I'm probably going to get downvoted, but this article is nonobjective, which, in my opinion, is standard fare for the New Yorker. In fact, I think it presents a delusional worldview. As an aside, I think it's unfair to compare this article to the slave labor camps mentioned in this thread. They are fundamentally different. Anything with Christian theming, obviously, the New Yorker and most of HN passionately hate.

But, the New Yorker, for all the useless people and vapid criticism it employs, could not come up with an alternative to an organization like this. This is a place where children who have severe drug or other problems, possibly violence, can be sent that essentially functions the same as a juvenile detention center but is patently not as bad. I even empathize with the parents in the article. What would I do if I had four children and one of them is doing drugs, sleeping with numerous guys to the point of getting pregnant, and literally working at a brothel (buried in the hit piece, obviously), and the other children are perhaps younger, currently normal, but exposed to this continually? That is a challenging situation. Many New Yorker columnists surely live in a "post-children world", so perhaps that is not something they'd empathize with. The only evidence I saw that made me question if the parents were horrible was when they refused to let the move to a halfway house with the child.

Although I am not a Christian and empathize with not wanting to be in compulsory Christian brainwashing, I'm sorry, the article provided no evidence these kids are being physically or mentally abused. Citing that 13 of them attempted to commit suicide is more evidence about the type of kids, without judging whether their current mental state is due to genetics or a poor break in life, being placed here. Further, I didn't find other criticisms valid, such as declining to raise children resulting from pregnancies. It is not the organization's responsibility to raise children, and to their credit, again, it looks like they would have allowed the girl to transfer to a halfway house and keep the child, if not for the maligned parents. But, other than that, their "case study" seemed like she belonged in a mental hospital and I am skeptical it is entirely the fault of the "system". After leaving the program, she went on a desperate search to find her drug addict mother, before abandoning a husband and new son to live with friends, while literally repeatedly applying to work at "Teen Challenge" (what?!!?).

It is quite frightening to live in an era where we want to dismantle anything that is remotely Christian because someone had a bad emotional experience. This is the psychotic liberal zeitgeist - where the homeless capitals of the world want to dictate solutions to scenarios like this.