Fundamentalist Christian Homes

1500 to 1799 #

• 1517 – Protestant Reformation
  • Reformers like Martin Luther believed that every child – not just the elite or clerical – should be taught to read Scripture and understand Christian doctrine.
  • Luther in 1529 published his Small Catechism specifically as a simple instructional manual for parents and pastors to teach the young
  • Leads to Calvinism (1536) and Puritanism.
• 1630 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded by non-separating Puritans led by John Winthrop.
  • This marked the beginning of the Great Migration, during which roughly 20,000 Puritans came to New England over the next decade.
• 1646 – Massachusetts Stubborn Child Act
  • Rooted in biblical law, it allowed parents to bring an “incorrigibly disobedient” son (aged 16 or older) before magistrates for punishment up to death
• 1730s–1750s – First Great Awakening (U.S.)
  • Emotional, revivalist Christianity emerges. Prioritizes personal salvation, strict morality, and obedience to divine authority.
  • Early roots of authoritarian parenting justified through scripture.
• 1734 – Northampton Revivals under Jonathan Edwards
  • Edwards begins preaching on the depravity of man and the need for personal regeneration.
  • Emotional outbursts, weeping, and fainting among youth were seen as signs of spiritual awakening.
  • Children were targeted as moral agents, not innocents—infused later into child-rescue theology.
• 1739–1740 – Wesley’s Field Preaching & Class Meetings
  • Began preaching in open fields to bypass the Anglican hierarchy (often 10,000+ people).
  • Established “class meetings”: small groups that enforced moral behavior, public confession, and surveillance of sin.
  • These meetings set the precedent for behavioral accountability models that reappear in youth homes and therapeutic communities.
• 1740 – First British-American Orphanage Founded:
  • Bethesda Orphanage was established by Great Awakening leader George Whitefield, who cited German Pietist August Hermann Francke as a major influence. Francke believed it was important to break children’s will to enforce obedience.
• 1740–1742 – George Whitefield’s Colonial Tours
  • Preaches across the colonies to tens of thousands, often in fields.
  • Brings British revival style to America: emotional, theatrical, accusatory.
  • Converts many youth; encourages home-based moral discipline by fathers.
• 1766 – John Wesley Publishes A Plain Account of Christian Perfection
  • Introduces a “second blessing”: entire sanctification.
    • Believers are not just forgiven (justification), but purified of inward sin.
    • No longer willfully sin—desires are fully aligned with God.
    • Reach a state of total obedience, humility, and holy love.

1800s #

• 1801–1805 – Cane Ridge Revival (KY)
  • A major early American revival promoting ecstatic spiritual experience and repentance.
  • Seeds sown for religious behavioral reform and control.
• 1820s–1830s – Second Great Awakening
  • Explosive growth of evangelical Protestantism.
  • Promoted perfectionism, discipline, and missionary outreach—including to the ‘wayward’ within society.
• 1836 – Phoebe Palmer hosts Tuesday Meetings for the Promotion of Holiness
  • Palmer develops altar theology
  • Radicalized Wesley’s view into a crisis experience marked by emotional outpouring and absolute surrender.
  • Creates a process for instant sanctification
    • The process includes testifying before belief
• 1848 – Founding of the First U.S. Magdalene Asylum (NYC)
  • Inspired by Irish and British Magdalene laundries, American Protestant reformers open religious-run asylums for “promiscuous” or “disobedient” girls.
  • Girls held for months or years; forced to work in laundries or kitchens under punitive conditions.
  • Evangelical purity theology drove the mission: sex = moral ruin, labor = redemption.
• 1896 – Fire-Baptized Holiness Church
  • Third blessing: baptism of fire
    • Came with divine healing, holy ecstasy, and freedom from disease
  • Live Coals of Fire church newspaper warned against medical intervention for spiritual purity

