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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.

Tag Archives: manipulation

Clear as Mud

11 January 2012, 06:00

RyanR

8

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

41

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 […]

My Life in ATI, part three

13 December 2011, 06:00

DavidA

19

Courtship? After ALERT, our family moved to North Carolina. I had a crush on a girl back in Texas and told my Dad about it. My Dad thought that our personalities were not compatible, but I was insistent, so he told her father about it. The girl’s father said that they would be attending a […]

My Life in ATI, part two

5 December 2011, 06:00

DavidA

2

Life Focus Advanced. Soon after I turned 15, I received a letter about a new program called Life Focus Advanced. The concept of the program was this: two Life Focus graduates would room with a leader in training (LIT) for three months and try to counsel and help him out. I was like, “It’s the […]

Keeping Up Appearances.

21 November 2011, 06:00

Moderator

19

I am a survivor of Gothardism. I fully believe ATI is a twisted system of unrealistic rules and regulations. Even more, it gives abusive parents the tools and justification they need to rationalize their behavior. Let me start at the beginning. I went to public school from preschool through first grade. After that, my family […]

Identity Theft

27 October 2011, 12:01

Moderator

9

When my mom and I were talking the other day she mentioned they had recently taken steps to prevent identity theft. Her words keep coming to my mind, but not in the sense that most people think of. I got to thinking about my own identity. I don’t really fear identity theft. What I fear […]

Courtship Covenants

20 October 2011, 06:35

Moderator

14

    What is a Courtship Covenant? A young girl walks down the aisle of a crowded church. She’s wearing a lovely white dress, and the pastor and her father are waiting up at the front… is she about to be married?  No, she is making a public commitment to courtship in this very wedding-like […]

A Jonah Tale

11 October 2011, 06:05

admin

10

In the latter part of the 1990s, I spent the better part of two years working at the Oklahoma City Training Center (OTC). I worked primarily with Character First! Education (CFE), specifically going into the local schools and teaching the curriculum to mostly low-income children. While I now see some of the flawed philosophy behind […]

A Tale of Two Abigails

7 October 2011, 08:57

MatthewS

14

The first Abigail is a wise and beautiful hero, an inspiration to women and men everywhere. Her quick thinking, deliberate action, and diplomatic speech saved many lives. We meet this Abigail in a delightful story told in 1 Samuel 15. Sadly, many of us raised under the Institute in Basic Life Principles and ATI’s teachings […]

Story of a Destiny

29 September 2011, 06:03

Moderator

6

A little star was forming, developing, reaching to become all that the Biggest Star in the solar system meant for it to be. A Mentor star came alongside the little star, and offered to help. The little star shared its secrets and its struggles, and waited to be told how to become the great star […]