Youth With a Mission (YWAM), the world’s biggest youth Christian missionary organization, faces allegations that it used spiritual abuse and controlling behavior to “cure” sexual sin.

According to a report from The Guardian, evidence reveals a lack of safeguarding failures within the organization. As a result, former YWAM participants felt traumatized after being “publicly shamed, subjected to rituals to ‘cure’ their homosexuality, and told that leaving was against God’s will.”

Allegations were made by an unidentified number of “former missionaries whose experiences span two decades and 18 countries,” further prompting questions about the overall culture of the 65-year-old organization.

With over 1,200 ministry locations worldwide, YWAM is purposefully decentralized—but critics say decentralization is exactly what led to insufficient oversight in the first place.

Claimants state that “homosexual thoughts, sexual activity, abortions, and watching pornography, as well as other ‘sins’ such as disobeying a leader or having ‘rebellious thoughts,” were perceived as moral transgressions.” As a result, those who confessed (sometimes, after being forced to admit their ‘sin’ in a group setting) were questioned or forced to give public apologies.

At other times, former missionaries were prayed over or faced punishment, including removal from volunteer rules. Still others “described the use of rituals similar to exorcisms to banish demons from people who acknowledged having sex outside marriage” or were subjected to “casting out” ceremonies. Of this ceremony, one participant describes leaders placing their hands on a young man who had previously had sexual relations with other men: they chanted prayers to “banish the spirit of homosexuality,” to which the young man reportedly convulsed to the demon living inside of him in response.

Felicity Davis, a 34-year-old designer from Yorkshire, England, joined the organization at the age of 18 and spent six years there.

As Davis stated in The Guardian, “I constantly had to do certain things in order for God to love me or to be accepted. People should be aware that this isn’t all happy-clappy. A lot of people get traumatized.”

In response to the allegations, YWAM England issued a response stating they were “deeply sorry to anyone who has experienced harm while being part of YWAM.” Further, “no one should suffer spiritual abuse, coercion, or psychological distress in a faith-based community.”

However, echoing the semantics of their critics, because “each base was responsible for safeguarding and was held to account by leadership teams overseeing specific regions,” the decentralized leadership model on which the organization is built further breeds insufficient oversight.

In response, YWAM England has promised to strengthen their safeguarding policy and training, ensure all safe undergo safeguarding training and implement stricter governance policies.

Additionally, the ministry location said it remained “strongly opposed” to forced confessions. As the statement notes, “While confession of sin may occur, the person should never be publicly shamed or pressured to apologize.”

Although the YWAM England location has issued a response, the same is not true of the organization as a whole. With operations in about 180 countries, YWAM sends approximately 25,000 people on short-term missions each year.

The allegations come amid a YWAM-linked prayer movement in Britain that aims to recruit the next generation of Christian missionaries.