All language subtitles for Shiny.Happy.People.S02E03.720p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta[EZTVx.to].en

Hi, my name is Ray, and
I'm a Christian musician.

And I'm also gay.

And I want you to know
that it gets better.

[light music playing]

[Liz] Our dad, he had a
very successful career,

but he had a bit of a secret.

No one knew all those years.

He became very depressed.

[Phil] At the time, I was coming back
from the internship, frankly destroyed.

Dad's career starts to
slow down a little bit

and I started to get really
concerned about Dad's mental health.

[woman] Here's Daddy, we have
him after his long, long drive.

-We sat him down at like a family meeting.
-Which we do not have family meetings.

-We don't do that.
-That is not a thing our family does.

-We don't need to talk about that.
-We don't talk about things.

We just got very earnest, and we're
like, "Dad, what's what's wrong?"

I had prayed for 30 years. I
gave my heart to the Lord at 19.

I went to church, I went to
counseling. I went through deliverance.

I did every single thing
that everybody said to do.

And at the end of 30 years, I just
decided I can't pretend anymore.

I was with my children and
my wife, and I thought,

"If I can't tell them who I really
am and what I'm going through,"

"what kind of a father am I?"

We immediately...
we supported him.

We told him how
much we loved him.

I was like, "Guys, I think it's
fine to be gay. I think it's good."

-I think it's okay."
-Yeah.

-Dad came out publicly, and...
-Church turned on him.

[strings music playing]

[Ray] Can a gay
person be a Christian?

Some people have it so nailed down
that nobody can be a Christian.

I kind of decided
the only person

that can really answer that
question is Jesus and you.

After my internship the next spring, I
ran into Ron at the Acquire the Fire,

when it came to Muncie.

And we sat together
for 30 minutes.

Dad came up, and he was like,
"Oh, homosexuality is bad."

He wished me well, and that was
the last time I talked to Ron.

I wasn't quite, like, "I'm never
touching this organization again."

However, in the few
years following...

-Let me hear your battle cry tonight!
-[teens screaming]

[Phil] ...Teen Mania just becomes
crazier than you ever imagined.

Whoever speaks up most
gets to shape the culture.

Suddenly, he's holding events on
the steps of government buildings.

Do you consider
being gay a crime?

Well, we believe in purity.

According to the Bible,
it's not in God's plan.

We won't be silenced!
Our voices will be heard!

The message they say is very
divisive, rather than inclusive.

The message of Jesus
was divisive as well.

[Phil] And Ron recruits a
generation into holy war.

[screams]

[Ron] Yes, Lord! Oh, God,
give us this generation!

Oh, God, we're going to war!

[theme music playing]

The gay marriage
movement is spreading.

[Jeff] In the early 2000s, same
sex marriage was a big issue

in the United States.

The Christian right leaders, the
Arlington Group in particular,

are sitting there thinking about,
"How do we politically organize?"

Same sex marriage was a battleground
that they wanted to fight on.

The most dangerous national
policy being considered now,

of course, is same sex marriage.

I think what's sometimes
misunderstood about fundamentalism

is it's not driven so much by any
of the particular issues of the day.

The idea that a
woman has rights,

or the idea that your body is your own,
and you can be queer or whoever you are,

these are all, in the fundamentalist mind,
rebellions against the authority of God.

The promotion of homosexuality
is a deplorable reality

that we cannot countenance.
Something must be done.

This group has seen its
cultural power declining.

It has seen its
numbers shrinking.

[newswoman] A large majority of young
people support same sex marriage,

leading some supporters to believe
increasing national support is inevitable,

as the younger generation
gains more power.

[Jeff] These men, who had
been in it for a long time,

knew that you got to capture
these kids before it's too late.

We need them because they're
going to be voters in the future.

They knew they needed that power.
It was about cultivation, right?

It was about long term victories.
They needed that army of kids.

They needed Ron,
and Ron's ready.

The last couple of years have
been pretty alarming to me

because we have so much to lose
if we lose this generation.

We could be in total
moral chaos and anarchy

if we don't turn this thing around.
We've got to do something about it.

[Jeff] It's Ron's chance to be the
good son trying to please his father.

The world lulled us to sleep
and told us things like,

"There's no right or wrong.
Why not legalize gay marriage?"

I mean, come on. What's wrong?
It's just a different thing.

And besides, you were born that
way." That's what the world told us.

He desires to see a
dramatic response.

He starts dreaming really big.

What could be done to build a
massive political force of kids

dedicated to a God-led nation?

And so he creates Battlecry.

-[explosions]
-[rock music playing]

[Dani] Teen Mania already had the
Honor Academy, Global Expeditions,

and Acquire the Fire.

