I was overjoyed and somewhat surprised when I heard the outcome of the ACCC investigation into Mercy Ministries – compensation (token though it may be) and a formal apology from the directors was more than any of the Mercy Survivors thought they would ever get.
Here’s the apology letter .
The ACCC found that Mercy had been
- Misleading in promoting their services as free
- Misleading about having qualified professionals on staff
But here is the specific acknowledgement in the apology letter:
Each of the former directors acknowledge that they were ultimately responsible for the conduct of Mercy Ministries. The former directors each admit Mercy Ministries conduct was misleading, and they wish to offer to you their sincere apology for any hurt
or inconvenience arising from these matters.
Contrast this with Darlene Zschech’s(one of the early directors) comments on her own website to her fans
Statement regarding Mercy Ministries
Hey friends…. I really felt that due to some confusion over the last few months, I needed to write and put a few things on record regarding Mark’s and my involvement in Mercy Ministries.
As of July 2007, Mark and I ceased all involvement with Mercy Ministries. As hard as it was, we knew it was the right choice for us and for our family. Since that time, due to a culmination of decisions completely outside of our control, Mercy Ministries has now unfortunately ceased to exist in Australia. And that is probably what brings us the most personal sadness of all.
We are SO very thankful to all of the girls who did come through the program and we celebrate those who are flourishing in life. We pray for and encourage any girls still overcoming personal challenges to work hard and continue to seek help. We will be ever grateful to a staff who did over and above the call of duty every single day to ensure the girls’ well being. The staff that started with us at Mercy have become lifelong friends and for that we are truly grateful.
More than two years have passed since we stood down from all involvement in Mercy Ministries. During that time we have worked hard to transition well, even in the midst of a less than ideal situation. But again, we see the faithfulness of God extended toward us, just as His faithfulness is toward you.
We have learned SO, SO much during this period. I have certainly learned again to SING through a storm. In life, I believe that one of the great ‘growing up’ lessons is about praising our way through any circumstance. Yes it would be amazing if life was just sweet days every day, but life is all about our growth and development, our faith journey, the cementing and fine-tuning of our core beliefs, and learning to trust God through it all.
I personally do not regret a moment of our Mercy journey. Mark and I gave our best in time and resources to pioneer a place in Australia for girls needing a helping hand to overcome their personal challenges. This is still much needed in our nation. We will continue on every day with helping people, praising our God through it all.
Mark and I both feel, however, that it is important to publicly note that we have not been involved with Mercy Ministries in Australia or internationally at all since July 2007, and since then we should not have been represented as ambassadors for Mercy Ministries or in any of their marketing or public relations documents.
Love you,Darlene Zschech.
How does one reconcile?
they wish to offer to you their sincere apology for any hurt
or inconvenience arising from these matters.
with
I personally do not regret a moment of our Mercy journey.
How is it ok to state one thing legally and publically, sign your name to it (to avoid further legal action perhaps?) and then to your insiders, your church followers another? Darlene has a position of leadership and here she is saying its ok to lie. It’s okay to sign an apology that you don’t really believe in just so you can avoid other consequences.
What do my readers think of that?
Particularly interested in hearing from any Christian lurkers.
What is this Mercy Ministries? Click here to view more details
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I read her statement and I was appalled! What those girls have gone through and SHE has no regrets? Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. She should be ashamed of herself.
I have tried to see when she put up that notice, so at best she has a slack PR handler
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Global Atheist, SeandBlogonaut. SeandBlogonaut said: New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/y9wb9eu – Disappointed with Darlene [...]
After attending Hellsong for several years and witnessing the plastic-fantastic general nature, I am sadly not in the least surprised by her contradictions. The important thing at Hellsong is how you look and are perceived. My personal interactions with Darlene have only served to reinforce my instinctual perception of her. She is one thing when there are cameras around and entirely another when there are no witnesses.
Hellsong is not centred around Christ, it IS centred around money and therefore PR. The main focus of the church is around image, and as you might note if you have ever seen Darlene's CDs, it's normally a picture of Darlene "deep in worship," which is rather person-focused instead of God focused…in my opinion anyway.
Sincerity and integrity appear to be lacking, if they are at all detectable, and it is my belief that these are incredibly important aspects of character for anyone, and should be evident in Christian lives – especially those who chose to put themselves on a pedestal in the public eye.
How was she different? I heard that she was the same offstage as she is onstage.
In a previous post the comment was made that she ignored the Mercy girls in the house unless there were Cameras around.
where did you hear that? i can assure you from extensive personal experience that it is not the case. i've encountered her many times on and off the stage and can guarantee you that she is nothing like her stage character in person.
I read that somewhere on hillsong material. I wonder if what is expected of her is simply too much for her to bear. I feel sorry for her kids if they think that this is the example of Christian womanhood.
in my experience as an ex resident of mercy, she never acknowledged us unless there were important witnesses (nancy) or cameras around. for sure. ugh.
One word – Hypicritical. Very disappointing and not a good role model at all. I was personally discusted.
So darlene apologised and then tried to take her apology back? Like an indian giver.
Didnt peter irvine do the same thing?
True and the style of writing is hers alone.
though i am sure that there are now many people capable of writing in hillsong-ese, darlene would have had to approve anything that was written. considering she's written a few books, i would expect that she is capable of writing her own comments on her website. though, no doubt, she has them checked for pc-ness. clearly not very thoroughly because you can't really get more un-pc than what she wrote considering all that is going on at the moment.
by the way, sean, if you'd like a great insight into the mighty darlene, you could chew through her books. kind of marshmallowy – light and fluffy with no substance at all!
Even as a Christian and Mercy graduate, I think it's disgusting. She might have thought it was not worth a battle with the ACCC to express what she believes, but now her integrity is in question.
I agree with everyone. I have a few questions myself. One of them is why did Darlene allow images of herself to be used by MM after she left the program? I personally think that she did not know what was going on as far as with the centrelink payments etc. I believe that the statement that was placed on her website was done by a pr firm. I think Darlene is a woman who loves God and saw the work of MM as being helpful to the girls that went there.
Darlene did know what was going on with the centrelink money. Darlene and Mark were executive directors of MM from 2001 to mid 2007. I was told by a staff member at the time that Nancy Alcorn fired Darlene and Mark in mid 2007 and brought in Peter Irvine.
Nancy Alcorn also knew about the centrelink money as she was the President of Mercy Ministries Australia when this was all happening. I know she's trying to deny involvement now, but she was the President and MM Aust and MM America were considered the same organisation.
She gave a speech about how it was ok because the Australian government still lets Mercy Ministries preach the "gospel" (or MM's version of it) while taking centrelink benefits.
I am surprized that they were made to repay the centrelink money. Nancy Alcorn was probably envious because in the US, Mercy cannot get federal or state funds because they are a religious organization. The part of this whole thing that infuriates me the most is that they promised both the girls and their parents that they would have mental health professionals available. Instead, the so called counselors were Bible school graduates, who did not have a clue as to how to treat their clients. I also resent the one size fits all approach that Mercy uses regardless of problems that the young women have. From what I understand, they take away prescribed medication from the clients. This is dangerous. Especially if a girl is depressed and is that way because of a chemical inbalance in the brain that cannot be treated with their material. Also I wonder if they took away insulin and glucose monitors from girls who were diabetics?
Crystal, if she did not know then she was failing in her job as a director. If she did not know she could have been honest about it on her website and said " I am sorry, I should have paid more attention to what was going on".
I believe that the statement that was placed on her website was done by a pr firm. why's that?
I think Darlene is a woman who loves God and saw the work of MM as being helpful to the girls that went there. Perhaps that was the case, however she know has the opportunity to recognize what Mercy SUrvivors have been saying all along. I think that support of MM raises her profile and standing.
I kind of wonder if their current ministry Hope Rwanda will be under the same suspicion as Mercy was? I agree that being involved with Mercy has helped her. I personally think that the statement was written by a pr firm is that it appears to be somewhat damage control. The part that states that they decided to leave Mercy makes it seem that they knew what was going on and wanted to cut the ties to Mercy. I wonder sometimes if she forgets who she really is? I think that she may have lost her soul and not realized it.
I personally think that the statement was written by a pr firm is that it appears to be somewhat damage control.
I wouldn't want to absolve her of the responsibility though. She might have been advised to write it, it might have been written for her, but it is in her name.
I was told by a very reliable source that Nancy Alcorn fired Mark and Darlene in mid 2007. But of course that's not the spin either side are giving it in public. The MM Aus staff members who were there at the time know what happened, and by all accounts they were happy to see the back of Darlene and Mark.
True. She bases everything on experience and uses scripture very lightly. You have to take into consideration that she is not very well educated, especially in biblical matters. She does what Brian and Bobbie do, take scripture that they like and disregard the rest.
Darlene's post is a real shocker . Having been connected to Hillsong I can safely say that Darlene has been sucked into a system that has insulated her fron the real world and I doubt she has any understanding of what the ACCC ruling actually means ..
Decades ago John Smith the evangelist visited Hillsong and Darlene did some work with his organisation – that didn't continue and the good evangelist became persona non grata at Hillsong and was never invited back – never heard the full story but I presume he was too blunt . I wished that Darlene had been exposed to other more reputable organisations – it might have made all the diference .
I have never seen a church that has a siege mentality when it comes to criticism as hilllsong. Very rarely do they try to address criticisms and set the record straight. Survived it, I am interested in finding out about the real Darlene. Please email me at borogirl54@hotmail.com.
I have been to the Hillsong church at Hills, are you an ex-member by any chance?
no, I am not. From what I read on the internet and from Tanya Levin's book that is the impression that I get. And I ask myself this question for what , a church? I do not think that even megachurches in America run that way. Also one thing that I noticed is that very few former hillsongers come forward about their experiences. In America, it is easy to get former members to talk about their experiences with particular churches and some of them even sue the church to get them to pay for counseling and other therapy that they need to get over their bad experience with the church. I do not see this with former hillsongers and I wonder why.
Crystal,
There is actually a lot of discussion from former Hillsongers on blogs – there used to be a blog called Signposts which had thousands of posts on Hillsong and similar churches – its now morphed Group Sects
http://groupsects.wordpress.com/
btw, Darlene removed the MM note from her webpage,
I wonder if she is going to replace it with anything else ? Guess I will have to dig out the screen shots.