In a statement to The Roys Report (TRR), Ron Luce said that “the producers, for the sake of their own anti-Christian and evangelical belief system bias, exploit the very real pain of those who have a negative story of their experience with Teen Mania.” Luce suggested that the negative stories are a drop in the bucket compared to the stories of those who were positively impacted by the ministry.
Multiple Teen Mania alums who spoke to TRR took issue with a bias they perceived in the docuseries. For example, at one point journalist Jeff Sharlet (whose perspective is heavily featured) calls aspects of the Teen Mania movement “fascism.”
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An Instagram user commenting on a post from Josh Harris validated survivors’ stories of harm while offering a different perspective. “This is so interesting to me because I attended Acquire the Fire once and I don’t remember Ron Luce even a little bit,” said the user. “I just remember feeling held by Jesus in the midst of a very traumatic childhood with a sexually abusive brother and a physically and verbally abusive father. I remember weeping on my knees and my peers praying over me.”
“I never did a boot camp or a mission trip or anything like that, I just went home. But I think it would’ve been interesting to hear a variety of perspectives or hear from people who were positively impacted,” the user continued, “if for no other reason [than] to show that the Lord can redeem the things that are flawed and broken, and he can reach us regardless of what man does to mislead us or mischaracterize him.”
“This is not to dismiss anyone else’s experience, I just thought I’d share mine,” the user concluded. “I’ve had tangible moments throughout life where I felt Jesus’ presence beside me, and this was one of them.”
ChurchLeaders has reached out to Ron Luce for comment and will update this article in the event of a reply.
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