Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center, Dallas Morning News, and homophobic Christianity
LGBT youth ending up at Stonewater Adolescent Recover Center is a serious concern. Also, don't do drugs, you could end up in the hands of homophobes.
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Links saved at the Internet archive. https://web.archive.org/
Sharon Grigsby reports on the Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center.
Trigger Warning: This story is about a parent kidnapping her child for coercive treatment. Some LGBT have been through this.
The story is about a person named Colin Temple being kidnapped by his mom and sent to Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center where he was treated. He has been off drugs for 3 years in the article.
No where in the article is there any mention of any religious related issues with the Stonewater Adolescent Recovery center. In the article the only reference was a brief sentence.
Colin starts every day with a quick thank you to God and a scan of the checklist on his bathroom mirror.
Every day when she wakes up, she makes her coffee and goes to a small memorial table she set up in memory of Gus and her stepmom, Nini. She touches the urns that hold their ashes and prays they are safe and at peace. She expresses thanks that Colin is alive and well. Finally, she asks God to protect him.
The above is about Colin and his mom’s religious practices, doesn’t say anything about the Stonewater
What exactly is Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center?
This is a story about digging into the surface to discover the underworld.
This is their website.
https://www.stonewaterrecovery.com/
This is their story on their webpage. The head of the operation is a recovered addict. There isn’t much about Christianity in this story. This is what I found.
Through an extensive, multifaceted rehabilitation program, Bryan was eventually able to reconnect with his family, his Christian faith and a purpose that opened his heart to wellness and a healthy way of thinking.
https://www.stonewaterrecovery.com/about-stonewater-adolescent-recovery-center
There Linked in page doesn’t have any religious references.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/stonewater-adolescent-recovery-center/
It opened in 2017. In The Oxford Eagle, May 28, 2017 article, “Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center now open,” doesn’t say much about religion. There is one part of the interview.
During their journey through healing and recovery, the Fikes family clung to Genesis 50:20 – “For you intended to harm me, but God meant it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
https://www.oxfordeagle.com/2017/05/28/stonewater-adolescent-recovery-center-now-open/
This article wasn’t very insightful either. There is a hint though that digging deeper might be worth while.
“God just did incredible work in my life and the life of my family through that experience and so, because of that, our family became very passionate about that kind of work,” Fikes said.
https://oxfordmag.com/oxford-magazines-20-under-40-winners/
HOWEVER,
further digging comes up with additional information that shows it is a Christian operation.
At the directory, WeRecover there is an entry for the Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center. It is classifed by WeRecover as a faith-based entity.
Facility Statement
8 bed boutique facility that offers the full range of recovery treatments for male adolescents age 12 to 17 located in Oxford, Mississippi. Offering a faith-based holistic mix of therapies and focusing entirely on the needs of the young man, this location is able to help teens in recovery stay sober longer. Academics standards are kept and patients must attend tutoring or classes. [Bold Face added.]
https://www.werecover.com/centers/oxford-ms/stonewater-adolescent-recovery-center
In this Oxford Eagle article, Dec. 17, 2017, “Stonewater Recovery Center’s proposed expansion concerns planning commission and neighboring Lafayette County residents.”
Stonewater is, according to CEO Bryan Fikes, a Christian facility designed to provide “pristine, premier adolescent treatment” to young men from across the country.
Also, they have a plan if you try to walk off their facility.
“We’re not trying to admit or treat the guy who’s going to take off running down the street. Now, that stuff happens, but we’re trying to prevent that guy from ever stepping foot on our campus,” he said. “We have a comprehensive 14-page elopement manual with detailed instructions on how to manage those types of situations.”
In this Youtube interview by Faith that Works, the identity of the Center is made fairly clear.
The video had discussed Bryan Fikes recovery from addiction and his staying sober and how that lead to their founding the rehab center.
Though this Tupelo Blogger makes this claim.
