June

.'7

7, 19~3

Deauty

S~eriff

McCarthy

P.O. Box 328

Ar cao t a La. 71001 Dea r Sir: My name is Laura Slake, I am a resident of Charlotte N. C.. I am a oo l tceman "s daughter and also a graduate of ihe-New Eethany Girls Harne, Route 2 Sox 125 Arcadia La. I entered t~e home June 25, 10E1 and was there for one year. Whil~ at the Hone I saw many unsual things but WdS ignorant to the f ac t s . 1"'>95 ius t one of the others who was new, and you jus: di~n' t ask many auestions without locking for t roub le. I then chose of my on free w i l l to return to 'le'"Bethany for a second year to finis~ my schooling, and ~~d I eve~ make a mistake.

r a~ now ~ack home with a fine fa~ily with ~o reason to 1 ie. I fe~: there is a ;ot you should know about for the sake of others still ~t ~he Home. ~y ,arents sent me there ho~ing to get me helD, not to put me in the mids~ Qi a c~lt.
The Christian Law Association sent out a ~aoer ahout ho~ th~ Home had ~een c l e::red of all charces of inhumane t reatment and of the prison Ii (e e tmos phe re . In it they told of the D.H.H.R. talking wit~ the girls at the Home. Those girls were hand picked by Rev Mack Ford. Every t~me t~e n.H.~.R was to co~e, girls were pulled out of school to help pre~are for the visit. I was one of those qirls ]yself. Sometimes it would be real late at nlaM: when 0e qat done, settinq t~inqs U0 and 0 r 0 gr amm in9 t h i n9 s tog jus t a S I') ian ned. I t vi as a 11 do n e ina sec ret i v e manner. The girls were led to believe the D.H.H.~. were preachers. ~ad the girls known I guarantee you they vlQuld have talked. Thats 'fIn)' they only 0ct to talk to the proc rerrrned, handoicked fe','/. I started seeing through all of this, To me, if ther~ is not~jnn to hide, why be decetiful and cover things uo. They just didn't know that me ~nd many others were just there to finish school and they didn't have us brainwashed or fooled. The difference bet'."een some is that my na ren t s stood with me, .,.,hereas others were threatened by the Staff \~orkers with this 1 ine "r enernber we have the adyar:ta~e over you. r was e~en threatened with this also. They do progra~ carents and l~e to them, They even tri ed \/ith mine. I../hynot? The 1anger they can ~ee~ the 9 i r1 s tnsr s , the better, it means more money. ~Ay "~om and Dac finally sal'/ t-irnuqh therr, that they had two faces. One of the HOr:le q i r ls , lisa Blanchard :,a5 e~ct.ionally ::f~e(ted by ::he ores sur e from the Staff. It all started when she bulked them an~ told t~em i: was a cult, ana let the.1f.knO\/wher-e she stood. She sa\1 nothin'j ... 'rcng ':lith we ar inc cants, cut t inc her hair, wearin~ make-up and watching T.V .. The~ believe and prE3ch there that ya u ere 9o i ng to he 1 i i f yo u dot he 5 e t h i n o s , i ne !l res sur e ~a t 50S r ~ :H t r, d the ... hair started fallina out and s~~ was in a csns~ant shake. She cal~ed to qo hone to get medical trea~nent and unon leavinq t~e Home was told t~dt she didn't ne~d medical helo, that her ~roble~ was bec~use c: s~n Jnd that she ~a~ on ~er waf to hell. She did leave and was nut on nedic~tion for her oroblem.

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The girls at the Home are locked in with t~e Staff who apnly constant pressure. Myself and ancther girl, Bar-hara Larsen ~!cc!\ Ford beat a qiri \'Jithtwo other workers helping. The girls name is ~oree~ S~anqler. no longer at the Home. ~ack Ford hit her several times in the face wit~ his fist. The names of the two workers that helped are Theresa Trahan, no lor~er at the Home and Celia Romero who still works there. After the beatinq, nore~~ Span~ler's lips looked puffy, her who 1e face r/as purple, her eyes were b 1ad and one of them had a broken blood vessel. I told my oarents about the incident when they cane to a Conference at the Home in September 1982. The incident had just occurred about a week Drior and I pointed out the girl to m~ parents and t~ey sa\v the bruises and the blood shot eye. ~hen Mack Ford found out that [ had told my ~arents about the beating, he went into a rage.

i~as

A short time after this incident there was a court trial about sc~ethin~ and I was asked if I \'JOuldtestify for the I-b~e and say everyth inq was alright and above board. I told them I wou ld tell t~le t ruth no matter wha t , so they didn't allow me to stand for the Hone. I couldn't say I had never seen anyone beaten because in addition to seeina Doreen Soann1e~ ~e5ten I also saw Mack Ford kick a 5 ye3r old child around in-the floor of-the ~us whileon tour in the State of Ohio. The child's name is Gus Littleman who is now at tr,e ~le'''1 Bethany Boys Home in Walterboro S. C. 7his incident was wi!nesse~ by Lisa Dlanchard.
A few of the girls including myself got into trouble in April of this year. We were all pulled out of school several days later at 1:30 p~ while others remained

at school. We were told if we let out a ~eeD during the time they ~ere ~eating us w~t~ a paddle made from a 2 by 4, they would start allover. I was given 19 licks, Barbara Larsen was given 20 licks and was then asked what she thought of the Home. They didn t 1 ike her answer so they ~cve her 19 more 1 ids. She was bruised from just above her knees up to her ~ut:ock.
I

Mary Lou \~alker \"Ihais 19 years old tried to l esve the Horne but was not allowed to do so. Mack Ford came down to t~e dormitory, ar.d hit her in the face repeatedly. He also tried to hit her in the face with hfs belt. Mack Ford then told her he would beat the hell out of her and would kill her before he ' ... auld let he leave. This was told to me by Mary Lou ~'/alkerafter she arrived at school late, at \'/hich time I did see visible marks about her face. ~c.r'l Lou said that r1ack Ford made her get down and get saved after he had hit he.... : even thounh she we s already saved. There were also several others beaten t~at received mare than 20 lick with the paddle, which I might add was always put cut of sight when the ~.H.H.R. came to visit. Be~ause of many girls nat conforming to their s~yle and disagreeing with Mack Ford, He wou ld go into a rage in the church se~vices. Once he said he would pray the copperhead snakes in to latch onto the le~s of the qirls who weren't right and not conforming to his Itlay. Within a ~e'.'I dcjs snakes beqan aooee rinc in the dormi tory. You ~ight also want to lock into the rumors of lesbianis~ there and the condonina of it. Mack Ford also made the statement f rorn ':~e oulpit 'lInenthe flu was going around that he had 00tten some pe~niceilian a~d fo~ the Staff to start shootinq the giris that was sick with it.

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I would like to say that the sirls at the ~~e are constantly mistreated, abused and hrutalized by Staff workers and Mack Ford. I do not feel that all Staff workers are knowledgable of what takes place. I know that Mack Ford, Nora Carter, Clara Shipman, Celia Romero, Ernest ~1itchell, and Oavid Ar~itelle have knowled~e of or have partici~ated in acts mentioned in this letter and many more. In closing I would like to say there are rna~y things I have not told you that takes o lace at the :Ie.,., Bethany :-!ome,but if you wis~ to pursue these allegations and hear about the others I w~lJ coo~erate f~lly. I am attachin~ a CODy of the Christian Lawenforcement Associat":'iol1 Paper as \rel1as names, addresses, and ~rone numbers of other girls t~at might give you information concerning the Illegal activities at the New Bethany Girls HOMe. ~esQectful1y Yo;rs

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-:-:c~_

Laura Blake

Copies To: Governor Dave Tree~ Re~. Jamie Fair Se~ Foster Campbell Se~. Charles Benham Rep. Loy Weaver D.H.H.R.

Wt:cd..

.Te/y)(jIl'S

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LAW

....CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

--..... -- THE BRIEFCASE

.~/~_._~~~~~
PUBLISHED BY THE CHRISTIAN LAW ASSOCIATION POBOX 30290. CLEVElAND. OHIO ':':130
'", 'oJ

MARCH.

1983

GRAND ISLAND lIew Bethany Home~, CHURCH IS For Girls Cleared j~ SUED FOR MINISTERING 01 All Charses >'J TO CHILDREN ~,,-:L:
../ v .

T./-

t"'U

The Calvary Apostolic Grand Island. Nebraska. trial on January 2~lh for church school ministry in church.

Church of went to operating a their

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~\c.JlO
by Woody
Jenkins
Member of Louisiana House of Representatlves

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The church began its ministry in Grand Island in 196-1. For the past 19 years they have conducted their ministry unhindered. In 1980. however, the church opened a Christian school. an activity which Nebraska has jealously declared to be within its jurisdiction. The church felt an obligation to provide training consistent with their beliefs for their 10 church children. They furthermore wished to conduct this ministry like any other ministry of the church without state intervention. They did not wish to be lawless or subversive but simply wished to be left alone to do what God had called them to do. Their reward. for taking seriously their church responsibility, was to be sued for operating a school without approval of the state of Nebraska. The congregation oi some 50 members is prepared to sacrifice all for the privilege of training their children. They fee! they may lose their church buildings and homes in this fight for the right to direct the Jives of their children. They have indicated that they would suffer the loss of those things in order to purchase freedom for their church's Ministries .

As chairman of the Oversight n~ubcommiltee of the Joint Legislative...,. ('(] Committee on Health and Welfare. [ ~ personally interviewed some of the v girls, including the only girl stilI~a( the home who was allegedly abuse . She denied that anv abuse had .... occurred, that girls. are ever locked '\. ~\r up. that new girls are "Silenced'fbv7.~\ v: their peers, and all of the other S accusations which' have been made against the facility. ~~ ~

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I was impressed with the fine job being done by the home and was

~e:.

New Bethany Home for Girls in Arcadia, Louisiana, was recently charged with having abused a number of girls who live at the facility. This fundamentalist Baptist home. which cares for 250 girls, was reported in the newspaper to be (operating in an inhumane fa~"\n\ and a prison-like atmosphere. :v10~1 '\ ~ girls at the facility were formerly ~ -, in~olved in prostitution or drugs, ha~' __ __ crimina) charges agarnst them, o.r ~..'t!_ ~~!"I!N were neglected_ or a!'used by [~e:r 0.1...)_ Brother Mack Ford and Attorney families <"::':\"":)l..:-.'t" ~~L ,~W"\,~ . .. .

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Gibbs

d~SCU55 tbe Illris horne In

However. the Committee on Child Protection of the Department of Health and Human Resources has just completed an investigation of New Bethany and the charges made against it. It concluded t hat no abuse occurred in the case in question. On t he contrary, the home was found to be operated In an outstanding manner.

earlier proceedings. amazed that the total budget of the home is ~800.000 a year, or just over $3,200 per girl for room. board and schooling. This compares with a cost of over $25.000 per child at some state-fun facilities. Of course, New Bethany neither seeks nor accepts government funds .