Bradlee Dean at a high school assembly

A controversial ministry that says it preaches Christian doctrine in public schools held a fundraiser in Bloomington Thursday night, drawing a crowd of about 400. At its “Appeal to Heaven” fundraiser, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International offered attendees a preview of its new documentary, a greeting by Rep. Michele Bachmann and a fiery sermon by founder Bradlee Dean, who called liberals “criminals” and urged attendees to fight a “war” for the faith against liberals.

The almost exclusively white crowd had assembled at the Sheraton ballroom in Bloomington to raise funds for the ministry and its outreach to public high schools across the Midwest, a practice that some civil liberties groups say violates the Constitution’s principle of separation of church and state.

Ron Stone, general manager for AM 1280 The Patriot, introduced Bachmann, a longtime supporter of the ministry.

“There’s a huge difference today between Republicans and conservatives,” he said. “She’s a true conservative. She’s not afraid to say she believes in God. She’s taking the bullets that a lot of our Republican men are standing back in the shadows and allowing her to take.”

He explained that Bachmann’s “House Call” rally against health reform last week prevented her from attending in person. “Michele was excited to be here tonight, but due to the events of last week, you can imagine she had to reschedule a lot of things.”

In a four-minute video message, Bachmann said, “I’d hoped to be there, but unfortunately the future that’s being forged here in Washington, DC … is one that saddles today’s youth with tremendous debt, a diminished world presence, and diminishes their God-given freedoms.”

She praised You Can Run’s mission. “It a tough job that you do, but someone has to do it. I thank God that he has given you the strength and the resolve to fight for our timeless values.”

And she reiterated her support for their work evangelizing in public schools. “We can’t overlook the outright rejection of God in the public school classroom, and the outright scorn of Christianity in our public square,” she said. “Moral relativism is exalted and faith in Christ is derided.”

Attendees also got a glimpse at the group’s documentary film called “My War,” which chastises America’s educational system for not teaching from a “Judeo-Christian” perspective and rails against atheism. In one clip, a teacher asks a student whether God exists if he can’t be seen. Another student chimes in: Since she couldn’t see the teacher’s brain, it must not exist either.

The highlight of the night was a lengthy sermon by Bradlee Dean calling for Christians to pick up arms against secular government that he said was foisting of socialism on the nation’s people.

“We are a Christian nation regardless if you like that or not. The Bible says we are called as ministers of the flame, the fire,” he said. “We are called to war. We are called to fight the good fight of faith. In other words, what I’m trying to say is, I’m a trouble maker, okay?”

“It’s time to say, ‘We are done complaining, and it’s time to start fighting.’ But you say, ‘I don’t know what what I’m going to look like with a sword in my hand,’” he said. “You are going to look great!”

Then Dean offered sharp words for those he disagrees with.

“We are not a land of liberals. We hear this all the time. Why don’t you just call them for what they are? Criminals. Why don’t you just call them for what they are? Socialists. They are contrary to our constitution,” he said.

That prompted a round of “Amen!” from the attendees.

“We are not a land of homosexuals,” he shouted. “God said ‘Adam and Eve’ not ‘Adam and Steve.’”

Then, referencing one of President Obama’s openly gay appointees, he said, “We all know about [Kevin] Jennings, the new czar for safe schools, is a blatant homosexual. Oh, by the way, he wanted me to send you a message: ‘Go F- yourselves!’ That’s what he said. He wrote a book called ‘Queering the Elementary Schools.’”

One woman shouted in the audience, “Oh, no!” Others shook their heads in dismay.

“Yes. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks.”

Jennings did write the foreword to a 1999 book called, “Queering Elementary Education.” In those three pages (his entire foreword is available on Google books), he talks about eliminating homophobia in the schools and says, “When eight-year olds already know that “gay” equals “bad,” we shouldn’t be surprised when they get old enough and mean enough, they act out that message by tying one of their peers to a fence and beating them to death,” referring to the murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard the previous year.

The Minnesota Independent could not substantiate the claims by Dean that Jennings told him to tell the 400 people assembled Thursday night to “Go f- themselves.”

As he wrapped up the sermon, he thanked the attendees. “You guys, you got just a little bit of the message we give to youth all across the nation.”

Tickets went for $50 and tables of 10 for $500. At 40 tables, the fundraiser likely brought in over $20,000.