Battlecry was designed to be
a bigger Acquire the Fire.

-[dramatic music playing]
-[bell ringing]

[fireworks screeching]

[Phil] Battlecry was Acquire
the Fire on steroids.

[screams]

I didn't hear you! Let me
hear your battle cry tonight!

[Dani] These were big stadium events,
really getting people pumped up.

I want to say he had Seals or something
rappel down from part of the stadium.

But wait, there's more.

We've launched a campaign called
"Battlecry for a Generation".

-This was a movement.
-A call to be politically active.

-"Battlecry for a Generation".
-The book...

Study series...

[man] The ultimate interactive website,
designed to launch you into battle,

and to help you be an
intense warrior for Christ

-as you fight on the front lines.
-[gunshots]

[Jeff] Everything was a military
metaphor, and he'd been using that before.

But he took it to a new extreme.

And suddenly, it was like, "Oh, my
gosh, there's news coverage of this."

[choir music playing]

-Let me hear your battle cry tonight!
-[screams]

I'm looking at a whole army of
young people who want to speak out.

[Jeff] It's The
Red and the Black.

This was fascism... in front
of me, on a massive scale.

It goes from the idea
of a Christian right

that's like, "We want
our piece of the pie,"

to, "No, we're taking the whole
thing. We're taking America back."

[Ron] What if we quit
listening to the culture,

and we said, "We want
to shape the culture,

instead of being
shaped by the culture?"

What if we said we want our voice to be
heard instead of your voice to be heard?

[Jeff] He no longer wanted the
kids to turn away from the culture.

Now he wanted them
to take it over.

It was the first time
that it was very much

trying to get the youth
involved in political issues,

as opposed to just being
an event to inspire them.

[reporter] This sounds like a
message of bringing back your values,

but it's actually a message
of intolerance and of hate.

Now, you could say it's divisive.
Well, maybe it needs to be divisive.

He starts gathering in support

from pretty serious
conservative sources of capital.

The Arlington Group.

-I want you to join the Battlecry...
-Battlecry.

[man] The Battlecry Coalition.

Ron did it. He brought
them the children.

Lord, as an army, we unite, and
we say, "No! Enough is enough."

They're a warrior,
God. Use them.

[Jeff] You've narrowed Christianity
down to one word... "fight".

[Ron] The enemy has
declared war on you guys.

It is time to strike back with
the love of God. Are you ready?

[screams]

[Phil] If you build that army,

eventually you have to give
them their marching orders.

If you're telling them
that it's all high stakes,

eventually you got to
point them into a battle.

That pivot happened
very quickly.

Tens of thousands of
teens waving banners

and saying they're taking
back their generation.

We won't be silent! Our
voices will be heard!

[Jeff] These big arena events
are now accompanied by,

"We're going to do a rally
at some place of governance,"

to an explicitly political end.

We've got virgin teenage America
being raped on the sidewalk,

and Americans just
walk by and look at it.

[Jeff] Ron started leading the
kids in political protests.

He'd never done that before.

One of the very early
ones is in San Francisco.

He goes to San Francisco's City
Hall because same sex marriages had

only a couple of years
previous, become legal there.

[Mica] I think he felt emboldened
to go to San Francisco,

to the steps of City Hall, in
the gayest city in America,

and he wanted to plant himself right
in the middle of the culture wars

and get as many kids as
he could to follow him.

And they said pretty explicitly,

"We're not here because
it's a heavily gay city.

We're here because it's one of the
most secular cities in the country."

They went there because
of gay marriage.

In part, that's what they
said in their press release.

We're here as teenagers just to stand
up, as the leaders of this cultural war,

that is just fighting up
and saying enough is enough.

[Phil] There is no doubt in my
mind that they were seeing this

as a confrontation between
church and enemy of the church.

This was a movement
upon San Francisco.

San Francisco, God bless
them, pushes back hard.

[newswoman] Protesters
were out in full force,

accusing the group of being
anti-gay and anti-choice.

[man] Battlecry is not
a harmless movement.

Its program is
fiercely anti-woman,

anti-gay, pro-war,
and pro-obedience.

Battlecry is a tool to make the
kids into little fascist zombies.

"The army of God." You guys don't see
anything wrong with the army of God?

They're calling us angry,
yet they were the ones angry.

We didn't realize that
it was kind of a hotbed

for a very violent response to
people who represent the Bible.

I can't imagine they
would play ignorant,

of like, "Oh, I
didn't even realize."

To represent a far bigger agenda. A
Christian right, theocratic agenda.

