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.

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.

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

Living and thriving through the grace of God.

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

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.

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

The truth about what happens behind the scenes in IBLP.

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."

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

Tag Archives: homeschooling

We Were The Normal Ones

6 May 2013, 06:00

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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

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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 [...]

A Life Defined By Externals

15 April 2013, 06:00

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My story is an interesting one. Until I found Recovering Grace I did not know there were many others like me. When I was eight years old my mom and biological father divorced. Even as a child I understood why their divorce was necessary. People say I was born an adult. Within a year my mom re-married a [...]

Third Witness: Sexual Harassment at Headquarters

8 April 2013, 06:00

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Editor’s note: This is the third article in a series of stories relating Bill Gothard’s sexual harassment of young girls at Headquarters. Click on these links to read the previous stories: Lizzie’s story Part 1 and Part 2, and Annette’s story. My story begins like so many others who got involved in the Advanced Training [...]

Behind Every Good Man…

30 July 2012, 06:00

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WEdding ring

The concept of authority is central to Bill Gothard’s teachings. So much so, that I remember performing a coronation ceremony crowning my dad “king” of our family as a Wisdom Booklet project. I was 16 at the time, and struggling with authority being defined as dad’s complete control over every aspect of my life. My [...]

Failure to Conform

23 May 2012, 06:00

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As an ATI (Advanced Training Institute) student, I was a walking contradiction. So much of me wanted to be a perfect, sharply dressed, smiling young man in navy and white with a shining smile and a perfectly slicked comb over–just like the fine young men that sang on the main stage at the Knoxville conference [...]

No Place for Shame!

16 May 2012, 06:00

Joshua B

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Talking about my family’s involvement in ATI & IBLP is something that is so incredibly difficult for me, mostly because my family refuses to talk about and would like to pretend that it never happened. It wasn’t until I was 25 years old and found myself having panic attacks, intense feelings of shame, and anxiety, that I [...]

Choosing Both Forgiveness and Prosecution

6 April 2012, 06:00

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Along his journey to becoming a convicted felon, pedophile, and sexual predator, I was one of my older brother Michael’s earliest victims in life. He began “grooming” me when I was six; “Grooming” is a term I have since learned that is clinically used to refer to the deliberate preparation of an intended victim for [...]

The Cost of a Vow

14 March 2012, 09:15

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From the time I was a little girl, all I wanted was to find my knight in shining armor and be a mommy. If the Disney Princesses had all been around when I was a child, I’m quite certain I would have been enamored by their stories. But they weren’t, and they wouldn’t have been kosher anyway, as [...]

The Art of Manipulation

5 March 2012, 06:00

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“Joseph, I wouldn’t be surprised if God caused the plane to crash in order to punish you for not honoring your mother.”  That’s what my mother said to me in the summer of 2002. I was 25 years old and it was the night before 4 of my friends and myself were to board a [...]