Related: ‘They demonize me!’: Bradlee Dean talks about MnIndy reporting of his ministry

Photo: Lori Howard, iStockphoto

The American Legion Post 550 in Bloomington says it will withhold up to $30,000 in scholarships because the public school district won’t allow the group to lead the student body in prayer, the Star Tribune reported Wednesday.

“We are not trying to push anything on kids or convert them, but we are a Christian-based country and a military based on Christian-based principles,” said Terry Selle, commander of American Legion Post 550. “My opinion is that this is another example of America going downhill.”

Selle said the group would stop granting scholarships to the students of the district if they aren’t allowed to pray with the student body.

School officials said the group led the students in prayer during the 2008 Veteran’s Day ceremony and asked the Legion not to pray this year for fear the school could get into trouble for violations of church-state separation requirements.

“Frankly, it caught me off guard because they had never done that before. We do not do that in public school,” Poplar Bridge Elementary School Principal Gail Swor told the Star Tribune.

In move of solidarity, the VFW Post 1296 also pulled out of Veteran’s Day ceremonies in the Bloomington school district.

Image: Ben McLeod

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is urging the Internal Revenue Service to fix problems with its enforcement of laws against churches endorsing political candidates. In January, a Minnesota District Court judge ruled that the IRS did not have the proper procedures in place to investigate Living Word Christian Center, an investigation involving controversial church finances first reported by the Minnesota Independent in 2007.

“Given the pervasiveness of church politicking violations, as well as efforts by some organizations in recent years to encourage houses of worship to blatantly violate federal law,” the AU wrote to the IRS, “having a clear and valid enforcement regime is absolutely essential for the ongoing protection of religious liberty.”

Besides LWCC — whose pastor, Mac Hammond, endorsed Rep. Michele Bachmann from the pulpit in 2006 — another Minnesota church has been under investigation, but that probe was dropped this year due to enforcement problems.

Warroad Community Church pastor Gus Booth twice endorsed Sen. John McCain in 2008. Because the IRS did not have proper standing, the agency was forced to cease its investigation.

Americans United’s letter told the IRS that the ability to investigate churches for unlawful politicking is vital to the health of religion in the United States:

Americans United has long recognized that religion flourishes best when the wall between church and state is vigilantly maintained. Church politicking embroils houses of worship in divisive battles, pitting congregants against each other and their clergy.

The IRS limitation on partisan politicking is an important legal requirement that ensures that houses of worship, like all other non-profit organizations, do not embroil themselves in partisan disputes.

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.

YCRBYCH's Bradlee Dean, who plays for the group's band. Image: YouTube

Civil liberties groups say that You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International — a ministry/punk band that brings its Christian message to public school kids — is causing schools to run afoul of the constitutional principle of separation of state and church.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who says such a separation is a “myth,” will be headlining a fundraiser for the group in November.

“We’ve made complaints about them in the past,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “And there are similar groups out there that use assembly subterfuges to gain access to a captive audience of school children.”

She said it’s incumbent on schools to research YCRBYCH before booking them for school activities.

“It is hard to believe schools don’t know what they’re getting into; all they have to do is a cursory check of the websites,” she said. “School Districts often pay exorbitant honoraria as well, so it adds economic injury to constitutional insult.”

She added that by not being honest about their evangelical mission such ministries are effectively turning public schools into evangelical recruitment centers.

“This is a devious strategy, used also by many ‘pizza evangelists.’” she said.

That term refers to evangelical ministries that seek to gain access to public school students by offering incentives not of a Christian nature, such as extreme sports, contests to win a car or pizza parties. The most common cases include these incentives along with a “secular” anti-drug assemblies, much like YCRBYCH does.

“Usually they don’t mention God or Jesus per se in the mandatory assemblies but they hand out invites to an after-hours event, often held at schools, which is open soul-winning,” said Gaylor. “It amounts to the public schools — whether officials are duped or not — recruiting for evangelists.”

While YCRBYCH admits that its public school program is designed to save souls, Gaylor says she’d doubt it’s effectiveness even if it was completely secular. “It’s dishonest and unethical, and we also question the value of the so-called secular program itself, which is often alarmist and painted in broad strokes, and can plant ideas, such as suicide, in immature minds.”

