Montgomery, Alabama - Fearful and isolated girls forced through dreary Bible drills at a Mississippi facility are brainwashed like prisoners of war or members of cults, a federal judge was told Friday.
The testimony, given over heated objections, came from a psychiatric social worker who interviewed residents from the Bethesda Home for Girls in Hattiesburg.
The home, which in recent years has held about 70 residents, including several unwed mothers, takes girls and young women who have been runaways or in trouble with the law.
The social worker, Jean Merritt of Washington, D.C. said the girls suffered from terror, fatigue, isolation and boredom at the fundamentalist Baptist home. At times she compared the Bethesda girls to those indoctrinated in the "mind controlling" techniques of "the Unification Church, the Moonies, Krishan," as well as captives of Nazi camps and victims of Jonestown massacre in Guyana.
Her testimony came at a hearing on a civil complaint filed by a pregnant 19-year-old from Montgomer, identified only as "Candy H.," who had been at Bethesda. The young woman claims she was abused, "brainwashed" and held against her will at the home.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson called the hearing to decide if the preliminary order should be issued prohibiting the home from any abusive practices.
The hearing is to continue next week with testimony from defense witnesses. Officials at the home have denied the allegations against Bob Wills and his wife, who run the facility, and chief staffer Linda Williams. Wills says the home offers a strict routine and a spiritual "heartwashing" to save the girls from self-destruction.
Attorneys for the home questioned the extent of Merritt’s knowledge about Bethesda, noting that she did not tour the home, meet with girls who refused to leave or interview Wills.
Wills testified briefly Friday about his background but not directly about the allegations.
Teen-age Bethesda girls testified earlier of severe beatings, forced fasts, rules denying free contact with other residents or even parents, and long and maddening hours of daily religious readings. They said doors and windows were locked, no music or reading material was allowed except of a religious nature, and some were held inside for months at a time.
Merritt said some of the Bethesda girls had quit having menstrual periods or had been extremely irregular. She said this was consistent with the experience of women in Nazi camps and in both cases seemed brought on by "inadequate diet, anxiety and a state of exhaustion."
