Julia Scheeres Blog

The Muncie (Indiana) Starr Press did an expose on New Horizons Youth Ministries this Sunday. They interviewed many alums, as well as parents who pulled their daughter from the program after they visited the Dominican Republic and found "their daughter was being whipped every week with a leather paddle."

Here's a great sidebar on why tough love programs don't work.

Jesus Land won a "Reader's Choice" award from Elle Magazine.
I must renew my subscription....

Due to pressure from alumni to stop physical abuse at New Horizon facilities, the board of directors apparently voted at the end of September to stop the humiliating practice of spanking its teenage charges. Now if they'd just abolish body slams, hire qualified staff, and address students' emotional problems instead of coercing them to pretend to conform to the program's rules while being further damaged by the futile policy of "behavioral modification."

Read more about students' negative experiences at the school at The Truth about New Horizons.

Here's a shout out to the group of alumni who picketed New Horizon's Marion, Indiana headquarters this past weekend. Some travelled from as far away as Georgia to protest the school's annual Founder's Day. I have nothing but contempt for the school's happily-deceased founder, Gordon Blossom, who threatened to "strip me naked and beat me black and blue" when I was 17. Too bad his reform school empire didn't die along with him.

The protest was covered by a few local news stations:

Most coverage here.


Students Protest Treatment At Boarding School
Oct 02, 2006 - (Marion, IN)--Former students of a boarding school in Marion are protested their treatment at the school.
New Horizons Youth Ministries runs the boarding school.

Administrators, at the Marion branch of the school say kids in the program have attitude problems that require strict structure and discipline.

But students who went through the program say the abuse they suffered can't be justified.

Yesterday was New horizons' Founders Day.

Protestors felt that was a good time to express their distaste for the church. (Edited by Paula Hinton)