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Articles about how Bill Gothard mishandles the Bible to support his legalistic viewpoint.

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Stories and accounts of the destruction caused by the teachings of Bill Gothard.

Search Results for: Sara Jones

An ATI Education, Final Chapter: Guilty Silence

4 January 2016, 14:55

Sara Jones

162

Was a woman raped? Don’t jump to her defense—God might hold her just as guilty as her attacker. In Wisdom Booklet 36, Gothard discusses the legal penalties for kidnapping, assault, battery, and rape. He writes: “God has established some very strict guidelines of responsibility for a woman who is attacked. She is to cry out for […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 5: We the People Under Authority

23 December 2015, 06:00

Sara Jones

49

Rejecting your God-given authority doesn’t just affect your personal life. It can destroy a whole nation. I mean, just look at the French Revolution! In Wisdom Booklet 18, Gothard spends several pages discussing the the 18th century French Revolution. He chose as his “chief cause” the fact that many intellectuals of the day had rejected […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 4: The Law of Grace

17 December 2015, 14:18

Sara Jones

69

“If a woman doesn’t cry out when she’s raped, God holds her equally guilty with her attacker.” Bill Gothard states this outright in Wisdom Booklet 36; hundreds of people, most of them well-meaning Christians, read and accepted it. I was one of them. I wrote this series for Recovering Grace to give a glimpse into the long, […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 3: Thou Shalt Not Trap the Eye

14 December 2015, 12:15

Sara Jones

44

“Ye are the light of the world; a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” According to Bill Gothard, this verse clearly directs women to avoid clothing with “eye traps” that might attract a man’s lustful attention.  As a quick recap, my previous articles explained: 1. Bill Gothard set himself up as the final authority […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 2: Is It Just Me?

19 October 2015, 06:00

Sara Jones

102

“ATI is not user-friendly.” That was the opinion of one former Advanced Training Institute (ATI) student, now an adult, who skimmed over the materials that our parents had to work with. He was right. The Wisdom Booklets are the foundation of Gothard’s homeschool curriculum. There are 54 of them, and at a glance, they’re pretty impressive. […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 1: Under the Umbrella

15 October 2015, 06:00

Sara Jones

46

How do we grow in wisdom and character? How are we protected from temptation? How does God give us direction for our lives? Say it with me, ye thousands of Gothard’s alumni: “By staying under authority.” Authority is the foundational principle of Gothard’s worldview. “Our faith multiplies as we see how God speaks to us […]

An ATI Education: Introduction

12 October 2015, 06:00

Sara Jones

34

If a woman doesn’t cry out when she’s raped, God holds her equally guilty with her attacker. This biblical mandate is familiar to every student and parent who went through Bill Gothard’s Wisdom Booklet #36. Reading it as a bald statement like that, it’s hard to believe that a thinking Christian would admit to believing […]

Church Celebrities Who are Above Criticism: Bill Gothard

1 July 2015, 06:00

Moderator

144

“He deprives the trusted ones of speech And takes away the discernment of the elders.” (Job 12:20) In a post put up a couple weeks ago, I recounted how, in the late sixties, my dad, Joe Bayly publicly criticized Bob Jones University. He did so in his monthly column in ETERNITY Magazine. It was also […]

The Brilliance of Bill Gothard

29 April 2015, 06:00

Moderator

129

Bill Gothard created a cult, and he did a fine job of it. He didn’t create a commune that physically isolated his followers from the rest of the world. He didn’t lead weird sessions with chanting and candles. He didn’t even come up with strange names for his teachings. He conducted his cult in the […]

2013 Year in Review

6 January 2014, 06:00

Moderator

0

Dear Recovering Grace Reader, We hope and pray that you have had a blessed holiday season. As we move into 2014, we’d like to take this opportunity to share with you how God is continuing to use our website to help others, as well as to look back at our top 10 posts of 2013. […]