I know I shouldn’t be surprised by the way Teen Mania continues to lie and mislead the public about its activities. Now that the vow of silence has been broken, they are scared to death that the truth about the Honor Academy, and specifically ESOAL/PEARL will come to light, so they are waging an all out propaganda effort so that their supply of free labor will continue.
They have uploaded a plethora of videos about the PEARL in an attempt to show how safe, spiritual and downright fun it is! In particular, this video of rolling the hill caught my attention.
There are two major red flags with this video.
1) If you wanted to show the world that you are brainwashing kids, I don’t know a better way to do that then to show those same kids enthusiastically rolling down a hill of vomit. They are laughing and singing and acting like this is the very best time they’ve ever had.
I mean – this can’t even be satirized – it’s that bizarre. “Teen Mania is awesome! I love rolling down this vomit covered hill! I’m not being abused – see I’m laughing and enjoying myself!!”
What?!? This is seriously so beyond belief – I feel like I’m getting punked or something.
2) To my knowledge, rolling the hill has been a staple of every single ESOAL/PEARL. Why is that? Is it because its fun and the kids love it so much?
NO!
It’s because it causes them to be very physically uncomfortable! They are vomiting. When stating the rules of “Beenie Weenie Hill” (so named because that’s what people first threw up on it), Dave Hasz says, “If you throw up, you may stand up.” Previous ESOAL videos PROMINENTLY featured kids looking miserable going down the hill, vomiting and crying.
In fact, one of the mind games played on interns in both THIS year and former years is the winner of a challenge is forced to choose what team will have to roll the hill. If rolling the hill is so much fun – then why is it used as punishment?
For reference, please fast forward to 3:16 in the following video. Do these interns look like they are having fun?
I can show you all kinds of footage of vomiting interns – why didn’t Heath include that in his video update?
Do you see the VAST DIFFERENCE in how rolling the hill is presented in the video that was originally intended only for interns vs. the video that is intended for the public at large?
I’m sure the interns in this year’s video were coached to give the proper reactions. Teen Mania knows the stakes and the leadership, I’m sure, repeatedly told the interns that these videos would be used to show the outside world how awesome Teen Mania is. And a good intern ALWAYS portrays Teen Mania in a positive light. They knew what they had to do.
But the fact that a major Christian youth ministry is showcasing a video of teenagers who ENJOY ROLLING DOWN A VOMIT COVERED HILL as proof that they are having fun and are completely safe – it just BOGGLES THE MIND.
And if you think that this isn’t a big deal – it just shows how desensitized you are to Teen Mania’s craziness.
32 comments:
Were they forced?
I think the question is, “Were they brainwashed?”
I hated that hill more than any part of ESOAL. I didn’t actually vomit, but I felt horribly nauseated for the remainder of the event (it might have made life easier had my body had allowed me to vomit, but it’s very difficult for me to do this as I regularly get car sick and my body has adapted to “keeping it in” no matter what). I couldn’t go near “beenie weenie hill” for months afterward because I would automatically become nauseated. I don’t remember singing, laughing… I remember the retching and sobbing. Choose joy? Right, Dave. Right.
I didn’t watch the videos, cause vomit and I don’t really hang out (I actually convinced myself when I was an intern that participating in ESOAL would cure me of emetophobia- not my smartest move), but… just the fact that they seem so happy about it? That just READS creepy. Especially with the contrast to prior years.
Like, even without all the context… wouldn’t that seem, I dunno, off to parents? I mean, I guess maybe not if it was cushioned with layers of “NO WAY GUYS WE GOT THIS- YOUR KID’S IN GOOD HANDS (honest)”?
I dunno, man, I just remember Dave saying something along the lines of “We don’t want to be associated with anything that even looks like hazing!”.
Then why not get rid of the program as a whole?
It’s not just a harmless exercise to bring you closer to God if it’s that necessary to the Machine…
The parts that stood out to me the most, besides the bad acting, were all the militaristic aspects of the scene that were present. I was under the impression that they were supposed to have removed those aspects, but I guess they only removed the militaristic titles and nothing else. But when you give everybody plastic army helmets, make them stand in formation, and require them to yell “SIR YES SIR”, you’re not fooling anyone.
