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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: standards

Uniquely Me!

6 February 2012, 06:00

Moderator

17

Journal Entry, September 2009– “I want more!! I really thought I could be happy with this life…but I was wrong. I feel like I’m going to explode. This isn’t me– *sigh* I don’t think it is, anyway. The sad part is, I don’t really know who “me” is…but it’s not this person, I’m sure of that. I […]

A Legalist Goes Shopping

28 January 2012, 06:00

Moderator

44

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: […]

Finding the Key

18 January 2012, 06:00

Ileata

16

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 […]

The Glory of Hair

9 January 2012, 06:00

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42

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 […]

The Phony “Consequences” of Rock Music

14 November 2011, 06:00

admin

109

One the foundational tenets of Bill Gothard’s teachings is the idea that one’s level of spiritual maturity is directly connected to the number of commitments one makes to God. On the website description of the IBLP publication “Seventeen Basic Commitments” is found this statement: “Spiritual maturity is related to the number of Scriptural commitments that […]

Dear Dad and Mom

7 November 2011, 06:00

Moderator

47

  As many of you are aware,  Recovering Grace was born from the hearts of children, now adults, raised using Bill Gothard’s home-school program, The Advanced Training Institute (ATI). We reached adulthood and realized that life was not what we were told…that there are not seven steps to health, wealth and general prosperity. That no […]

Missing the Beat

3 November 2011, 06:04

RyanR

15

One day several years ago while doing some spring-cleaning, my wife and I stumbled across the personal journals we’d each kept while on staff at the Indianapolis Training Center. For the uninitiated, journal keeping is touted as a very important discipline within ATI/IBLP (Advanced Training Institute and Institute in Basic Life Principles) ranks, right after […]

They Will Know You Are Christians… By Your Standards?

29 October 2011, 05:00

Julie Terrell

41

There is an abundance of teaching within the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) about “high places”–about the danger of putting things in the place of God and our relationship with Him. But isn’t this exactly what has happened with our “standards” and “character”? In a recent conversation with […]

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 […]

My Heart’s Cry ~ Part Two

25 October 2011, 06:00

Moderator

10

Then, through a bizarre series of events my closest friend and co-worker left the training center. This left me with extra work to do and completely alone. I went to my “authorities” and let them know that I could not continue to be on staff the next year. I was asked to have a meeting […]