I
am providing the following for information and historical reference purposes
only. Understand, too, that there are two sides to
every story and that the power and ability to reason and understand is unique
to each individual based on the information that is available...
I share with you a letter written to parents – this was written on Mountain Park letterhead and signed by Sam L. Gerhardt. It is interesting that parents are warned (threatened???) to not tell their kids when they will be leaving Mountain Park, because those at Mountain Park claim that, “The focus shifts from the instruction being received to the date of departure.”
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Dear Parent,
Since the Christmas break we have had to ask at least three parents to remove their students from Mountain Park. The reason? Because they revealed to these students when they would be returning home.
Once a student has a date fixed that he/she will be returning home, our influence is so greatly hindered that we are no longer willing to allow that student to remain. The focus shifts from the instruction being received to the date of departure. Victories that could have otherwise been won are not even fought! Trying to tread water in a moving stream is not effective. You still get swept down stream! So goes the student trying to maintain the “status quo” until the time to go home. We express in every parent orientation the importance of never discussing with a student when he/she will return home.We also express the importance of never keeping secrets with the student.Whenever either one of these two topics are approached by a parent and a student, it will always be interpreted by us as your decision to have your son/daughter withdraw from Mountain Park immediately.To avoid such an interruption in your student’s progress at a time when you are not prepared to bring him/her home, simply do not allow the discussion to take place. Please do not make it impossible for us to help your student. Please do not make it any more difficult than it has to be. Please take this seriously. We do. For teens, S. L. Gerhardt |
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Emphasis in red:
Mountain Park Definitions:
Influence: noun: 1.) Scare tactics; 2.) Threats; 3.) Ability to prolong incarceration indefinitely.
Instruction Being Received: noun: 1.) Cult Practices; 2.) Drugging; 3.) Encouragement of Racism/Sexism; 4.) Encouragment of hatred for other religions/beliefs.
Even convicted criminals KNOW their release date prior to being placed in a prison. (Even those who are granted EARLY release know the exact date they will be departing.) Knowing the date doesn’t seem to cause the adverse reactions that Mountain Park claims it does: If anything, knowing a release date most likely makes a prisoner want to be able to leave as scheduled thus making the prisoner more willing to abide by the rules – it gives them HOPE.
From what I’ve researched concerning prisoners of concentration camps, they are not given a definite date for release and they are not allowed to keep secrets or make close ties while being confined. Concentration camp detainees are allowed to have only limited contact with the outside world and that contact is carefully orchestrated and controlled by those in charge: The inmates know ONLY what those in charge allow them to know. The world knows ONLY what those in charge ALLOW and WANT the world to know...
Mountain Park WARNS the parents to NOT KEEP SECRETS - yet, Mr. Gerhardt, on behalf of Mountain Park, appears to speak from the other side of his mouth and DEMANDS THAT PARENTS MUST KEEP SECRET the date of a child’s release. (Notice that the word used in the letter is “student” not “child”, but a parents’ “student”. Hmmm...)
I do believe the DOUBLE STANDARD for keeping/not keeping secrets is what is called being “DOUBLE MINDED” in Scripture. How does God view those who are DOUBLE MINDED?
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. James 1:8
But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Deuteronomy 25:15
Dear children, be not afraid. Speak out boldly for the Spirit of the Lord is upon you. You are anointed to expose those who hide their works in darkness: You will have your wounds healed in the process. You are empowered through that anointing to expose all destructive works, which works shall be destroyed by bringing them into the light:
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? Isaiah 29:15
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19