National’s fundamentalist New Plymouth candidate, Jonathan Young, is attracting controversy for his claims that lesbians and gay men can be “cured”. However, one of the fundamentalist organisations that he was involved with, Teen Challenge, tells a quite similar  story.

While doing a background check on Young, I found that he was a former leader of Teen Challenge, a fundamentalist youth and alcohol treatment facility, in his former role as minister at City Church Waitakere.

Teen Challenge is primarily a fundamentalist Pentecostal alcohol and drug treatment programme that serves drug addicts, alcoholics, former gang members, former sex workers et al, through providing them with life skills training and positive reinforcement. I was unable to tell whether they had accredited counsellors and psychotherapists accessible to their clients, however. It was established by Pentecostal David Wilkerson in New York, in 1958. Today, its international headquarters is based in Georgia. There has been some material related to positive outcomes from the organisation, but critics of the programme argue that it doesn’t count drop-outs from its service, and preselects clients who have been through recognised detoxification programmes.

Would I therefore recommend Teen Challenge services to LGBT youth at risk from substance abuse, or wanting to escape from dysfunctional and antisocial living environments? No, I would not. Teen Challenge has already had one ex-ex-gay, Roger Grindstaff, warn about the programme in question, as it appears to be closely affiliated to the so-called “exgay’ group, Exodus International. Nor is there any information present to indicate whether or not Teen Challenge summarily expells any client who turns out to be lesbian or gay, or presents as transgender, or refers them to suitable and appropriate LGBT youth services like Rainbow Youth, CADS et al.

Even more damningly, it appears that Teen Challenge bases its work on the perspectives of the following author, Rev David Foster Kyle. Note who uses the book, and also note that I found the reference on an Exodus (”ex-gay”) website:

Before his salvation, “David Kyle” Foster was a successful film actor in Hollywood. Then in 1980, while on a search for truth in Israel, Jesus Christ rescued David from his empty pursuit of fame, drugs, gurus, and immorality and set him afire for things of the Kingdom of God. David became the founder and president of Mastering Life Ministries in 1987. His first book, Sexual Healing: God’s Plan for the Sanctification of Broken Lives, (available in English and Spanish), is now in its 4th printing and has been used by Prison Fellowship, Insight for Living, Jesse Duplantis, Josh McDowell, Teen Challenge, Exodus International, Youth With a Mission, and many other ministries and church counseling programs around the world.

It should come as no surprise that Teen Challenge USA includes Exodus as one of the organisations on its links page, then. Or that Teen Challenge South Australia includes the ‘testimony’ of fundamentalist ‘ex-gay’ convert, John.

While browsing, I also found references to a Teen Challenge meeting where an  Exodus International staffer, Janelle Hellman,  talked to them about gay conversion therapy, as well as a chilling reference to an ‘ex-gay’ boot camp for young teenage gay men where they are pressured into fundamentalist conversion, described in detail on the Daily Kos website, and referenced below.  One hopes that Mr Young did not condone such practices at Teen Challenge NZ.

Based on the above, it seems that either Jonathan Young may be ignorant about the history of Teen Challenge in regard to LGBT issues, or he chooses to deny the case of Roger Grindstaff as an example that contradicts his assertions about “gay choice.”  Nor are we the only ones who may be pressured to convert to fundamentalism in this context. Before a Congressional subcommittee, former Teen Challenge US President Dan Castellani stated that Teen Challenge USA had no “non-Christian” employees, and that several Jewish clients ended up converting to fundamentalist Christianity (or “messanic” or “completed” Jews, which many Jewish organisations regard as anti-Semitic).

I’d advise New Plymouth voters to carefully scrutinise whether or not Mr Young should be in Parliament, given those possible views- and his past linkages to a rather sinister US Christian Right pressure group. One hopes that he doesn’t condone the practices cited above, or online elsewhere.

References:

Teen Challenge: Our Team: http://www.teenchallenge.org.nz/our-team.html

Bruce Greig: “Exgay Movement Still Toxic and Hate-Filled” (2000): http://www.rldbooks.com/Articles/Archives/Ex-Gay.html

Exodus International: Rev. Dr David Kyle Foster: http://www.exodus.to/content/view/372/0/

Teen Challenge: The Depths of Coercion at a “God Warrior” Training Camp: (01.05.08): http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/1/164418/2864

Teen Challenge USA: Links Page (note Exodus International reference): http://www.teenchallengeusa.com/links.php

Teen Challenge South Australia: John: http://www.tc.asn.au/aids/aidsanotherkind.htm