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Kidnapped for Christ Documentary looking for donations to finish the Film
Kidnapped for Christ follows the stories of several American teenagers who were taken from their homes and sent to an Evangelical Christian reform school located in The Dominican Republic known as Escuela Caribe. The school is run by Americans and is advertised as a “therapeutic Christian boarding school” whose mission is to “help struggling youth transform into healthy Christian adults.” In reality, this school employed classic brainwashing techniques to breakdown and re-build its students.

One such student was David, a gay teenager taken in the middle of the night to the Dominican Republic to be re-programmed into a straight, born-again Christian. Once David’s community found out what had happened to him, they formed a plan to bring him home on his 18th birthday. The struggles they faced to get David released revealed just how far Escuela Caribe (Caribe School) would go to prevent a student from leaving.

The Impact

This film addresses an issue that very few Americans are aware of, but that has impacted the lives of millions of adolescents and families over the past several decades – the rise of inappropriate and abusive “treatment” in the troubled teen industry. All over the US and abroad, so-called therapeutic boarding schools, boot camps, and wilderness rehabilitation programs take in teenagers with a wide range of issues and use unsafe and often harmful tactics to reform them. Using positive façades, religious affiliations, and substantial amounts of money, many such camps and schools have committed inappropriate and abusive acts behind their guarded walls for decades with impunity.

Few journalists or law enforcement agencies have investigated the considerable number of abuse allegations and even deaths arising from these types of programs. No one has been able to comprehensively document on film what goes on behind closed gates at any of these institutions – until now.

Kidnapped for Christ will tell the stories of students who were sent to one of many similar institutions, so that they may make people aware of the danger these programs constitute for our youth.

Evangelical Christian group admits homosexuality can’t be ‘cured’

The former leader of Exodus International, which had touted a ‘cure’ for homosexual attraction, has himself admitted to same-sex attraction.

“I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn’t change,” he wrote on June 19. “I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents. I am sorry that there were times I didn’t stand up to people publicly ‘on my side’ who called you names like sodomite – or worse.” Alan Chambers

We were all monitored closely, but a gay student was always under a microscope. I learned this the hard way. On a rare free day I was playing monopoly with several students; my back hurt. Using a machete to cut grass will do that. One of my housemates started giving me a shoulder massage. Immediately, veteran students around us reported this to our house staff. For the next 20 minutes I was yelled at and berated by a staff person for touching a gay student. He couldn’t understand how I could let someone so filthy touch me. I remember the loathing and hate that was in his voice. I remember him saying, “If you only knew who he was you never would have let him touch you.” My punishment was swats on the ass with a leather strap, administered by a 30-something male staff member with others watching. My housemate’s were much worse. Former student of Escuela Caribe

BRAZIL: Evangelicals Force Approval Of Bill Legalizing “Gay Cure” Therapy

Brazil outlawed “ex-gay” therapy in 1999, but yesterday a congressional commission approved lifting that ban after pressure from evangelicals.

The commission is led by evangelical pastor Marco Feliciano of the Social Christian Party (JMG: above), who has been accused of homophobia and enraged activists by calling AIDS a “gay cancer” in a tweet. His appointment as head the Commission for Human Rights and Minorities in the lower house of Brazil’s Congress was fiercely opposed by gay and human rights groups. “In practice, (the initiative’s) result would be that a person over 18 years of age, responsible for his actions, who is homosexual and wants to reorient his sexuality, can be attended by a psychologist,” said lawmaker Joao Campos, a member of the evangelical bloc of Brazil’s lower house.

The bill must now be approved by other committees in the House of Deputies as well as the Senate.

What We Need 

FINISHING FUNDS – Since our last fundraising campaign we have been able to complete the remaining interviews and shoots we needed to get a rough cut of the film done. Now we need funds to complete post production on the film. This includes funds to pay for editing, sound mixing, music composition, color correction, graphics and titles and deliverable for film festivals. Everyone working on this film so far has done so on their own time and without a salary because we all believe in this project, but there comes a point where we need to hire people in order to get the film done well – that’s why we are fundraising again.

Other Ways You Can Help

Spread the word to all your friends and family! Tell your rich uncles, neighbors, yoga instructors, baristas, dog walkers, and blind dates to check out the website and donate even a small amount. If everyone who watched the trailer on You Tube gave just $5 dollars we’d have more than enough funds to finish the film. If you want to see the film donate a little money so we can finish it for you 🙂

Also, if you are a former student of Escuela Caribe or a similar school or camp, we would love to hear your stories. You can contact us at http://www.kidnappedforchrist.com/#!contact.

Donations are tax-deducible through our fiscal sponsor, the International Documentary Association. They also make sure we spend the money according to the budget for the film we submitted to them, so there’s an extra layer of accountability – you can rest assured that your hard earned money is going towards completion of this film and not our bar tabs.

Your donation is tax deductible!!! Kidnapped For Christ is a fiscally sponsored project of the International Documentary Association (IDA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions on behalf of Kidnapped For Christ are payable to IDA and are tax deductible less the value of any goods or services received, as allowed by law. The value of goods and services being offered is noted under each donation level. If you would like to deduct the entire donation you have the option to simply decline the reward at check out.