Bradlee Dean

“Homosexuality is against the law in the United States,” says Bradlee Dean, the head of the “punk rock” ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, which brings its overtly religious message to public schools at taxpayer expense. Therefore, he concludes, the appointment by Barack Obama of Minneapolis’ Sharon Lubinski, a lesbian, as a U.S. Marshal is illegal.

On his radio show on AM 1280 The Patriot on Saturday, Dean said, “Sodomy is against the law in the United States. Homosexuality is against the law in the United States.”

“…But, what did Obama do and Amy Klobuchar do? They nominated Sharon Lubinski to the U.S. Marshal in the state of Minnesota,” he continued. “Not only is she the first woman, but she is the first lesbian to serve in such a position. Again folks, this is against the law.”

A bit later, he chides Gov. Tim Pawlenty for not stopping the Lubinski appointment:

“Why are these laws not being enforced? Why was a lesbian just nominated for the U.S. Marshal nominated for the U.S. Marshal on your watch? Don’t sit there and tell me you don’t have any power to do anything about it. You have all the power to do something about it.”

Dean’s ministry has plenty of political support from big names in Pawlenty’s party. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has been involved in You Can Run fundraising efforts, and GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer was among attendees at the group’s most recent fundraiser. Congressional candidate Allen Quist and Republican Mary Kiffmeyer, former secretary of state, are among the organization’s backers.

Lubinski, sworn in Friday, is widely believed to be the first openly lesbian Marshal in U.S. history.

Listen:

The arrangement raises questions about the constitutional separation of church and state, and some experts say the state has overstepped its bounds in contracting with Teen Challenge.

In 2001, the Minnesota Legislature approved a funding increase of 46 percent for Teen Challenge and authorized another in 2005, capping payments at $700 per unit. Experts say those funding increases create the impression that the state favors the treatment center which is closely affiliated with the Assemblies of God, a pentecostal Christian denomination.

“To me, I think, that the legislature is setting special rates for a pervasively sectarian organization is enough to make that funding unconstitutional,” said Alex Luchenitser of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “You have clear favoritism and endorsement of a religious program.”

Religious character “inseparable” from treatment

Beyond perceptions of legislative favoritism is the question of how the state got involved with a religious ministry in the first place. The answer goes back a decade and involved two years of legal wrangling between Hennepin County and Teen Challenge.

In early 2000, Teen Challenge, Hennepin County and the Department of Human Services began a discussion about contracting with Teen Challenge to provide chemical dependency treatment services to county clients.

According to some 1,300 pages of documents obtained by the Minnesota Independent, that arrangement hit a few snags along the way as Hennepin County looked for a way to contract with a pervasively Christian program.

“I will tell you that Teen Challenge has been consulting with us for the past couple years and that there seems to be no way for them to separate the treatment from the Christian orientation and beliefs,” Peg Murphy, former program manager of Hennepin County’s Chemical Health Division, wrote in a letter to the Hennepin County Attorney’s office. “Because Hennepin County’s standard contract language precludes funding for ‘religious training or services,’ we do not intend to negotiate a contract with Teen Challenge in the absence of authorization from your office.”

She urged the county attorney to offer an opinion before county officials could negotiate a contract.

In early 2000, Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar approved the arrangement, presumably under the doctrine of “beneficiary choice,” giving Teen Challenge the go-ahead to submit an application.

The county rejected requests by the Minnesota Independent to obtain a copy of that opinion, citing the documents as “privileged.”

Klobuchar would go on to help secure a federal earmark for the program as U.S. Senator in 2008 along with former Rep. Jim Ramstad. And the organization has secured the support of a number of other elected officials. First Lady Mary Pawlenty was a past member of the board of directors, and Gov. Pawlenty has donated a large sum of campaign funds ($85,892) to the program. Rep. Michele Bachmann donated $9,200 in campaign funds related to the Tom Petters Ponzi scheme scandal, but Teen Challenge later returned the “tainted” funds.

“Beneficiary choice” means a client has a choice between a secular and a religious treatment program, and the client can pay money given by the government to the treatment of their choosing. In other states, the system works with vouchers, which Minnesota doesn’t use. Instead Teen Challenge gets paid a flat rate multiplied by the number of clients in its care who receive state assistance. It’s that rate that the Minnesota legislature voted to increase in 2001 and 2005.

