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2021, 11:33 PM UTC</time></div><div class="article-le-byle" data-activy-map="le-byle-article-top">By <span class="byle-name"><a href=">Mohammed Syed</a></span> and <span class="byle-name"><a href=">Corky Siemaszko</a></span></div></sectn><div class="article-body__ntent article-body-font--loadg"><p class="">Teenagers pted agast each other durg "fight nights" staged by a youth pastor nng a Christian learship trag program.</p><p class="">"Boot mps" where the trae learn the Way of the Cross by exercisg until they vom or soil themselv — and by heftg heavy logs on their shoulrs through the swelterg summer heat.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><div id="taboolaReadMoreBelow"></div><p class="">Participants who are Black or spected of beg gay beg tnted wh racist and homophobic slurs, and female terns beg fat-shamed.</p><p class="">Those are jt some of the alleged ab that were scribed for this article by more than a half-dozen people who took part the “220i” learship program that Bethany Church, based Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ran om 2005 to 2013. The program promised to turn participants — referred to as terns — to mister material while providg them wh marketable skills like media productn.</p><p class="">Among those terviewed was a woman who felt the program was a cult om which she had to “rcue” her dghter.</p><p class="">NBC News reached out to them after the church’s current lead pastor, Jonathan Stockstill, posted an <a href=" target="_blank">apology on his Facebook page</a> on April 28 for the “paful experienc” many of the 500 or so young Christians endured the program, the stated goal of which was to “tra young lears.”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“While there was some posive u that me om that mistry, there were also learship and cultural flaws that led to paful experienc for many,”<a href=" target="_blank"> he wrote</a>. “It’s obv to me now and to the current learship at Bethany Church that we signifintly missed the mark that program many ways.”</p><p class="">The former terns — some of whom spoke on the rerd, while others ed psdonyms out of fear of retaliatn om the <a href=" target="_blank">powerful megachurch</a>, which has thoands of members — said he was aware of what was gog on and did nothg to stop .</p><p class="">They said the rglear was his olr brother, Joel, who tormented the terns wh the help of ais known as “send years,” as well as Joel’s late wife, Amy, and his current wife, Amie.</p><p class="">Found by the Stockstill brothers’ grandfather Roy 1963, the nonnomatnal Bethany Church grew om havg Sunday servic the livg room of the fay home to one of the biggt megachurch the untry. It has more than 8,000 members spread across five mp Louisiana and is openg another New Orleans, ns a televisn mistry and supports missns at home and abroad.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">In a statement that was signed "Bethany Church," nied the most ser allegatns but also apologized to "those we have disappoted any way."</p><p class="">“This highly discipled program that was totally voluntary to participants was not perfect and we chose to end 8 years ago,” the church said. “As we reflect on the program, pas to know that although so many liv were changed for the good, ’s clear the one-size-fs-all approach to physil and spirual disciple was not effective some areas.”</p><p class="">“As the lead pastor of Bethany, I would like to take rponsibily and repent to anyone that had a negative experience. Please five ,” he add.</p><p class="">Several people who mented on Jonathan Stockstill's Facebook thread praised him for the apology. Those who spoke to NBC News, however, dismissed as a public relatns stunt aimed at pre-emptg a possible lawsu by the more than 100 men and women who have anized a survivors group that regularly meets onle.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">They said the 40-year-old pastor is tryg to prerve his public image as a hip preacher who relat to younger people and who is also the ontman for a Christian rock band lled <a href=" target="_blank">Deluge</a>.</p><p class="">“I see as damage ntrol,” said Gume Lrel, 34, a Texan who took part the 10-month program 2007 and 2008. “It looks like he’s tryg to shift the blame and say, ‘The learship at the time.’ He was ‘the learship’ at the time.”</p><p class="">Not all of the terns had negative experienc. Former tern Bridget Lville said she joed the program to follow the footsteps of two of her iends who remend to her.