This afternoon, after the local news reported on ESOAL, Teen Mania removed their response website and instead forwarded the link to the website hosted at www.hastories.com.
Here is a link to their original response site.
Teen Mania, what are you afraid of?
UPDATE: 24 hours later, 3 of the original letters from the original response site have been posted to www.hastories.com. However, the audio from the conference call and the psychologist’s letter were not posted. In addition, they are posted in blog format and will be pushed aside as more articles are posted. Thus, they are not easily accessible to anyone searching for this information. I wonder why they want to make it difficult for people to find?
2nd UPDATE: As soon as the news coverage was over, Teen Mania deleted all of the recovering alumni response material.
wow, would have loved to been a fly on the wall when that decision was being discussed…This does not look good on TMs part…they are hiding something…
Amazing. Where did all your secrets get you now? CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT. CULT.
They just finally got embarrassed by the HORRIBLE writing in their response letter and thought they might need to edit it.
WOW! I am shocked.
1) They either think this is over and therefore there is no need for the website.
2) They realize just how horrible the response site was in the first place and therefore took it down to save face.
3) They just don’t care anymore. They feel they have been successful at shutting down the complaints of past cult members and their cult membership continues to grow despite ex-cult members presence.
Which do you think?
Google Cache is awesome-
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:aGePec-5luMJ:recoveringalumniresponse.com/+recoveringalumniresponse.com&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
#2
Okay, now that I watched the news feature, I would have to agree that this was an effort to save face. They directed it back to hastories.com to cover their asses.
Once more RA, thank you for speaking out for the truth. I recently wrote Dave Hasz an email in which I poured out my heart and soul, and was given fluff to shut me up.
That was my last olive branch to TM.
What whomever was dumb enough to make this decision didn’t think about is that once something is put on the internet, it can NOT be fully erased. Bad TM, Bad TM.
Gee….I wonder if the big heads there realized how stupid a move that was. As RA proved, once something is taken from the internet, it’s never REALLY gone.
I am proud of you guys- you will be persecuted and antagonized over your decision to go public and bring these issues up- but if you save one child from going through the emotional, mental and physical abuses and losing touch with a Loving God- then it is worth it.
ExStaffer
Ex-Staffer, thank you! You have no idea what your support means to us!
I am a wife to one of the alumni and I feel horrified by the stories he has told me. I am sorry to all of you. I am glad you are standing up and fighting and so is he. You all are in my prayers. If you all keep speaking up more children will be saved from this torture.
What a video!
I think the part that they said it was voluntary is very important. If that is true I am not sure what all the hype is about, especially if those interns could also choose to end anytime they want. There are a lot of things the the news either takes out of context or only represents one side, ex: we saw the enraged past intern complain about that, but we didn’t get to see an interview with one of the interns who even though crawled through the mud and puked came out with a positive experience. I came upon your website as I was looking into different ministries for my younger brother to participate in after high school.
Brandon,
That’s kind of like saying of a woman who continues to return to her abusive husband that the abuse “Can’t be that bad”. That’s why emotional (and in this case spiritual) manipulation is so effective. There are countless interns who survived ESOAL with some superior, spiritual high. It doesn’t make it any less abusive.
Hi Brandon – you’re right in saying that it’s “voluntary” however, as some of us have mentioned here, the problem is, if you don’t participate (or ring out early) you’re made to feel like you are somehow less of a person and less of a Christian. Like if you had more faith or a better relationship with God you would participate and not ring out early. And yes, people at TM actually said these things to some of us upon our decision not to participate…enter spiritual abuse. So, yes, it is voluntary, but if a person doesn’t participate they should prepare to be coerced and looked down upon and have their relationship with God called into question…what a choice!
Brandon,
While the event is optional, many people (though not everyone) feel immense pressure to participate. There is an underlying current in HA culture that if you don’t push yourself past the limits people believe you should, then you’re not a very good Christian. I participated in ESOAL, and at the time I was happy to because EVERYONE did. I rang out early, and while I (unlike others) didn’t feel outside condemnation for doing so, I was wracked with guilt for years afterward because I questioned whether or not I had really reached BAR. I was sure I had when I went up to ring the bell, but was almost immediately filled with doubt. I was convinced God was mad at me for being weak, and I had to do something to make up for it. The issue with ESOAL is that your performance is directly tied you your spiritual worth, just like everything else at the Honor Academy. Even if someone didn’t feel looked down upon by others, they probably beat themselves up over the decision to ring out.
And nearly everyone, while in the bubble, thinks ESOAL and HA are the bomb.com. I sure did. But now, not being an impressionable 18 year old, and having some real world experience under my belt (which ESOAL didn’t help me deal with at all, by the way), I can see the manipulation and blatant legalism. An abused wife or girlfriend will often want to stay with her husband or boyfriend and is often resistant to pressing charges. Just because a bunch of people think it was great to roll down a hill covered in vomit doesn’t mean it’s morally right or good for them.
To demonstrate how hastily the site was redirected, only the index page of recoveringalumniresponse.com was redirected to hastories.com.
I clicked a link on the Google cache and found the internal pages are still there and not being redirected.