Luchenitser said that the “beneficiary choice” arrangement that Hennepin County set up with Teen Challenge may be legally problematic.

“What’s clear is that this funding has to be completely under the control of the individual,” he said. If the money is not part of a voucher system, he added, then there isn’t a true choice of program, only “approved” programs that the county contracts with, such as Teen Challenge.

And the state sets the rate of reimbursement, not the client, which creates a constitutional problem when the Legislature decides to give a religious program “a raise,” he said.

“Government should not influence how much money goes to a specific provider,” especially when its a religious provider, Luchenitser said. “It puts the force of government authority behind it,” which he characterizes as an endorsement of religion.

While the County Attorney’s office gave the program the green light, problems continued to plague the fledgling arrangement because of MNTC’s religious nature. The county’s contracting department raised a red flag in 2001 about the evangelical treatment center’s hiring practices: Teen Challenge said it would only hire Christians who adhered to a statement of faith and a code of ethics.

“Minnesota Teen Challenge is a residential Christian discipleship program dealing with adolescents and adults with life-controlling issues, and is a para-church ministry operating under the authority of the Assemblies of God denomination,” the group’s statement of faith begins (PDF). “Our purpose is to train individuals (students) in our program to be disciples of Jesus Christ.”

That statement also states that “whether a person is preparing a meal, writing a computer program, or generating a financial statement” for the organization, that person must “be an effective witness for Christ.”

It requires all employees to pray for the program and may be called upon “to minister to program students” with their testimony.

In MNTC’s code of conduct, all employees are required to attend church and to pray. They are prohibited from viewing pornography or being in a romantic relationship with someone of the same sex.

Hennepin County took issue with those employment practices and rejected Teen Challenge’s application because it violated the county’s ban on religious discrimination. The county said that MNTC could resubmit the application with a new affirmative action plan.

Finally a compromise was reached: Teen Challenge limited the practice to executive, leadership, pastoral, and counselor positions.

Teen Challenge’s chemical dependency program manager Cecilia Winsor explained the news in an email to the county’s senior planning analyst, Michael Miller.

“There are certain ‘ministry’ positions which will have religious requirements to them, and those positions will only be filled by people who can perform the job,” she wrote (PDF). “A Muslim would not be considered for a Pastoral Counselor position, but would be considered to work in our Accounting [Department], for example.”

According to state records (PDF), Teen Challenge requires 21 of its 40 employees to be Christians.

Some of those job descriptions highlight the close connections to Pentecostalism. The executive director’s position description says that the director must be “approved by the Assemblies of God and endorsed by the National Division of Home Missions.”

The National Division is now called Assemblies of God U.S. Missions, and its mission is “to equip, empower and encourage the Assemblies of God to evangelize America.”

Teen Challenge International, Inc., of which Minnesota Teen Challenge reports to monthly, is one of the six ministries that make up the Missions.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

MINNEAPOLIS: No snow day for education reporters. Read news of struggling public schools or a feature and column about successful private schools. [Star Tribune]

ST. JOSEPH: “Petters Auditorium” … not. The pyramid-schemer’s family name will no longer bedeck the hall at the College of St. Benedict. [St. Cloud Times]

ST. LOUIS COUNTY: Schools referendum passes, barely. Voters decided to close four of the seven schools where they cast ballots Tuesday. [WDIO Eyewitness News]

SAVAGE: Blecchh! The city shut off the flow of musty-smelling and -tasting water from a new plant in Burnsville. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

MINNEAPOLIS: U Otter Stop fighting. A brawl outside a saloon left a female University of Minnesota art history research assistant with a broken leg — a possible hate crime. [Minnesota Daily; Minneapolis Issues List]

MINNEAPOLIS: Who you gonna call? Witnesesses didn’t call police about that fight, but if they do next time, they’ll reach a force with 25 fewer officers. [Minnesota Daily]

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning … 

MINNEAPOLIS: “Obama has let us down.” Eleven arrested as marchers stopped downtown traffic, protesting the president’s escalation of the Afghan war. [FOX 9]

SIXTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: Maureen Reed is primary-bound. She’ll try for the DFL Party endorsement, but the Independence Party that once tapped her for lieutenant governor won’t cross-endorse. [MinnPost]

