List of Questions for Teen Mania Ministries

Since Dave Hasz has indicated that he will "stay on the call until [he] has given an answer for all of the questions that are emailed in," I decided to compose a list of some of my most burning questions. Here is the e-mail that I sent to Teen Mania about an hour ago--word-for-word and in its entirety. Let's see if Dave Hasz and company specifically responds to each and every question on my list.

Have a question of your own? Send it to Teen Mania at the e-mail address below, and feel free to post a comment with your question here so there is a public record of it before the call!

_____________________________________

Subject: List of Questions for Tonight's Conference Call

From: Teen Mania Watch

To: confcall@recoveringalumniresponse.com

Sent 6/28/2010 at 5:03PM EST

Here is a list of questions I would like to see addressed during this call. I am particularly interested in the animal control issue, ESOAL, and whether or not interns are making repairs to Dave's rental properties without Dave compensating Teen Mania for their services. Looking forward to the call and getting some answers to the very important questions that have been raised.

Thanks,

Robbie

Teen Mania Watch Blogger

1) Lack of sleep is a recurring theme in numerous blogs and Tweets by current and former interns. In some cases, this sleep deprivation has lead to physical and emotional problems. Is there a minimum amount of time that interns are guaranteed to have free between their last activity at night and first activity in the morning (i.e. 9 hours between the last planned activity at night and corporate exercise in the morning)? Does this minimum apply during summer missions? While on the road for Acquire the Fire?

2) Former interns have reported that stray cats that were found on campus were sometimes shot & killed. There are even reports that interns have tortured cats before killing them. How are stray cats and other animals that are found on campus dealt with? Are interns responsible for getting rid of the animals? Is there any supervision by an animal care expert during this process, or any adult supervision whatsoever?

3) Most organizations that plan physically and/or emotionally demanding events plan to have an ample number trained medical professionals available to participants at all times throughout the event. Is a trained and licensed paramedic or other medical professional on hand at all times during ESOAL, 24 hours per day? Are there licensed mental health professionals that participants can speak with at any time during ESOAL?

4) Male interns have reported having their privacy invaded by other interns and "leadership" in the name of "accountability"--specifically, shower curtains are opened by ACAs (and others) to make sure the male intern isn't masturbating. Is this a condoned practice? Has Dave or Heath specifically forbidden this practice among male interns?

5) Many former interns have told stories of long drives to ATFs in distant cities. Is there an adult staff member present with groups of travelling teens at all times? Do teens have to drive through the night, or do they get to stop somewhere for the night to sleep? Are there repercussions if a teen chooses to drive while sleep deprived, putting his/her peers in danger?

6) Dave Hasz teaches that leaders should be "ethical and above reproach." In addition to Dave's salary of around $80,000 per year, he collects $80,000 in rental income from Teen Mania on approximately $400,000 worth of property. A reasonable rent is approximately 1% of market value, or $48,000 per year ($4,000/month). Why the discrepancy? Is this "ethical and above reproach?" Does this "avoid the appearance of evil?"

7) According to publicly-available land records, on April 6, 2010, Dave Hasz paid off his current home in the amount of $378,750, after just a few years of ownership. How was this possible given his income? These same land records indicate several of the other rental properties seem to be paid off in full as well. Did Dave pay off these loans with his own money, or did Teen Mania help him pay down the loans?

8) Do interns from the grounds crew, maintenance, or any other department provide services to or make repairs on Dave Hasz’s rental properties using Teen Mania's resources? Did interns help build Dave’s house without being paid?

9) Did Dave Hasz, Ron Luce, or any other senior staff take pay cuts during Teen Mania’s recent financial crisis? If so, what was the percentage of cuts?

10) What accommodations are available for vegetarian or vegan interns? Are vegetarian options available at all meals? During ESOAL? Do vegetarian/vegan interns have to strictly follow the "eat what you are served" rule on their missions trip, even if it means they have to compromise their values and eat meat?

Dave Hasz Can't Make Up His Mind About Tonight's Call

From the time Teen Mania Ministries announced tonight's conference call, members of the Recovering Alumni community have been expecting to be able to ask questions and interact with Teen Mania leadership live on the conference call. Dave Hasz even made this Facebook post, which says "I will be answering live questions throughout the evening," and definitely makes it seem as if providing your question to Teen Mania in advance via e-mail is completely optional.

However, after posting this note on his Facebook page, controversy erupted, lots of comments ensued, and Dave Hasz appears to have quickly changed his tune--leaving this comment on the very same note:

Did it just suddenly dawn on Dave Hasz that there might be a lot of people on this call? Or could it be that Dave Hasz and the other Teen Mania staff members are afraid they'll be caught off guard, and want to have time to prepare some "canned" answers to tough questions before the call? We may never know....but it appears like if you want your question answered on tonight's call, you'll need to e-mail it to confcall@recoveringalumniresponse.com beforehand.