Watching these videos, especially DH walking up and down the line reminded me of an odd interaction I once had with him. He asked me if I had noticed other students using a certain phrase like “that’s golden” or something like that. Then he went on to explain a sort of experiment he was performing on students. He would invent some new catchphrase and use it all the time, and then he would watch and see if others would start copying him. He got some sort of weird kick out of observing the students follow his behavior. At the time I thought DH walked on water, but even then this particular activity seemed kind of strange to me.
btw, they were pretending that ringing the bell was like denying Jesus (9:30)? Crazy
IWantToBeAClone – That is creepy, but not surpising. Just more evidence that Dave Hasz gets his thrills by playing mind games with innocent people.
As far as ringing the bell = to denying Christ, that was never explicitly taught, but as you can see it wasn’t hard for people to come to that conclusion on their own – and Teen Mania didn’t mind putting it in their official video…
I believed they have stepped it up from previous years. God bless the leadership of TMN, I haven’t 4 children so far and will send 4 more.
I feel so encouraged to have true joy.
I have personally witnessed positive changes with PEARL. As one who has volunteered as a medic with ESOAL for several years and this year with PEARL, the leaders of the ministry have made great strides to improve safety and leadership structure during the course of the event. One example: where before I would volunteer 16 to 20 hours per day, this year I had a set schedule, 12 on, 12 off. A great team of medical personnel always available and on campus. For the first time in years I’ve been able to relax on my time off knowing the kids were safe and well cared for during the event. That’s just one of many examples of the improvements I’ve seen this year. I think the leadership of the ministry is on the right track.
Dear Medic – Thank you for your input. It just proves that Teen Mania won’t care for the safety of interns until they are forced to by outside pressure.
IWantToBeAClone: TM doesn’t teach that ringing the bell is like denying Christ, but the interns often use different strategies to try to make ringing the bell as unappealing as possible, such as telling themselves that ringing the bell would be like denying Christ if the PEARL were real persecution. Another strategy I’ve heard includes saying that you are going through ESOAL/PEARL for an unsaved friend, and ringing out would be giving up on them.
Medic. As some in the medical profession aren’t you a mandatory reporter of abuse? If in the past you were concerned for peoples safety can care when not in your presents that should raise some flags. Yes?
sboys – what is “true joy”?
Recovering Alumni – you are welcome. However, please do not use my statement to assume or insinuate that Teen Mania did not care for their interns prior these changes. One of our medical professionals this year was a graduate of Teen Mania’s Honor Academy and a participant of ESOAL several years ago. We agreed that this event is a learning process for everyone involved, each year we’ve seen improvements and each year lessons are learned from previous events, long before outside pressure.
Abby – Abuse, really? I know abuse and in my career I’ve reported what I felt was abuse for both elderly and children. I’m a strong advocate of patient rights, as well holding accountable the responsibilities of caregivers and parents or guardians. No, this is not abuse.
Medic – But you specifically say that out of the past “several years,” this is the “first time in years” that you felt “the kids were safe and well cared for.”
So, by your own account, for several years the kids were in a medically unsafe situation with substandard care. You say the conditions were on such a poor level that until now you didn’t feel “able to relax on my time off.”
You seriously don’t see that as a bad thing? Listen to yourself!!!
Frankly, your glib denial of unsafe conditions concerns me as badly as any of the firsthand accounts of intern abuse on this website.
Please face the facts! Putting kids in medically unsafe conditions for years, which is what you specifically said TM did, is unquestionably abuse, maybe even reckless endangerment. HA has not so much as said “sorry” for doing it. As someone who’s personally responsible for people’s safety, you need to face reality, not TM’s pathetic B.S. about “change.”
If the medics in charge of PEARL think that years of reckless endangerment are nothing to be concerned about, then that proves beyond a doubt that PEARL is just as unsafe as ESOAL was.
Eric – My concerns for the students, the activity in question and their safety is of a personal nature. I’m a take charge type of individual and with that comes the added bonus of worrying over every detail, First Aid service provided and each student. Hey, I’m a father of three (two are of college age) and I’m especially mindful of the dangers young people subject themselves to. So understand, if I truly felt the students of the ministry were forced to participate in unsafe events or abused in any way I would be the first to report this to state health services. However, and I mean this with utmost respect, you’re picking at my words and blowing my comment way out of proportion. You may have more to offer in regards to the ministry and first hand experiences, and I respect that. I can only speak for the event and my time as a volunteer and what I’ve witnessed.