Joining us now from
Washington, Ron Luce.

They think you might want a
theocracy in this country?

-Is that true?
-Absolutely not.

We just want young people to have
a voice. We're being drowned out.

Do you want the Bible to
go over into public policy?

We want just Judeo-Christian
values that made our nation great,

and it's really less
about what I want.

It's what these young people
are voicing their own opinion.

We were at war.

We were an army for God.

We were going to rise
up with a battle cry.

But the bad thing about using

that sort of mindset is
that you create a soldier

who will follow orders
in an unquestioning way,

because that's what you have to
do when you're being shot at.

[sighs]

I don't know how you segment
your mind to not think

about the ramifications of
what you are doing to kids.

[Dani] Honor Academy interns
were behind the scenes,

running almost everything
that you saw at these events.

We were working 15-hour days.

You're sacrificing
yourself for this vision.

Teen Mania was like a
giant systemic machine.

[Corey] We did dozens
of cities in a row,

sleeping on a bus as we
drove through the night.

We were exhausted.

I got shingles...
from the stress.

They'd given us five
dollars a day to eat with.

We had to trust God
for the rest of it.

And I remember once
running out of money,

and I was like, "Okay, I'll
just call it a fast." [laughs]

All of those young people who provide
the labor, that is his operation.

It is absolutely
exploiting these kids.

[Corey] At the Honor Academy,
there was a monthly tuition.

You pay to work. I was in the
middle of the ministry team touring.

They were starting to
hound me for money.

If you ever got behind on your
payments, you would get kicked out.

[Corey] When you don't have
enough money in your account,

they send you on what is
called "a fundraising trip".

They told me that they were going
to send me on a fundraising trip

or dismiss me after I've spent that
entire year traveling the country,

saving people for "them", getting
people to go on mission trips for them.

Here's a book on all the different
things that you can do to raise funds.

One of which included going door
to door with a carton of eggs

and having someone give you a donation
to crack an egg over your head.

I will let you crack an egg over my
head for a donation of any amount.

Crack an egg over my head.

Shame, embarrassment.

I think the theology of Teen Mania is
based on the impossibility of the ask.

We're asking you to be something you
can't be, if you're going to be human.

There's no point where you say,
"I did it." You're always failing.

Well, then, try more, do more,
become more, serve more, submit more.

These kids, they
were disposable.

About a quarter of the interns
didn't last the whole year.

Whether it was they
couldn't raise the money,

or they broke one of the rules.

People who broke a rule,

they would get a "BV",
which was a bon voyage,

which was a very
unceremonious exit.

Within 24 hours, you were out of campus,
like you were kicked out like that.

Once they were gone, you
never spoke to them again.

It was like they
never existed, almost.

I was dismissed for kissing a
boy, and it was just a kiss.

So this is the ministry team, and I
would like you to see what goes on here.

The people that I have grown
to love and know the best,

now, they weren't
allowed to talk to me.

They had to delete my number,
and I was kicked off campus.

It was just like
I did not exist.

Very lonely.

Very, very lonely.

[singing] ♪ I miss you so ♪

♪ You don't even know ♪

[Carrie] You could return
to the Honor Academy

after you were kicked
out of the program.

However, we would have
to humble ourselves.

And once we had done all of
the things that were required

by Dave, by Ron, then we
could reapply to come back.

A lot of us wanted to go back.

Nobody knew how to live
out in the world anymore.

I went through a really rough
year, but I was able to go back.

[Jeff] The more you get
into that guilt cycle,

the more committed you become to the
organization, the more unworthy you are,

the more grateful you are for
them letting you stay there.

I just made choices that I
shouldn't have knowingly,

like knowing that it was wrong.

Knowing that there
would be consequences.

[Dani] After I came back to Teen Mania,
I ended up in an Acquire the Fire video.

[singing] ♪ I've been where
you are, and then some ♪

♪ I know exactly
what you're feeling ♪

♪ I've been with my
share of gentlemen ♪

[Dani] In that video, we're
supposed to mimic this story

in the Bible of the
adulterous woman.

"He has no sin cast
the first stone."

But in the video, it's this
woman, me, in this room.

The door opens, and
these three men come in.

And the video was shown
all across America,

every Acquire the
Fire that year.

I, as a woman, who was shamed
for something that I had done,

was now in a video
broadcast to the world

about a woman who is shamed
for what she had done.

But I volunteered to do it.

[Jeff] The indoctrination
is complete now.

It is inside you.

You're doing it to yourself,
and you're doing it willingly.

And then it was my
turn to be erased.

I was still working
as Ron's assistant.

I was just getting super, super
depressed, and I didn't understand why.