Alex Luchenitser, a senior litigator for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, has concerns about the group’s activities — and those of similar organizations, like Power Team, a well-known evangelical ministry that uses martial arts to engage kids.

“They’d put on a secular program in the schools and then would invite kids to a separate religious event,” he said.

When asked if religion is part of YCRBYCH assemblies, the group’s front man, Bradlee Dean, was less than clear. “Morality is, which is the fruit of religion,” he said. “Our testimony of Christ is spoken of if someone asks us ‘what changed you?’”

But in public, YCRBYCH has admitted on several occasions that it’s trying to win souls in public schools. On the ministry’s radio show, one member of the ministry — talking with Dean — said they share with public school children “our own testimony of how Christ turned our lives around in public schools so we can get the light into kids hands in public schools.”

That doesn’t sit well with Luchenitser. “That this group is doing this is quite outrageous and a very clear violation of the separation of church and state,” he said. “And the fact that they seem to be intentionally misleading the schools is very disturbing to say the least.”

YCRBYCH’s “Principal Packet,” a pamphlet sent to school administrators about the ministry, doesn’t mention that it’s a ministry or that the program is religious in nature; it doesn’t mention God or Jesus Christ.

Luchenitser said that if the group is actually misleading the schools, it’s schools that could find themselves in legal trouble. “I think that because of the misrepresentations, it could subject the schools to legal liability,” he said. “Parents could turn around and sue the school.”

If the schools can prove they were mislead, they in turn could sue the ministry, he said.

Photo: Lori Howard, iStockphoto

Rep. Michele Bachmann will be headlining a fundraiser in November for controversial ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCRBYCH).

Based in Annandale, Minn., the group has made a name for itself as an anti-drug Christian punk rock band that organizes motivational student assemblies to bring Christ to public schools. But over the last several years, parents and school administrators have complained that the ministry misrepresents itself, claiming that the group is not transparent about its Christian mission. And since schools pay using public funds, some are concerned that the group is violating the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.

Bachmann will be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for the group on Nov. 12 at a Bloomington hotel. Bachmann’s office did not return a request seeking comment about the event.

It won’t be Bachmann’s first time at a YCRBYCH fundraiser. At a Minneapolis hotel in October 2006, she offered a powerful prayer for the ministry and praised the group’s work of sharing the gospel in public schools.

“Lord, I thank you for what you have done at this ministry… how you are going to advance them from 260 schools a year, Lord, to 2,600 schools a year,” she said. “Lord, we ask thy faith that you would expand this ministry beyond anything the originators of this ministry could begin to think or imagine. Lord, the day is at hand! We are in the last days! The day is at hand, Lord, when your return will become nigh. Pour a double blessing, Lord, a triple blessing on this ministry.”

In an April 2009 broadcast on Christian radio station KKMS, the group acknowledged that it is going into public schools to evangelize.

“We are doing assemblies here, folks, just so you understand, we do public high school assemblies,” said one of the group’s members. “We are speaking to kids in our schools about the constitution, suicide prevention and our own testimony of how Christ turned our lives around in public schools so we can get the light into kids hands in public schools.”

Complaints around the Midwest

In school districts around the Midwest, school administrators have taken heat for inviting the ministry into schools.

In 2003, the group came to a Benton, Wis., high school. “They had a captive audience for their message, and that wasn’t right,” Benton Principal Gary Neis told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. He was reportedly so upset that the ministry strayed from its anti-drug message that he held another assembly to apologize to the students.

“They talked about influencing and brainwashing people. Be wise to the fact that is what they were doing. They were using the same tactics,” Neis told the students at the assembly. Neis said he contacted other schools in the area and found that they had no idea that YCRBYCH was a Christian ministry.

In 2005, at a Eureka Springs, Ark., high school, students walked out of the assembly; afterward, the principal took heat from parents. According to the local paper, The Lovely Citizen, Eureka Springs superintendent Reck Wallis, said, “I take responsibility. We had no idea about their religious, right-wing message. They misrepresented their program. We want [Eureka Springs schools] to be open and all inclusive. … They won’t be back.”

At Pequot Lakes High School in central Minnesota in 2007, the group stirred controversy when students reportedly ran out of the assembly crying after the group showed graphic images of abortion and told the students that God wanted women to be subservient to men. John McDonald, Pequot Lakes High School Principal, told WCCO, “We were expecting something a bit different,” he said. “The thing we apologized to students for is the program wasn’t to the expectation that we thought it would be.”

