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

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Tag Archives: working-conditions

Sexual Harassment Part 2: “Aren’t you making too big an issue of this?”

23 April 2012, 06:00

Moderator

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Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a two-part article documenting sexual harassment within the Institute. Please click here to read Part 1 first–“Exploited Innocence: Sexual Harassment at HQ.” After publishing this first testimony, we have continued to receive similar testimonies of sexual harassment by Gothard: Another Witness: Sexual Harassment at HQ; Third Witness: Sexual […]

Exploited Innocence: Sexual Harassment at HQ

20 April 2012, 06:00

Moderator

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Editor’s Note: While most of our articles this month have focused on sexual abuse, this article focuses specifically on sexual harassment experienced while in the employment of Bill Gothard. The dictionary defines sexual harassment as, “The persistent unwelcome directing of sexual remarks and looks, and unnecessary physical contact at a person, usually a woman, especially […]

Creating a Rebellious Heart

21 March 2012, 06:05

Moderator

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Two short months before leaving for Russia, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel Europe with my mom, both grandmothers, and my aunt. It had been a lifelong dream of my 88-year-old grandmother, and I relished every second of it. One of the days that had the most impact on me was the trip […]

Sensitivity vs. Callousness

24 January 2012, 06:00

Moderator

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Callousness Sometimes Won The leadership at Advanced Training Institute (ATI) training centers could be incredibly insensitive in dealing with personal tragedies and misfortunes. Especially if those situations affected, in any way, the performance of one’s duties at the training center. Sometimes, just the fear that leadership would misunderstand or react insensitively to a situation could […]

Snooping, Spying, and Snitching: A Training Center Status Quo

10 January 2012, 06:45

Moderator

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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 […]

Training Center Christmas Memories

27 December 2011, 06:48

Moderator

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Recovering Grace asked former Advanced Training Institute (ATI) students what they remembered about the Christmas holidays — and the preparations for them — at the various training centers at which they served. While some of the students had pleasant memories, others remembered stress-filled weeks of onerous, highly-detailed work, culminating in large events that they were […]

A Look at Life at the Riverfront Character Inn

8 November 2011, 05:30

lizs

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Life at the Riverfront Character Inn (RCI) was not exactly like life at the other training centers run by the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and its home school branch, the Advanced Training Institute (ATI). But there were many similarities. One of the things that set the RCI apart from other training centers was […]

A Jonah Tale

11 October 2011, 06:05

admin

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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 […]

Sweeping the Stairs: An Exercise in Will-Breaking

27 September 2011, 06:15

Moderator

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It was 1995. I was 20 years old. I had recently arrived at the Moscow Training Center in Moscow, Russia, and was eager to begin my first day of “ministry.” I was assigned to the housekeeping detail. The woman in charge was giving me instructions for sweeping a flight of stairs at the training center, […]

The Prayer Closet: An Introduction

6 September 2011, 06:15

RyanR

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Prayer closet.  Few words from my time in the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) cause me to shudder the way those do.  I was on staff at the Indianapolis Training Center (ITC) in 1994 when the prayer closet was instituted.  For the uninitiated, ITC was housed in an old 13-story hotel, just north of downtown Indianapolis. […]