False Teaching | Recovering Grace

We will be focusing on Sexual Abuse Awareness in the month of April. If you have a personal story to share, please message us: support@recoveringgrace.org.

Personal testimonies of finding true freedom through God's matchless grace.

Living and thriving through the grace of God.

A closer look at the teachings of Bill Gothard by the Elders of Calvary Bible Church in Fort Worth, TX

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

The truth about what happens behind the scenes in IBLP.

Our response to Bill Gothard's November 2011 letter addressed to "all past and present ATI students."

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Tag Archives: false-teaching

When We Criticize The Church

13 May 2013, 06:00

Micah J. Murray

We were sold a package deal. Truth and lies, hope and despair, real and fake — all tied up in a neat package with a bow and sold to us with the label of “Christianity.” The men in the suits with all the words told us that what they taught was true. They said it [...]

The Gospel of Pragmatism

9 May 2013, 06:00

Administrator

Pragmatism is basically the idea that positive results are sufficient criteria for determining value, even truth. In other words: if it works, use it. One of the most famous pragmatists was a man known as Nicollo Machiavelli. For Machiavelli, the goal of a strong and controlled kingdom was worth whatever it would take to get [...]

We Were The Normal Ones

6 May 2013, 06:00

Administrator

I have heard many people talk about how they still want to be involved in ATI (the Advanced Training Institute), but be “normal” families and just “filter out the bad stuff.” I’ve seen some of those responses in the Recovering Grace comments. If that’s your premise, then this post is for you, because that’s my [...]

The Danger and Damage of Gothard’s Principles

24 April 2013, 06:00

Administrator

Though I left my family’s home three years ago, Bill Gothard’s twisting of Scripture still haunts me as a young adult today. The way the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) and its secondary programs are set up, they might work in a perfect world, but in the broken reality of this world, they operate with many [...]

How “Counseling Sexual Abuse” Blames and Shames Survivors

18 April 2013, 06:00

Administrator

Versions of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) document “Counseling Sexual Abuse” were distributed at Advanced Training Institute (ATI) Counseling Seminars for over a decade. The document speaks for itself, but Recovering Grace would like to point out how victim-blaming and/or callous dismissal of abuse survivors’ pain is built into almost every one of [...]

How “Lessons From Moral Failures in a Family” Blames Victims

11 April 2013, 06:00

Administrator

An Institute publication entitled “Lessons From Moral Failures in a Family” [Click here for the full pdf document] was first mailed to Advanced Training Institute (ATI) families in the late 1990s, and it has been periodically distributed at conferences since. Recovering Grace does not know the identity of the family members who shared their story [...]

Commitments, Vows, and Promises of Greatness: The Art of the Spiritual Con

25 March 2013, 06:00

Eliza

…The above memory (albeit a bit foggy with the years) is a typical example of how Mr. Gothard spoke to apprenticeship students at various IBLP and ATI (Institute in Basic Life Principles and Advanced Training Institute) functions I attended. One of the effects of this type of spiritual manipulation was that I began to have unrealistic [...]

Stolen Treasures

11 March 2013, 05:00

Administrator

143

A recent article on Recovering Grace, entitled “Moving On,” prompted me to think about the reason it is so difficult to move forward after being victimized by legalism. As I have worked with those hurt by legalism over the years, I have often heard stories about what happened five, ten, maybe thirty years ago. These [...]

Moving On

4 March 2013, 06:00

Eliza

Those of us who have left the IBLP/ATI (the Institute in Basic Life Principles and the Advanced Training Institute) background have often heard things similar to the following: “Why can’t you just get over it already?” “Just move on and leave the past in the past.” “Let it go and just enjoy your life.” This [...]

I Remember…

25 February 2013, 06:00

Carolynn

I was nine when my parents decided to join the Advanced Training Institute (ATI). I have many memories of their decision and its effect on my life. I remember being extremely happy before joining ATI. Happy with how we were homeschooling (using a mix of curricula), happy that my parents started a homeschool group in [...]