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

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A Legalist Goes Shopping

28 January 2012, 06:00

Moderator

I was musing over how a legalistic mindset makes life more difficult, and wrote the following illustration: Rebecca walks into the shoe store. She needs church shoes. She’s uncomfortable; the first salesman to see her is male. He walks toward her. She immediately does a mental check of her outfit to make sure it’s modest: […]

Sensitivity vs. Callousness

24 January 2012, 06:00

Moderator

Callousness Sometimes Won The leadership at Advanced Training Institute (ATI) training centers could be incredibly insensitive in dealing with personal tragedies and misfortunes. Especially if those situations affected, in any way, the performance of one’s duties at the training center. Sometimes, just the fear that leadership would misunderstand or react insensitively to a situation could […]

Finding the Key

18 January 2012, 06:00

Ileata

When my husband and I were courting, we carefully set our “line” of physical touch. There would be no kissing until our wedding day; handholding was ok after we were engaged. Yes, we were following the “courtship model,” albeit loosely. We had been friends and had a lot contact before we were officially courting. We […]

Thoughts on “Tangled”

17 January 2012, 06:00

admin

My wife and I watched the movie Tangled last night. For months now, we’d heard from other former ATI students that the movie was a great analogy for spiritual abuse and the journey out of a legalistic system of thought. It’s even been referenced a number of times here on Recovering Grace. After watching it, […]

Freedom from Strongholds

16 January 2012, 06:00

Seth S

I grew up in your typical ATI family. My Dad was a pastor, and my Mom stayed at home and home-schooled all ten of us kids. Bless their hearts, their intentions were noble. Trying to keep us un-spotted and free from worldly influences, they simply had no clue they were raising a son like me! […]

The Thing About Purity

12 January 2012, 08:30

Moderator

The funny thing about purity is how the pursuit of it drove so many people into utter promiscuity. Odd statement, I know. But let me explain. It wasn’t the concept of being or remaining pure that led me to that room where I reached the pinnacle of my self-destruction one night. It was a process […]

Clear as Mud

11 January 2012, 06:00

RyanR

Several years after I ended my formal association with IBLP (the Institute in Basic Life Principles), I did something wrong. What it was isn’t the point of this article. At first I didn’t think much about it, but later that evening, I began to feel guilty. Very guilty. As I had been trained to think […]

Snooping, Spying, and Snitching: A Training Center Status Quo

10 January 2012, 06:45

Moderator

Former ATI students share stories of how they were watched, spied on, and tattled on regularly At Advanced Training Institute (ATI) training centers, students and staff quickly learned not to expect privacy in any activity. E-mail, telephone conversations, and even letters and packages from home were monitored for contraband and for forbidden contacts, especially with […]

The Glory of Hair

9 January 2012, 06:00

Moderator

Gothard was not shy about what he found to be attractive on a woman’s head–long hair, soft curls. I heard girls reacting to that all the time. There were girls who couldn’t get their hair to hold a curl. One friend said to me, “Look how limp my hair is, and I had it all […]

Mr. Gothard’s Sexual Rules: Part Three

30 December 2011, 06:00

DavidM

(Continued from last week. Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2) Gothard is taking the blessing promised throughout Deuteronomy and applying them to those who follow certain commands from the Mosaic law. The problem with this is that the blessings in Deuteronomy come only by following the whole law (see Deut 28:14 for […]