ST. PAUL: High-living Tom Petters faces possible life in prison. The jury found the Ponzi schemer guilty on 20 counts. [Minnesota Public Radio]

MISSISSIPPI RIVER: Barges can’t take a few snowflakes? The shipping season ended after 254 days. [Associated Press]

FRAZEE: State ought to help towns tap wind power. Iowa’s ahead on alternative energy, said DFL gubernatorial candidate Matt Entenza. [Frazee-Vergas Forum]

HIBBING AND MINNEAPOLIS: Prince and Bob Dylan to vie for best rock vocal performance Grammy. Native sons’ nominated songs’ titles are already fighting: Prince’s “Dreamer” vs. Dylan’s “Beyond Here Lies Nothing.” [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

STATEWIDE: Ask Al more. Five dollars and cab fare to New York City will get you a lunch audience with Sen. Franken. [Washington Post's In the Loop]

TWIN CITIES: Random acts of criminality on YouTube. Police are on the trail of local thugs who posted a clip showing them attacking people on bikes and on foot. [Fox 9]

PRIOR LAKE: Native Americans get ready for Copenhagen. They want a say in climate-change talks. [Associated Press]

DASSEL: Steve Dille out. The Republican state senator won’t run again; he was one of the eight GOPers who helped override Gov. Pawlenty’s veto of transportation funding in 2008. [Litchfield Independent Review; Polinaut]

PRAIRIE ISLAND: Lege has last say on nuke storage. The people’s reps at the state Capitol could reverse a regulatory OK for Xcel Energy to store more nuclear waste. [Rochester Post-Bulletin]

STATEWIDE: Or possibly universe-wide? Minnesota Public Radio’s designs on dominance in news. [Braublog]

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

MINNEAPOLIS: A Mill City effort to oust Michele Bachmann. City residents (and noted DFLers) Al Franken, Margaret Anderson Kelliher and R.T. Rybak will host a fundraiser for state Sen. Tarryl Clark’s Sixth District congressional campaign. [Polinaut]

SAUK RAPIDS: GOP guv-candidates try “speed-dating.” OK, now that’s connecting with voters. Get a room big tent!  [St. Cloud Times]

ST. PAUL: The Petters affair. Not his alleged Ponzi scheme, but the revelation at Tom Petters’ trial about his “intimate” relationship with employee-turned-prosecution-witness Deanna Coleman [WCCO-TV; Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal]

MOOSE LAKE: Gov. Pawlenty to punish purchasers of TVs for sex offenders. Lock them up and throw away the key, with no big TV? Works for sex offenders. [Associated Press]

NEW ULM: Taunters punished. Parents protested suspensions and other penalties after an entire spectator section was ejected from a high school football game, part of a rash of bad behavior at local athletic events. [New Ulm Journal]

CARVER COUNTY: Talkin’ crap. On review, Pawlenty’s Pollution Control Agency decides to put the freedom to speak about septic systems first. [Star Tribune]

]]> http://minnesotaindependent.com/48391/am-mn-vote-for-referendums-yes-and-no-say-newspapers/feed 1 http://minnesotaindependent.com/47565/bachmanns-punk-rock-benefactor-says-obama-unpatriotic-to-the-max http://minnesotaindependent.com/47565/bachmanns-punk-rock-benefactor-says-obama-unpatriotic-to-the-max#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:16:54 +0000 Andy Birkey http://minnesotaindependent.com/?p=47565

Bradlee Dean. Image: YouTube

“He’s un-American!” Bradlee Dean’s opinion of President Barack Obama — broadcast on his radio show “The Schools of Hard Knocks Roxx” on Apr. 4 — may echo that of fellow Minnesotan, Rep. Michele Bachmann, who in October 2008 told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews she’d like to see an investigation into whether Obama and members of Congress hold “anti-American” views.

But he takes his views where she wouldn’t. Bachmann backed off her statement, saying she was misunderstood and railroaded by Matthews, but Dean recently went on to say Obama is “not American. He’s unpatriotic to the max. Folks, he doesn’t have the spirit of a president.”

Yet, Bachmann still stands behind Dean, who runs an Annandale-based Christian ministry that brings an evangelical message into churches, prisons, and public schools. Next month, she’s headlining a fundraiser for that ministry, called You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCRBYCH), in Bloomington on Nov. 12. YCRBYCH says they will use the funds raised to reach others with their ministry — often public school students.

