con your flock to tithe a chunk of their income to the church, to pass off concerts as worship, to be browbeaten by charismatic preachers like Pastor Brian Houston, and to finish each service by laying hands of the sick and speaking in tongues.

It’s another to endanger vulnerable young women.

You might find it hard to believe.

But having grown up in the Hills district when Hillsong was just getting its patter down you can be assured this church is as crazy as it sounds.

Having been to one of their ‘HSC Hype’ study camps for Year 12 students, where they tried to brow-beat kids into becoming born again and stories about exorcism were de rigour – I have no doubts these stories are quite true.

Knowing as I do that Brian Houston’s first book was the decidedly un-Christian tome You Need More Money I find it easy to believe the claims of the many girls I have spoken to.

I believe former residents, who refer to themselves as “Mercy survivors”, when they say the group has recently attempted to remove their critical clips from YouTube and has attempted to remove references on Wikipedia to the recent controversy.

At the end of the day, you can’t blame Mercy Ministries for trying to deny there were exorcisms at their centres.

But when people start coming forward with exorcism handbooks, you’d think you’d admit the game is up.

LIVENEWS.com.au contacted Mercy Ministries for comment.  They are yet to respond.

The entire article can be viewed here.

All seven parts of the interview can be heard below.

The original interview can be found here.