Becky Loveless shares her personal story of growing up in a devout Mormon family and community. She discusses the immense pressure she felt to be perfect and avoid any behavior considered sinful. This culminated when, at age 17, her parents discovered she had been intimate with her boyfriend and secretly sent her away to a strict religious behavioral modification camp called “Lifeline” in Salt Lake City without her knowledge or consent.
Becky recounts the traumatic experiences at this camp, including the rigid rules, lack of credentials among staff, and the emotional manipulation tactics. She explains how the ordeal negatively affected her self-worth and strained relationships in her life for years after. Becky emphasizes the lack of understanding about normal adolescent behavior in these religious communities, the damage caused by guilt and shame, and the need for more open, understanding parenting. She hopes that increased awareness and support for youth might prevent this from happening to others.
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Show Notes:
- Lifeline for Youth
- Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare on Netflix
- Zelph on the Shelf
- Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball
- Alma 39:5
- Richard Simmons
- To the Mothers in Zion by Ezra Taft Benson
- Samantha Shelley coaching
- Zelph on the Shelf – Patreon
6 Responses
To gain some insight into the Utah attitudes and policies that lead to the dysfunction inherent in places like LifeLine, it helps to look at where it’s physically located. Go to Google Maps and type in “LifeLine For Youth West Center Street North Salt Lake”. Zoom out enough to verify that the Salt Lake airport is just to the south of LifeLine with runways aligned North/South to take advantage of the prevailing winds. For a second address type in “Stericycle, 90 N 1100 W, North Salt Lake, UT 84054” and get directions. You’ll see it’s all of 0.2 miles away or about a thousand yards.
What is Stericycle you ask? It’s a medical waste incinerator with a long list of violations. “For 33 years, Stericycle poured out of their smokestack a witches brew of many of the most toxic substances known to science,” said Dr. Brian Moench, president of UPHE.
https://www.uphe.org/2022/07/05/stericycle-shuts-down/
https://kslnewsradio.com/1971366/stericycle-can-no-longer-burn-medical-waste-in-slc-but-the-fight-to-stop-toxic-pollutants-may-not-be-over/
Go back to Google Maps, do a mouse click on W Center Street just to the south of of LifeLine, click on street view at the bottom of the page, and rotate so the view is directly to the north. You’ll see the red brick building of LifeLine and the white building of Stericycle just to its right. If you zoom in on the Stericycle building you can see the smoke stack on the right part of the roof with the plume pointed due south blowing towards LifeLine. Other years are available to view, and in many the same plume appears. The other plumes off in the distance are from the many refineries.
From that same view you can see off to the left two different facilities. One is the South Davis Sewage Plant and the two domed structure is a natural gas facility. From the description:
“It provides more gas than they can use sometimes, which is burned off in the flames you see near the I-15 and I-215 North interchange.”
https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/utah-company-turns-food-waste-into-fuel-to-power-homes
The Utah legislature is gearing up for its session, and you’ll hear the same sort of rhetoric that allowed residential homes to share a fence line with an incinerator being used in the context of mental health:
https://www.ksl.com/article/50839599/cox-unveils-recommended-changes-for-licensing-of-behavioral-health-professionals-
“We want smart regulation, without imposing undue burdens on individuals, families and our economy,” Sen. Curtis Bramble said. “Should licensing be to protect the profession? Or should licensing be something that provides protection, public health and safety for the public? This is not going to be an easy piece of legislation. There are those whose incumbent legacy authority is going to be challenged; the safety blankets of their license is going to be challenged.”
Utah is the place where they’re perfectly happy to place vulnerable teens next to a carcinogen plant that blows toxins directly onto the youth while they’re playing outside. The Utah Way also guarantees that the interests of business will always take precedent over concerns about quality of care. Perhaps someone with a legal background can keep an eye on this legislation as it moves its way thru the legislature paying particular attention to how it affects the highly profitable industry of troubled teens.
I’m sorry but I have little patience for parents who forfeit their parental responsibilities to religious dogmas designed for little else than keeping clients obedient, tithe paying, members of a cult. I’m happy her parents finally decided to listen to her but they should feel very lucky she is so forgiving.
Can y’all please stop talking about teenage sexual activity as if it’s only frowned on by religious zealots? And as if the only reason for abstinence is preventing damnation?
The average teenager is not equipped to deal with the responsibility of being sexually active. This is particularly true in a conservative religious context.
Sexual activity has the potential for life-altering ramifications, people.
By the way, the average “soul mate” connection among teenagers is a flash in the pan. So you can’t fault parents for setting boundaries when their teens are connecting romantically with other teens.
My son in law was in a wilderness program where he was starved. And he had to survive coldness.
I don’t have all the details but he felt lucky to survive. Why was he there? He was labeled as a delinquent teenager.
But it my opinion he was a normal teenager with image focused parents.
Fantastic episode! Was amazed at how horrific the LifeLine place sounded. Glad Becky made it out and was able to reunite with Alex. Thank you for sharing your story!
You two are so lucky to have found each other. Two amazing people!
Your experience was hard for me to listen to because I had a similar experience in my youth.
I was sent to the Provo Canyon Boys School in the early 80s. I was basically kidnapped. My parents were told to never trust anything I said as I was lying to try and get out. I was supposed to see a counselor once a week. I saw the counselor maybe once a month. I met some really bad people I would never have spent time with had I not been sent to Provo Canyon Boys School.
This cost my parents around $25,000 in 1985!
I have never told my kids about this experience and I have never really shared any details with my wife. It’s to embarrassing and painful.
I appreciate your courage in sharing your experience.