Following a Minnesota Independent report earlier this month that featured sources who question the constitutionality of the group’s taxpayer-funded assemblies at public schools, YCRBYCH scrubbed its podcasts and audio archives from iTunes and the several websites it maintains. But the Minnesota Independent has obtained several of the group’s audio offerings, which give an overview of the opinions Bachmann is endorsing by headlining the fundraiser.

Detail of the invitation for Bachmann's Nov. 12 YCRBYCH fundraiser

On the April 4 show, a caller, Lynn, said that Obama was not a U.S. citizen. Dean replied, channeling a bit of Bachmann, “He’s un-American, he’s not American, he’s unpatriotic to the max.”

On Aug. 1, Dean recited an open letter from the White House: “Truth be told with each passing day more and more Americans are unable to get the health care they need,” he read. To that, Dean added, “In other words, Obama is saying, ‘I can give it to you, who’s yo daddy?’”

On the same topic, Dean attempted to speak for African Americans.

“Just this week me and Steph [Dean's wife] just began to ask people on the street, ‘What do you think about Obama?’ We asked two black folks, which the color didn’t matter to me, but I do care more their perspective right now because it seems like the black communities are not for this guy at all. I believe there’s, like, a 70 percent ratio that they are very angry at this administration for what he is doing to them because this isn’t what they voted for. This isn’t what they signed up for.”

McMillian chimed in, “They realize they’ve been used.”

In August when the show aired, polling of African American voters showed approval in the 80 to 90 percent range.

In the same broadcast he called Obama a criminal. “You’ve already seen this president deny Christianity. You’ve already seen this president address the Muslim nation four times. You’ve already seen this administration, him and his wife, going into foreign countries, telling them that they are ashamed of this country,” said Dean. “This man is an internationalist. This administration is set against against your constitution, folks. That is a crime. That is a crime and do not let it go.”

Dean continued, “Crime cannot be tolerated especially from them that rule in government. It cannot be tolerated … Criminals mock society’s laws. That’s what you see in this administration.”

He frequently refers to the president as an “Obamanation” and Sen. Al Franken as “Frankenstein.”

On the Aug. 1 broadcast, the duo recalled an alleged clash between Bachmann and some constituents.

McMillian: “I remember Michele Bachmann did something up in Scandia County a while back. The homosexuals tried to corner her and confront her.”

Dean: “They even locked her in the bathroom. If that had been a homosexual senator or congressperson they would have brought charges immediately. No questions asked.”

In fact, Bachmann filed a police report, but as witnesses said, there wasn’t much to the incident.

The ministry has harsh words for gays and lesbians, as well. During its April 4 broadcast, the duo lashed out at the decision by the Iowa Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage in that state.

“In Minneapolis, they had to spread their smudge and their shame and their ignorance and their idiocies and their immorality and their debauchery in the face of the American people, all the way to Minneapolis, by having on the front page of the paper today, Jake, two little girls — I don’t know if that was their lesbian parents behind them.”

He continued, “Isn’t it interesting that these people are so stinkin’ sick in the mind that they use little kids for their agenda, showing their state of mind?”

After reading Bible verses, the duo incorrectly stated that homosexuality is a crime in the U.S. and said gays only live to be 42 years old.

“Do you not understand, enemies of God, [that] you are cursing yourselves?” said Dean. “This secular government is giving them rights? They are talking away their life is what they are doing. What’s the average age of a homosexual?”

McMillian chimed in, “A homosexual male? 42 is what they live to be.”

Dean added, “And by the way, they are aiming at your kids like crazy folks.”

Later in that same program, Dean erroneously stated that homosexuality is a crime. “Why are they asking for the decriminalization of homosex? Because it is a crime! It’s a crime! Folks, they are lawless people!”

In addition to McMillian, Dean has also teamed up with the Minnesota Family Council’s Barb Anderson on the radio program.

“Did you know that it’s illegal in 28 states in this country to commit adultery or fornication or sodomy even in the state of Minnesota?” Dean told Anderson and his listeners on Apr. 4. “But the laws have not been enforced in the courts since 1944. It’s illegal. Seventy-six percent of those who write your papers see nothing wrong with homosexuality. It’s rightly called crimes against nature.”

[The Minnesota Supreme Court overturned laws against sodomy in 2001, and the United States Supreme Court did the same in 2003.]