Um, just watching this makes me want to ‘vomit’!! Unbelievable. And listening to them sing “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart?” YIKES.
Medic – I’m sorry if it seems like I’m twisting your words. My experience, based on observing TM for several years, is that they have in general a callous indifference to medical risk– see the true stories in the health and safety category for way too many past examples. As recently as 2009 an ESOAL participant contracted meningitis from putrid water and nearly died. Why was he in that situation in the first place?
So I’m very bothered by a comment like yours that seems to tacitly acknowledge this–again, “the first time in years [that] the kids were safe and well cared for”!–while treating it as no big deal since TM says “Changes have been made.” (Yeah, the name, I’ll give ’em that one.) Shouldn’t proper safety procedures have been first priority? Why are they just now, several years later, given this kind of attention? If it was my kid– heck, if it was my dog– it would be a huge deal if they were ever unsafe and poorly cared for.
Similarly, I take it as a bad sign if a restaurant advertises, “Nobody’s gotten E. Coli here this week!” Well, good for them, but….
Thus it seems to me that TM’s recent publicity spree is more about improving their image than genuinely righting past wrongs. Where’s the apology to the many years’ worth of interns who got substandard medical attention in ESOAL? Where’s the acknowledgment not just that PEARL in the present is dandy, but ESOAL in the past was wrong? I’m glad that you care, but TM as a whole just doesn’t seem to.
This is a lengthy response, so I apologize in advance:
As a trained paramedic and HA alumnus, I can give a specific perspective here. In paramedic medicine, we are trained to look for specific signs and symptoms of grave danger. We are not doctors, but we do work under their directive. As a medical professional, I am not alarmed when someone gets a bump or a cut or pukes. I also know that they can go for a LONG time before they become ill from lack of adequate food, dehydration, and even hypothermia. What is “safe” is not always the same as “what will not kill you immediately”. And while safety is important, I’m trained to identify what WILL kill you immediately. From an outsider’s medical perspective, ESOAL/PEARL is not as immediately dangerous as say juggling knives covered in butter, or a drunk person wielding a loaded shotgun, or a severed femoral or brachial artery.
As an alum of TM, I can say that I was always positive about how I was feeling, and I would push thru the pain 99% of the time. I had to beat my body and complaining was rarely tolerated. As a paramedic, I would go to calls where someone said they were attacked by a huge dog and that they were bleeding profusely. We would get there and the truth is that they had been snapped at by a dog and it didn’t even break the skin or bruise. So, people in general, would over-exaggerate symptoms or problems.
I think that the interns, for the most part, UNDERPLAY how they feel because it’s what they are taught to do. Ignore their body, ignore their mind when both would say “enough” or “this isn’t safe for me”. Combine that with an EMT’s training/experience and I can totally understand why they don’t think it is abuse. Many EMT’s are also Veterans, so military-style activities for civilians sold as a “fun” experience or retreat might not send off normal red flags.
(Con’t..)
To the medic who helped this year and previous years, I want to sincerely thank you for doing your best to protect and serve these kids. It’s a hard job with hard choices. I have tremendous respect for the service and safety and care that you have provided. I can also tell you, as someone who has experienced the HA first-hand, that it IS abusive. Sometimes the abuse is subversive, other times it is more blatant. I would encourage you to watch some of the other footage of past ESOALs that we have posted here and see for yourself why we lable this as abusive. It isn’t just an exercise to see how far you can push yourself, or a challenge to be conquered. Regardless of superficial changes, PEARL/ESOAL not a retreat in the backwoods, it’s a manipulative indoctrination of faulty and abusive mind-control that will affect these kids for the rest of their lives. And I think that MAYBE on some level you know that it isn’t entirely safe on some level(?) otherwise you wouldn’t have engaged in the conversation.
Teen Mania is sneaky. They can pitch a perfect sale any day of the week. They are EXPERT salesmen. They are so good that they even believe their own damaging rhetoric. They aren’t just regular wolves in sheep’s’ clothing. They are wolves who have worn the sheep’s’ clothing for so long that they believe they are actually real sheep now. It’s incredibly easy to be taken in by them. Add to this that 97% of the people you meet there are genuine and there for the right reasons, it makes it even more difficult to see the reality of what the Honor Academy is.. I encourage you to do your own research and see what you find. I think it will actually break your heart and make your blood boil.
