On my day off

I didn’t have to work today, and while I was looking around for something to do, I saw that my pastor, Scott Barger, had a status update about a protest against Hephzibah House at the courthouse. I didn’t know what that was, so I ran a Google search and found this site:

http://www.formerhephzibah girls.webs.com.

Basically, Hephzibah House (located in Winona Lake) bills itself as a rehabilitation boarding school for troubled girls. What actually goes on there, though, is repression and abuse in the name of God. Read through the site above for accounts of the awful things done to girls and women there.

Because of a loophole in Indiana law, Hephzibah House has essentially no outside oversight. They are registered as a non-profit organization, which means they are not subject to the same standards and inspections a regular school or boarding house would be. You can sign a petition to close the loophole here:

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/indiana-law.html.

At the protest, I talked to women who lived in the house. As I listened to them, the thing that made me more upset than anything is that Hephzibah House presents itself as a Christian mission (it’s connected to Believer’s Baptist Church of Winona Lake); that is, for the hundreds of women who have lived there since it opened in 1971, the abuse and humiliation they suffered there have shaped their view of God and the church.

Other informative sites:
http://fishandcycle.blogspot.com/2008/05/horrors-of-hephzibah-house.html
http://adventuresinmercy.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/hephzibah-house-in-indiana-abuse-still-going-on-over-30-years-later/