Much noise has been made re Barack Obama's former association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

A limited amount of noise, though worrisome enough, has been made of Hillary Clinton's association with Doug Coe, leader of the secretive "Family" group.

What has gotten surprisingly little coverage in the press--especially compared to the coverage of Obama and Wright (I'll grant the lack of exposure re Clinton's association because "The Family" is so darn secretive and only one person is really writing about them)--is John McCain's association with no less than John Hagee--a guy who thinks gay people are responsible for Hurricane Katrina, that reproductive rights caused the 11 September terror attacks, and wants to use the State of Israel and the world's Jewish population as a trigger for Armageddon.

Read on, and educate yourself...

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the past few days, we have focused on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In our final installment, we note how Abu Ghraib and Gitmo aren't the only abusive facilities getting tax dollars--both by direct funding and by welfare fraud, Teen Challenge gets quite a bit of your tax money for institutionalised abuse...and Dubya is still to this day bailing them out when they're caught doing something wrong.  

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In the latest installment of this series, we focus on an increasing trend of using Teen Challenge as "alternative sentencing"--and to add insult to injury, the use of "indemnity contracts" by Teen Challenge to prevent lawsuits by survivors who manage to escape.  

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In our latest installment, we now touch on disturbing subjects--sexual abuse (including a known child molester as a Teen Challenge facility manager) both in Teen Challenge and its parent denomination.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series, we uncover disturbing revelations at the Florida Teen Challenge boy's camps--which include literal "God Warrior" imagery, right down to the camo and drill patrols.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series, we focus on how Teen Challenge operates in part as a de facto "missionary mill" for the Assemblies of God--and in fact as a particularly insidious recruitment front for the group.  

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series, we focus on life within Teen Challenge, as revealed by their guides to members--and point out why Teen Challenge cannot be considered a legit rehab facility but rather a "Jesus Gulag".  (It's a little long, but this is by necessity.)

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series, we focus on a typical week at Teen Challenge--and the extreme amounts of indoctrination, which often take up more than half of the waking hours of the day of participants.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

In a continuation of the series we began yesterday, we focus on an aspect Teen Challenge shares with its parent denomination--a history of rampant coercive tactics and spiritual abuse.

I've written quite a lot on the subject of coercive "behaviour modification" facilities in past--including legislative efforts to stop the industry in its tracks as well as exposes of their heavy usage as a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to legit mental health and info on gross abuses in these facilities.

Over the next few days, we are going to focus on a specific chain of these facilities (which have been compared to Abu Ghraib)--Teen Challenge, a chain of Assemblies-run "faith based rehabs" that was the target of a "get out of jail free" deregulation of the "kiddie gulag" industry in Texas by none other than George W. Bush.

We begin with a history of how Teen Challenge was deregulated, and some of the reports of gross mistreatment at the facility--including just about every form of abuse that could have been done to those kids.

In past, I've written rather extensively on the subject of religiously motivated child abuse in dominionist circles--and in particular, the use of "parallel economy" alternatives to legit mental health care, including the "Bible-based boot camp" industry.  Increasingly, these facilities are either being put in explicitly friendly states that give broad exemptions to "faith-based children's homes" or out of the US entirely.

Since 2005, Rep. George Miller has been working to pass HR 1738--which would require states to regulate and inspect all facilities, and prohibit kids from being sent to abusive overseas facilities.  And it looks like a bill to protect kids may finally have some legs (under a new bill number, HR 5876), thanks to a Congressional hearing sparked by the first ever GAO report on the industry.

Over the past few days, I've done some writing expressing concern regarding some revelations that Jeff Sharlet will be discussing extensively in his new book "The Family"--including information regarding apparently widespread and systemic use of pyramid-scheme-esque "cell church" groups, of which Hillary Clinton would appear to have been inducted through at least one, possibly two, levels of indoctrination within at least two separate cells within the group.  There's also some real concern that some of the same "bad habits" of this particular type of religious pyramid scheme may be showing up in "The Family's" cells as well--one of which we'll discuss today.

