(Picture courtesy of NOLA)
What would you do about a little girl who was abused in her home? As a punishment, she was sent away to a horrifying torture camp that one would think was located in the fiery pits of hell but instead... existed in this realm. Her mother drove her inside a compound that was surrounded by a chain linked fence with barbed wire on top. Inside the office, Jennifer’s mom signed over her parental rights to the monsters from the darker side. She drove off while, Jennifer ran to catch up with her but could not. Everything was in slow motion and all of her efforts could not break her free from the affliction, she was about to endure. The tears blinded her vision of a woman that was suppose to be nurturing but instead... carried a heart of stone. Abandonment hit her like a ton of bricks. Jennifer carried the heavy weight of sadness causing gravity to pull her tiresome body to the ground. Pity, the only thing she felt were the hot coals beneath her and little did she know, it would only get worse. Jennifer knew beyond the shadow of a doubt, she was in the underworld. The gates closed and she was taken inside the home of torment. If any of the children tried to escape, they would be tackled, beat and thrown into isolation. When I say beat, I mean 80 plus licks with a wooden paddle and an angry force behind it. Jennifer received a beating when she first entered into this nightmare mistaken for a home of grace. Staff told her, “If you don’t stop crying, we will give you something to cry about!” They beat her. If she cried or screamed, they would start counting all over again.
Jennifer was suffering anxiety after dealing with the abuse she had to endure and her stomach was on the fritz for the obvious reasons. She couldn’t eat her food and staff force-fed her spaghetti. She kept spitting it out and they kept shoving it back in. They forced fed her until she vomited and then made her eat that as well. As a punishment for that, Staff and another student scrubbed her hands raw with a Brillo pad and then dipped her hands in a mop bucket filled with Pine-Sol and bleach. After taking it out of the bucket, they poured Comet Cleaner over her bloody hands and then bandaged them up. Staff and students told her, “Now, you are ready to scrub the floors with your bare hands!”
Through the corridors, you could hear the sound of the piano playing hymnals like a grenade going off in the middle of a war.
Medical staff were far from present inside this torture chamber. However, in this topsy-turvy world, a preacher stood by a pulpit preaching the word of God. The psychopath, that everyone respected because they labeled him a man of God, truly believed he was saving troubled girls from damnation. Meanwhile, he was sex trafficking, beating, locking girls in a closet of isolation for days-weeks-months at a time, forcing them to eat their own vomit, sodomized them and then if they bled during the violent attack, they were forced to “clean up their mess”. “Look at what you made me do!” rings in Jennifer Halter’s ears and horrifyingly haunts her to this day. Like a scratch on a broken record in her head, religious songs that were sung throughout the home are triggers to her PTSD. Slam goes the Bible on the pulpit, a preacher screaming fire and brimstone, “Praise God!”, will only be the ammunition to set anyone off the deep end after going through this traumatic experience.
By this time, Jennifer tried to kill herself and slit her wrists. Instead of taking her to receive medical attention, staff merely wrapped up her wrists so tight, it stuck to her wounds. Every night when she unraveled it, it would reopen causing more bleeding. One girl, Silvia found her trying to kill herself and saved her life. Unfortunately, she paid a hefty price of a beating in the back of the head with a Bible and countless licks.
