The Mercy Ministries, an organization that provides ‘structured residential care’ to troubled young women aged 16-28, made headlines this month as young women previously in their care came forth with allegations that they had not received proper medical treatment for mental disorders, such as anorexia and bipolar disorder, and had to sign over Centrelink and unemployment benefits to Mercy Ministries. Additional allegations surfaced that Mercy Ministries and its partner Hillsong Church actively work to ‘reform’ same-sex attraction.
In one such allegation, in a March 19 article in the Brisbane Times, former Sydney House Mercy Ministries’ resident Naomi Johnson said she ‘received much teaching on the evils of gay and lesbian lifestyles’ from Mercy Ministries.
According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald, Mercy Ministries has had 96 women graduate from its programs since 2001; however, there are no publicly available figures on the numbers of young women who fail to complete the course or their reasons for leaving. The Mercy Ministries website says that currently 29 women are in their care, but that with new centres planned to open in Adelaide, Perth and New South Wales over the next two years, that figure will increase.
Sue Kentlyn, Co-Convenor of Freedom 2 b[e], an organization for GLBTIQ people from Pentecostal and Charismatic backgrounds, and a lecturer on sex and gender at University of Queensland told OUTinPerth that ‘La Trobe University has run some longitudinal studies on same-sex attracted youth and in their reports they identified that young people who are same-sex attracted who have contact with religion in churches are more likely to self-harm, to abuse drugs and to have suicidal tendencies and that’s tragic. It’s such a shame because the organizations that young people turn to for support and understanding are actually making things more difficult for them.’
While Ms Kentlyn said that she believed that Mercy were probably acting in good faith, she also said, such ‘ideologically driven’ treatments may be ‘unable to take on evidence that those beliefs and practices are not appropriate.’
Mercy Ministries did not respond to OUTinPerth’s requests for comment.