1900 to 1949 #

• 1901 – John Alexander Dowie founds Zion City
  • Separatist Pentecostal community
  • Banned medicine, alcohol, tobacco, and secular entertainment
• 1910–1915 – The Fundamentals Published
  • 90 essays funded by oil barons Lyman and Milton Stewart.
  • Aim: defend Protestant orthodoxy against modernism, science, and social gospel.
  • Define biblical inerrancy, male authority, and moral absolutism.
  • Reject psychology and humanism—roots of later anti-therapy, anti-regulation stance.
• 1920s–1930s – Fundamentalists Lose Public Influence, Go Underground
  • After the Scopes Trial (1925), fundamentalism was publicly mocked and marginalized.
  • But it consolidates power privately through churches, schools, and families.
  • Southern Baptists and independent churches begin developing parallel systems—including unregulated education and youth reform.
• 1944 – Lester Roloff establishes The Family Altar radio program
  • He proselytizes, sings hymns, describes his ministry’s activities
  • In 1945 Roloff is forced to move The Family Altar to KWBU at Baylor University (a Baptist college) because his former radio station relied on advertising money from the liquor industry, while Roloff kept preaching temperance

1950 to 1979 #

• 1951 – Roloff founds the Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises in Corpus Christi, Texas
• 1954 – Lester Roloff Opens City of Refuge
  • Deeply influenced by revivalist theology and SBC separatism.
  • Believes children are depraved and must be saved through discipline, submission, and brokenness.
  • Rejects psychology, medicine, and licensing as anti-God.
• 1955 – Roloff fired from KWBU
  • “for broadcasting disparaging remarks about his Baptist brethren and for claiming that he was one of the few ministers to preach the true Gospel.”
  • Roloff purchases station from funds gained through donations and loans from supporters, renames KCTA (Know Christ the Answer)
• 1957 – Roloff expands Alameda Baptist Church services
  • Already offered services to homeless & alcoholic men (partnered with Good Samaritan rescue mission)
  • Established a new community called City of Refuge 80 acres outside of Lexington TX, including women & children
  • Jubilee Ladies Home founded in Corpus Christi to provide services specifically to pregnant girls & unwed mothers
• 1958 – Lighthouse for Boys established
  • Located in a houseboat dormitory on Padre Island, TX
  • Run by Roloff’s former college roommate at Baylor, EA Goodman
  • “A place for delinquent boys to be isolated from drugs and liquor until they were to be delivered”
  • Only accessible by plane or boat – Roloff owns private plane and has pilot’s license
  • Participants mostly on court-ordered probation or runaways
  • “The therapeutic approach consisted of bible study, working in gardens and catching fish to subsist on, the products of which were sent to other Roloff homes and sold commercially. Many who completed the program went on to “prepare for a life of service” as Christian ministers, and some even married female residents from other facilities operated by Roloff Evangelical Enterprises.” (Young 2019 p 109)
• 1960 – Teen Challenge founded.
  • Dave Wilkerson, Pentecostal preacher, founds Teen Challenge for juvenile offenders and writes a book called The Cross and the Switchblade about it
• 1961 – Roloff uses donation money to purchase 327 acres outside Corpus Christi
  • Built Anchor Home for Boys, located near airport, 25 min flight from Lighthouse
• 1967 – Roloff expands Anchor Home for Boys (Zapata TX)
  • Capacity of 300 boys
  • Built on old Air Force Base 90 miles south of Corpus Christi donated by Roloff Evangelical Enterprises supporter
• 1967 – Roloff establishes Rebekah Home on 79-acre property outside Corpus Christi
  • Participants <18 “had been convicted of a crime, disobeyed their parents, been involved in [sex work], drank alcohol or used drugs, ran away, or had sex or become pregnant out of wedlock” (Young 2019 p 111).
  • Senior students at Rebekah Home were called “helpers”
  • Roloff solicits donations to Rebekah Home on Family Altar saying, “I saw a million little Mephibosheth girls living in the land of Lodebar, in juvenile shelters, in jail houses, broken homes, hippie dives, and dope dives. I saw these girls sleeping in parks and walking through the wilderness of sin.” Encouraged supporters to be like the servant of King David and “save” them by donating to expand Rebekah Home
  • Roloff begins transporting groups of girls “Honeybee Quartet” via plane & bus to sing & share testimony about Rebekah Home
• 1970 – Dr. James Dobson published his bestseller Dare to Discipline
  • Taught millions of Christian parents that child-rearing was a “contest of wills between generations” that parents must win
  • Dobson encouraged corporal punishment (spanking even toddlers) as a godly act of love, firmly rejecting the more permissive, psychology-oriented parenting trends of the day
  • He provided tools like an “attitude chart” to monitor and punish any “sour” behavior in children
  • Laid the groundwork for Dobson’s 1977 founding of Focus on the Family
• 1970 – Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) founded in Hendersonville, Tennessee by Donald Ray Howard and Esther Hilte Howard
  • Teaches literal interpretation of the bible
  • Roloff’s lawyer, David Gibbs Jr, was also counsel for ACE, replaced Howard as president