Teen Mania Ministries to Address Abuse Allegations via Public Conference Call

Teen Mania Ministries has recently announced on their RecoveringAlumniResponse.com website that they will be hosting a conference call to address the serious accusations of physical, emotional, spiritual, and sexual abuse at the Honor Academy recently made by former interns on the Recovering Alumni blog. Dave Hasz (Director of Teen Mania's Honor Academy) and Heath Stoner (Teen Mania's Director of Operations, Men's Program) will be on the call, along with other Teen Mania staff members. Teen Mania has already announced they will be recording the call and posting the recording on their website.

The conference call is taking place tonight, Monday, June 28, 2010 at 9:00pm Eastern time...8:00pm Central time. The call is scheduled to be just 90 minutes, but time may be added as necessary. Here's the dial-in information, as posted on Teen Mania's website:

Phone Number: (214) 377-1252

Public PIN: 14601

It's always interesting when large, Christian, para-church organizations like Teen Mania are under so much pressure that they actually take the time to publicly address the controversy swirling around them. If you have the time, I would highly encourage you to dial in and participate in the call. Keep and eye on this blog and our Twitter page throughout today and the rest of the week for news updates, analysis, and follow-up coverage of Teen Mania's ongoing crisis management efforts.

Who Was on Teen Mania's Honor Academy Review Committee?

"I can assure you that a committee was established and several experts were asked to weigh into the items listed above as well as the items identified in the letters." -Statement from Teen Mania Ministries on May 28, 2010 via the RecoveringAlumniResponse.com website.

It wasn't long ago that alumni of Teen Mania's programs began to form a community online, and realize that they weren't alone in the fact that they had been hurt or abused by this organization. As discussions ensued, members of this community decided they really wanted to see Teen Mania make real changes to their programs, and many Teen Mania alumni submitted very personal stories of their hurts to the Teen Mania Board of Directors. A member of the board told the community that a panel of experts was going to be assembled to really investigate the Honor Academy, and the alumni community was genuinely excited and thought this might be the first step to really changing things at Teen Mania.

Exactly four weeks after making this promise to the community, Teen Mania launched their response website, which unfortunately just leaves many more questions than actual answers. The letter from the Teen Mania Ministries Board of Directors alludes to a "committee" of "experts" being formed, but they fail to mention who was on this investigative committee, or even how many people were on the committee. Were the "experts" completely unbiased? Do they get a paycheck from Teen Mania Ministries? Were any current or former teenage interns on the review committee? We just don't know...because Teen Mania doesn't tell us. We're just asked to rely on their "assurance," as demonstrated by the quote at the top of this blog post. We can't even tell who said "I can assure you..." since the letter is simply signed by "Teen Mania Board of Directors." That's not very assuring if you ask me.

The only two possible "experts" who were willing to put their name on anything written on Teen Mania's response website were Jack Hayford and a psychologist named Douglas N. Neal. Jack Hayford sat on the board of directors of Teen Mania for many years and is personal friends with C.E.O. Ron Luce, and Douglas N. Neal had two kids who went to the Honor Academy--neither of these experts are unbiased, and neither person is qualified to make a neutral and honest assessment of Teen Mania's programs.

Without knowing who was on the Honor Academy review committee, or how their investigation was conducted, it is difficult to just take Teen Mania's word that things are fine and that any problems that existed have been fixed. The U.S. government relied on BP's assessments that their offshore oil rig was safe and that any accidents would be minor....and that's not exactly the way things have turned out. If Teen Mania expects people to believe that the Honor Academy isn't a dangerous place for kids, they need to be a lot more transparent about things than they have been on their website so far.

Teen Mania Ministries Issues Public Response to Abuse Allegations

As most readers already know, Teen Mania Ministries has issued a public response to the allegations of abuse and mistreatment at the Honor Academy chronicled on the RecoveringAlumni.com website. Late Friday night, an anonymous commenter on the Recovering Alumni blog left a link to a new Teen Mania website, RecoveringAlumniResponse.com. Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a "response," and was more like a bunch of hastily thrown together excuses, with some character assassination of the creator of the Recovering Alumni blog thrown in for good measure. Teen Mania Ministries' response website lacked comprehensive answers to the serious questions that have been raised about the Honor Academy program, and the letters they posted contain grammatical errors that make it seem like they were lazily written.

The fact that Teen Mania chose to launch this site at 8:00PM on a Friday night, on Memorial Day weekend nonetheless, was just "salt in the wounds" of those who have been hurt by Teen Mania Ministries and were hoping that the Board of Directors would listen to their heartfelt stories and take them seriously. The RecoveringAlumniResponse.com website is just insulting, and the way Teen Mania launched the website shows a complete lack of care and compassion to the "lost sheep" who were abused at the hands of their ministry. Stay tuned for more analysis & commentary about Teen Mania's response (or lack thereof) to serious allegations of abuse & neglect.

Food & Sleep During Acquire The Fire Weekends

Let's face it: your body NEEDS sleep--and when you haven't had much sleep, your mind & body simply are not at their best. When you're tired, it is easy to feel like you can't concentrate, to act more emotional than you usually would, and to make rash decisions without clearly thinking things through. Your mental defenses are weakened when you haven't slept, and because of this, sleep deprivation is a commonly-used mind control technique employed by many modern-day cults & oppressive government regimes. I also believe that Teen Mania Ministries inappropriately uses teens' lack of sleep during an Acquire The Fire weekend to their advantage.

