Love-Hate Mail
No mercy
Nice to finally see some articulate and balanced reporting on the sad and sorry situation that occurs at Mercy Ministries ("Jesus Rx," Oct. 2). Mind you, the true believers in Nancy will now rank you as the spawn of Satan, cry persecution and trot out their success stories.
Media bias
While I think you have some very open and honest confessions in the Mercy Ministries report, I feel that, as with most articles related to religion or politics, this is also biased.
A more balanced approach would have been better, but instead you only offered a brief statement of the 93 percent success rate of the organization. No person or organization has the right to judge someone and skew the public's opinion of that person without getting the facts, and leading the reader to assume that Nancy Alcorn is a homosexual is just plain bad journalism. Her sexual orientation is hers alone to tell.
AmandaNashville
Defending Mercy
I think that both sides need to be taken into account when a story that includes such slander and criticism is written. One of the apparent problems with Jodi Ferris was that she saw Nancy as God!
I too was a resident in the Nashville home. I have my opinion about Mercy and my experience there. Mercy is not God! And while there are staff that may have slightly differing philosophies, overall, Mercy's (and Nancy's) intentions are to help bring healing to broken girls!
JodiBrentwood
Let us prey
I have to agree with Jodi Ferris. In the Aussie homes, we were told that Nancy and the other Mercy Ministries staff are God-ordained and they hear from God directly. We were told God tells them which girls to keep in the program. To question a supposedly "God-ordained" staff member was treated as a huge sin and rebellion.These people are not real Christians. Christians are supposed to strive to represent Christ and bring glory to God with what they do. These people prey on well-meaning, genuine Christians for finances. They take in girls and proceed to convert them into a follower of Mercy Ministries' peculiar understanding of religion. Our churches need to stop giving money to these people and give it to legitimate missions instead. We should be building up the legitimate services, not throwing our cash to questionable groups like Mercy Ministries.
God complex
Nancy is already doing damage control and has posted the "success" stories on the Mercy web page. I am a survivor of Mercy, and I appreciate that people are willing to stand up for what they believe is fair and just.
Nancy is not God. However, she acts as though she is. She is one of the most condescending, judgmental, hypocritical people I know. I understand that everyone out there does not agree with me and those who have spoken out about the abusive, degrading environment at Mercy, but I am speaking from personal experience since I was one of the "privileged" girls.
I could go on for days explaining why I stayed. But if a person truly understood the threat of doom and defeat that we would surely face if we left the program early, you might begin to understand why we stayed.
Thank you, Caleb, for listening and helping get the story about Mercy out to the public. Nancy has deep roots in Nashville. She has many people fooled about who she really is and how she treats not only the girls but the staff that work under her. It is time that the truth comes out!
Joanna