I read my Bible every day. I
had my quiet times. I prayed.

I only hung out with Christian people.
I didn't date, you know, I served God.

I was on fire for God.

I thought that doing all of the right
things would lead to the right outcome.

And so why am I so
depressed? Why am I suicidal?

Why do I feel so much guilt and
shame and condemnation all the time?

I must be doing it
wrong. I must have sin.

There must be something bad about me
that's just irredeemable and broken.

Every day they tell you you're
elite, you're changing the world.

So they're pumping you up all the
time. They're also breaking you down.

Sin, guilt, shame. You're
bad. All of these things.

And to the point that you're in
a prison, nobody else can see it,

but the prison is in your mind.

This whole Teen Mania
thing has had me way down.

All this depression crap
and this low self-esteem,

always thinking the
most negative thing,

always just wallowing in
self-pity and depression.

I just can't live like this anymore.
That's where I'm at right now.

Finally, I met with Dave Hasz.
I was like, "I need help."

I remember sitting across
from him in his office.

He looked at me and said,

"Well, you just need
to go to church more."

I couldn't be doing more
Christian stuff if I tried.

I couldn't have done any more.

And that was the moment where
I was like, "No, I'm leaving.

I'm not going to
survive if I stay here."

But it's scary to leave...

that kind of an environment.

There's such a feeling
of belonging and...

[crying] and community, that's
what keeps people there a lot.

And it's hard to lose that.

[sighs] Okay.
[breathes deeply]

[Phil] People construct an identity
in that space of who they are.

To leave is to separate
from that identity.

-Mm-hm.
-So to move on to a new space

was to leave that
sense of self behind.

I think that makes almost
an impossible choice.

This life that you're so deeply
entrenched in... is gone.

I was caught in this
in-between space.

The stuff that really...

caused the most trauma is stuff that
it's a lot harder to put on video.

It took a while for me to...

actually talk about
everything that happened

because I thought it was normal.

I left Teen Mania feeling
something was wrong with me.

I internalized a lot of that.

I excused a lot of
what went on there

because it's like, you must
protect your authority figures.

Even when we were grown up and
adults and married with kids,

we still didn't talk about it.

I never planned to be
the demise of Teen Mania.

Um... [sniffles]

I just thought, I
want to help somebody

and give them the advice
that I wish somebody gave me.

[typing]

[Phil] Teen Mania has an
alumni bulletin board,

and people would have threads
talking about current events.

But there started to be people who
had beef and wanted to talk about it.

Teen Mania was stopping
that discourse.

"Well, if you don't like this, this
is a Teen Mania paid for space,

so you can pay for
your own space."

Which Mica took very
seriously. [laughs]

[Mica] It was about ten years after
I left, when I started the blog.

And at that time, Teen Mania was
really at the peak of their popularity.

[screams]

[Ron] You're just showing your city that
there are young people that love God,

that you don't want to be
manipulated by a bunch of old people

making money off destroying you.

[Mica] Teen Mania was raking
in $20 million a year.

Even George W. Bush
endorsed Teen Mania.

I started the blog as an outlet
for people to share their stories

and to tell the truth about what Teen
Mania actually is like and find healing.

I wrote the blog
anonymously at the beginning

because it was really important to me that
people will contend with the arguments

that I was making and not
with who I was as a person.

I think the fact that it
had been so repressed,

as soon as a little
opening came,

people were ready to
rush through the door.

[Carrie] Nobody knew
who was behind the blog,

but I reached out to the person.

I just said, "Hey, thank
you for saying this."

You are now validating
everything that I already knew.

When Mica started the
Recovering Alumni blog,

she sent it to me and said,

"Hey, I'm starting this. I
invite you to be a part of it."

And I was like, "I love this. I
love this engagement. This is fun."

[Mica] We had a really
lively comment section,

just trying to
validate each other.

Like, "Yeah, you did go through
that, and that was heinous."

[Phil] There started to be
threads and more and more threads.

"Hey, what about this?
Hey, did anybody..."

Like little pieces, and I
start reading it every day.

It was very shocking. Over the
top, over the line abusive.

They would take a team of
us to an abandoned well

and make them crawl
down the hole.

[Zachariah] Riding
around in four-wheelers,

shooting at us with
paintball guns.

[Corey] They had people
actually eating cat food.

[Mica] One of the people in
my company lost consciousness,

and the other was finally released
when her temperature reached 102.

[Carrie] Permanent physical injuries.
Permanent trauma, real life torture.

[Mica] I was actually
locked in the coffin twice,

during my ESOAL, with mice and
Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

[Carrie] They were publishing
stories from survivors

who detailed their
experiences of abuse.