  • ACE materials reference Lester “Brother” Roloff favorably and repeatedly
• 1971 – Roloff establishes Bethesda Home in Hattiesburg MS
  • 210-acre property donated by local pastor of Central Baptist Church
• 1971 – Hephzibah House founded in Winona Lake, Indiana
  • Founded by Ron and Patti Williams under Believers Baptist Church
• 1971 – Escuela Caribe was founded, a Caribbean boarding school for troubled teens run by an Indiana-based Baptist ministry (New Horizons Youth Ministries).
  • Escuela Caribe would “re-locate” misbehaving American teens to an isolated compound in the Dominican Republic.
  • There, under the guise of Christian missionary work and “culture shock therapy,” youths endured strict discipline and alleged physical and sexual abuse.
  • One Senate investigation in 1979 took testimony that at Escuela Caribe “parents cannot visit their children so [the founder] can brainwash their children on his religious programs”
• 1973 – Parents visiting their daughter at Rebekah Home see a girl being severely physically abused and report to authorities
  • Roloff refuses authorities access to facility, argues it violates his first amendment right to separation of church & state
  • August 3, 1973 “judgment issued… by District Court of Neuces County, Texas, requiring all residential programs for children falling under Roloff Evangelical Enterprises cease operations until they are licensed.”
    • Roloff on The Family Altar: “This is the most unbelievable, un-Christian, un-American, and unfair crime that’s ever been committed. The killing of twenty-seven people by the homosexual in Houston recently is nothing compared to this. My girls and boys have been scattered and shattered and some are dead already. Others are back on drugs.”
• January 1974 – Roloff held in contempt of court
  • Fined $1500 and sentenced to 5 days in jail
  • February 1974 – Roloff gives a three-hour presentation at a committee meeting
    • Attended by over 100 supporters
    • Consequently, his sentence was reduced to one night instead of 5 days in jail
• April 1974 – Texas Supreme Court overturns Roloff’s conviction
  • The Court concludes, “it was unclear which residents in his home were considered minors”
  • Roloff’s lawyers file libel suits against media groups who gave negative coverage
• 1975 – Roloff is charged with contempt of court again for refusing to comply with state regulations
  • Texas State Legislature mandates that all youth residential programs submit to licensing
• 1975 – Dormitory on Lighthouse for Boys property burns down
  • Austin Land Commission denies Roloff’s request to rebuild in same location
  • New dormitory for Lighthouse for Boys constructed on Rebekah Home grounds
• 1976 – Child Care Licensing Act goes into effect
  • District Judge James Meyers issues temporary restraining order against Roloff mandating that he allow the Rebekah Home for Girls, Lighthouse for Boys, and Anchor Home for Boys to be licensed and inspected by state officials
    • Roloff refuses → held in contempt of court again, sentenced to five days in jail and $50-$1000 fine for each day he continued to operate without a license
• 1977 – Attorney General John Hill inspects Rebekah Home
  • Subsequently speaks highly of it and encourages Roloff to pursue US Supreme Court battle
  • A film about Roloff’s legal battle, Freedom’s Last Call, screened at churches nationwide
• November 1977 – 1500+ preachers attended “Save the Nation Rally” in Dallas TX to support Roloff (& protect separation of church & state)
• 1977 – Reverend Herman Fountain briefly works at Rebekah Home
• 1978 – Rev. Fountain buys property to establish Bethel Baptist Home for Children (BBHC) in Lucedale, MS
  • Established BBHC as a religious non-profit, tuition paid in legal form of “contributions”
  • The first 3 children at BBHC were “handed over to [Fountain] as a start to his ministry” by Roloff (Young 2019 p 159)
• July 1978 – Rebekah Home resident stabbed by other residents in an attempted murder
  • October 1978 one of the Rebekah Home attackers tells Corpus-Christi Times it was an attempt to get sent home
• 1978 – Roloff backed gubernatorial candidate Bill Clements in his race vs John G Hill (former Attorney General who took Roloff to court)
  • He motivated previously unregistered white evangelicals to vote & elect Clements (first Republican governor of Texas since reconstruction)
• 1979 – Attorney General Mark White files suit to shut down Rebekah Home immediately.
  • “Government officials and state troopers were sent to the 557-acre property on June of 1979 with the intention of removing 200 girls from the facility, who Roloff referred to as ‘prisoners of war’” p 124
  • Hundreds of supporters locked arms and surrounded Rebekah Home to prevent court order, referred to as The Christian Alamo
  • Governor Clements orders state officials to leave after a three-day standoff
• 1979 – Clements “introduced three bills in the Texas legislature that would exempt the Rebekah Home and more than 2000 other church-operated homes from state licensing standards”, all of them were shot down by legislators
• 1979 – Roloff transfers ownership of his youth residential programs from Roloff Evangelical Enterprises to the People’s Baptist Church (now owned by Reverend Wiley Cameron)
• September 15, 1979 – Roloff Schools reopened