The news re cell-church groups in "The Family" is probably not going to be the only bombshell released by Sharlet's upcoming book.  My question is, what has "The Family" so spooked that they've apparently sealed all recent records about the group even to their own members?

On Friday, news reports started coming out to the effect that Hillary Clinton may be a member of a cell-church group run by the secretive "Family" nee "Fellowship" org; as the import of this is underappreciated by most (even by some researchers into dominionism), I posted a diagram of how cell groups work in "The Family".

There are actually a number of reasons--besides the obvious--why it should be a matter of concern that Hillary Clinton would appear to have been recruited into a religious pyramid scheme with strong political aspirations.  One reason I am gravely concerned for her right now is info I've dug up on the other reported members of her "cell church"--almost all of whom have strong history with dominionists...and it doesn't help that Hillary has also made some statements that point to her possible involvement in something very dangerous.

A few days ago, I wrote a post expressing concern re Hillary Clinton's reported involvement in a cell-church group operated by the longest-running political dominionist group in existence--some folks considered this a wee bit controversial, in part because it was "OMG CANDIDATE DIARY" (to be honest, I'm worried about her) and partly because folks noted "there is no clear evidence this is coercive".

After some discussion with Jeff Sharlet over in Fred Clarkson's article on "The Family"--in which he's discussed info that will be included in his upcoming book--it would appear that not only does "The Family" use the same model as other coercive groups using pyramid-like structures, but may well have originated its use politically.

There has been quite a lot of writing recently on Talk to Action (and today in regards to a secretive political dominionist group known as "The Fellowship" or "The Family"--especially in relation to an upcoming book by Jeff Sharlet (titled The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power--you can pre-order here) which threatens to blow the  "Family Secret" wide open.

Frederick Clarkson here on DailyKos has recently reported on an NBC News report--along with a recent Mother Jones article re Sherlet's book--which give disturbing confirmation to something I've suspected for a time: Namely, that "The Family" uses a particularly abusive "discipling and shepherding" model common in neopentecostal dominionist cell churches.

The abusive tactics could have major implications politically--especially as Sharlet's book has noted that no less than Hillary Clinton is a member of one of the cell-churches linked to "The Family".

As one of my continuing "side series" (along with the Gothard research), I've been writing up on the virulently anti-LGBT "Joel's Army" group "Watchmen At The Walls"--a group linked with no less than one death and multiple assaults as well as an attempted progrom against a Pride parade in Riga, Latvia, and which is now officially listed as a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center.

One thing I've focused on is the rather disturbing official support by Assemblies of God regional head Joseph Fuiten--and those of you who've read my previous articles know Fuiten is far from the only virulently anti-LGBT leader in the Assemblies.

Now comes disturbing news that the Assemblies of God may be embracing hate as a whole--it turns out the Latvian head of "Watchmen" was front and center at a major conference of Assemblies preachers in Atlanta recently.  (Apologies to readers--we do have a lot to cover here, so pardon the length.)

I've been writing an on-again, off-again series regarding Bill Gothard's hydra of frontgroups--and in particular a little-known Gothard frontgroup called Police Dynamics Institute.  Gothard's legacy of "Bible-based abuse" has gotten major funding from neopentecostal "Daddy Warbucks" of the dominionist movement as well as Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee--and there's links to the very highest levels of government even now.

PDI is particularly controversial because the group was designed for backdoor infiltration of public safety departments like police and fire, and also has connections not only to a number of scary "Joel's Army" groups but to the neo-confederate "Christian Exodus"...and it turns out that's not the only racist neo-Confederate group they have ties to.

I've done a fair amount of reporting on the popularity of front groups used by neopente dominionists to worm their way into things they'd not normally get into (like public schools, police departments, etc.)

Most of my writing focus has been on the Gothard frontgroups, but they are far from alone in the use of this tactic.  The Assemblies of God has also been known to use frontgroups to get into places (in fact, they largely pioneered the concept)...and, as our friends in the Charleston Post and Courier report, a separate neopente dominionist group operating under the name "Heritage Community Services"--a major operator of deceptive "Crisis pregnancy centers" in South Carolina--may be the latest of the dominionist "character" groups to be investigated.