[Mica] But I think everybody felt
like somebody is finally hearing it.

Because it's a really
particular kind of loneliness

to go through something,

and then to have nobody believe
you about what you went through.

-[clicks]
-[dramatic music playing]

[clicks]

[over phone]

[Mica] Once the blog took off and a
lot of people were sharing stories,

I realized that this
was widespread enough,

it needed to be addressed.

And so I gathered
20 pages of stories.

I FedExed it to each and every
board members' home or business,

and contacted Dave Hasz, who was
in charge of the Honor Academy.

You know, had gone through
all the levels of leadership,

and expected or hoped that
they would read this and go,

"Oh, man, I had no
idea this was going...

We've got to get on this. We
got to fix this. This is awful."

That is not the
response that we got.

[over phone]

If they had just apologized,

there were so many people who
would have never continued

-telling their stories.
-Yeah.

And there was no willingness to do that.
And that solidified into, "Oh, really?

You're going to deny that
this happened to me?"

This isn't coming from Satanists

or people that hate
Jesus or hate the church.

This is people that
are part of the church.

You know, we followed all
the confrontation rules.

We came to you with our
grievances privately.

You didn't listen, so
now we go to the press.

Crawling through the mud and
rolling down a hill until you vomit.

All in the name of Jesus.

Teenagers are put through strenuous
exercises and sleep deprivation

to, as their website says, "Learn
to rely on God's strength."

If we weren't doing it correctly,
besides getting punished,

They'd say it pays to be a
winner, and you're a loser.

It pays to be a winner,
and you're a loser.

[newsman] His injuries
ranged from cuts and bruises

to more serious
sprains and infections.

Last year, we had the bus come by
and drop about ten patients off.

[newsman] Mica Marley started
"My Teen Mania Experience" blog.

It's absolutely shocking that
you could brainwash a young adult

to roll down a hill through
other people's vomit

and somehow think that's
a spiritual activity.

It's just blows my mind.

[newsman] A Facebook group
called "I've Rolled the Hill"

discusses an ESOAL
rite of passage,

rolling down a hill to
the point of sickness.

Parents that are sending
their kids have no idea

what is actually going on
in those woods back there.

It was really exciting to see
that there were some other people

who were trying to kind of raise the alarm
that this group's up to something weird.

Teen Mania suspended the ESOAL
program after the in-depth look.

[Mica] And then to counter the bad press,
Teen Mania went into full damage control.

They were just not in a
good place to help fight

what the people of
Recovering Alumni were doing.

And so I was brought in to
help fight that directly.

I had a background in
conservative politics.

I had been at Americans
for Prosperity,

which focused on the fight
to get conservative influence

at the highest offices.

Whether I was working for a campaign,
my job was to represent Christ

and ultimately to speak boldly
and live boldly for Christ.

The first time I went
to Teen Mania campus,

I was impressed as hell.

The idea of raising up an
army of young people for God

was part and parcel
of my beliefs.

I immediately started looking at
the Recovering Alumni website.

The stories sounded so
extreme and bizarre.

I thought, "There's
no way this is real."

I thought this is a typical left-wing
exaggeration of a Christian organization.

I was going to come in and help
quell this attack from Satan

to help a ministry that
has been so effective

in helping so many thousands of
teenagers lives over the decades.

I said, "I can help you fight
this effectively persecution

that you're facing."

-[clicks]
-[typing]

I learned about Mica early on.

Here we are in Texas, in the
rain, in camouflage ponchos,

carrying a cross down
the side of the road.

Okay, if that doesn't look like
a cult, I don't know what does.

Mica was public
enemy number one.

I come up with a crisis
communications plan.

My strategy was to go on this
blitz to bury Recovering Alumni

with positive messages
about Teen Mania.

So having a passionate Christianity
can be a little bit unusual.

It's not the most popular thing,
and we know that because of that,

it being a little unusual, that
it can also be misunderstood.

ESOAL was a very positive and...

very lasting experience.

You have medical
people, you have EMTs.

You have the staff that are
constantly asking you, "Are you okay?"

The Honor Academy cultivates
a protected safe environment.

Former interns, influential
people connected to the ministry.

We just looped everybody in who had a
positive experience with Teen Mania.

You know, whenever someone
asked me what organization

is making the greatest impact upon
students in the United States,

My answer is Teen
Mania, led by Ron Luce.

25 years of spreading light
and life to teenagers.

You are making an impact in America on
young people that you cannot measure.

Influential mega pastors
or Christian authors.

God bless you.

He was trying to get credibility
from all of these other people,

and they were lending it to him.

