MERCY Ministries, according to Wikipedia:
Is an international Christian charitable organisation that offers a long-term Christian residential treatment programme for young women … who struggle with various issues, including mental illnesses such as eating disorders, mood disorders, self-harm, and substance addiction and the affects of abuse.
And how does this treatment work? Why, by exorcising “demons” who possess the victims, of course.
But MM’s former head honcho in Australia, Peter Irvine, earlier this year vigorously denied that exorcism was used on vulnerable females. He said in a TV interview:
There’s no exorcism, no driving out of spirits – it’s not how the programme works.
Peter Irvine: when his lips move, he's probably lying
He has now been exposed as a liar.
Handbooks allegedly used to perform exorcisms on women at the controversial Mercy Ministries residences in Sydney and on the Sunshine Coast have come into possession this week of Australia’s LiveNews . The handbooks corroborate accounts given to Live News by former residents of Mercy Ministries.
Mercy Ministries’ activities first hit the headlines in March this year when former residents claimed they were subjected to exorcisms, were cut off from friends and family and had to sign their Centrelink welfare payments over to the group.
Some of the young women said they had little or no access to the promised psychologists and other mental health professionals, but were instead counselled by bible studies students whose solution to all problems was prayer.
Nearly a third of Mercy Ministries residents in Australia have made complaints of mistreatment.
In the handbook, under a section entitled ‘Identifying Additional Demons’ those practising the exorcism are advised to ask the demon’s name, but not for any more details.
An extract from the exorcism handbook
They sometimes talk: they may threaten the person or you. They have been know to say, ‘I am going to kill you,’ and other unsavoury phrases. Command them to be quiet in the Name of Jesus.
According to the handbook:
The minister’s attitude is one of commanding. He needs to be firm and prepared to press in. He does not need to be loud. (Demons are not deaf.) The ministers’ commanding attitude resembles that of a person speaking to a little ‘yappy’ dog commanding him to go home and stop barking.
We also want the ministry receiver to set his will to resist and then command the particular demon or grouping of demons to leave him, in Jesus’ name. This is repeated until the demons are gone.
Later in the book, those performing the exorcism are given more complex techniques in a subheading called ‘What to do With Obstinate Demons’. Later a list of ‘Scriptures that Demons Hate’ is provided.
Nancy Alcorn: possessed by the demon Jesus
Mercy Ministries was founded in Monroe, Lousiana in 1983 by fundie nutjob, Nancy Alcorn who claims that Mercy’s approach is superior to conventional psychology, which often relies on psychotropic medication. She says that girls with issues like sexual promiscuity or eating disorders have opened themselves up to demonic activity.
Secular psychiatrists want to medicate things like that. But Jesus didn’t say to medicate demons, he said to cast them out.
It will come as no surprise that the organisation is homophobic.
Former resident Naomi Johnson has gone on record as saying that all residents, regardless of their reason for entering the programme, were repeatedly made to watch educational videos from “ex-gay” spokesperson Sy Rodgers, and that they were also issued what staff referred to as “separation contracts” to prevent any close emotional or lesbian relationships from forming between residents.
Alcorn has stated that Mercy Ministries welcomes girls who are “struggling with their sexual orientation”, but in an March 18, 2008, interview, Irvine insisted that:
Mercy Ministries does not target any group, including the gay community, and does not have an anti-gay programme.
UPDATE: Jan 2, 2009 – A support group for women who have survived placement in the Mercy Ministries programmes run world-wide has been established. Mercy Survivors is a website is run by survivors for survivors and is supported by volunteers and donors.
This website serves as a contact point for geographically dispersed women to come together and help one another. To record stories and statistics of abuse and neglect.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
November 30th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Mercy Ministries does indeed target particular groups, and it certainly has an anti-gay program. I know of someone from Australia who has been investigating them for quite some time. He has a wealth of dirt on them:
http://nautblog.blogspot.com/
November 30th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Does this mean that Australia is home to the same loony, tithe gathering, tax exempt, churches as the USA? I thought they were more down to Earth and had more sense.
November 30th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
These people have a residential home in Oxenhope, Yorkshire. It would be interesting to know where they get their funding.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Gosh, a religion that let’s middle aged men lay their hands firmly on troubled young women. Now I wonder what would happen if a secular organisation started along similar lines? Therapeutic Molestation, they could call it – before the inevitable media exposure and wave of arrests.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Mercy has recently changed (read filed off the serial numbers) the name of the program they use instead of the RTF manuals.