Bradlee Dean

Also in 2007, the group performed in Phelps, Wis., causing an uproar among parents and administrators. “The school district administrator said she didn’t know You Can Run But You Cannot Hide was a Christian group until I told her,” said Paul Guequierre, a reporter for WJFW TV-12. “She showed me the lit from the group and there was no mention that the group was Christian.”

Indeed, the group does not mention God, Jesus, Christianity or any religion in the “Principal Packet” that it distributes to school administrators. According to the four-page document (pdf), founder Bradlee Dean’s “message hits on issues such as drugs, alcohol, suicide, our country, our veterans, our freedom, the Constitution, friends we choose, the influence of media, and day to day choices we make.” (The program’s website only references God once, in a promotion for founder Bradlee Dean’s book.)

When questioned by the Minnesota Independent about claims that the group doesn’t disclose the religious nature of the assemblies, Dean said, “78 percent of the American people are professing Christians. Are they, in their line of work, to wear ‘I am a Christian’ shirts?”

“It sounds like there is a lean toward discrimination in what you are asking,” he added.

Separation of church and state

While many have challenged that the group causes schools to run afoul of the separation of church and state, both Bachmann and YCRBYCH deny that the constitutional prohibition exists.

In fact, Bachmann urges people to give money to the organization for the stated purpose of bringing Christ into public schools.

“[Public schools] are teaching children that there is separation of church and state, and I am here to tell you that is a myth. That’s not true,” Bachmann said at the group’s 2006 fundraiser in Minneapolis. “And they explain to children in the public school system what a myth that is. And that’s what I love about this ministry … We want kids to come to the truth and that’s why this ministry is so absolutely vital. We need them in every public school classroom across the state to tell young people, ‘You Can Run But You Cannot Hide.’”

Schools pay the group thousands of dollars to put on the assemblies. “On average we ask $1,500 to $2,000 an assembly,” Dean told the Advocate, a paper in Annandale, Minn. (The group’s Web site says a three-hour assembly ranges from $3,000 to $5,000.)

Dean has similarly claimed that the Constitution does not call for church-state separation.

“Did you know that the phrase ’separation between church and state’ is nowhere in the Constitution, nor in the Declaration of Independence, and nowhere in the Bill of Rights?” he asked listeners of his radio program, called “School of Hard Knocks,” which is broadcast on KKMS.

Dean says that the ministry is being targeted by the government because it tells the truth. On his April 11 radio program, he recalled an incident a week earlier which he claimed an employee of the ministry was chased by a helicopter.

“There was a blue and white helicopter that flew down on top of her van as she was going to this [Wright County] Republican party convention. And then he swooped back down on her again.”

Bradlee said that helicopters frequently dive-bomb their tour bus with “helicopters flying up to the bus and pulling off.” He said, “What they are trying to do is criminalize the righteous.”

At the ministry’s 2007 fundraiser at the Minneapolis Hyatt, Dean elaborated on his fears of the government, as reported at the time by the Minnesota Independent.

“We passed out over 100,000 [religious] tracts in public high schools because God said,” Dean said. “Not because some tyrannical government wants to try telling us what we can say and what we can’t say, because we know what the Constitution says. We know who the problem is, nothing’s changed in two thousand years.”

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.”

Image: Ben McLeod

Under pressure from the religious-right legal outfit Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the city of Elk River removed an ordinance that banned religious groups from holding worship services in the city’s library. The council voted on Aug. 17 to remove the restriction.

City council member Paul Motin told the council in July that the reason for the restriction was to prevent the library from being used as a church.

“We didn’t want them to turn them into worship halls. Even though they could use it [for meetings] they couldn’t use it for prayer and worship services,” he said. “If they need them for meetings and things along those lines, I have no problems with that.”

“I guess I would have a problem if we started allowing the city facilities to be used for church services. There are other places available to them in the city,” Motin said.

Mayor Stephanie Klinzing said it was overuse that led the council to put the policy into place. “We have many start-up churches using public and private facilities in the city that occupy the same space every week for, sometimes, many years,” she said. “The council wanted to prevent this type of long-term, continual use by one group in order to open the spaces up to use by as many community groups and residents as possible.”