We had a very Internet-focused effort,
with the intent that Recovering Alumni

would not se the light of
day on page one of Google.

I even had people
writing reviews on Yelp,

on all of Ron's books
on Amazon. [laughs]

[Mica] You could write as many
good press releases as you want,

but if you've got 50 or 100 kids
pouring out their guts to you

and telling you, "I went, and I
loved God. I was abused in this way.

I have nightmares every night."

How many stories can
you read before you go,

"Okay, there might be
something wrong there."

Parents were reading my blog, and
once they were reading my blog,

they were not sending
their children.

The spiral was starting,
and they saw it.

[Cindy] We were ready
to do anything to stop

the dwindling numbers of
Honor Academy attendance.

[applause]

Let me ask you this. How many
of you guys have a voice?

[cheering]

You just got to use your voice.

[Mica] There's thousands of people
that have been through the program,

and a lot remain
loyal to Teen Mania.

They've all been trained for battle,
and they all think I'm the enemy.

[Carrie] People with harass
her. Harass her dogs.

She suffered death threats.

She was the one who took
the bulk of the hate.

I know it took a toll on her.

She did so much for us.

-[typing]
-[clicks]

[Mica] By 2012, my blog was on
the very front page of Google,

if you searched Teen Mania,

and I was hurting their
numbers quite a bit.

And if they don't get new interns,
they're not getting new labor.

And if they're not getting new
labor, they can't keep putting on

the amount of events
that they're putting on.

And that was money in
Teen Mania's pocket.

Listen, we're in an urgent moment right
now in the history of teen ministry.

Give us the name, and help us get
connected with a young person.

We'll give you a certificate
you can hand to them.

[Ron] There are rumors out there I've
seen, "Is Teen Mania in bankruptcy?"

No, we're not in bankruptcy.

If we're in bankruptcy, we'd be
having a whole different conversation.

You may have already given already,
so thank you very much for that.

But if anything you could possibly
do, a small gift, a large gift,

together, we're going to
do something just amazing.

[Cindy] And then Ron very
excitedly announced good news.

We're going to give the
campus back to the bank.

But this is a good thing because
we're going to move to Dallas.

And of course, people are asking
about the finances. [laughs]

Is this related to finances?

And he said, "Well, no, this
is for us to streamline,

be closer to the DFW Airport,

and we've got a press release that
we're going to send out about this."

Some exciting news.

We're moving our headquarters
from Garden Valley, Texas,

right to the middle of a world
class city, in Dallas, Texas.

You know, the one great thing when you
go to a population mass like Dallas,

there's hurting
people everywhere.

And we're going to get lots of
practice reaching out to them.

To Jesus, we just...
are so very grateful.

I saw the bank statement,
and it said foreclosure.

Because of failure to pay.

Ron was trying to
salvage a sinking ship.

It was my job to send
out this press release.

What's in this press
release is a lie.

Ron denied that they
were in foreclosure,

saying that they were returning
the property to the bank,

instead of, "We're broke."

The Ten Commandments say do not tell lies,
like God cares about telling the truth.

I pleaded with Ron to
please tell the truth.

I believe in Teen Mania. I believe
in you. Please tell the truth.

And he wouldn't.

And then I had a meeting to
discuss Recovering Alumni.

A post had come out about
someone who had been exorcized.

And I said in this meeting,
"This is so absurd.

Of course this didn't happen."

They looked at me,
didn't say a word.

And I was like, "It
didn't happen, right?"

And they didn't say
anything, but switched topic.

I was just like, "Oh,
my God, it's true."

To me, that was a telltale
sign that that did happen,

and probably many other things on the
Recovering Alumni website happened.

And I was just stunned.

I just felt this like cold
shudder go through my body.

When you know the truth,
you can't go back.

At the same time, Acquire the
Fire events were being canceled.

Youth groups did not
get their money back.

When Global Expeditions
trips are being canceled,

these teen missionaries did
not get their money back.

They're not wealthy kids.

These are kids who did
car washes, bake sales,

fund raised like crazy,
and Ron stole their money.

My mission at that time
became to expose the truth.

I worked with other internal and external
folks at Teen Media and with alumni.

I had a friend who
worked in World Magazine.

And I just called him up, I'm like,
"Hey, I've got a story for you."

And he's like, "Okay, are you
sure you want to do this?"

I'm like, "Yes, this needs to get out
there. Ron is stealing money from kids."

[dramatic music playing]

And then the announcement
of a shutdown came out.

[music intensifies]

They never restarted
the internship again.

It was over.

I remember thinking
that was crazy.

I didn't really think that
that was going to happen.

