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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.

Category Archives: Spiritual Abuse Awareness

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

47

“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 […]

Four Tools of Spiritual Manipulators

19 September 2014, 11:33

Moderator

68

I grew up in the homeschool subculture of Bill Gothard and his Advanced Training Institute (ATI). I participated in Children’s Institutes, worked at Training Centers stateside and in Russia, and attended Oak Brook College of Law, Young Men’s Conferences, and too many seminars to count. Though I learned much from these experiences and am grateful […]

Toxic People: Narcissists in Ministry

7 March 2013, 06:00

Moderator

26

The most read Hope Blog posts in the last four years have been the the series addressing toxic people and how to deal with those in your life who are unrepentant human destruction machines. These posts have received tens of thousands of hits over the last few years as those searching have come across the […]

Words that Wound

31 January 2013, 06:00

Cyndi

26

Most of us have been there. You venture outside your pain and tell someone you have been spiritually abused. You test the waters, saying, “I’ve been hurt.” Sadly, others, especially those who profess Christ, can utter words that cut deep, invalidate your experience, and leave you like the traveler on the side of the road, […]

Identifying Religious Brainwashing: Doctrine Over Person

28 January 2013, 06:00

Stephen Smith

5

[Editor’s note: This is part 7 of an 8-part original series. Not all parts have been published on Recovering Grace. To read all 8 parts, please refer to the links below.] This is the seventh in an eight-part series on how to identify brainwashing in a destructive group or cult. It is based off of Dr. […]

How to Identify Religious Brainwashing ~ Part One

21 January 2013, 06:00

Stephen Smith

20

Aki Ray, a former child-soldier in Cambodia, is now one of the world’s foremost mine-clearing experts. He walks through the jungle looking for landmines and then defuses them one by one. He’s alive because he knows what to look for in the weeds. Can you identify the subtle signs of mind control? I couldn’t. That’s […]

Spiritual Abuse?

17 January 2013, 06:00

Eric Pazdziora

42

Do you think it is possible to be abused spiritually? What does that look like? Can we learn the signs? How can we tell if others have been spiritually abused? How does a person heal when things like prayer, scripture, and music, which many find comforting, have been used to wield damaging blows? When pulling […]