UPDATE: I suggest sending your questions in ahead of time to make sure they get answered. The email address is confcall@recoveringalumniresponse.com. In case you haven’t heard, Honor Academy leadership is hosting a conference call tonight at 8pm Central Time. I’d like to make a few suggestions. (If you can’t make it, they’ve announced they will publish an audio […]
Honor Academy Conference Call Tonight Read More »
A reader and fellow alumnus wrote this essay and sent it to me. I thought he made some great points and it was worth sharing here. Please keep the discussion civil. 🙂 1. Embrace actual doctrine: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate
8 Things Teen Mania Needs to Change Read More »
A reader and fellow alumnus wrote this essay and sent it to me. I thought he made some great points and it was worth sharing here. Please keep the discussion civil. 🙂 1. Embrace actual doctrine: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate
Eight Things Teen Mania Needs to Change Read More »
(Moderator’s Note: This story and the comments below briefly, and with minimal detail, mentions rape.) Life After the Honor Academy: Once home, I received one phone call from a guy friend to see how I was doing, then nothing. It was as if I never existed to TM or any of my friends. I was
Kate’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
I started the Honor Academy in January 1997 just after Teen Mania moved to Garden Valley. Things started out on the wrong foot from the get go. I was under Kim W’s supervision and she seemed to take an instant dislike to me. I later learned that this was partly because Kim was best friends
Kate’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
I, like so many others, was introduced to Teen Mania at an ATF. I went on my first Global Expeditions Mission Trip the following summer to Russia (’93), I was 13. For the first time I felt like I had a place were I just fit in. In many ways TM became my family. I
Kate’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
Oh. My. Goodness. Look at what this place has become! I can honestly say that I NEVER expected this blog to gather such a wonderful and healing community together. One year ago today, I attended a seminar on understanding and recovering from a cult. I was struck at the similarities between the experiences he was
It’s My Blog Birthday! Read More »
I have been reading through the RA site here and there, and in the beginning, I will be honest, my thoughts were something like, “Well, good for them. They are hurting and finding a way to work through it.” But I felt disconnected. It has been 15 years since I was part of TM, before
(2021 Moderator’s Note: Allie’s Story is part of The Vault, a series of drafts that were discovered in a backup file from 2011. These posts were not published for some reason but are now being published. If this is your story and do not want your story to remain published, please email me at recoveringalumni
When I arrived at the HA, I was placed in a room with Alex, a life saver at this point. My so called ACA showed up a week late and was promptly dismissed. I don’t even remember his name or even his face. During my first week we had corporate exercise. We didn’t have an
Mark’s Story: Part 2 (Global Expeditions Review) Read More »
I attended ATFs in Denver since 1996. The first time I went to ATF it was amazing, the preaching, the music, it was so wonderful. I wondered how someone could ever be that kind of Christian. I grew up in a Southern Baptist background. I went every year waiting until I could attend the HA.
Mark’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
(2025 Update: The video has been taken down at the request of the video owner. We have reached an agreement on getting it back online but I haven’t been able to finish that project. It’s almost like there was a whole documentary and influx of visitors taking my attention. My hope is to get it
Honor Academy ESOAL: Never Before Seen Footage #2 Read More »
The other major thing I got confronted about constantly was “rebellion.” Any opposing thought or belief not preached to us by our leaders was considered “rebellion.” Had I actually believed everything that people were confronting me about, I would have ended up hanging myself in the Back 40. Thank God (literally) there is grace. Without
Mariana’s Story: Part 3 Read More »
During Gauntlet Week, we had numerous interviews and personality tests. I didn’t know at the time that behind every curtain the Directors of Oz were hiding out listening to our conversations Big Brother-style so they could determine who they wanted for their team for our “ministry placements” (i.e. free youth labor). I had been majoring
Mariana’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
FYI: This story is a 3 part story. I was a sophomore in college when I was called to the Honor Academy. I was living with 4 guys and 2 other girls in a house we dubbed “The Real World.” The majority of us had never met and had found out through a friend-of-a-friend about the rooms
Mariana’s Story: Part 1 Read More »
I recently received a copy of a letter that an alumnus wrote to the Board of Directors. Although the Board knows his identity, for the purposes of the blog, he wishes to remain anonymous as he said, “I do not want any honor coming to me for what I wrote and such – I’d rather
Open Letter to the Board of Directors Read More »
(2025 Update: The video has been taken down at the request of the owner. We have reached an agreement on bringing it back online BUT I keep not working on it. It’s almost like a documentary came out and suddenly everything is on the back burner. Hopefully this will be back by August. Thanks for
Honor Academy ESOAL: Never Before Seen Footage Read More »
RT @RickWarren: Anyone who claims to believe in grace but doesn’t freely GIVE IT to everyone is a liar. See 1 John 4:20 Mark Driscol 8 comments: CarrieSaum said… Grace for and to everyone. A good reminder. June 4, 2010 9:54 AM Anonymous said… RA: Do you give grace to Dave Hasz & Ron Luce?
The last time I spoke with the Board of Directors, they assured me that, based on our letters, a panel would be convened to investigate several key areas of the Honor Academy. They would seek out members of the panel from the fields of medicine, psychology and theology. As part of their investigation, the panel would interview
Response from the Board of Directors Read More »
I hold no ill will toward Teen Mania and have come to terms with my experience, forgiven people, and moved on. However, I feel like I need to share my experience with the board of directors in order potentially improve the Honor Academy as a whole and spare others from a similar experience. My experience
Note from RA: I expect to hear back from the Board of Directors today. If I do, I will post a full update tomorrow morning. When I first started reading about the experiences at TM I was a little skeptical. It led me to think about my experiences at TM. I was a January intern
Ok, yesterday we talked about Teen Mania’s standards for women on campus so here’s a little something so that the men don’t feel left out. I’d love to give the context for this, but I have absolutely no idea what it is. Maybe someone can explain in the comments…Click the author’s feed to see a
If you are drinking something, put it down right now, otherwise it may come out of your nose. An alumnus sent me the following document, “Ways a Teen Mania Woman Acts on Campus,” that was presented to all intern women during her year. My comments and questions are in italics. Curriculum for Practical Guidelines for
Honor Academy: Ways a Teen Mania Woman Acts on Campus Read More »
I’ve been following the blog of Michelle Arnold, former HA staffer and wife to Rod Arnold, another former TM staff member. On her anniversary, Michelle wrote a great post about marriage. She starts by saying: I once heard someone say if you marry the right person, you will never have a fight. That person is
Another Perspective on Marriage Read More »
Somehow with the second semester, all hell broke loose. I hadn’t realized how lonely I would become as the second semester worse on. Many of the people I really confided in had graduated at the end of my first semester. I began to feel very out of place. The powers that be moved me to
Shannon’s Story: Part 2 Read More »
