Victory Outreach Rehab Program

Re “Casting a Critical Eye on Church of Castoffs,” Feb. 1: Today and every day in 235 cities some 5,000 recovering drug addicts will gather in Victory Outreach inner-city rehabilitation homes, open their Bibles and learn about the challenges of living the Christian life--sober, responsible and grateful to God. They are free to leave the homes at any time--and some do. Many will stay for nearly a year to complete a strenuous regimen of biblical study and work.

Most who stay will succeed. This Sunday, more than 50,000 people--most of whom came through our program--will attend services in Victory Outreach churches worldwide. Victory Outreach is a fellowship of churches with a common purpose. Each church runs at least one rehabilitation or special services home. These churches are financially independent entities that associate with Victory Outreach, and by agreeing to operating guidelines, they may use the Victory Outreach name. As part of the fellowship--or denomination--they are asked to give 10% of their offering to the denominational office to help us launch additional churches. This reflects a traditional practice within many Christian denominations.

Drug rehabilitation requires tough love, and our homes are indeed closer to boot camps than bed and breakfasts. However, we don’t abuse or exploit our members. The drug addicts, drunks and gang members that our society has given up on are the very people that Victory Outreach loves and ministers to. We haven’t given up because we ourselves have been there. We take issue with the statement that Victory Outreach is “well outside conventional Christianity.” Our history, doctrine and practice are squarely within evangelical Christianity in the Pentecostal tradition.

Another misconception conveyed by the article is that we are using residents for our financial profit. In fact, men and women stay in our homes at no cost to them. As part of their recovery program and to help cover the cost of room and board, residents may be involved in volunteer work activities outside the church/home grounds. These services are provided in return for a contribution to the ministry. Such contributions don’t come close to covering the cost of their stay. Additionally, the audited financial reports of both the founding church in La Puente and the central organization in San Dimas are open for inspection.

SONNY ARGUINZONI

Pastor, Victory Outreach

San Dimas

*

I strongly object to your article about Victory Outreach. Having worked most of my 30 years as a Catholic priest in and around Boyle Heights, I can say without hesitation that Sonny Arguinzoni’s work is incredibly good. Sonny’s work has saved taxpayers millions of dollars by turning drug addicts around. And your article focused in on abuse of the unemployment system! Whatever happened to the distinction between being able to hold down a job and merely doing odd jobs?

You had Arguinzoni’s people living in squalid conditions. The people in his houses live as well or better than most poor people in L.A.

THE REV. BERNARD GAITLIN

Pastor, Santa Isabel Church

Los Angeles