Good comments and thoughts Carrie…..exactly what I think and it’s neat to hear your perspective as a medical professional and an alumnus.
I just participated in the PEARL to an extent. An Alumni of 09, I rushed to get there last minute as its something I’ve always wanted to to. At 12 they went to sleep and I had to come back at 3am to see if I was going to be able to participate or not. Turns out I was. Awesome.
Roughly 10 hours later, I was the VERY FIRST to ring out. Although I had been telling myself I would push through, and I can take a huge amount of pain, I had to stop due to previous injuries.
Afterward, I addressed my group, went to a dorm, showered, changed into uniform, and I went and helped with the Medical. They had PLENTY of help, and EVERYONE had to come in at LEAST once after they officially started the event, to check up on everyone. I’m pretty sure they did this at least once every day though, not too sure, I was at events and whatnot making sure if any injuries took place, I was on hand immediately to help.
I loved the event. I will do it next year, hopefully more prepared. I wasn’t prepared to take on the even in my current state, but I tried.
But I loved every second of it. Anyone could leave at any time. Never did feel pressure to quit, or was I “talked down to.” I even got another EMT friend hired to help at the event, and she loved what she saw, and she was happy with what she saw of Teen Mania as a whole.
Josh, glad to hear that they are finally taking steps toward positive medical safety and care (from your perspective). Too bad it took them 10+ years and a whole lot of bad publicity to finally do this. I can guarantee that ESOAL would be business-as-usual (spiritual/emotional/physical abuse) had Teen Mania not been featured negatively on the local news.
Eh I dont really care about the Pearl or Esoal. I did Esoal 7 years back, and learned a great deal from it. However, that was a different part of my life and ive moved on. I really dont see why everyone on here is bashing TM or Esoal if we havent been apart of it in so long. Sure it may be doing crazy things still but, who cares. We’re no longer apart of it, and life is to short to focus on things that are crazy. If we spend all our life focusing on the things or people that hurt us, then we’re giving them control over us. I choose to be in freedom and no longer deal with them or even associate with them. That is the true path to freedom. – Greg class of 04
But doesn’t it bother you at all that other young adults are subjected to the ridiculousness that is TM? I personally know many interns who left the internship and have lost their relationship with the Lord as a direct result of the things that had been taught to them or had happened to them at the hands of the HA leadership. I don’t look at this as a “bashing” or “hater” site – it’s a whistle blower, sounding the alarm against the false profits and teachings of TM. Truth will set you free…not ignoring the problem like it doesn’t exist.
Greg some people walk away from something they were a part of some see the bad and crazy things things that can and do hurt others and want things to either be better or for others not to get hurt that’s why many of us keep talking about how these things go on.
“Sure it may be doing crazy things still but, who cares. “
When people are being injured emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually, I’m pretty darn sure that JESUS cares. And if Jesus cares about something, I care about it too.
We care about PEARL/ESOAL because we know firsthand how devastating it’s impact can be on some people’s lives. We cannot stay quiet while we see the same abuses that have caused great detriment in our own lives continue to be perpetrated on others. If you don’t care what happens to current interns, that’s fine. But we do. And we are going to continue to advocate for their safety and well being.
“Sure it may be doing crazy things still but, who cares. We’re no longer apart of it, and life is to short to focus on things that are crazy.”
So you’ll turn a blind eye to other people suffering abuse (“things that are crazy”) in the name of God because it’s not directly affecting you anymore?
I think that that’s fine, actually (because honestly, who has the emotional capacity to invest in every case of abuse they become aware of?), but please don’t be so quick to dismiss those who have taken on this cause.
Um, anon/Greg….raising our voices and bringing attention to the abuse at ESOAL, changes are happening…that is a big reason for this community (besides healing)
> ” I really dont see why everyone on here is bashing TM or Esoal if we havent been apart of it in so long.”
Because we care about the people who were hurt by it this year. You know– loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Greg-
That is YOUR path to freedom. Congrats on finding it.