Prayer closet.  Few words from my time in the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) cause me to shudder the way those do.  I was on staff at the Indianapolis Training Center (ITC) in 1994 when the prayer closet was instituted.  For the uninitiated, ITC was housed in an old 13-story hotel, just north of downtown Indianapolis.

At the outset, the prayer closet was created by ITC leadership as a means of solitary confinement for youth offenders who had been referred to ITC by the juvenile court system.  These rooms were sparsely furnished, with only a bed and table with a Bible and other IBLP materials, and the doorknob was reversed, effectively locking the person inside the room.  Cameras were installed outside the door of the room so that it could be monitored from ITC’s front desk.  In some cases, young men were assigned sentry duty outside the room.

At the outset, I didn’t give the prayer closet much thought. I figured that these kids were hardened criminals and probably deserved whatever it was that earned them time in the prayer closet.  It happened frequently enough that I never thought about it–except for the time one kid broke the exterior window of his prayer closet room by throwing a chair through it.

That all changed one day at a staff meeting when ITC leadership announced room inspections and threatened that anyone who didn’t pass room inspection would be sent to a prayer closet for a few days.  My best friend leaned over and quipped, “This is the kind of thing cults do.”

When I left ITC a short time later, I wasn’t aware of any non-juvenile court referral being sent to the prayer closet.  In talking with other ATI students, however, I have learned that it didn’t take long for ITC leadership to cross that line. And though it was later referred to as the prayer room (or quiet room) and ITC ceased the practice of reversing the doorknobs to lock people inside the room, the psychological confinement continued, and, as the following anecdotes illustrate, these rooms were used to discipline staff members for petty offenses. (Pseudonyms are used to protect the identity and dignity of these individuals.)

• “Miranda” was sent to the prayer room for three days because she was out of her room past curfew a few times.
• “Brittany” was sent to the prayer room for several days for saying something that “offended” another girl.  Though they brought her food, she was too humiliated to eat it.
• “Kayla” was directly threatened with time in a prayer room for “sneaking Christian rock music.”
• “Denise” was threatened with time in a prayer room for requesting something and leadership telling her she was discontent.
• “Renee” attended Sound Foundations and says she was lucky not to be sent to the prayer room. “I was often in trouble for things like ‘carrying myself seductively,’ and showing my collarbone (we actually had a session where we discussed the sensuality of the collarbone in relation to defrauding!).”

At some point the use of the prayer rooms (and other activities) for court referred juvenile offenders was investigated by Indiana Family and Social Services.  Though they found the claims to be unsubstantiated, Mr. Gothard himself admitted at least the existence of the room (See this investigative story by an Indianapolis news team).

Thankfully, ITC has ceased operations and the property has been sold.  I do not know whether the practice of using prayer closets for discipline was used in other Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) locations, but, in hindsight, I consider it to be one of the most shameful practices undertaken by IBLP over the years.