</p><p class="">“I actually had two of my iends om my church who had gone the prev two years. And they had much more posive experienc,” Lville said. She said they fell to a more “favored tegory” and that her iends didn’t “really al wh a lot of the awful treatment” that she experienced.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">So far there don't appear to have been an apology om Joel Stockstill, who <a href=" target="_blank">boasted at a 2011 learship nference</a> that “the Lord has given me a creative abily for servanthood and disciple.”</p><p class="">“I jt have supernatural creative ias on how to admister the rod of brokenns to the backsi of a foolish tern,” he said a vio posted to YouTube.</p><p class="">Joel and Amie Stockstill, 35, who markets herself as a life ach for Christian women and ns a se lled <a href=" target="_blank">Let’s Echo</a>, did not rpond to requts for ment via email.</p><p class="">Joel Stockstill, 42, ntu to n a Bethany Church mistry lled <a href=" target="_blank">Surge</a>, which was started by his father, Larry, acrdg to the church webse.</p><h2 class="">'A cult mentaly'</h2><p class="">Lrel said God-fearg teenagers like him who were raised ultranservative church were easy prey for the Stockstill fay.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“It was a cult mentaly,” said Lrel, addg that for them the biggt punishment was “beg expelled om the program bee then you would jt be sentially exmunited.”</p><p class="">Bethany Church marketed the 220i mistry to other church, drawg participants om across the Uned Stat and om untri as far away as Malaysia, the ex-terns said. The terns lived at the church a dormory-type settg for the duratn of the 10-month program.</p><p class="">“Their whole pch was if you wanted to be the ele of Christiany, you need to be this program,” said another former tern, who asked to be intified only as Emerson.</p><figure class="styl_leImage__yAWZ0 styl_small__5hUB_"><picture class="styl_image__1qciH"><source media="(m-width: 1240px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source media="(m-width: 1000px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source media="(m-width: 758px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt="Former members of Bethany Church Baton Rouge, La., who took part as teenagers the 220i youth program say there were often ma to take long hik, do manual labor and perform listhenics for hours the swelterg summer heat." height="1667" width="2500"/></picture><figptn class="ptn styl_ptn__Pe5JC"><span class="ptn__ntaer">Former members of Bethany Church Baton Rouge, La., who took part as teenagers the 220i youth program say there were often ma to take long hik, do manual labor and perform listhenics for hours the swelterg summer heat.</span><span class="ptn__source">Obtaed by NBC News</span></figptn></figure><p class="">The program wasn’t cheap, eher, the former terns said. Tun was, the first years, around $5,000 for the program, which ran om Augt through June, and that didn't clu food, travel or livg expens.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">While the lears of Bethany Church “talked about cshg you to make you to a te Christian,” that wasn’t all they were after, Emerson said.</p><p class="">“They preyed on young people’s passn and sire to change the world,” she said. “But once you got there, was brawashg and submissn to the church.”</p><p class="">And worked, at least at first, Emerson said.</p><p class="">“I felt great,” she said, rellg how her program began wh a pizza party that quickly turned terrifyg when they embarked on a midnight march through chigger-fted woods while bldfold. “I'm dog this great thg for God. I’m purifyg myself. I’m miserable, but I’m cleang everythg impure out. It took me many more years before I started thkg that this was not right.”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Even the name of the stunt mistry was signed to keep the young Christian teenagers unr the church’s thumb, the ex-terns said.</p><p class="">“The name ‘220’ me om Galatians 2:20, which we all had to memorize durg the boot mps,” said a former tern who attend the program 2007 to 2008 and asked to be intified as Claire. “The emphasis of the verse was placed on ‘It is no longer I who liv.’ The verse was misterpreted to ntrol and our will. In 220i, there is a lowerse ‘i’ to note that we are not worthy of beg lled upperse ‘I’, that we did not exist anymore. It was like self-flagellatn. This iology set up for md ntrol.”</p><p class="">Claire, who said she put off gog to llege to take part the ternship, said that after she fished the program the church prsured her to stay on and tried to dissua her om ntug her tn.