I'm like, "Well,
that'd be crazy."

When we started the blog,

Teen Mania was the biggest Christian
youth organization in America,

and the idea that they would
just go out of business,

that was never even a
possibility in my mind.

It was certainly never the goal.

The goal was just to help people
who had been through the program.

A brave group of
survivors were the ones

that eventually caused
Teen Mania's demise.

I was so happy. [laughs]

They took advantage of a
lot of very sincere kids,

and that genuinely
makes me angrier now.

It makes me a lot angrier now
than I ever was when I was young.

[Ron] But when you die to yourself,
that's when He breathes real life in you.

And we've been talking about, there's
a battle going on for your generation.

And this morning, we're talking
about the battle for your mind

and for your dollars
and for your identity.

But God wants you to be a warrior that's
known only as a follower of Christ.

[Mica] It took me many years to
get that voice out of my head.

There's a lot of things
that stem back to Teen Mania

that are still traumatic,
that I hold in my body.

Thinking if I make any type of
mistake, I'm going to lose everyone.

I'm thankful that Teen
Mania's not around anymore.

Even though Ron's trying to
start a new thing somewhere.

After Teen Mania went
bankrupt in 2015,

Ron has been trying get
other ministries going,

and so he's gone overseas.

Ron is trying to kind of replicate
what he did with Teen Mania.

This week, we're praying that God
will infect and invade the hearts

of thousands of Burmese
people, that were Buddhists.

[Phil] He's toured around Africa
to support and train pastors.

He doesn't call it Teen Mania, but
the talking points are all the same.

And his methods, from what
I've seen, are all the same.

Why don't we give a big hand to our
beloved brother, pastor, Ron Luce?

[cheering]

I think Ron really believed
he was called by God

to share the gospel
with teenagers.

I think there's this undercurrent
of the ends justify the means.

I think he sincerely doesn't know
any other way of doing things.

I do think Ron and
Dave are victims

as much as they are
also perpetrators.

They also have to live in this narrow,
prescribed, rigid way of living.

If you're telling other
people that they're bad,

they're evil, they're shameful, you
also believe that about yourself.

It's so hard not to
psychoanalyze Ron Luce,

this man who went looking
for a father his whole life.

If he could have just accepted that the
wounds of his youth lived with him...

Instead, he had to find a
whole political apparatus,

and then he had to drag all
these other young people into it,

instead of contending with it.

He had to spread it around to other young
people who are just trying to grow up.

It's like he wanted to lock them
in to that same angry moment

he couldn't get past.

I think Ron Luce taught them that
to be a Christian was to be angry.

He took a lot of young people,
who had a lot of intense emotions,

and he told them that your anger,
your fury, which can curdle into hate,

that's the one
that matters most.

Some kids got out of Teen
Mania, but most did not.

The army Ron trained
is still out there.

Teen Mania was part of a movement
to blow up the order as it is

and to build a new
kingdom. It's not done yet.

Welcome to the end of democracy.

We're here to overthrow
it completely.

We didn't get all the way
there on January sixth,

but we will endeavor to get
rid of it and replace it.

-Amen.
-That's right.

Because all glory, all glory is not
to government, all glory to God.

[applause]

This whole democracy thing,
how important is that?

You know what? Let's just
rewrite the Constitution.

So now comes this idea called
"Convention of States".

[Pete] There is something
called "Convention of States".

Article five in our Constitution,
it's gathering momentum.

There's an intensity around
the Convention of States

-as an idea that really noticeable.
-Yeah.

There's a reason for that.

The Convention of States is an effort,
in essence, to amend the Constitution.

[Jeff] Shred the Bill of
Rights, First Amendment.

Separation of church and state.

The Convention of
States has been endorsed

by a number of influential evangelical
leaders, including James Dobson.

[James] Remember those words,
"Convention of States".

[Sarah] And also House
Speaker Mike Johnson.

An amendment may be proposed by two
thirds of the states in a convention...

And many, many others that
have played an important role

in the religious
right for many years.

They say it's about
states rights,

states rights, the battle
cry of segregation.

The battle cry of
the Confederacy.

It's about decentralizing power,

and letting California be
California, letting Idaho be Idaho.

Let Alabama be Alabama.

And that is not by any stretch of
the imagination a United States.

I spent a lot of my teen
years on the campaign trail,

laying the groundwork for
the Tea Party movement.

I was a true believer. I put my
heart soul into this movement.

It is an existential
threat to democracy.

The Convention of States is a
way to amend the Constitution

without using the
normal federal Congress.

They want to do it a different way
that they are legally allowed to do.

And they only need 34 states.

