The advertising is as slick as it comes. The celebrity endorsements are shiny. The success stories are carefully staged.
But scratch just under the surface and Mercy Ministries is not all it pretends to be.
I want to strongly encourage young women and parents to take a good hard look at this ministry which has been in overdrive attempting to polish it’s rightfully tarnished image. Please do research before committing to what is an organization which has harmed many of the lives this business says it has saved.
Listen to and read those who are walkaways and castaways from Mercy Ministries, and understand the spiritual harm already vulnerable people are placed in.
I sincerely hope the BC government and concerned churches are keeping a careful eye on this 4.3 acre ranch in the Surrey area, it’s staff, and  the board which is headed by Nancy Alcorn out of the US. (The 2008 charity return lists Leon Fontaine, CEO of The Miracle Channel as a board member, along with  Helen and John Burns who are connected with Kenneth Copeland). Because of the scandal in Australia, Mercy Ministries has been keeping a low profile regarding the opening of the Canadian ranch.
As part of valuing the young women in your life, read up on Restoring the Foundations.
The counselling method has been widely discredited (and rightfully so) by orthodox and humane Christian ministries which provide counselling and services to those in need. It is not sanctioned by any mental health care provider, any medical organization, nor any denomination I’m aware of. Putting a new name on a manual doesn’t change the beliefs or practice of anti-science, anti-intellectual heresy.
Read up on what occurred in Australia and read  courageous women who have stepped forward to tell others  about how they were treated and what they were taught.
Untrained counsellors, theft of government money, emotional and spiritual abuse and neglect. It’s all documented.
This should give anyone who care about Canadian young people serious pause. From Mercy Ministries Canada Facebook page:
We seek transformation.
You should also know that we have three core principles…
• TAKE YOUNG WOMEN IN FREE OF CHARGE.
• TITHE 10% TO OTHER MINISTRIES.
• NO PROVINCIAL OR FEDERAL FUNDING OR ANY MONEY THAT INTERFERES WITH THE FREEDOM TO SHARE CHRIST
Look at the inference…’that interferes…”
Oversight is not welcome. Scrutiny is met with viciousness. Â Anyone who sounds the alarm about Mercy Ministries is perceived as of Satan.
The Canadian Mercy Ministries Ranch advertises space for 20 young Canadian women.
Eating disorder? Addicted? Pregnant? Depressed? Abused? Confused about your sexual identity? Struggling with self-harm?
All covered under one supposedly biblical based counselling program now called “Choices That Bring Change.â€
Sounds good, doesn’t it? Sounds caring, sounds righteous, but read up on the theology. Manifest Sons of God, apostolic/prophetic deliverence, Word of Faith.
Take a careful look at the Mercy Ministry Canada site.
What are they really telling you?
Not much.
They sell a lot of stuff at inflated prices because they are a charity (non-profit) which advertises ‘free care’ and they throw a lot of nice warm bible words around. But this organization remains in shadow. Mercy Ministries is not  transparent about lack of qualified staff,  vilification of critics, mistakes, and why they are operating in countries with universal health care, and where there are churches and organizations available and able to assist and refer. They don’t want you to know what they really peddle.
What qualifications do the Canadian Mercy Ministries workers have?
They don’t tell you.
This is what they do say:
The Director of Counseling at Mercy Ministries Canada has a masters degree and under her supervision experienced counselors are required to have at least a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university in social work, psychology, counseling or a related field. Mercy Ministries Canada counselors meet or exceed provincial licensing requirements.
A masters degree from where? What ‘accredited universities’ are acceptable to Mercy Ministry Canada and what does this blurb mean by related field? How do these counselors meet or exceed provincial licensing requirements? You or I can go online and purchase a degree from anywhere. We can take an online course from Victory College or Kenneth Copeland or Peter Wagner Institute or other unaccredited Canadian ministries and hold the title of counsellor. Standards of licencing vary from province to province and it’s not a well kept secret that NAR and other neo-pentecostal groups in Canada run look-a-like accediting agencies.
(It is important to note that there are qualified and well trained professionals working in Christian counselling in Canada. They are up front about their degrees, training, methods and can educate you and those you love about unorthodox value based counselling).
Who are their partners?
You can find a couple of independent BC churches burbling about Mercy Ministries and the money they give, if you look hard enough, but that’s about it.
What happened in Australia?
On 1 August 2008, The Tennessean quoted a member of the South Australian Parliament as stating that Mercy Ministries is “a particularly bad example of a money-making cult, posing as a Christian-based counseling service.” wikipedia
- 1/3 of the Australians who were ‘treated at Mercy Ministries reached out for help after going through the program’
- US girls and women have stepped forward to talk about they went through, including exorisms for eating disorders
In 2008 a story  the Sydney Morning Herald broke the story about the lack of basic care and spiritual, emotional and financial abuse at the two Mercy Ministries locations. As bad as the abuse and neglect was, the pushback from the US corporate office and directors in Australia was wicked. The US operation and Australian directors did everything they could to discredit former residents coming forward to tell their stories.  As well Mercy Ministries attacked media and bloggers who questioned or spread the word all was not well. The Mercy Ministries public relations campaign went into overdrive. (Even looking at the beginning stories from Australia a few years later sends that cold chill down my back)
In December 2009, after an 18 month investigation by The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, former directors admitted Mercy Ministries had engaged in “false, misleading and deceptive conduct by wrongly claiming their residential care programs were free and included support from psychologists, dietitians, general practitioners and counsellors.”
Mercy Ministries International opened it’s Canadian ranch this weekend. Staff training is underway (corresponding with Restoring The Foundations – Vancouver seminar) and clients will be arriving by summer.
Blog account of the Canadian launch by a Mercy Ministries organizer. It reads like the 20 Canadian girls have already been ‘chosen.’