On the murder of a gay student in Wyoming, Dean said, “The Matthew Shepard lie had nothing to do with homosexuality. It was a drug deal that went bad.”

During an Apr. 11 show, Dean compared the trial of alleged Ponzi scheme runner, Tom Petters to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

“And there’s another man that is hopefully going to be coming out of this spotless … Just because you have a couple of bad apples doesn’t make everybody a bad apple or a bad apple tree.

What they did is, they did it through the color of law. What kind of message is that to you, America? And I’m sick and tired of it. If he is innocent, he is going to ruin some serious lives, folks, and if he is a just man that’s just what he’ll do.

The bottom line is that when you have federal prosecutors blocking the defense of Tom Petters, you better start asking questions why. Why, why, why?!

This is what they did to Christ! They took him by night, they judged him, they didn’t give him a trial, and they handed him over and they crucified him.”

Dean is no stranger to conspiracy theories. In 2006, the Weekly Standard traveled with him and his band, Junkyard Prophet, on their public school tour. Writer Matt Labash generally praised the evangelical rock band, but did find some areas of disagreement — on whether or not man has landed on the moon.

He is also a gold-plated conspiracy theorist who will readily hold forth on the mysterious plane crashes of Paul Wellstone and John Kennedy Jr., how Oswald didn’t act alone, how O.J. Simpson might’ve been framed (”He’s driving down the freeway, all of the sudden there’s this helicopter on his truck–how convenient!”), and how the moon-landing was faked in a television studio. We disagree so vehemently on this last point that he starts polling his assemblies on the subject just to settle the dispute. To what should be the chagrin of us all, apparently about 35 percent of public school students and teachers believe Neil Armstrong deserves an Oscar for his star turn in that NASA movie.

But Dean isn’t all conspiracies and vitriol. Like last week’s Bachmann fundraising email — which referenced “raising money from patriots like you” — the invitation to Dean’s Nov. 12 fundraiser uses the same honorific for financial donors.  Bachmann and Dean, the invite states, will give speeches to “empower patriots to be on the offense.”

Bachmann’s office hasn’t responded to the Minnesota Independent’s inquiries about Dean’s past statements or her involvement in this fundraiser.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

ST. PAUL: Gov. Pawlenty’s stance on climate-change continues to melt. A policy point evolves into a punch line. [Minnesota Public Radio]

NASHWAUK: Judges reject environmentalists’ case against new taconite plant. Global warming was addressed in the Environmental Impact Study — didn’t you see the chapter heading “Carbon Footprint”? [Duluth News Tribune]

MINNEAPOLIS: Editorial views right-sized. A candidate for park board in Minneapolis complains that due to “staff constraints” the Star-Tribune editorial page will only endorse in races that have no incumbent. [e-democracy]

ALEXANDRIA: Politics be damned! Susan Gaertner, Ramsey County Attorney and guv candidate, tells a local audience health care reform requires a real leader: “I am ready to provide that leadership, no matter what the political consequences may be.” [Alexandria Echo Press]

LAKE MINNETONKA: Still sweet. Ponzi schemer Tom Petters’ 590-bottle wine cellar goes for $7,080. [Star Tribune]

EDEN PRAIRIE: Free speech in chains at local library. A blogger defends a library patron’s right to leave notes no one can read with “9/11″ and doodles of buildings.   [Gavin Sullivan]

Minnesota Teen Challenge's headquarters in Minneapolis' Elliot Park neighborhood. Photo: Andy Birkey, Minnesota Independent

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 in order to run its faith-based chemical dependency treatment centers.

The overtly evangelical nature of the program raises questions about the constitutionality of the large amount of state money flowing into the program. Teen Challenge has received $2,388,947 in state funding since 2007, mainly from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, according to the state’s new Transparency and Accountability Project website.

Teen Challenge has been in the spotlight recently because of concerns about the separation of church and state — and, specifically, the program’s receipt of federal funding. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in June requesting the department halt federal grants to Teen Challenge.

“In providing these grants, the U.S. Department of Justice is unconstitutionally aiding religion,” the complaint read.

But while much attention has been paid to the program’s federal funding, its receipt of state funds has largely flown under the radar.