</p><p class="">“You only uld graduate [om the ternship] at 10 months if they emed that you were submted and loyal enough to them,” she said. “You also were required to go through an ex terview wh them, durg which time Joel, Amie or his youth staff pastors would tell you what God’s plans were for you upon leavg.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“If you planned to go to llege and they did not agree, they would tell you that was not God’s plan for you,” she said. “They spoke to as if they were God.”</p><p class="">So almost nobody protted when they were forced to pray for hours or endure punishg physil ab the name of God.</p><p class="">“If a church who’s been the muny almost six s, who lov all people, lov the Lord, teachg and followg biblil prcipl, and engag numero ways wh muny assistance & support is classified as a cult then perhaps those who are accg of beg a cult do not fully unrstand the fn of the word Cult,” a Bethany Church spokperson said.</p><p class="">Cult expert Rick Alan Ross, who ns the nonprof Cult Edutn Instute, said is possible “for a small group to functn whout meangful notice a megachurch.”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“However, seems very spec to claim that such a group is led by the pastor's brother, uld or would go unnoticed,” he said.</p><p class="">The Stockstills went to great lengths to keep the terns isolated om their fai. Amie Stockstill, particular, sisted on that, the terns said.</p><p class="">“She ma cut ti wh our fai and our parents, disregardg their thory our liv and tellg that she and Joel were now our thory figur,” Emerson said.</p><p class="">While some ntact wh fai was allowed, members whose parents didn’t support their cisn to be part of the program were enuraged to lim ntact.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“They would say the Bible says to obey your parents but if your parents are keepg you om servg God, then you n disobey them and you should not listen to them,” Emerson said.</p><p class="">And the hog the church provid was scribed as spartan.</p><p class="">“I lived a four-bedroom hoe wh 21 girls,” Claire said. “We only had two bathrooms. We only had one kchen, one lndry room. The hoe’s A/C was broken durg the summer, and they never fixed . We were nstantly sick bee of the close quarters and how old and moldy the hoe was.”</p><p class="">There was next to no privacy, and they were monored by “hoemoms” only slightly olr than them “who would punish for mor ‘actns,’ like talkg to a boy, by makg scb floors and do other menial labor,” Claire said.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Thgs were no better for the male terns, pecially the Black male terns, who were relegated to the filthit rooms the dorms the church ed, the terns said.</p><p class="">“They basilly separated all of the Black male terns onto one floor and everybody else was on a different floor,” Lrel said.</p><p class="">A woman who spoke to NBC News — and asked to be intified as Sharon Adams — said she “rcued” her then-17-year-old dghter om the program 2012.</p><p class="">“At first, everythg seemed OK,” Adams said. “What I learned later was that they told them not to rely on their fay, that they were their new fay.”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Even after her dghter was kicked out of the program, Adams said, her dghter was told she would be out of the will of God if she returned home.</p><p class="">Adams said her dghter is now 27 and that after years of therapy “she’s absolutely OK.”</p><p class="">“She told me that she ntemplated suici and that the only thg that stopped her was bee she was told that would be a s,” Adams said. “But she still hasn’t opened up pletely about what they did to her down there. They were all told that what happens the program stays the program.”</p><h2 class="">Physil abe</h2><p class="">By day, the 220i terns took part “boot mp,” where they had to perform listhenics, n and sometim dig trench the stiflg heat for hours a field behd what was then the Stockstill fay home on Oak Bend Drive, the former participants said. One tern scribed the ndns as a type of “hazg.”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“This was happeng lerally outsi [Jonathan Stockstill’s] wdow,” said a former tern, who asked not to be intified.