I knew this day would come. And it’s exactly why I stayed anonymous for so long.
Sigh.
I preferred to keep these events secret, because they involve people who have recanted their consent to publish the details. But, alas, I feel that Teen Mania has crossed a line and at least a small part of this information needs to be made public. So here goes…
I met with the KLTV reporter for my interview, held just outside the TM campus, on Thursday, September 16th. Near the end of the interview, staff members Jeff Pruitt, Dave Neal and Heath Stoner came to see what was going on. Heath and I had a major confrontation in which he FALSELY accused me of serving alcohol to a minor and banned me from the campus. (He later sent me an email threatening to call the cops if I ever step foot on the campus again.)
Later that day, I spoke with the current intern in question. I mentioned the accusation to them and asked them to provide clarity. That person then sent an email to myself, Heath Stoner, and Dave Hasz which said:
To Heath Stoner, David Hasz, et al,
I have at no time been offered any alcoholic drink from anybody related to the Recovering Alumni movement after it was discovered that I was slightly underage. I have not consumed alcohol since I began involvement with Teen Mania and at no time has any alcoholic beverage been given to me. Any statement or implication from you or the Teen Mania Ministry that I was/I have is patently false. Any prior statements that I may have made otherwise were under coercion of the Teen Mania leadership. I am not being forced to send this AT ALL
So, no big deal I thought and left it at that.
But then, things escalated. Just 2 days later, after giving my interview to KLTV and BEFORE it aired, at around 2am on Saturday morning, someone published all my personal details to the blog: address, phone number, picture, etc. Luckily, I happened to be awake and immediately deleted it and put all comments on moderation.
But apparently, that wasn’t enough. When I woke up the next morning, my home had been vandalized. An acidic smelling, gelatinous substance had been thrown all over my front door. No other house on the block had been vandalized.
Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Keep in mind, the only people outside of this RA community that knew my identity at that time were Heath Stoner, Jeff Pruitt and Dave Neal.
(2021 Update: The pastor’s blog referenced below has since become a malware site. The link points to the Wayback Machine, but do not go to the proper URL. Thankfully, the comments are still available.)
Heath has also seen fit to make false accusations online. A youth pastor blog linked to the ESOAL news story and in the comments Heath said this:
The slanted one sided story that Mica put on KLTV was an embarrassment to journalism. They already had their story written up before they did the investigated story.
How could I possibly put a story on KLTV? I don’t even work there! How does he know they already had their story written up before they investigated? In fact, I know that’s not true based on my conversations with the reporter and the questions he asked me throughout the process. (You can click the link to read the full text of Heath’s comments as well as my response.)
So, the fact that something is not true does not seem to have any bearing on whether Heath wants to accuse me of it.
In addition, after the interview aired, I started getting prank calls. Not to me personally, but someone(s) would call up different places posing as me and ask for information. The most creative one was calling up the Mormons and telling them I wanted to convert. Four people showed up at my doorstep including 2 Mormon elders. I’m sure they appreciated having their time wasted.
All of this I could have let slide. But now Teen Mania has taken it further. They have hired both a lawyer and a private investigator to come after me. These people have called individual(s) that I know and lied to them, attempting to dig up any possible dirt on me.
If Teen Mania really has nothing to hide, why would they behave this way? In fact, hiring private investigators against dissenters is a common tactic of other cults like Scientology, etc.
Teen Mania, if you really want me to stop writing this blog, I can tell you exactly how to do it. It’s not in vandalizing my home or making me feel unsafe, it’s not by prank calls and false accusations, it’s not by trying to drag me into court on trumped up charges – all you have to do is STOP ABUSING PEOPLE – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It’s really very simple.
It goes to show the delusion they’re operating under. Because they believe that people who are for them = good people, then they choose to believe that someone against them = someone bad.
I think you all need to write your memoirs about your time at the HA. First one to get a major book deal wins!
Seriously folks why should anyone be surprised. This is a group that advocates violence against it’s enemies. This is the “punch in the face” to R.A. They are simply practicing what they preach.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Mat 5:11-12
I am…. sorry. That’s CRAZY. That’s… effed up. That’s… maddening.
Oh my gosh and I had no idea any of that was happening! Why didn’t you say anything before? You aren’t in on this alone AT ALL.
Gah! I can only imagine how crazy all this had to of been for you. Psycho’s from T.M. actually calling up people pretending to be you! That just tells me the leadership at the H.A. never grew up and needs to be taken out of the positions they are in, for the safety of the interns… well, actually, if we’re talking safety of inters, the whole place needs to be shut down.
I sincerely hope you are reporting these swine (Matthew 7:6!) to the police and/or other authorities. May their own words and actions condemn them. Also, you’d be well within your rights to sue them for invasion of privacy (though perhaps you save the lawsuits for the ESOAL
(Conversely, have you considered commissioning an independent investigator of your own to get some “dirt” on Teen Mania’s activities? Two can play that game.)
I also love how a news story including a lengthy quote from Jon Hasz is “one-sided.” Exactly how stupid does Heath think viewers are? I guess he’s too used to dealing with brainwashed people.
—-
Dear folks at The Abuse Factory That’s Named For a Mental Illness: the more things you do without repenting, the more you look like a cult. How the heck do you expect people to stop believing you’re abusive if you treat them like this? You might as well say, “We’re not false prophets; we know exactly when the world is going to end!”
Thank you for taking the heat, and for continuing to stand for an end to the abuse. We are all behind you.
Just stop being abusive. Stop PRETENDING it’s not abuse and just stop doing it. What have you got to lose, TM?
Unless there’s a reason they’re continuing this pattern. Do they really, I mean REALLY, think this is what God wants them to do? Or is it petty stubbornness at this point?
