Over half a dozen of Bethany Church’s “220i” leadership program members have come forward and accused youth pastor Joel Stockstill of subjecting them to “boot camps,” “fight nights,” and mental abuse.
What We Know:
- Roy Stockstill founded Bethany Church in 1963 in his living room. Almost 60 years later, the church expanded to almost 8,000 members and five campuses across Louisiana. Currently, the religious institution intends on opening another location in New Orleans. Alongside this, Bethany Church runs a television ministry and supports national and international missions. From 2005-2013, the church also ran a ten-month training initiative known as 220i. The title was inspired by Galatians 2:20, which leaders made everyone memorize. The $5,000 program promised to make their interns (participants) minister material and ensured their interns would receive marketable skills like media production.
“The verse was misinterpreted to control us and our will. In 220i, there is a lowercase ‘i’ to denote that we are not worthy of being called uppercase ‘I’, that we did not exist anymore. It was like self-flagellation. This ideology set us up for mind control,” said a girl identified as Claire.
- However, 220i’s interns endured torturous training. For example, they did “boot camps” where they learned the Way of the Cross by carrying heavy logs on their shoulders in the summer heat. In doing this, trainees would exercise to the point where they would either vomit or soil themselves. Joel Stockstill, Roy’s grandson who was in charge of 220i, would ride his golf carts and make the teens recite scripture while he shot paintball guns at them.
- When Joel and other leaders believed a male intern liked men, they would place the person in a pool and forced them to tread water for hours. Gume Laurel, an intern from 2007-2008, told NBC News, “They would be calling him f—-t, and they were spraying water from a hose into his mouth while he was trying to tread water.” In other instances, leaders would make a smaller member fight a larger one until one was bloody during their “fight nights.” These nights took place twice, once for men and once for women.
“It was a cult mentality,” Laurel stated.
- Louisiana’s megachurch program also practiced racial discrimination. Black male interns all slept on one floor of the living quarters. In addition, Joel and his aides frequently used the “N-word” and referred to the Black interns as “thugs.” Stockstill’s second wife, Amie, would tell Black girls they needed to “succumb to whiteness” by relaxing their hair.
- Amie policed the girls’ clothing, hair, makeup, and weight. If a girl went above a certain BMI, she would publicly scorn them and place them on diets. Amie believed the only reason people were overweight was that they had sin in their life. One intern told NBC News many female interns still suffer from eating disorders because of their time at 220i.
- The mental abuse did not end there. When Joel’s first wife, Amy, died from cancer, leaders blamed the interns for her death. They accused the interns of a lack of faith, despite every one of them partaking in 24-hour prayer nights. Additionally, Joel would manipulate Bible passages and try to seclude the group from their family members. If an intern’s family did not support their decision to attend 220i, Joel would tell the child to disobey their parents. Furthermore, if the leaders disagreed with the intern’s plans, they would tell them God had other plans for them. They advised many trainees not to attend college because God told them not to.
“They spoke to us as if they were God,” Claire mentioned.
- Joel’s brother and current Bethany Church pastor Jonathan Stockstill released a statement about all the claims on Facebook. He apologized to the approximately 500 people that attended 220i during its run. “While there was some positive fruit that came from that ministry, there were also leadership and cultural flaws that led to painful experiences for many,” he wrote. He claims that he and the current Bethany Church leaders understand where they “missed the mark” in the initiative “in so many ways.” While many people praised Jonathan in the comments sections, those who spoke to NBC News feel he only issued that apology as “damage control.” The ex-interns stated that Jonathan understood what was occurring at 220i and did nothing to stop it; they believe Jonathan wants to maintain his “hip preacher” image and avoid a lawsuit from a survivors’ online support group.
220i survivors have worked together to help one another deal with their traumatic experiences. Several interns created the aforementioned online support group to cope and talk about their time with the program. They also work together to ensure the public knows about the church’s exploitations and the interns’ encounters. “It’s important that people know what they did to us…Lots of us are still dealing with what happened,” declared Claire.