Chuck Samuelson of the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said the program has the appearance of running afoul of the constitutional principle of church-state separation. “Everything they talk about is about God in relation to the program,” he said. “That’s a lot of [state] money.”

Samuelson said ACLU-MN has been looking into the drug treatment center, but it’s difficult to prove whether Teen Challenge is misusing state dollars.

“We don’t have data that is supportable in a court of law,” he said. “What we don’t have is anybody with direct knowledge of the program to come forward.”

Eric Vagle, Teen Challenge’s communications director, acknowledges the religious nature of the treatment centers but says state money is kept separate from evangelical programming.

“The program services that are funded through the government are non-religious in nature, and while we do offer religious programming, it is not funded by government dollars and clients voluntarily choose to participate,” he said.

“It is important to note that a number of studies suggest that spirituality can play an important part of the recovery process for many people, and therefore most treatment programs have some sort of spirituality component to them.”

Alex Luchenitser, senior litigation counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, sees the program differently.

“Teen Challenge is a program that should not be receiving state money,” he said. “It requires people who participate to convert to Christianity.”

Luchenitser says that the constitutionality of the program depends on the payment process through the state. He noted that court decisions have made voucher payments — state money given directly to the client to choose a treatment service — legal. Minnesota doesn’t use the voucher system and instead reimburses counties that pay Teen Challenge in a fee-for-service system. The state mechanism for that system is the Consolidated Chemical Dependency Treatment Fund (CCDTF).

State authorities conducted an analysis of CCDTF (pdf) in 2006, which described the payment structure:

The payment system is on a fee-for-service basis, but counties, within state-wide guidelines, determine which clients need treatment, and which provider will serve the client. Two thirds of all CCDTF admissions were referred by government social service and criminal justice agencies.

The report acknowledged that the county authorities who choose the treatment centers to provide services aren’t always looking at federal standards for treatment programs. Therefore, faith-based programs, such as Teen Challenge, don’t get carefully vetted.

County monitoring does not assure that certain Federal requirements regarding spending practices are met, and whether performance is adequately monitored. With the CCDTF accounting for 45% of the treatment market share, the county contract can be a powerful tool for change regarding providers that have not yet linked the most modern science to their program design and operation.

Because Teen Challenge is licensed by the state — and has been since 2001 — and is listed as a service provider for Hennepin County, the treatment center will continue to receive state funds in the future.

God is Teen Challenge’s treatment strategy

While MNTC’s Vagle says state funds don’t go to evangelical programming, most of the language about the program — coming from its managers, Web site and clients — references the transformational power of Jesus Christ, as opposed to chemical health and behavior therapy. A glowing review of the program by the Alexandria Echo Press tells of Carlos, Minn., resident Nikol Foss, who sought treatment for crack addiction. Her probation officer recommended Minnesota Teen Challenge, but she rejected the suggestion, saying she wanted nothing to do with a Christian drug program. She eventually relented and signed up.

“I was going to be tough,” she told the paper. “I wasn’t going to let Jesus into my life, but I’d take the treatment.”

But it didn’t work out that way. “I decided that if I accepted Jesus, it was going to be better, so I accepted Jesus,” she said. “I was happy immediately.”

Pastor Rich Scherber, executive director of the program, used similar language when he took Minnesota Teen Challenge’s message of healing to the Minnesota State Fair this summer. During a live show there by Christian talk radio station KKMS, he spoke of the “perfect storm” last fall when the economic recession reduced donations and a scandal involving Tom Petters wiped out a foundation that supported a large chunk of Teen Challenge’s programs.

“God has helped us. I mean, we are operating in the black, not in the red,” he said. “That’s what Teen Challenge is all about. God is working miracles at Teen Challenge.”

Scherber said that Christian teaching is one of two keys to Teen Challenge’s success: “Number one, the Christian approach,” he told KKMS listeners. “That’s by far… The Bible says that any man that be in praise, he’s a new creation, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” The other key Scherber says is the fact that the residential treatment lasts longer than the typical 28-day program.

Scherber brought a number of current and former clients on the KKMS show to tell their stories of transformation through Jesus Christ.

Jim, who had a history of abusing alcohol, heroin and pain killers, said, “We have healing [prayer] services at Teen Challenge and God healed my liver.”

“He came into Teen Challenge and God healed his liver,” said Scherber. “What the doctors have said is that he is a walking miracle.”