They are still supported by the rligious coffee giant Gloria Jeans too.
December 1st, 2008 at 4:02 am
“Mercy has recently changed (read filed off the serial numbers) the name of the program they use instead of the RTF manuals.”
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. And a pile of poo such as what Mercy is peddling would smell just as bad regardless of what fancy terminology they dress it up in.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:02 am
Seriously you guys are blinded. Mercy ministries is a VOLUNTARY program…staff did NOT mistreat anyone and there is not ‘casting out of demons’. Just love care and support. When it all comes down to it its not ABOUT mercy its about JESUS!!! He is the saviour the healer the restorer and he is using mercy ministries the staff counsellors and prgram in a mighty way to help young girls. so get ur facts right before u judge.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Rach that is not true. There is a book called Restoring The Foundations that the Mercy staff use on girls to “cast demons out.” I know because it was done to me!
A lot of the things they did to me were forced.
Sure they say it’s voluntary, but what they advertise about the program is not what it is. They advertise that there are psychologists and social workers but that just wasn’t the truth in my exprience. The staff weren’t qualified. And you say it’s voluntary, but remember that girls can’t just leave when they want to either. They need to give some days notice, and if you ask a girl who went through that, from the time of giving the notice to the time of actually being able to get out of there they are put in confinement, mistreated and it was terrible.
I suggest you are the person who needs to look into her facts and get them straight. When books are brought forward proving the exorcisms and even past members of staff have come forward to support what has been said, your attempts at trying to cover it all up after it’s been exposed are really transparent and even pathetic.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
What God is doing is saving the girls from more hurt and mistreatment by this group who are claiming to be Christian but in their words and actions, are anything Christian.
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:44 am
Hey! Im really sorry that you guys feel that you need to focus on trashing mercy! I love Mercy and everything that it stands for! If it wasnt for them my beautiful son would not me here today and despite my trials mayb i wouldnt be here either! Life is full of choices and at the end of the day we are accountable to what we do with these choices! It is a choice to go into Mercy! Its bad choices that get you kicked out of mercy. It is a choice to leave! If you really want to leave you can leave, i had it said to me many times the door is always open there are many people on the waiting list who want your place!I have seen many lives changed, yep its true we struggle still-but for me I learnt wat i need to do in those hard times and again I have a choice wat I do in those hard times! As for the money…well the first time i went to mercy 7/15 girls were from NZ none who were receiving benifits either from NZ or Australia, so I cant see how anyone can say that its for the $$$! The second time i went to mercy again in Australia (even with the NZ home open by this time) there were 3/9 girls from NZ not paying a cent just there to get our healing and face our issues in a safe structured (i smile at that) environment where we are unconditionally loved upon…spoilt at times! Anyways i can go on…lastly I have been to mercy twice…neither time did i graduate it didnt end gud for me…but that doesnt take away my beleif my respect and my appreciation!
Thanks
Forever a gratful mercy girl!
February 4th, 2009 at 12:48 am
Rach. A christian who demands facts!
What sweet irony
And “G” me thinks your a plant.
February 8th, 2009 at 6:41 am
I’m going to post the facts about my experience with Mercy Ministries.
I didn’t once see a psychologist. The only talk of psychologists by the staff was putting them in a negative light (“psychologists don’t know what they’re doing and can’t help you. Be thankful you’re here and we can help you.”)
There were some good things. I like Joyce Meyer and I liked that we watched her videos once or twice a day. I learned some good things from her videos.
The staff in charge of the Mercy house were silly girls and extremely immature. Some of them were younger than the residents. They were not real counsellors or nurses and they often spoke very negatively of people in the medical field. Most of them had issues in their past and believed that psychologists didn’t help them but prayers from the church did, and looking back on it maybe that’s why they did and said a lot of strange things.
The staff made us feel that we were bothersom to them. I can’t really explain this well but it was the tone that they talked in and the words they said and their body language. For an example I’ll tell you about one time I was really struggling with thoughts of wanting to self harm. I knocked on their office door and asked if I could talk to staff about it. I was told to go away and they were busy and would talk to me later. I went away and waited and all I could hear from the office was the two staff members talking and sometimes shreiking with laughter. When they eventually came out 30 minutes? later they went and made coffees for themselves and then one of them had one of their friends come over so they went back in the office to talk. The staff mainly lived in their office and they never wanted to talk to us. If you finally managed to have some time with a staff member they would tell you to go and read your Bible. I think that’s why so much self harming was going on with the girls there. The staff never took requests for help seriously and didn’t know what to do. A lot of staff hadn’t been to uni and some hadn’t finished high school.