For example:
http://recoveringalumniresponse.com/letter-from-david-hasz/
http://recoveringalumniresponse.com/response-from-the-board-of-directors/letter-from-jack-hayford/
To Krista, Renae, and Anonymous-
Thank you for your responses. They seem genuine. I would not consider this retreat in the same parameters to an abusive relationship. I have to believe that the leaders were praying and interceding for all the interns participating or not, even in the midst of the torment of the event. I am sure most if not all of the leaders had to try extremely hard to put on a cold hard face.
I know that any religion has legalism because it is created by man, but if you look at the core of what this retreat is all about I believe you will find that it is trying to push you closer to Your Yahweh, screaming at you to trust in Him. And God our provider Our Abba Father who is there to comfort your, had His arms out waiting to take these interns to soar on wings like eagles as they trusted in Him.
I don’t want real world experiences to look through I want Jesus and what He has to offer. If we continue to look through our experience our own glasses we will find the splinters in our neighbors eye before we want to remove the plank of judgement in our own.
God is the judge, we were created to love our God and love our neighbor as ourselves.
I don’t know where I am necessarily going with this but I sometimes see that we are so focused on the negative that we don’t see His brilliance all around us.
As I sat in the hospital bed vomiting and losing my hair, going through chemotherapy. I had the unique opportunity to either become embittered that this happened to me or the opposite and cry out to my Jesus and say “I will worship you still even in the midst of what is going on in me and all around me.” I believe that is what I took out of my ESOAL experience as I went through it twice and on my second time through I actually had leukemia (I didn’t know it at the time but because I had been bit by a spider while I was rolling in the mud my doctor wanted to take some blood work when I got back home because I was sick I mean really sick) And it was because of the bite that we found out that I had AML for about 2 1/2 weeks, so praise God for that spider bite and I praise God for ESOAL, because if it wasn’t for that I may not have found out that I had cancer until it was too late.
There seem to be 2 Brandon’s here (or 1 liar). One Brandon has never attended the HA and one has. Help us keep you guys straight.
One Brandon attended the honor academy and not lying.
Cool story bro.
Brandon – is this your comment?
I think the part that they said it was voluntary is very important. If that is true I am not sure what all the hype is about, especially if those interns could also choose to end anytime they want. There are a lot of things the the news either takes out of context or only represents one side, ex: we saw the enraged past intern complain about that, but we didn’t get to see an interview with one of the interns who even though crawled through the mud and puked came out with a positive experience. I came upon your website as I was looking into different ministries for my younger brother to participate in after high school.
It makes it sound like you haven’t been to the HA.
The fact that every religion has legalism doesn’t mean we shouldn’t point it out when we see it and it doesn’t mean ministries shouldn’t try to change things when legalism is pointed out to them. As you say, people are fallible. Just because the leadership was praying for the participants and genuinely felt for them doesn’t mean they were doing the right thing. Many, many cases of parental abuse have gone through the courts involving parents who abuse their kids in the name of punishing them for being bad. They think they’re doing “what’s best for them” or “teaching them a lesson.”
I also have a question…does the “heart” behind an event negate the fact that many people have come out of it injured spiritually, mentally, and physically? Does the fact that they had good intentions make it okay?
There is also a Brandon commenting as an alumnus on the “Jesus needs better PR” site as well as the Tyler news site. The comments are very similar to the “it was voluntary” comment here.
So I went to H.A. stories and they put the same letters up. So I guess they aren’t that scared? T.M. is confusing.
That is brand new. Thanks for pointing it out.
Looks like the conference all audio is gone, as well as the letter from the psychologist (that is brother to a staff member).
Sorry guys, it’s a different Brandon. I am an alumnus and ex-staffer.
I like that they are calling it “True HA Stories.”
I was almost raped by an HA Staff member one night.
I wonder if they will put my “true” story on their site.
What do you think?
Anon – They won’t but I will.
Sadly, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard that, either.
Oh my gosh Anon. I am so sorry.
You are safe here. I wonder how many other times that has actually happened. Teen Mania is a campus full of sinful people just like everywhere else just with such a high standard it’s more ‘honorable’ to cover it all up sometimes. (whether that’s what’s said or not. it’s unspoken.)
That was very wrong. Letting it out really does help. While tough and painful brining it into the light really does change things.
@ Last Anon 6:01
WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am speechless, i mean words just fail me right now.
I am so so sorry
I have the file of the conference call downloaded and saved. I can provide it to anyone that wants it so that it can be uploaded to HAstories or to this site so that this crucial discussion and documentation may continue.
Blue Lantern
Thanks Blue Lantern! I’ve got it as well and will upload it on its own post.
Hannah,
Here’s a hug. Which you probably don’t want.
I’d have to agree with “God’s” first comment.
I pray you see the height, and depth, and length and breadth of the love of God. Mica walks in this. I pray that He finds you in a way that settles your mind and heart and causes joy to course through every area of your existence. You have a great calling, to be sure.
Give grace to those who are and aren’t like you. Defend vehemently the weak and vulnerable whom God puts in your path.
We will do the same.
Dear Anon 6:01-
Thank you for having the courage to share that, even anonymously.
We care about you a lot. Please continue to receive support and a listening ear from this blog community. You are valuable and precious. God have mercy on that twisted person! You are not alone. Thank you for speaking up.
(with sincere admiration- joyG)
Oops. Looks like my 1:25pm comment was attached the the wrong post. Refer to the post and discussion from Sept.22 re:ESOAL.