1980s and 1990s #

• 1980 – Attny Gen Mark White files suit against People’s Baptist Church seeking $46k in civil penalties for refusing to submit to state licensing requirements & inspections
• 1980 – 38 children removed from BBCH when “a runaway from the school found suffering from scabies claimed that he was beaten there” but were returned soon after
• 1980 – Fountain creates a construction company using teenage residents of BBCH as unpaid labor – builds “dormitories, an office building, and a new church” in 8 years
• November 4, 1982 – Lester Roloff died when his private plane crashed.
  • His funeral was attended by more than 10,000 people
  • Wiley Cameron takes over Roloff Evangelical Enterprises
• 1984 – Texas Supreme Court rules that Roloff Homes are not protected by the first amendment
• 1984 – Florida Association of Christian Child Care Agencies (FACCCA) established for accreditation of religious schools
• 1985 – Cameron transports ~100 children to Missouri to evade licensing regulations
• 1986 – George W. and Jeb Bush “overcome substance abuse issues through a faith-based approach”, in part with the help of the founder of Straight Incorporated Mel Sembler
• 1987 – Girls from Rebekah Home transferred to New Bethany Home for Girls in Arcadia, LA so they couldn’t be taken into state custody
• 1987 – Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy was opened in Mountain Park, Missouri.
  • It was founded by Bethesda operator Bobby Ray Wills after the Bethesda Home for Girls in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was closed by state authorities.
  • It is described as having replaced the Bethesda Home for Girls and also having housed girls from the Rebekah Home
• 1988 – BBCH investigated and raided after a runaway reports abuse, other children verify his story in court
  • Herman Fountain called to testify, held in contempt of court for refusing to provide names and addresses of children and families to Judge Robert Oswald
    • Jailed for several days,
    • Ordered to pay $1.5k per day until they agree to cooperate
  • Fountain agrees to transfer children to state custody without revealing info, is released anyway
  • When Fountain is freed, that same day, he is held in contempt of court again for refusing to cooperate, jailed for 30 minutes, returned to court and remained uncooperative
  • June 13, 1988 state officials return to get the rest of the kids who came back to the compound over the weekend, Fountain locks girls inside a church and has a 4-hour standoff with police
    • Fountain arrested for assaulting a policeman and inciting a riot
      • 7 employees also arrested
      • Released on bail hours later
    • Herman Fountain found guilty of assault on a law officer, sentenced by Judge Clinton Lockard to 1 year in state prison, 4 years of probation, released on $40k bail
• Child Residential Home Notification Act passes in MS in response to BBCH issues
  • All residential childcare facilities required to register with state and submit list of residents’ ages and names, plus their parents’ names and addresses,
  • Also dictates children can be removed from noncompliant programs
• 1990 – State officials seize 13 children from BBCH compound, Fountain still refuses to comply with CRHNA (passed 5 mos before)
  • BBCH ordered to close
• 1990 – Agape Boarding School Established (Missouri):
  • Agape Boarding School was affiliated with Agape Baptist Church.
  • The school utilized a curriculum developed by A Beka and Bob Jones University, both known for their conservative Christian educational materials.
• 1992 – Mississippi Supreme Court found Rev Fountain guilty of assaulting Patrol Captain Richard Smith in 1988 (tried to forcibly enter a room where children testifying against him were being held)