</p><figure class="styl_leImage__yAWZ0 styl_small__5hUB_ styl_portra__NRWbO"><picture class="styl_image__1qciH"><source media="(m-width: 1240px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source media="(m-width: 1000px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source media="(m-width: 758px)" srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><source srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt="Former members of Bethany Church Baton Rouge, La., who took part as teenagers 220i youth program say there were often ma to take long hik, do manual labor, and perform listhenics for hours the swelterg summer heat." height="2500" width="1667"/></picture><figptn class="ptn styl_ptn__Pe5JC"><span class="ptn__ntaer">Former members of Bethany Church Baton Rouge, La., who took part as teenagers the 220i youth program say there were often ma to take long hik, do manual labor and perform listhenics for hours the swelterg summer heat.</span><span class="ptn__source">Obtaed by NBC News</span></figptn></figure><p class="">Joel Stockstill personally supervised many of the gelg workouts, often while ridg on a Segway, the ex-terns said. He would make the exhsted terns rece Scripture, and anyone who got the vers wrong was targeted.</p><p class="">“At tim, he and his brothers and iends would drive by on golf rts to shoot patball guns at terns durg boot mp to haze them further,” Claire said.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Former tern Lville said that she had knee surgery three months before she started the program 2007 and that program lears knew she was no shape to do strenuo exercise.</p><p class="">“They didn’t re,” said Lville, who is 34 and om Oregon. “They would yell our fac ... tell to get down and do phups, jt scream.”</p><p class="">It was extremely hot, and the pace of exercise rarely let up, Lville and the other ex-terns said.</p><p class="">“We were nng and nng and nng and nng and not beg given enough water,” Lville said.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Lunch was often ns of tuna and crackers washed down wh tepid water. And the bugs were relentls.</p><p class="">“My ma memory is jt beg pa om my surgery and lerally standg a fire anthill wh fire ants crawlg up my body,” Lville said.</p><p class="">Lrel, who is now openly gay, said male terns who were thought to be homosexual were targeted for torment. He relled one day particular when the terns were orred to a pool and ma to tread water for hours as part of a workout. Some of the program’s lears zeroed on a teenager who had displayed “ls tradnally viewed mascule behavrs.”</p><p class="">“They would be llg him f----- and they were sprayg water om a hose to his mouth while he was tryg to tread water,” Lrel said. The former terns also said Joel Stockstill and his ais openly ed the “N-word” and beltled the Black terns as “thugs.”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">The church sisted has opposed racism "sce our mistry began."</p><p class="">"We are unaware of any so-lled reported cints of bullyg related to racism or sexual orientatn," the church said. "We nmn such behavr the strongt way and never tolerated ."</p><p class="">In addn to the gelg outdoor workouts, terns scribed “fight nights” when they were pted agast one another.</p><p class="">“There were two different fight nights,” said Danielle Fergon, 31, who took part the program om 2007 to 2008. “One of them was for the guys. And they really pumped up. I mean, this is like the thg to do whether you wanted to fight or not.”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">The bouts often end wh one of the batants badly beaten and bloodied, Lrel said.</p><p class="">“A lot of the time they would p somebody who was like really small agast somebody that was really big,” Lrel said. “Jt like a hypertoxic view of masculy beg important and a val part of Christiany.”</p><p class="">The female terns were also forced to fight, said Fergon, who relled how one night they were taken to a hill on the nearby Louisiana State Universy mp and told to form a le.</p><p class="">“And they had the guys and the girls jt fight. It didn’t matter,” she said. “There were no l.”</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Joel Stockstill “was the ma one dog the ptg and mockg,” said a former tern who attend the program 2007 to 2008 and asked to be intified as Frank.</p><p class="">“I remember church lears pickg eher terns or youth members to fight each other as they spectated orr to prove who was the most manly,” Frank said. “People were mocked wh different terms, such as beg ‘weak’ or ‘a fag,’ if they lost.”</p><p class="">The church nied the allegatns. "There were no 'fight nights,' this is a totally false claim that never took place," said. "There was no public shamg of anyone who stggled wh a health issue or weight ncern."</p><h2 class="">Mental abe</h2><p class="">The terns were also ma to participate marathon prayg ssns at night, pecially 2007 and 2008, when <a href=" target="_blank">Amy Stockstill was battlg ncer</a>. Lville said they were ma to take part “24-hour prayer nights” for her revery and that when she died they were blamed.