– While Stonewater does not use faith-based programs, they are are a faith-based organization and integrate this faith into their beliefs on the purpose of this facility and hope for the teens they see.
Not sure what this is supposed to mean exactly, seems self-contradictory. Maybe potential clients were being scared away.
https://tupelobloggersblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/stonewater-addiction-recovery-center/
It should be emphasized that on the webpage of Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center we don’t find any anti-LGBT policies stated or “faith based” practices.
However, it doesn’t mean that a parent of an LGBT child shouldn’t have strong concerns and perhaps consider other places for drug treatment. It is an institution run by an individual who is a member of an active anti-LGBT organization.
Bryan Fikes
He is listed as Founder/CEO in two of their webpages.
https://www.stonewaterrecovery.com/treatment-staff
https://www.stonewaterrecovery.com/intended-for-good
You get a popup as follows:
Note this text.
He is a member of the Emerging Leaders Fellowship of Christian Athletes Board and volunteers his time in various roles as a part of the congregation at Pinelake Church.
If the bio doesn’t show his connections with homophobic groups, his bio will pop up in this page saved at the Internet Archive.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240919124915/https://www.stonewaterrecovery.com/treatment-staff
Pinelake Church is a Southern Baptist Church and recommeneded books on their website against Gays and the Southern Baptist Church is of course hysterically homophobic. A section on this church follows.
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a known homophobic organization with discriminatory practices. They appear to have local boards, but I wasn’t able to find the page where Bryan Fikes is on a board. It may not be online. A section on them follows the image.
The Founder/CEO of Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center is an officer of an actively homophobic organization and a member of one of the more notorious anti-LGBT religous groups.
No where in Sharon Grigsby article would a parent we warned that they might be sending their LGBT child to a place where they have an elopement manual and it is headed by a person involved with nasty homophobic organizations.
The follow article is like so many about Bryan Fikes, uninformative on this critical matter.
https://oxfordmag.com/oxford-magazines-20-under-40-winners/
We should be careful that LGBT youth don’t fall into the hands of predators.
Vulnerable populations, and certainly addicted youth are vulnerable, make a potentially an easy target for Christian “charities.”
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes
There anti-LGBT policies are in the news and in court cases.
“Fellowship of Christian Atheletes targets the LGBTQ community with statement of faith.”
https://www.outsports.com/2019/1/7/18173087/fellowship-of-christian-athletes-gay-lgbt/
There are a lot of more articles like the above.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellowship_of_Christian_Athletes
https://www.fca.org/fca-in-action/blog-detail/2021/03/03/raising-up-leaders
I couldn’t get any information about which board Bryan Fikes might be on, the FCA has local boards also.
https://www.manateecountyfca.org/leadership-board
Pinelake Church
Church Clarity flags it as a Southern Baptist Church and I confirmed that from the SBC directory.
https://www.churchclarity.org/church/pinelake-church-1637
https://churches.sbc.net/church/pinelake-brandon/
LGBT Youth and treatement centers.
LGBT youth face stress in dealing with homophobia and this can be a push into drug usage. This is from the National Library of Medicine, “Sexual orientation and adolescent substance use: a meta-analysis and methodological review,”
For example, many LGB individuals experience hostility, discrimination and violence due to a largely homophobic culture. Thus, sexual minority status serves as a chronic stressor that may impair physical and psychological functioning, increasing one's susceptibility to illness and disease, and perhaps, substance use. There is some preliminary evidence to suggest that these mechanisms might be operating in LGB youth. For example, some important studies have found support for such mediators when examining mental health outcomes in LGB-only samples [35,36].
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2680081/
Homophobic treatment centers would be a risk for LGBT youth, and given increased risk of drug abuse among LGBT youth, this is a particularly concerning risk.
Yet, the reader about the Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center in the Dallas Morning News would be given no indication that there might be an issue.
This is concerning and makes the Dallas Morning News a menace to the LGBT.
A link to this article will be added into this directory post.