  • Sentenced to five years in prison and four months of probation
  • Serves a total of 9 months
• June 1995 – Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) threatens to shut down Teen Challenge
  • Governor George W. Bush intervenes → “TCADA postponed judgment of the organization, dropped licensure demands, and agreed to wait until the legislature considered bills that could change the rules for Faith-based organizations”
• 1996 – A boy is murdered by other students at Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy
  • “motivated by the urge to reclaim sense of dignity and control amidst the oppressive conditions at Mountain Park” p 131
  • MPBBA residents gained perks by becoming “orientation guides” → responsible for disciplining other students
  • Welfare Reform Act of 1996 “contained a stipulation allowing ‘states to contract with Faith-based and community-based organizations to provide welfare services’”
    • Bush establishes task force to “identify obstacles to faith-based groups” and “recommend ways that Texas can create an environment in which these groups can thrive, free of regulations that dilute the faith factor” p 132
  • Bush passed two bills that together “allowed Faith-based residential facilities and child care facilities to be certified by a Faith-based entity rather than licensure and regulation under the state” and “permitted Faith-based chemical dependency treatment programs to be exempted from state licensing and regulation.” p 133 (lobbied for by Wiley Cameron even though he was in MO, along with David Gibbs who served as primary witness)
• 1998 – Alabama enacts religious exemption for youth residential facilities
  • The Alabama Legislature passes a law allowing religious, faith-based, or church-affiliated youth residential facilities to operate without state licensure, provided they register with the Department of Human Resources (DHR).
  • This exemption permits such facilities to offer services in accordance with their religious beliefs without adhering to standard state regulations.
  • Facilities like Reclamation Ranch and Restoration Youth Academy utilize this exemption, operating with minimal oversight.
• 1998 – Texas Association of Christian Child Care Agencies (TACCCA) established for accreditation of religious schools
  • Wiley Cameron appointed member of accreditation committee
  • Gov Bush invites Roloff Homes to return to Texas and seek licensure under TACCCA
  • “In the eyes of [W] Bush’s campaign strategist, Ralph Reed, a former member of the Christian Coalition, the Christian Alamo revealed an opportunity to grow his client’s Texas voter base for his 2000 presidential election run. Given Bush’s story of recovery and turn to evangelicalism, the legal battle over state licensing of faith-based substance abuse rehabilitation provided a way for Bush’s campaign to ‘tap into the support of the huge fundamentalist evangelical unregistered voters to vote for him.’ In line with this strategy, as governor of Texas Bush set out to pass ‘laws that protected Faith-based groups from state interference with their religious approach.’ He also supported policy aimed at ‘forbidding lawsuits against personnel who worked in those facilities and pushed a voucher program to enhance federal funding of private religious schools.’” (Young 2019 p. 129)
• 1999 – The Lighthouse and the Rebekah Home reopen in TX
  • Surprise inspection at Rebekah Home → Faye Cameron (Wiley Cameron’s wife) is banned from working at any youth homes operated by the People’s Baptist Church by Texas Protective and Regulatory Services

