From an online friend:

Here’s a real horror story: a place called Mercy Ministries claimed to offer psychiatric help to people in Australia, and what they offered instead was nightmarish religious discipline and doctrine. There’s something subtle in there, too, that ought to make us ashamed: the Australian reporter calls it an “American-style ministry”. Isn’t it sad to see that our country is becoming an adjective for idiocy?

Anyway, here’s one woman’s summary of her “treatment”.

Nine months without medical treatment, nine months without any psychiatric care, nine months of being told she was not a good enough Christian to rid herself of the “demons” that were causing her anorexia and pushing her to self-harm. After being locked away from society for so long, Naomi started to believe them. “I just felt completely hopeless. I thought if Mercy did not want to help me where do I stand now?”

And here’s another account:

Careful and articulate, her struggle with the horror of her descent into despair at the hands of Mercy is only evidenced by the occasional tremor in her hands and voice as she describes her experience. She was sharing the house with 15 other girls and young women, with problems ranging from teenage pregnancies, alcohol and drug abuse, self harm, depression, suicidal thoughts and eating disorders.

“There were girls who had got messed up in the adult sex industry – a real range of problems, some incorporating actual psychiatric illness, others just dealing with messy lives, and the approach to all those problems was the same format,” Johnson says.

Counselling involved working through a white folder containing pre-scripted prayers.

“Most of the staff were current Bible studies or Bible college students, and that is it, if anything. You just cannot play around with mental illness when you do not know what you are doing. Even professionals will acknowledge that it is a huge responsibility working in that field, and that is people who have six years, eight years university study behind them.”

And while there was nothing that was formally termed “exorcism” in the Sydney house, Naomi was forced to stand in front of two counsellors while they prayed and spoke in tongues around her. In her mind, it was an exorcism. “I felt really stupid just standing there – they weren’t helping me with the things going on in my head. I would ask staff for tools on how to cope with the urges to self harm … and the response was: ‘What scriptures are you standing on? Read your Bible.”

This is the bottom line.

And yet Mercy continues to operate without the scrutiny of government authorities, under the radar and with impunity.

Of course. A lot can be forgiven if you just label it “religious”.

from http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

March 18, 2008

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More…Hillsong Church, Gloria Jeans linked to abuse claims

March 17, 2008 01:13am

YOUNG women suffering mental illness were treated with Bible studies and exorcisms as part of a secretive ministry linked to Gloria Jean’s Coffees and the Hillsong Church.

Troubled young women signed over months of their lives to Mercy Ministries, which offered them little or no medical or psychiatric care, the Sydney Morning Herald investigation found.

Three former ministry residents have blown the whistle on the program, claiming they were independent young women when they entered, but came out broken and suicidal, believing – as ministry staff had told them – that they were possessed by demons and that Satan controlled them.

The women have since been forced to undergo years of intense psychological and psychiatric care to overcome their treatment at the ministry.

Membership at the ministry required residents to sign over any Centrelink benefits, and it is believed the group also received a carers payment to look after the women, the Herald reported.

The Mercy Ministries website says the group takes in women aged 16 to 28 and offers them support from “psychologists, general practitioners, dietitians, social workers, (and) career counsellors”.

However, the three residents who have spoken out about the ministry said no professional medical services were provided, and instead the program focused on prayer, Christian counselling and expelling demons from in and around the young women.

“Mercy Ministries staff address the issues that the residents face from a holistic client-focused approach; physical, mental, emotional. The program is voluntary and all aspects are explained comprehensibly to the residents and no force is used,” ministry executive manager of programs Judy Watson told the Herald.

Mercy Ministries, sponsored by Gloria Jean’s and supported by the Hillsong Foundation, says it has a 90 per cent success rate from its programs.

from http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23387558-2,00.html

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There is a longer article in the SMHerald: They prayed to cast Satan from my body Ruth Pollard http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/03/16/1205602195122.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2