Kidnapped for Christ

[sarahbrownie]

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The film centers on the story of David, a straight-A student from Colorado who was sent to Escuela Caribe in May of 2006 after coming out to his parents as gay. Like many others, David was taken in the night without warning by a “transport service†and was never told where he was going or when he would be brought back home. While at Escuela Caribe, David had no way of communicating with any of his friends or family back home until the filmmakers arrived and he decided to ask them if they would smuggle out a letter that he had secretly written to his best friend. Once word got back to David’s community about what had happened to him, many people sprung to action and formed a plan to get him released. Getting David out of this school, however, turned out to be a much more difficult task than anyone had thought, and the trials they went through to get David released revealed just how far Escuela Caribe would go to prevent a student from leaving [even if he was at the legal age of 18].

[finleeport]

Oh my God. Fucking Scary to be kidnapped into another school simply because your child is 'troubled' because they do not follow their parents stupid religious values.

[Witsec7]

This is a web page for some folks who are 'alums'. I haven't read all of it yet.

http://nhymalumni.org/

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Just came in here to post this myself, happy to see it already up.

I remember reading about schools like this from the mid-90's even, it's definitely a "thing" that could always use more exposure. Not all of them are explicitly religious but they are ALL extremely all about control, control, control, and brainwashing with more control.

Sometimes the parents are duped too (not to say that spiriting your kid away to a therapy school of any kind in full surprise like that is okay, at all, but sometimes the abuse ends up being more than even the harsh place the parents were expecting, and the lack of academics similarly). But someone is making big bucks off of it.

[GeoBQn]

Is this the school that was profiled in the book Jesus Land?

[Mais Pourquoi]

Maybe it's because I've always been cautious when it comes to organized religion, and because I did not grow up with it being a constant presence, but I can't understand parents who allow their religion to tell them things like this (and blanket training, etc) are okay to do to their children. I hope this eventually becomes available on Netflix streaming!

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Is this the school that was profiled in the book Jesus Land?

I think so. The article I found the trailer on mentioned Jesus Land.

[Guest Anonymous]

OMFG! I just...I...have no words for this! :shock: :o

[ilovetchotchkes]

OMFG! I just...I...have no words for this! :shock: :o

I do! horrifying!

[SpeakNow]

That is the saddest thing

[nimerha]

The horrifying part is that this is kids with all the fucking privilege of a first world country, being abducted, humiliated, hurt, presumably having food and other necessities withheld, doing forced labour and being isolated from their community as a part of a hate crime... and people are talking religion. Jesus, they shouldn't argue, there should be SWAT teams knocking the fucking place down - but they call it a school, they call it culture, they call it faith. Imagine a fucking extremist islam group kidnapping and brainwashing american teens (with or without the consent of the parents, whatever, especially if those teens are legal adults, what the fuck) to the Near East, or North Africa, and treating them like this - they would get a fucking bomb dropped on their heads.

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, ever so much bullshit. I hope the parents realize what they'd done to their own flesh and blood, and rot in guilt for the rest of their fucking lives.

[apple1]

(This in no way minimizes or ameliorates the above).

Pretty much the same way girls end(ed) up at Hephzibah House, Bethany, Roloff homes, etc, etc.

[jjj]

this indeed is the place described in Jesus Land. They just announced the transfer of their assets to another nonprofit operating out of Indianapolis. Can't remember the name and don't know much about them. Could be a ploy to keep from having assets lost in a lawsuit (I don't know if any are pending)... But more likely, I think, is that their enrollment dropped too low to sustain the operation.

[DarkAnts]

Maybe it's because I've always been cautious when it comes to organized religion, and because I did not grow up with it being a constant presence, but I can't understand parents who allow their religion to tell them things like this (and blanket training, etc) are okay to do to their children. I hope this eventually becomes available on Netflix streaming!

Some parents want an easy button. They expect their kids to be perfect but dont want to work with real problems to help them become productive members of society. Many of the kids sent to the DR had no legal issues and very little drug and alcohol use. Some of them were sexually abused by family members. The parents even thought that the entire problem was the kids fault. They did not think that they should go to therapy because its all their kids fault.

[emmiedahl]

Isn't it illegal to take someone else's minor child to another country? Aren't passports needed? These schools are in Canada and the DR, how is this not a felony?

[Stickers]

Horrifying.

But I wonder why the place let them film?

[Austin]

Isn't it illegal to take someone else's minor child to another country? Aren't passports needed? These schools are in Canada and the DR, how is this not a felony?

I'm sure the parents arranged it.

But this is a big problem in my view, that parents can basically exile their own child, who is an American citizen. I know people get all up in arms about parental rights, but what about the rights of children not to be forced to go to another country and live in what is essentially a prison.?

[DarkAnts]

I'm sure the parents arranged it.

But this is a big problem in my view, that parents can basically exile their own child, who is an American citizen. I know people get all up in arms about parental rights, but what about the rights of children not to be forced to go to another country and live in what is essentially a prison.?

Its worse then a prison. The kids experience all sorts of cruel and unusual punishment.

[BoomerLynn]

This is both terrifying and revolting. I cannot believe this is actually allowed to happen.

[godlytomatosoup]

Isn't it illegal to take someone else's minor child to another country? Aren't passports needed? These schools are in Canada and the DR, how is this not a felony?

In some of these 'schools' (scarequotes because the standard of education is actually worse than the SOTDRT) the parents sign over parental rights to their child to the school in question. As to passports, I believe the people in charge hold their passports. Which of course makes it even harder for the child to leave.

And (not that this excuses their parents) the 'schools' put a very hard sell on both the parents and the children that if they don't comply, the child will die as a result of their 'rebellious' behaviour. You hear that over and over in their 'success stories': the graduate saying "I would have ended up dead if it weren't for them." They're very seldom able to articulate exactly how or why they would have died.

[AudreyE]

The horrifying part is that this is kids with all the fucking privilege of a first world country, being abducted, humiliated, hurt, presumably having food and other necessities withheld, doing forced labour and being isolated from their community as a part of a hate crime... and people are talking religion. Jesus, they shouldn't argue, there should be SWAT teams knocking the fucking place down - but they call it a school, they call it culture, they call it faith. Imagine a fucking extremist islam group kidnapping and brainwashing american teens (with or without the consent of the parents, whatever, especially if those teens are legal adults, what the fuck) to the Near East, or North Africa, and treating them like this - they would get a fucking bomb dropped on their heads.

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, ever so much bullshit. I hope the parents realize what they'd done to their own flesh and blood, and rot in guilt for the rest of their fucking lives.

Perfectly stated.