TM’s not-so-bright side has finally been exposed, and they’re trying to dig dirt up on YOU? That’s nothing short of pathetic, honestly :/
I can understand the counsel behind hiring a lawyer preemptively in the event that someone who has been hurt by TM does the same, but a PI? Doesn’t that seem a little sleezy?
I’m sure you’re all very happy to know that this is where your money is going.
@ TeenMania – Thank you for reminding me why it is that i now longer believe in the church or subscribe it it’s doctrines. You actions are NOTHING remotely christ-like. In fact your actions are shameful.
@ RA – Thank you for being brave enough to stand up to their bullying and hate-filled actions. I really can not put into words how much it means to to me to know that 1) I am not the only one wounded by TM. 2) I am not the looser, unlovable, didn’t measure up, person TM said I was. I can see now that is was all lie’s.
Thank you.
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Forget the “log in their own eye”; they’ve got a telephone pole.
thanks,
mouse
Like Layne said, I can’t figure out why they would hire a private investigator. Maybe they think that you obtained the alumni e-mails illegally, and want to prove it so they can bring a lawsuit. Which, I’m guessing you didn’t…they are all available on the alumni site. Or maybe they want to figure out who you have on the inside that is leaking info…or something.
I am so, SO sorry you are going through all this. And all for trying to reach out to people who are hurting, and for trying to stop others from being hurt. You have a lot of people willing to stand behind you. Thanks for everything.
<3
After reading this most recent post of yours I realize the severity of the situation at the Honor Academy, and I will never support Teen Mania or any affiliated ministries of theirs from this day forward. I will alert anyone I know who plans to attend the HA or Teen Mania about the evils that go on there.
I pray that God will grant you favor and reveal the truth behind this smear tactic of theirs.
the leadership are the ones who have secured a PI/lawyer…the PI…that’s just ridic. the lawyer…meh, makes a little more sense.
being vandalized and pranked really, really sucks, and it’s beyond inappropriate, but i’m pretty sure that grown men are not doing it.
i believe in this community, but one thing i’ve always hated about online communities is “hive mind”…that wonderful loyalty and camaraderie that have been cultivated can turn so quickly on anyone or anything that even APPEARS to pose a threat to someone who is part of the community. i have read comments and responses from RA community members in response to people who’re trying to present another perspective…and they might even have been doing it in a perfectly mature and respectful way…and the responses from the supposedly loving and generous RA community were…well, they were disappointing.
i keep hearing the verse “in your anger, sin not” with respect to this issue…believe me…i get righteously indignant (and sometimes…not so righteous about it)…but i just feel like…if we don’t like what they’re doing…BE DIFFERENT. be REALLY DIFFERENT. and i think we’ve often missed the mark on that point.
Maybe they blabbed to a recent alumnus, and they did it in a fit of zeal? I don’t know. It’s all so crazy.
I just can’t see the leadership themselves doing that, and I can’t see current interns doing it. However, I wouldn’t put it past an alumnus. Hell, I would’ve probably done something like that, pre-TM sobriety.
Hate to break it to you, gc1998, but this kind of stuff is inherent to the system. The founders/”leaders” set the tone for everything else, and the usual high-demand group/”cult” dynamics are at work; and in the usual way, as the group approaches middle age, identifying and taking action against perceived enemies, often named as those who simply verbalize and communicate a differing view of the organization, becomes one of the group’s primary activities.
Teen Mania is evidently following a well-worn path followed by all kinds of groups from all sorts of cultures. Some are easy to name, other obscure groups have long come and gone, and of course this dynamic is also common to toxic interpersonal relationships.
I’ll again point out this snippet from the Honor Academy Handbook, the version dated 1/18/2005, page 3: “5. I will never portray or allow Teen Mania to be portrayed in a negative light.” (My emphasis.) No qualifiers on that, are there? Couple that to some permutation of “touch not God’s anointed” and other internalized cultural norms, and the outcome is intimidation, petty vandalism, and possibly worse, since an openly verbalized core tenet instructs participants to shut down anything casting the institution in a “negative light.”
That there’s plenty of factually-supported “negative” things to talk about is irrelevant to them. That the leadership may deny authorizing particular actions is also irrelevant – they’ve issued a blanket instruction in the context of a group of Very Special People Who Are To Be Leaders. Divinely sanctioned, God’s “chosen” people. They created the farm, this is the product. Denial, being inherent to this system, is meaningless.
It doesn’t matter whether or not Dave Hasz, Ron Luce (who?) or any of the other principals know about what’s happening. They don’t need to know, in fact, it’s to their advantage not to know. They built the system to create this outcome. Ron Luce has outright said that he wanted to create a movement that would go “out of control,” so no one should be surprised when it does exactly that.
I don’t think we really have to necessarily shine Jesus light unless we’re followers of Jesus. I know a few on here aren’t.
What has seemed to happen is R.A. has on some levels called out T.M. (though, I think, not the point of this sight entirely, it was just a result.) and now there are direct issues that need to get taken care of. So, even with the comments, T.M. is 100% accountable to the accusations. Our spirituality has nothing to do with this.
Thank you R.A. community for helping me see true justice. 🙂
All commonly used tricks in hacking communities.
(The stuff on the door was probably drano or paint remover. Not especially dangerous, but enough to take the paint off. Did they try to write something with it?)
I gave TMM nearly three years of my life and upwards of $8800 to work for them for 20 months. I would expect this place of business to be a bit more respectful of the people who literally put money, sweat, tears, and heartache into making it the colossal Christian business it is today.
I am with gc in thinking that the acts of vandalism are being done by some super zealous, ingrained in the system second or third year intern.
Oh TM, I have finally given up hope for you…:(