I went to several Acquire The Fire conventions during my teenage years, and I can tell you that they were some of the most physically & mentally exhausting weekends I have ever had. Because the events are held in large arenas is big cities, many rural teens have to drive very long distances to get to the event--it is not uncommon for church youth groups to drive to an Acquire The Fire that is several hours away. The Friday night session ends late and the Saturday morning session starts early, so most youth groups elect to have the kids spend the night together somewhere. Usually this means either on the floor of a church, or in over-crowded hotel rooms. Neither environment lends itself particularly well to getting much sleep, and when youth groups spend the night together, sleep is rarely on the minds of the teens (staying up all night goofing off is why "lock-ins" used to be so fun!). I remember getting just a couple of hours of sleep on Friday nights before needing to be back at the arena around 7:30am the next morning. Saturday's schedule is grueling, with long sessions scheduled until late at night with just a couple of short breaks. Then, when Acquire The Fire is over, teens must make the often long drive back to their homes before waking up early for church the next morning.

The food situation isn't much better. Friday night's Acquire The Fire session begins pretty much right at dinner time, and in order to reduce the cost of the weekend, most churches tell the teens to "eat dinner before they come." In my experience, this rarely actually happened and "dinner" usually consisted of a few slices of pizza ordered at midnight after the session was over and everyone was starving. For most ATF participants, Saturday's breakfast consists of a donut or a bagel eaten in a church van, and they are left to completely fend for themselves for lunch and dinner. Most teens don't have much spending money, and food in & around the arena is typically expensive, so lunch might be a slice of pizza and dinner might be an order of nachos. I know for a fact that several kids in my youth group had to skip one or both of these meals on Saturday because their parent's hadn't given them money....or they had already spent the money they were given on Acquire The Fire merchandise sold during the event. Because of the way the weekend is set up, many kids at Acquire The Fire end up feeling hungry for a large portion of the weekend and don't really get a decent meal until Sunday.

These sleep & food situations might be okay for a primarily recreational activity, like a music festival or a comic-book convention. But teens are being asked to make life-altering decisions at Acquire The Fire conventions--throw away all your secular music, commit to abstinence until marriage, give up dating altogether, become militantly pro-life, spend $3000 on a summer missions trip, give up a year (or more) of your life and raise $7400 (or more) for Teen Mania. These are all big decisions with lots of consequences, and it's not fair to "hard-sell" these ideas to kids when they are sleep-deprived and starving. But, teens get excited more easily and don't ask as many critical questions when they are tired & hungry, which makes it easier to pedal Teen Mania's political agenda & income-generating programs. I'd say that's one of the main reasons why Teen Mania Ministries pushes so hard to have kids fill out applications for Global Expeditions & the Honor Academy while they are at the arena and before they've had a chance to discuss it with their parents. Discriminating minds can often see through slick marketing tactics, so Teen Mania needs to do as much of their marketing as they can inside the arena while teens' mental defenses are at their lowest.

What is an Acquire the Fire Weekend Like for the Average Teen?

Continuing our discussion of Acquire the Fire events produced by Teen Mania Ministries, let's look at the typical schedule of the average, church-going teen that attends an ATF convention.

Friday

6:30AM - 7:00 AM - Wake up for school

2:30-3:00 PM - Leave school for the day

4:00-4:30 PM - Arrive at church to leave for Acquire the Fire

6:00 PM - Arrive at arena for Acquire the Fire

7:00-10:30PM - Attend 3 hour ATF Session 1 (which usually runs late)

Midnight - Arrive back at church

Saturday

2:00-4:00 AM - Fall "asleep" on church floor

6:00 AM - Wake up/Eat "breakfast"

7:45 AM - Arrive at arena

8:00 AM - 12:15 PM - Attend 4.5 hour ATF session 2

12:30ish - 1:30ish - Eat "lunch"

2:00 PM - 5:15 PM - Attend 3.25 hour ATF session 3

5:30is - 6:15ish - Eat "dinner"

7:00 PM - 9:30 PM - Attend 3.5 hour ATF session 4 (almost always runs long)

11:00 PM - Arrive back at church

Midnight - Arrive at home

Sunday

2:00-4:00 AM - Crash in bed

8:00 AM - Wake up for church

9:00 AM - 10:30 AM - Attend Sunday school and watch Teen Mania videos

10:30 AM - 12:30 PM - Stand up in church and give a testimony about how much God changed your life at Acquire the Fire

I attended several Acquire the Fire conventions growing up, and I can assure you this was a very typical schedule for the weekend. I just looked at the schedule for the Acquire the Fire being held in Baltimore this weekend, and it looks like absolutely nothing has changed. As we will explore in the next post, this intense, jam-packed schedule creates an environment of sleep-deprivation and extreme physical hunger that coerces teens into making rash decisions...like signing up for a questionable Teen Mania program that will cost them and their parents thousands (if not tens of thousands) of dollars.