The city also had an ordinance that charged a higher fee to religious groups using a city park for worship services that was changed at the August meeting.

The policy stated: “The meeting room is available; free of charge, for use by community members for non-religious, non-commercial meetings, which are open to the public” and “usage may not be for prayer or other worship purposes.” The policy had been in effect for more than six years, according to Klinzing, and charged religious groups to use library meeting rooms for worship services. The library board passed a similar policy a year ago prohibiting religious use of it’s meeting rooms.

When the council repealed the ordinance Aug. 17, the library board followed suit and changed their policy to allow religious groups to use its rooms for worship.

“Excluding religious groups from a public library and charging them more than other non-profits to utilize a public park for religious expression is unconstitutional,” said Daniel Blomberg, an attorney for ADF, the group who made the complaint to the city, in a press release praising the decision. “We appreciate the city’s decision to respect the First Amendment rights of its citizens.”

But the legal issues surrounding the use of public facilities for worship services are murky.

In 2006, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a northern California county was within its rights to ban worship services from its public libraries. “[T]he County’s decision to exclude . . . religious worship services from the meeting room is reasonable in light of the library policy so that the . . . [library] is not transformed into an occasional house of worship,” the court wrote.

Religious groups can hold meetings, the court ruled, but when a religious group is turning public property into a regular church service, that constitutes government endorsement of religion.

The court said: “To conclude that the County’s exclusion of religious worship services from its government buildings is unreasonable would result in the ‘remarkable proposition that any public [building] opened for civic meetings must be opened for use as a church, synagogue, or mosque.’”

Klinzing disagreed with the the policy when it was implemented. “I was fully aware at the time that the city council approved the policy that it was blatantly unconstitutional,” she said. Klinzing says she went to the city attorney to get his opinion. “Our attorney would not render his opinion that there was anything illegal about the proposed policy,” she said.

“Regardless, I knew that some day it would be challenged and the city would have to — or be forced to — change the policy. And, as you know, that is exactly what has happened,” she said.

Klinzing said that the city council came up with a compromise that works for everyone — restrict the number of times an entity can rent a facility each year, but not prohibit any type of entity from renting it. “The change in the policy was very simply accomplished and the new language protects the facilities from the sole major concern of long-term, continual use by one organization without putting the city in violation of the U.S. Constitution,” she said.

Elk River’s public library has been used by Mayor Klinzing and others for a religious worship called “Pray Elk River.” According to press reports, as part of an effort to bring the “Kingdom of God” to the city, the mayor, pastors and local business leaders met every Tuesday for years at the Elk River Library to worship and pray. The primary goal was “for every person in the greater Elk River area to be prayed for by name.”

”We have a group of intercessors who pray for the town council, for the city, for me as mayor,” Klinzing told The New York Times in 2004.

But that group met in the old Elk River Library, which wasn’t covered under the city policy prohibiting worship. The group had to move to a different location in 2007, however, when the library moved into its new facility.

“The weekly use of a room in the former library by the Pray Elk River group was not a violation of the library’s policy because the policy covering the former library did not prohibit prayer and worship,” said Klinzing. “The group was not able to use the new library, however, because the new policy restricted prayer and worship.”

Image: Ben McLeod

The Internal Revenue Service’s investigations into alleged tax violations by two Minnesota-based churches, Living Word Christian Center (LWCC) and Warroad Community Church, have been thwarted by internal procedural problems.

These cases highlight the special tax-exempt status churches receive by law, but they also underscore problems at the IRS. In effect, the IRS has been unsuccessful in investigating allegations of tax violations by churches because years of conflicting congressional action have made it impossible for the IRS to follow its own rules.

And while the IRS has undertaken the potentially months-long process to reform its broken system, the religious right is seeking to exploit it by encouraging churches to flout the law and endorse candidates from the pulpit next month.

During the 2008 election, Warroad Community Church pastor Gus Booth, a Republican activist, apparently broke tax laws that prohibit electioneering by tax-exempt churches when he endorsed John McCain for president and trashed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton from the pulpit. Last month the IRS suspended its investigation into the church, citing “a pending issue regarding the procedure used to initiate the case.”

In a similar case, the Minnesota Independent (then the Minnesota Monitor) identified questionable accounting practices by the Brooklyn Park–based Living Word Christian Center in 2007, which eventually led to an IRS investigation. But in January of this year, a U.S. District Court judge in Minneapolis also rejected an IRS summons to Living Word Christian Center because of procedural errors.