Mercy Survivors
ex-resident blog
Sean the Blogonaut
Against Biblical Counselling
Cynic Sage
Word-Faith doctrine Apologetics Index
It’s very difficult to go anywhere in Charismania and not find these destructive doctrines that prayer, fasting, God’s power, etc. will set you free from depression, eating disorders, self mutilation, or any kind of addiction. I have seen how much destruction it actually does to people’s lives. The shame that these people put on people makes their problems worse. They feel inadequate or like God must not love them because prayer didn’t fix their bi-polar disorder, or take away all their anger, or didn’t stop the lonliness, or didn’t help them eat more or less. It’s sick.
Ofcourse they keep the rest of the world in the dark about what they really do. They know most people would think they are insane. Perhaps they are. How many times do they need to see lives destroyed by telling them that praying harder and casting out demons will fix these complex problems? But they do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.
Thanks for keeping us appraised of the situation in Canada. I think the US is a lost cause – simply too much uncritical support. I’d hope that Canadians on the whole would be more like Australians in the outlook towards this ministry.
I’d like to think we’d be like Australia also, but I’m not optimistic it will happen.
Hi there.
I’m a former MM resident from the Sydney home.
I just had a look at the MM Canada site. It is interesting to note that they don’t mention MM Australia in their history:
http://www.mercyministries.ca/AboutUs/History.html
Regarding Restoring the Foundations and Choices That Bring Change, i haven’t seen a copy of the latter but i am pretty sure it’s not RTF with a new name. I would be interested to see one though. Have you seen one? How do you know about the theology behind the new one?
Regarding “that inteferres with”…i read that as “we offer girls the option of handing over welfare payments, and are open to accepting any government money that would not compromise or limit the way we run our program”.
What you say about MM Australia is pretty accurate. It was a few different things that contributed to what happened here.
My concern for the potential for this to happen in other MM homes (and which may well already be happening in some if not all) is lack of third party independent accountability. Not just to themselves, not just to Nancy Alcorn, but to other Christian organisations as well as secular authorities.
Whilst i have some knowledge that MM/Nancy did try to rectify issues in MM Australia post media exposure, there has still been no real responsibility taken for what happened and certainly no public acknowledgement let alone apology. It swung from revictimising the girls who were brave enough to speak out to dropping the hot potato. If they continue not take valid critique on board and keep labelling it as an “attack”, then they can not be open to implementing necessary change.
The God i know is about truth and light. It was okay when it was all in the dark, but when it’s in the light, well that’s just the devil inteferring in God’s work. I am led to believe it is really the other way around.
Matthew 6:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
Hi Sarah:
Just read your blog.:^) Thank you for commenting. Your writing style is captivating and I admire your tenacity.
You got me thinking about Romans 8:1 “I am not condemned, Jesus has set me free.”
I hope Romans 8 hasn’t been used as clobber verses on you.
I’m asking around re: Choices that bring Change, hopefully someone will be able to answer that for you.
Thanks for your encouragement regarding my blog
Just had a read of Romans 8. Two or three of the well known scriptures that get quoted alot, including the one you mention, were part of some girls’ scripture lists that they had to read aloud each morning, in accordance with WoF practice.
Besides having a belief that WoF is heressy after having researched and considered it for myself, i struggled with the double messages I got. I was told that this is what God says about my inherent worth, yet the way i and others were treated did not seem to reflect that same message.
Verse 7 mentioned the word “submit”, that was a big word used at MM. I imagine that would have been a “clobber” scripture for some girls.
Looking forward to finding out about their new counselling manual
Sarah
I like that someone is letting Canada know about Mercy Ministries and the treatment they have given us in other countries. I was there from the beginning. Mercy tries to forget those years like they try to erase Australia.
Am I the only person that finds it distrubing that they have their own Adoption Agency and also help girls make a choice about keeping their babies or giving them up for adoption?
I have a blog if you are intrested in learning about mind control http://mercy80s.blogspot.com/
You can also find me on Facebook by typing No Mercy in the search line.
I was just reading Sarah’ s entry where she mentions that MM didn’t mention Australia in their history. It triggered a fleet memory of a “Home” MM opened in Shreveport, LA. We will never know what really happened there. It was erased from history like Australia, I guess.
I want to know more about why Mercy is such a bad place. Can you tell me some personal stories of how horrible it is?
Hi Mariah:
There is no short answer. Mercy Ministries is based on a US fundamentalist model (fills a void where there are no medical and government agencies able to step in). In exporting this model extreme fringe beliefs have also been exported. Girls have been subjected to poor care, abuse and extreme spiritual and psychological pressure etc.
As well the textbook used has been throughly discredited. All problems are spiritualized. Mercy Ministries has the fund raising down cold – celebrities (some of whom are genuinely duped) glitzy advertising etc.
The Australia debacle is not isolated – they just got caught.
If you need help, there are reputable agencies and ministries who treat the whole person and I pray MM is not your only option. Mercy Ministries does not take kindly to critics. That should be a red flag for any parent or perspective client.
I think it best you talk to women who have experienced MM first hand.
http://www.mercysurvivors.com/
http://sarahscollage.blogspot.com/
http://thetruthaboutmercy.wordpress.com/
Against Biblical Counselling takes an in-depth look at the ‘counselling’ and the ‘rebranding’.
http://againstbiblicalcounseling.blogspot.com/
http://seantheblogonaut.com/
That’s a start. I also suggest you read news accounts – MM has a habit of sanitizing bad publicity – particularly Australia.
Do I believe Christians can provide life changing counselling and support? Yes. And I can’t argue a few Mercy girls got what they needed, God is merciful. The young women speaking up against MM are not disgruntled, rebellious rejects.
Please do your homework before considering any counselling or residential treatment and be wise and as careful as you can.