I am a born again Christian and love the LORD JESUS. I was a troubled teen and was sent to an independant fundamental baptist home and ACE school: New Bethany Home for Wayward girls in Arcadia, Louisiana back in the mid 1980s. I saw lots of things I have buried deep inside and that I still cannot remember. I do know I conformed as to not get beat. Many could not and many did not. I have many friends that were locked up there at New Bethany under Mack Ford or in homes like it that survived horrid terrible abuses. I was one of the lucky ones. Your child especially if completely out of control will not be!
Parents if your teen is in trouble, if you can not control them PLEASE before you send them off to a so called “christian” home, ranch or school PLEASE read up online about the abuse, rape, deaths and many other hidden things these homes do in the name of God. If they have to stay for a year RED ALERT! If they can only talk to you once a month, RED ALERT. If you can not visit your own child RED ALERT!!! If you cannot go and tour the place with your child BEFORE making a decision of leaving them RED ALERT. They will tell you this is a tried and true way of rehabilitation. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM. Be sure you are able to freely ask YOUR pick of the residents there any questions. Find the one who looks the saddest and ask them what is going on! They have certain girls who will say what they have been told and have learned to do so or else, so be selective! Call the local authorities and ask how long this home has been in town. If they just arrived find out where they moved from because they are running from being closed down. If they have been there for a while ask about any complaints.
Here is a PDF file of legal docs you should see.
http://images.tbird67.multiply.multiplycontent.com/attachment/0/TLJNrAooCtAAAH8C9T01/NB%20statement.pdf?key=newbethanysurvivors:journal:1285&nmid=373750526
Here are links with excerpts you MUST read before putting your child in danger. (Do your due diligence!)
http://newbethanysurvivors.multiply.com/
Welcome to Survivors of New Bethany
This is a place for those girls and boys who were subjected to New Bethany and survived to vent, chat, compare notes and basically share whatever you wish.
It is also a place for anyone who wishes (for whatever reason) to have a better understanding of what we went through and how we have dealt with/continue to deal with the fallout.
For me New Bethany was a nightmare. One I couldn’t escape even after I left it. I spent the better part of 15 years running from it. I’m tired of running. My fondest hope is to reconnect with those I have lost who shared this experience with me, and that in communicating with others who know and understand…we’ll all find it easier to deal with.
We are a group of Survivors. We all have our stories, both of then and now. We are all seeking healing and closure on this painful time in our lives.
While New Bethany is (supposedly) officially closed, there are still other places like it operating throughout this country.
We want the truth to be brought to light about what really goes on behind closed doors both at New Bethany and others like it, so that future generations will not have to endure the same torture we did, nor suffer the painful after effects that we are still fighting ourselves.
http://www.nospank.net/ford.htm
Rev. Mack Ford, man of God By Alan Clendenning, Associated Press Writer, from Yahoo News, May 13, 1999
But the Rev. Mack Ford, a former missionary who founded New Bethany in 1971, has repeatedly tried to keep child abuse investigators and fire inspectors away, saying state officials oppose the school’s fundamentalist religious approach and want to shut it down.
Now Ford is trying to further insulate the school by seeking a federal court order that would make it more difficult for state social workers to make unannounced school visits. Ford also is seeking at least $250,000 in damages.
A judge threw out his federal civil rights lawsuit in December, but Ford filed an appeal expected to be heard this summer by 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
“State bureaucrats are poking their noses into matters which they have no business asking questions about,” said Ford’s lawyer, John Hodge. “The teachings of New Bethany may be unorthodox to many, but we contend that New Bethany has a right to hold and to teach these matters.”
Lawyers for the state worry that Ford might win an injunction prohibiting visits by social workers and interviews with students about child abuse complaints.
“We’re not harassing them,” says Henry Bernstein, an assistant attorney general. “We’re just doing what we’re supposed to do.”
Ford didn’t respond to repeated requests for an interview and a tour of the school in rural Bienville Parish.
http://www.secretprisonsforteens.dk/fornitswiki/index.php/New_Bethany_Home
New Bethany Home
From Secret Prisons for Teens
Operationel status
Closed
Checked September 27,2010
This facility used corporal punishmentNew Bethany Home was the name for three facilities located at:
Longstreet, Louisiana (Closed 1981)
Walterboro, South Carolina (Closed 1984) [1]
Arcadia, Louisiana (Closed ?) [2] [3]
They were shut down after claims of abuse [4].
They were run by the couple Mack and Thelma Ford [5].
The Arcadia facility closed in 1992 [2], but reopened some year later. They battled the authorities not allowing fire inspections which could ensure the safety of the detained teenagers but lost in court [6].
http://www.teenliberty.org/NPR.htm
NPR ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR 8:00 pm ET)
DECEMBER 7, 1998 9:20 pm ET
Transcript # 98120712-212
National Public Radio
Boot Camp for God
……..ROBERTS: But the Grises have no recent photos. Last December the child went
to see his father and never came back.
This summer the Grises found out the boy’s dad had sent him to a
fundamentalist Christian boy’s home in rural Louisiana.
CHARLENE GRISE: We’ve seen pictures of it. Has barbed wire fences that are
really high. It looks like a prison. It doesn’t look like a school. It looks
like a prison. In the picture… ROBERTS: It’s a place the Grises were told
they can’t visit or even speak to their nephew on the phone.
CHARLENE GRISE: Matthew is not allowed to communicate with anyone. We were
told that we could write letters only through his father’s house, and they
censor everything, basically his father does, and the school does.
And Matthew could only send a letter through his father’s house. We’re not
able to talk to him directly.
ROBERTS: Matthew Grise never really knew his father, who left Colorado when
he was a little boy. He lived alone with his single mother Elizabeth. After
her death from cancer, he moved in with his aunt and uncle.
The Grises say the boy adjusted well and got near straight A’s in school.
Last December his dad Vincent Russo contacted the Grises about letting
Matthew come to Missouri for a Christmas visit.
After the holidays, Russo phoned to say his son wanted to stay with him.
But according to the Grises the boy clashed with his father’s strict
fundamentalist Christian views.
This summer, says Payson Grise, the child’s father sent Matthew to the New
Bethany Baptist Church Home for Boys outside Arcadia, Louisiana.
PAYSON GRISE: We have an honor student who left this state, lived not that
long of a time with his father and his father’s wife, and then ended up
inside of a children’s prison. It just isn’t right and we got to do
something about it……
These are just a few! If you are a Christian and you love your child, PRAY before making a mistake that will haunt your child for thier entire life. There are other alternatives!
By Jesus Mercy and Grace,
Annissa, former New Bethany resident
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