Every 3 or 4 weeks there was what they called Major Cleaning Day where the residents had to do about 6 hours of cleaning. The staff were in their office drinking coffee and chatting while this was happening.
They told us that same sex attraction is a sign that demons had entered a person. They were really strange about residents not having any physical contact with each other, we weren’t allowed to hug, or help a girl do her hair or anything like that. There were a few volunteers and if the volunteer hugged one of us and the staff saw, after the volunteer left that girl got into trouble. It was strange when volunteers were around. The house seemed totally different, the staff were a lot nicer, and when they left it went back to normal.
You weren’t allowed to leave when you wanted to. I know a few girls that tried to leave but the staff took them away for a few hours by themselves, then the next thing we knew the girl wasn’t leaving anymore. I can’t tell you for sure what happened when the staff took the girls away for those hours. I know I tried to leave and I was told I wasn’t allowed to, and had to give 2 days notice. Also a lot of girls were dismissed from Mercy when they got more sick instead of better. You didn’t have to break a rule to be dismissed. Staff thought that God talked directly to them and they told us God was telling them which “priveleged” girls to keep in the program because they were especially chosen by God, and which ones to get rid of as a “housecleaning” project. Yes they really said “get rid of.”
After a girl had left (either dismissed or chosen to leave and managed to) the staff sat us all down and told us how that girl had turned away from God. The staff then said we weren’t allowed to have any contact with the girl at all because we were the special girls God chose, and the girl was in rebellion from God, and the staff said they had to protect us. I feel so stupid that I believed them! I went along with it all. Now I feel so ashamed about it and I hope the girls who left are ok.
Staff came with us to any doctors appointments (and it was hard to convince a staff member to let us get an appointment, you had to be really sick or out of medication.) They came with us to make sure we didn’t say anything “Mercy inappropriate” to the doctor, like telling them we were getting worse or about the exorcisms or other things.
I have never felt so hopeless or alone or powerless as I did when I was at Mercy. I have been in the public hospital system and while it’s not perfect, at least you can be seen by doctors and nurses and counsellors or social workers. And they don’t tell you things like you’re sinful and that’s why you’re sick or you have demons in you. I think the worst thing is Mercy tries to trick the public into thinking they are professionals and they love and care for the girls, but it’s just not true.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I went to Mercy Ministries in Monroe Louisiana in 2004- I went there because of physical and sexual abuse truama, Drug addictions. Cutting and suicidal attempts. I was also engaged in bisexual relationships and prostitution. My experience at Mercy was wonderful yet challenging at times.
The home is based on Christian principles. So when then bible says that homosexuality,sexual promisicuity, and doing destruckion to your body are sin . Then I have a choice. I can go to this Christian program and follow the rules. or i can go to a secular program. I chose to go to Mercy Ministries. It was only logical that I would turn away from bisexual relations and other sins.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:51 am
It didn't take me by surprise that i had to sever contact with an ex girlfriend or an ex boyfriend who was in jail for manslaughter. Also, it was encouraged , and in my best interest to avoid touching the other girls, stroking their hair , massaging their backs, holding hands, cuddling… If i want to live a Christian lifestyle, then awaking sexual attraction to another girl… is obvisally not my goal. The staff at Mercy knew about my past and I was never treated badly. I wanted to overcome my homosexual urges, because the bible says its sin… If I didn't believe in living the way of the bible. They i should have gone to a secular program. Before I went to Mercy I was on and off of medications. And in the phycriatrick ward. After i worked through the program i didn't actually need medication anymore.
May 8th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Everything the staff did towards me was in truth and love and if they said or did anything that hurt my feelings, I could speak to them, and they would be gracious and caring. I recieved the help and professional care i needed. I was even taken to the dentist because my teeth had pain. I never had to see a doctor , because i never got sick. I never cut myself or harmed myself in any way. If i was struggling I knocked on the staff persons door,,, even if it was the middle of the night. (she would come to the door slowly with sqinty eyes) but she came, and she cared, and she prayed for and hugged me and back to bed i went. I had terrible nightmares also because of the abuse i went through… And she was always there to pray with me. And i never felt like I was a burden , I know i was loved. Anyways… I could go on forever.
I graduated in 2005 … I am happily married (to a wonderful Godly man) and I have a beatiful baby girl. I love Jesus. And i will worship him and serve him the rest of my days.
May 9th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Lauren if you read this article properly, you'll find it's about Mercy Ministries Australia.
You didn't go there.