Search Results: ‘"minnesota teen challenge"’

A former crack user says she kicked her addiction because she found Jesus at Minnesota Teen Challenge. A man says that God healed his liver after a prayer service at the Christian drug treatment facility. While its clients sing its praises — some claiming it saved their lives — should such an overtly religious program be receiving taxpayer funding? According to state records, MNTC has gotten more than $2 million from the state of Minnesota since 2007.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has disbanded his gubernatorial committee, formalizing his decision not to seek a third term. In terminating the organization, he had to disburse more than $500,000 in remaining campaign funds. The funds were split almost evenly between political contributions and charitable gifts, as reported by Tom Scheck at Minnesota Public Radio.

A group monitoring issues surrounding the separation of church and state is urging Attorney General Eric Holder to revoke an earmark to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a Christian chemical dependency treatment center based in Minneapolis. In a letter to Holder, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State argue that MNTC has used taxpayer money [...]

Last fall, Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign made a $9,200 charitable contribution to the faith-based drug treatment program Minnesota Teen Challenge in an effort to wash its hands of tainted contributions from Frank Vennes, Jr., a convicted money launderer and associate of alleged Ponzi scheme operator Tom Petters. But, the Minnesota Independent has recently learned, the donation was given back. Teen Challenge returned the check on Oct. 3, but Bachmann’s campaign waited nearly three months to disclose the fact to the Federal Elections Commission.

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman received $2,300 from the family of Isaac Robert Toussie. Toussie, who is convicted of fraud, had his Dec. 23 presidential pardon revoked the next day by President Bush. Bush’s reversal came after large donations from Toussie’s father and other family members to the Republican Party and Republican candidates, including Coleman, came to light.
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If you accept taxpayer money, you have to accept that you’re going to receive public scrutiny. That simple point seems to be eluding Minnesota Teen Challenge (MNTC), the faith-based drug treatment program which secured a federal earmark in early 2008 arranged by Rep. Jim Ramstad, for its “Know the Truth” program which aims to prevent drug use.

Last week, the program sent two nearly identical letters to both the Minnesota Independent and the Huffington Post responding to articles critical of their programming.

Minnesota Teen Challenge, the subject of the story “Up in smoke: Will Ramstad’s faith-based earmark hurt his chances to win drug czar post?,” has asked for space to respond. As MnIndy did not contact the organization for that piece, we complied. Here’s the full letter from MNTC executive director, Rich Scherber:
This is in response to [...]

Throughout his career, retiring Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad championed the needs of people battling mental illness or chemical addiction, often through the lens of his own experience as a recovering alcoholic. For that reason, his name tops the list of possible appointments by the Obama administration as either drug czar or administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. But, should he get the nod for either spot, one Ramstad-sponsored earmark could raise questions in his confirmation hearings — $235,000 that went to the Minnesota Teen Challenge, an Assemblies of God drug treatment center with a history of controversial therapies and overt religious indoctrination.

The fallout from her Hardball appearance may have grabbed all the headlines, but that’s hardly the only crisis that Michele Bachmann has been dealing with this month. There is also the matter of her ties to Frank Vennes Jr., the ex-con and Bachmann campaign contributor on whose behalf she wrote a letter requesting a presidential pardon.

Bachmann later withdrew that request — and gave to charity some campaign funds she had received from Vennes. But as it turns out, it appears that Bachmann donated the money to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a faith-based evangelical recovery program on whose board of directors Vennes served as recently as February 2008.