Concern has been raised over a religious group, that allegedly asks followers to “cough out” evil spirits which it claims leads to same-gender attraction, being given access to ‘at risk’ students in public high schools in Western Australia.

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Last week The Sunday Times revealed that Youth With A Mission was facing allegations of misconduct including allegations that leaders blamed sexual assault victims for their own attacks.

Former students of the organisation shared they were involved in long sessions where they would be asked to “cough out” spirits that caused bad things to occur in their lives, including same-gender attraction and abuse.

One former participant of the program, who was struggling with same-gender attraction, shared how she was forced to apologise to church leaders and other students for attempting suicide.

The church group responded with a lengthy statement saying that the response to their program from participants had been overwhelmingly positive, was based on the “immutable word of God”, and adhered to traditional values.

Now reporter Annabel Hennessy has delivered another revelation about Youth With a Mission, exposing that they were invited into public High Schools to work with ‘at risk’ students.

In 2020 the group added a post to their social media pages showing that they were at Swan View Senior High School.

The group’s leader Shirley Brownhill told the newspaper that the organisation has a 30-year history of working with public schools.

“Presently, YWAM Perth helps with breakfast programs and cadet programs; and mentors youth, especially at-risk youth, to stay engaged in their learning at school,” she said

“When we attend public schools, we do so to demonstrate our faith and not to share our faith.”

In the social media post from 26th May 2020, the group highlighted that on a recent school visit they had seen a poster that read “Not feeling so straight? That’s OK. We are here for you”.

The group said the poster was an example how confusion was caused for youth and that their “minds needed to be protected.”

While former students of the organisation have described their practices as “conversion therapy”, YWAM leader Shirley Brownhill said the group could not respond to the accusation because “we do not believe in labels and are not able to respond to them”.

The Department of Education has responded to the concerns confirming that group visited the Swan View Senior High School on one occasion to deliver social activities. The spokesperson for the department said decisions about who could visit students in schools was made at the Principal level and church groups were not permitted to discuss religious beliefs.

OIP Staff

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