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">“You guys didn’t have enough fah for her to be healed,” Lville relled beg told. “Lookg back now, they were all hurtg and they were takg out on .”</p><p class="">Joel Stockstill eventually remarried, and ex-terns said his send wife, Amie, would “police our clothg, our hair, or makp, even our weight,” Emerson said.</p><p class="">“Every week, she checked our BMI, and if you were above a certa BMI, you got lled out publicly and put on rtricted diets. There are girls still sufferg om eatg disorrs bee of this,” Emerson said.</p><p class="">Amie Stockstill would tell the female terns “to be fat meant that you had s your life,” Claire said. She would also force the Black terns to “succumb to whens” by relaxg their hair and “nformg to whe bety standards,” she said.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Joel and Amie Stockstill also took a keen tert their personal liv, the ex-terns said.</p><p class="">“There was a schled ‘date night,’ and you had to go on a date or you were shamed and lled for disciple,” Claire said. “After the dat, the girls were terrogated by Amie and the boys were terrogated by Joel to asss whether or not we had ‘sned’ or been tempted while on the dat.”</p><p class="">The terns said they were also prsured by program learship to pchg to buy “extravagant gifts” for Joel and Amie Stockstill on their birthdays, like a $500 gift rd to Anthropologie for her or urtsi seats to a Los Angel Lakers game for him.</p><p class="">“Each year, there was some new thg for to buy for them. All the while Joel and his wife both drove Eslas, owned a penthoe Wt Palm Beach and were flntg signer clothg,” Claire said.</p><div class="ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer boxleAd dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxle" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[]],[[758,1],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[728,90],[360,360]]],[[0,0],[[300,250],[700,50],[5,5],[360,360]]]]" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te" data-offset-viewport="100"></div></div><p class="">Several former terns have found muny wh one another through an onle survivors group which they talk about their shared experienc, and they have mobilized to brg to light the ab they say they suffered the program.</p><p class="endmark">“It’s important that people know what they did to ,” Claire said. “Lots of are still alg wh what happened.”</p><div class="expand-byle-ntributors articleByleContaer"><div class="expand-byle article-expand-byle" data-activy-map="expand-byle-article-bottom"><span class="byle-thumbnail byle-thumbnail--no-image expand-byle__thumbnail"></span><span class="byle-name expand-byle__name"><a href=">Mohammed Syed</a></span><span class="byle-social expand-byle__social"><a href="" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="byle-social--lk"><span class="in in-email"></span></a></span><div class="expand-byle__b-wrapper"><p class="byle-b expand-byle__b">Mohammed Syed is a reporter for NBC News' social newsgatherg team.</p></div></div><div class="expand-byle article-expand-byle" data-activy-map="expand-byle-article-bottom"><div class="byle-thumbnail byle-thumbnail--has-image expand-byle__thumbnail"><a href="><picture><source srcSet=" 2x, 1x"/><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt="" height="48" width="48"/></picture></a></div><span class="byle-name expand-byle__name"><a href=">Corky Siemaszko</a></span><span class="byle-social expand-byle__social"><a href="" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="byle-social--lk"><span class="in in-email"></span></a></span><div class="expand-byle__b-wrapper"><p class="byle-b expand-byle__b">Corky Siemaszko is a senr reporter for NBC News Digal.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body--right-rail-ntaer"><div class="article-body__right-rail layout-grid-em grid-l-4_5-l grid-l-3_5-xl grid-l-ph-half-xl"><div class="ad article-body__right-rail--ad ad--text-alignment ad-ntaer dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="boxrail" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[[300,250],[360,360]]],[[758,1],[]],[[0,0],[]]]" data-offset="10" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="body-bottom-remend"><div class="ad ad--midrponsive ad-ntaer dn-prt"><div data-mps="te" data-slot="midrponsive" data-siz="[[[1000,1],[[700,1],[5,5]]],[[758,1],[]],[[0,0],[]]]" data-offset="300" data-reh-terval="0" data-renr-on-view="te" data-targetg="{}" data-active-tab="te"></div></div></div></div></div></article></div></div><div id="hfs-footer" class="dn-prt" 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