2000 to today #

• 2000 – Two employees at The Lighthouse were arrested for unlawful restraint
• 2001 – Texas legislature decides “not to renew the state’s Alternative Accreditation program for faith-based child-care providers”
  • ⅜ TACCCA accredited programs were owned by pastors on accreditation board, did not inspect facilities or police them
  • Rebekah Home and Lighthouse for Boys permanently close in TX
    • Girls from Rebekah Home transferred to a new facility in Devil’s Elbow MO, renamed New Beginnings Girls Academy
• 2004 – Mountain Park Baptist Academy shuts down
• 2006 – Circle of Hope Girls Ranch Established (Missouri):
  • Founded by Boyd and Stephanie Householder, Circle of Hope was a reformatory boarding school for girls.
  • The program emphasized strict obedience and manual labor, with religious teachings centered on the Bible.
  • The curriculum included materials from Accelerated Christian Education (ACE)
• 2008 – Marvelous Grace Girls Academy founded in Pace, FL by former New Beginnings Girls Academy executive director, Steven Blankenship.
• 2011 – CNN airs a special report titled “Ungodly Discipline,” which highlighted abusive practices in certain fundamentalist homes, including Hephzibah House.
• 2011 – Escuela Caribe, and the whole New Horizons ministry, finally shut down
  • Preceded by media exposés (including the documentary Kidnapped for Christ and Julia Scheeres’ memoir Jesus Land) brought public attention to its practices
• 2020 – Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch is closed and its operators (a pastor and his wife) were arrested on abuse and neglect charges after multiple girls escaped and alerted authorities.
• 2020 – Hephzibah House closed permanently after its insurance carrier dropped coverage, following renewed public scrutiny and survivor-led advocacy.
• 2020 – National media shines a light on Missouri’s Agape Boarding School, an all-boys fundamentalist Baptist facility long plagued by abuse allegations.
  • Dozens of former Agape students recounted extreme physical abuse. Missouri’s attorney general declared he was “horrified” and moved to shut Agape down.
• 2021 – Missouri, which for decades had exempted religious boarding schools from oversight, swiftly passes a law to at least require such facilities to register and adhere to basic safety standards.
  • Agape struggled under mounting civil lawsuits and criminal charges against former employees, and it closed in early 2023
• April 2025 – The New York Times Company files a lawsuit against the Florida Association of Christian Child Caring Agencies (FACCCA) in the Florida 13th Circuit Court, Case No. 2024-CA-006754.
  • The case centered on The Times’ request for access to inspection reports of maternity homes registered under FACCCA, as part of their investigative reporting on the oversight of residential child-caring agencies in Florida.
  • The court ruled in favor of The New York Times, determining that FACCCA had been delegated a function of the Florida Department of Children and Families. As a result, FACCCA was subject to Florida’s Public Records Act, compelling them to release the requested inspection reports.

Sources #

• Brown, A. G. (2022). Fountain of Youth: Surviving Institutional Child Abuse in the Troubled Teen Industry (Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University).
• Texas Freedom Network. (2002). The Texas Faith-Based Initiative at five years: Warning signs as President Bush expands Texas-style program to national level.Tfn cc report final (tfn.org, PDF)