In both cases conflicting congressional actions prevented the agency from following its own rules.

In 1984, Congress passed the Church Audit Procedures Act to make it harder for the IRS to investigate church abuse of tax law. Among its provisions: An IRS official making a case against a church must hold a rank “no lower than that of a principal Internal Revenue officer for an internal revenue region.”

But thanks to a 1998 act of Congress, the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act, internal revenue regions (and their principal officers) were abolished, and the IRS was divided into sections servicing different categories of taxpayers, including individuals, businesses, and tax-exempt organizations like churches.

This change directly benefited Living Word Christian Center: It won its case in January because the IRS official charged with investigating the allegations wasn’t legally authorized to do so. Similarly, with no one on staff to legally investigate Warroad Community Church, the IRS suspended its investigation.

Reforms proposed by the IRS, entered into the Federal Register in early August, would clear up the contradiction, making the agency’s Director of Exempt Organizations the primary authority for investigating possible violations of tax law by churches. But the process of adopting those changes will be lengthy, involving a public comment period and hearings.

In the meantime, a group of churches plans to violate the law while there’s no one at the IRS to investigate.

On Sunday Sept. 27, the Alliance Defense Fund, a Focus on the Family–affiliated legal group, is encouraging pastors to endorse candidates from the pulpit. This year will be the second year of ADF’s “Pulpit Initiative.” Last year 33 churches participated, including Warroad Community Church.

The ADF’s Eric Stanley said that the campaign “is really part of a long, sustained campaign” to get a court challenge to IRS laws governing electioneering.

“We feel very confident that when we do, it will not take long for a federal judge to strike down this unconstitutional restriction on churches’ rights.”

Rob Boston, communications director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, writes that the new IRS rules should give churches participating in Pulpit Freedom Sunday a reason to pause.

“The fact that the IRS has issued these new rules is a sign that it wants to have a mechanism in place that will enable it to investigate churches that openly flout the law by endorsing or opposing candidates,” he wrote on the group’s blog. “Far from rolling over, it looks to me like the IRS is girding for battle. Churches that choose to follow the ADF down this misguided path can’t say they weren’t warned.”

Image: Ben McLoed

Religious right leaders are celebrating the postponement of an IRS complaint against a Warroad, Minn., pastor alleging he violated tax laws when he twice endorsed Sen. John McCain from his pulpit in 2008. The IRS says a procedural move forced them to close the case, but have the option to open it again in the future.

“Both Hillary and Barack favor the shedding of innocent blood (abortion) and the legalization of the abomination of homosexual marriage,” Booth said in a May 2008 sermon at Warroad Community Church. “We need to vote for the most righteous of candidates. And it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out. The most righteous is John McCain.”

Booth admitted that he knew he was violating the law in a letter to the IRS and in another letter to Americans United for Church and State, which initiated a complaint against the church. Because Booth’s church enjoys an exemption from paying federal and state income taxes, the church is not allowed to endorse candidates.

Booth allegedly violated the law again during the James Dobson–inspired Pulpit Freedom Sunday, when churches were encouraged to break the law by endorsing McCain from the pulpit. Booth again sent a letter to the IRS flaunting his law-breaking sermon.

The IRS began a case against the church, but the agency said in a letter to Booth (pdf) dated July 7 that due to “a pending issue regarding the procedure used to initiate the case,” they have closed the file. However, the letter said that the agency “may commence a future inquiry… after it resolves that procedural issue.”

The Minnesota Family Council says that the IRS is being a bully and that churches should have the right to endorse candidates and keep their tax-free status.

“Pastors should be free to speak or not to speak in opposition to or support of political candidates according to the dictates of their consciences,” said Family Council president Tom Prichard. “They shouldn’t have their free speech rights, guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, undermined by the IRS. Yet that appears to be what the IRS is trying to do in this instance,” concluded Prichard.

But the group that filed the complaint, Americans United, said churches are not free to be partisan — and shouldn’t be. “Booth is free to endorse anyone he wants to as a private citizen,” the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United said when the group filed the complaint. “But when he is standing in his tax-exempt pulpit as the top official of a tax-exempt religious organization, he must lay partisanship aside.”