They call a meeting to write
amendments to the Constitution.

Once they get in there and
open the Constitution up,

they can basically do
whatever they want.

They just need their army to
vote for their state politicians

in order to succeed.

This is not going to be put
to a vote by the people,

except for the fact that the
people elect the legislators.

You don't have to deal with
the low information voters.

It got so much further
than you would expect.

We're in 19 states, so passed
halfway. We have 15 states to go.

I'm telling you, it has the
possibility of becoming the law.

They are actually doing
model conventions now.

They're LARPing it.

It appears that they will
be satisfied by nothing less

than the complete destruction
of our American liberties.

Must we not then do something
to secure those very liberties?

They role play the Convention of
States, so that they'll be ready.

Alabama votes yes.

[Jeff] What God has commanded
you to do is to take the kingdom,

You take it by force. And now...

[newscaster] The push to put the Lord's
Scripture into Florida Public schools.

The words "In God We Trust"
will be required reading

in Louisiana
schools this year...

Republicans today block legislation
designed to protect access

to in vitro fertilization...

The new state guidelines sent out today
requiring teaching from the Bible...

Texas saw a 56% rise
in maternal mortality.

I think divorce should
basically be outlawed. [laughs]

The way your Christian
nationalists want,

will women have the
right to vote tomorrow?

-No.
-We own the country, not them.

[Jeff] They are aiming for a
complete structural transformation.

This is the project
to rewire America.

[sighs]

It's fine. I'm safe.
Complete this stress cycle.

Evangelical culture
is very much a binary.

There is no nuance. You have
to pick one side or the other.

It's the black and
white thinking.

My books have been a part of
putting these heavy burdens

and rules on people that
weren't in the Bible.

And I'm very sorry for that.

And I think this is something
that a lot of people,

who grew up in this
movement and are now adults,

have to reflect on to
one degree or another.

You know, what
was I involved in?

What did I do, and
who did I hurt?

[Cindy] My own...

ignorant and small
minded beliefs

allowed me to dismiss the harm
that happened to these kids.

And I was wrong. That was wrong.

[sighs] And I know how
many victims of abuse,

spiritual, physical,
sexual, are not believed

and how the systems that
we have in place cause...

harm, at a huge scale.

I'm sorry that I caused that
harm, and I was a part of a system

that continued to perpetuate harm
against people who are abused.

[groans and sighs]

There was a lot rooted in me

that I had to dig out from
this kind of experience.

There was a lot of prejudice
I didn't know that I had

towards just people
living their lives.

Because even if you say that
you love everybody equally,

if they don't line up
with what you believe

or what you say is true,

there will always be
something wrong with them.

And in some part of your mind,
you're probably not even aware of it.

But you're being
judgmental of them,

and you are telling them
in a million nonverbal ways

that you're doing it wrong,
and you're not good enough.

We were complicit, and
we were also victims.

But there's tremendous grace
for anyone who went through it.

Anyone who had a good experience,
and some people did have

a good experience, like genuinely
had a positive experience.

But this isn't for them.

The ring represents...

hard things, things that I went
through and things that I accomplished.

Trauma and loss
and grief and pain.

I have nothing
left of that life.

I have nothing left to
hold of that experience.

I burned it all, and
I'm glad that it's gone.

So for almost two and a half decades,
I have been really taking the time

to be honest about who I was,
what I really, really wanted.

I want to be the person that that
18 year old would be proud of,

and look at me and go,
"Thank you for healing me."

Thank you for doing the work.

[cries]

We all get together
all the time.

Our mom and our dad, our
dad's husband. [laughs]

-We go on vacations together.
-Yeah it's great. It's great.

And so his feeling of,

-"I'm going to lose my family..."
-Yeah.

Now, we have this huge family
and all these kids and grandkids,

and we all rejected that narrative of,
"This is what it's supposed to look like."

Coming to terms with the fact that
this Jesus that's been sold to me

for the longest time
is not my Jesus.

It's a journey for sure.

I still identify as a Christian.

The Jesus kind.

I think that that little voice in the
back of your mind that sometimes goes,

"Wait a minute,"

and you start to like... that's
you, that's your conscience.

And it's okay to
listen to that voice.

That voice is not evil. It is
not going to lead you astray.

[director] What are you hoping
might come of this for people

hearing your story?

You have to stand for the truth,

and you have to stand for what's right
or else we're going to lose everything.

At the end of the day, we cannot
let these people silence us.

They are plotting.

They are strategizing while everybody
else is out there living their life,

not trying to control everybody.

Guess what? All the authoritarian
people got together,

and they're all
coming after you.

[credits music playing]