It wasn’t solely this monster but staff and other preachers were encouraged to have their way with the so called wayward girls. After being raped countless times, they were fed psychological damaging spiritual food in church that women/girls were to blame when a man had sexual desire for them. It was the way women/girls smelled, dressed, looked, body language or demeanor that biblically labeled them as the temptress. The Bible was wide open as this serial rapist began his sermons... This list of blaming is everything that a rape counselor would never tell a victim. Instead, the complete opposite—“It wasn’t your fault!” To make matters worse, the wives of the preachers who raped the girls, beat them taking their aggression out on them. This was the beginning of the grueling testimony of the three hour statement followed with a one hour of what seemed like a prosecuting interview of questions given in Arcadia at the Bienville Parish Court House. I stood by Jennifer Halter as she bravely put herself back in time. She closed her eyes and I literally held her hand so she wouldn’t be alone. She talked about being on her knees doing hard labor in a skirt and suffered many bug bites and scrapes, the lack of eduction received and yes, she was forced to eat her own vomit. She combed over Social Services coming to New Bethany while, she was locked up in this compound. Social Services put her in a separate room. She told them about her open wound from staff torturing her with a Brillo pad and harmful chemicals. She told her story as a 14-year old girl and was promised that they would come back to rescue her... but never lived up to their word. She lost faith in the system. She told the authorities that she was sodomized and they did nothing. She risked everything by courageously telling the truth. If staff from New Bethany found out what Jennifer told Social Services, they would have made her life more of a living hell, if it wasn’t that already.
During the statement, the Sheriff asked Jennifer, “What were you wearing during the attacks?” I nearly came unglued. I stopped the interview and asked, “How is that relevant?” Does it really matter how she dressed? What difference does it make?” He merely stated it was protocol. Just for the record, she was wearing the uniform that staff made them wear—not that it matters. He also mentioned that Jennifer was the first one to make a statement. I almost lost my composure one more time because I knew the truth of the countless criminal reports from talking to survivors the night before. There are numerous statements from children over a span of four decades. So how did everything magically disappear into thin air?
Many survivors unfortunately, have stories similar to Jennifer Halters. Some ran away and reported to authorities the heinous crimes committed in this compound. The authorities merely sent them home and parents placed them right back into this bottomless pit. Anyone awarded to the state was directly sent back to this hell in spite of the reports. Impressionable children were just sent straight back to New Bethany after reporting RAPE, beatings and torture. It was as if the authorities were working for the preacher from a darker dimension–hades.
I was Jennifer Halter’s Rape Advocate. I accompanied Jennifer on the trip to emotionally support her while, we traveled on a plane to Houston. Jennifer was terrified to fly and I was there to comfort her on her brave journey of speaking the truth and reporting criminal acts. I was not initially there to be her Rape Advocate but it just fell into place and I was truly honored. In Houston, we met Joanna Wright (survivor of rape, mental and spiritual torture at New Bethany) and the three of us traveled by car to Louisiana. Thank you New Bethany girls for supporting Jennifer during this time and making me feel like a part of the change. Although, this serial rapist escaped the most heinous crimes in a span of four decades (he was not even indicted by the jury), he will not escape these stories spreading awareness like the fire he created in hades–New Bethany.
How can a serial rapist escape
prosecution of heinous crimes?
Please be aware of the serial rapist that was encouraging other pastors and staff of the congregation to brutally rape the girls. He also sodomized the boys in the conversion therapy program. I am honored to have been Jennifer Halter’s Rape Advocate, when she reported horrific criminal acts in Arcadia at the Bienville Parish Court House. The so called pastor (now diseased), escaped heinous crimes without prosecution for decades. How is it possible that America allowed this to slip through the legal system?
Special thanks to Dale Davidson, Keen TV for making a generous donation in order for Jennifer and I to travel to Louisiana. Jennifer was able to bravely report a crime but also to share her story publicly with NOLA. New Bethany Article
James Swift
There was also a boy’s home at New Bethany. James Swift is a survivor of the most torturous conversion therapy. They kidnapped him by putting a hoody over his head so he couldn’t see where they were taking him. They threw him in a cage and fed him dog food as a privilege. This is just the beginning of something so demonic. 
James Swift’s Story: Pastors and staff tortured him at the New Bethany home for boys. It is one of many horrific conversion therapy testimonies. Do not send your child to a conversion therapy. Click to hear his story on the radio.
* I do not use names of perpetrators. If you would like articles on New Bethany, please visit:
Article from NOLA: New Bethany Article
You can also visit: Victimized No More!
–Jeneen Miller, Author
This sermon is straight from the Hephzibah House: