Mercy Survivors » Gloria Jeans

Exorcism books revealed

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:32:41 +0000

Ruth Pollard of the Sydney Morning Herald has written an article about the books Mercy Ministries staff used to perform exorcisms on the young women in the program.

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”.

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

“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,” the manual says.

This guidebook was used by staff at Mercy Ministries, the Hillsong Church and Gloria Jeans-connected group that purports to provide “care for young women suffering the effects of eating disorders, self harm, abuse, addiction, depression, unplanned pregnancies and other life-controlling issues”.

And although Mercy Ministries now says the book is no longer part of its “curriculum”, it seems it has learnt little else about how to properly treat young women with mental illnesses or drug problems.

Multiple government agencies and investigating bodies are aware of its activities and yet 10 months after the Herald revealed that Mercy Ministries’ staff and volunteers were performing exorcisms on mentally ill young women to drive the demons out, not one of those agencies has found a way to hold this fundamentalist Christian group to account.

At the time, its then-chief executive, Peter Irvine, was quick to tell anyone to beware of these troubled young women. Sometimes they lie, he said, with a sad shake of his head.

Since then Irvine has sent a letter of apology to the women in the Herald articles. It seems he was the one wrestling with the truth.

“I would like to apologise for the statements that I made to the press in March 2008. I did not accurately reflect the situation and I regret my comments,” he wrote.

Since then, Mercy Ministries (which has no connection to the Catholic Sisters of Mercy) has churned through two chief executives and closed one of its homes (on the Sunshine Coast), although it appears it is still attempting to establish a facility in Perth.

Some former residents, still recovering from their experience, summoned up the courage to attempt to make complaints to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Centrelink, the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission, the Queensland Health Quality and Complaints Commission, and two state departments of fair trading.

It is clear there are false and misleading claims in its advertising – Mercy says its program offers “professional support from psychologists, dietitians, general practitioners, social workers [and] counsellors”, yet former residents say those services were not available and that counselling was provided by Bible students with no qualifications.

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.”

Mercy Ministries Ex Resident is Interviewed

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:40:42 +0000

“Sarah”, who spent eight months in one of the Australian Mercy Ministries homes, recently spoke with G’Day World’s Cameron Reilly. She recounts some of her experiences such as being denied prescribed medication, being manipulated and disciplined, being forced to have cold showers and having her welfare benefits (Centrelink) signed over to Mercy Ministries.

All seven parts of the interview can be heard below.

The original interview can be found at http://gdayworld.thepodcastnetwork.com/2008/10/21/gday-world-352-sarah-macs-mercy-ministries-experience/

Mercy Ministries counseling, and the casting out of demons

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:11:26 +0000

Mercy Ministries advertise that they offer “professional support from psychologists, dieticians, general practitioners, social workers, counsellors and program staff who all contribute to provide daily education for the young women” in their care. They also claim that the program is “provided at no charge to the young women.”

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 check.)

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 March 20th 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, 6 failed and only 2 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 MM, 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

Coffee for a better Cause

admin — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:45:12 +0000

Coffee for a better cause is a campaign being run by a number of community based groups to encourage Gloria Jeans to redirect their funds away from Mercy ministries to more appropriate and professional programs.

Please visit the site and see what action you might be able to take.