The KKMS host chimed in to say, “God has blessed the socks off this guy!”

Heidi, a current client at Teen Challenge, also claimed that finding God at Teen Challenge helped her kick a cocaine and heroin addiction. “I was at a low point… and ended up going to a secular drug treatment program,” she said. “When I came out I started using again. It didn’t do what Teen Challenge did for me.”

She continued, “I know now that it’s for [sic] this time, this time that I’m at Teen Challenge. I’m learning about God, I’m learning about Jesus.”

“I know that I have victory in Christ. Thanks to Teen Challenge I’ve been learning about God,” she said.

Virtually every testimonial on the program’s Web site by current and former clients of Teen Challenge say they kicked their addictions because of God, and a number say they converted to Christianity while in the program. For example, “Craig,” a current Teen Challenge client, said, “When the [District Attorney] recommended Teen Challenge, he told the judge he was tired of sending me to jail, because I came out worse every time. But Teen Challenge isn’t just a drug program. It’s a discipleship program. Because of Christ, I have new heart… and I don’t ever want to hurt people again.”

Directors and staff members aren’t shy about calling the program a ministry. Kirk Noonan, news editor of the Pentecostal Evangel, the official publication of the Assemblies of God, spent a weekend at Minnesota Teen Challenge in November 2007 and described the religious curriculum of the program (PDF).

In the television room we gather for the nightly devotion, which is part pep talk, part town hall meeting. With Bibles in hand we hear a devotion. This is perhaps one of the most important routines the residents are developing. “Staying in the Word will keep you grounded,” a staff member tells us. “Having a daily devotion is critical to your success both in here and after you graduate.”

Noonan writes that every Sunday, Teen Challenge clients sing in the Minnesota Teen Challenge choir. They are required to, since “every resident is a member.”

“The choir’s chief purpose is to share the ministry of Teen Challenge and gain support for the program,” Scherber told Noonan. “When we go out and sing, people see good fruit and they want to invest in this ministry. Nearly 85 percent of our budget is raised by the choir.”

The choir’s music is overtly Christian with a style that “varies greatly, ranging from contemporary gospel songs such as, ‘This is How it Feels to Be Free,’ to worshipful hymns like, ‘I Was Made to Worship You.’”

“We license faith-based organizations all the time”

The state did not respond to the Minnesota Independent’s requests for details about how taxpayer money is being spent by Teen Challenge and how the state vets and licenses chemical dependency programs.

But, in 2004, state officials talked to the Star Tribune for its coverage of President Bush’s faith-based initiatives and his push for charitable-choice initiatives, including Teen Challenge.

“We license faith-based organizations all the time,” Donald Eubanks, director of chemical health for the state Department of Human Services at the time, told the paper. “We do not dictate treatment philosophy at all. We make sure that when people choose that form of treatment that they are aware of what they are getting.”

U.S. Sen. Al Franken, calling himself “a voice for the overwhelming majority of Americans who aren’t lawyers” on the Senate floor Wednesday night, continued his harsh critique of the U.S. Supreme Court, lambasting its recent record of overturning its own precedents:

Again, I think that this is judicial activism. In fact, I think it’s judicial activism in one direction — away from long-standing protections for the individual and towards a more friendly law for the powerful.

Franken endorsed high-court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, praising her “inherent judicial restraint” and promising that “a vote for Judge Sotomayor is a vote against judicial activism.”

Franken, one of a half-dozen non-lawyers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, used legalese like stare decisis to attack a series of high-court rulings from the last five years on such issues as workers’ rights, voting rights, price-fixing, campaign finance and securities regulation.

But he described those decisions — some well-known, some not — in terms of how they affect the daily lives of Americans, particularly Minnesotans.

Indeed, the Senate’s freshest freshman seemed to have tailored his talk to Minnesotan citizens, mentioning his home state 16 times in the course of his 16-minute speech (pdf). He used the state’s gender-gap (women earn 74 cents to every men’s dollar) and cited Minnesota’s own homegrown Ponzi schemer (Tom Petters) alongside the nationally known Bernie Madoff. Also getting shout-outs were Minnesota’s older workers, working women, investors and small-business owners.

Franken’s speech was an extended followup — measured but not tempered — to his fiery five-minute remarks during the Judiciary Committee hearings last week. Here’s the video, via C-SPAN: