![]() ![]() The program wasn’t cheap, either, the former interns said. Former members of Bethany Church in Baton Rouge, La., who took part as teenagers in the 220i youth program say there were often made to take long hikes, do manual labor and perform calisthenics for hours in the sweltering summer heat. “Their whole pitch was if you wanted to be the elite of Christianity, you needed to be in this program,” said another former intern, who asked to be identified only as Emerson. The interns lived at the church in a dormitory-type setting for the duration of the 10-month program. “It was a cult mentality,” said Laurel, adding that for them the biggest punishment was “being expelled from the program because then you would just be essentially excommunicated.”īethany Church marketed the 220i ministry to other churches, drawing participants from across the United States and from countries as far away as Malaysia, the ex-interns said. It has more than 8,000 members spread across five campuses in Louisiana and is opening another in New Orleans, runs a television ministry and supports missions at home and abroad. They said the ringleader was his older brother, Joel, who tormented the interns with the help of aides known as “second years,” as well as Joel’s late wife, Amy, and his current wife, Amie.įounded by the Stockstill brothers’ grandfather Roy in 1963, the nondenominational Bethany Church grew from having Sunday services in the living room of the family home into one of the biggest megachurches in the country. The former interns - some of whom spoke on the record, while others used pseudonyms out of fear of retaliation from the powerful megachurch, which has thousands of members - said he was aware of what was going on and did nothing to stop it. “It’s obvious to me now and to the current leadership at Bethany Church that we significantly missed the mark in that program in many ways.” “While there was some positive fruit that came from that ministry, there were also leadership and cultural flaws that led to painful experiences for many,” he wrote. ![]()
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