My fourth year in Russia was the most difficult, but in a much stranger way. At the beginning of the year, I was given the assignment of interpreting for a family. I was told that this family had been a problem in the past year and had not been expected to stay, but now it was too late to get rid of them. In the past few months, they had made life so difficult for a couple of interpreters that the interpreters had left the MTC in tears, never to return. I was told that I was being assigned to them because they did not think anyone else could handle them.
The real issue with this family was that the mother had to be in control of everything. When a new child needed his first spanking, I was called in to interpret. The mother spanked the child, then demanded an apology. The child hesitated, and the spanking continued. When I protested and asked her to give the child time to respond, she took the child and her husband into their bedroom and continued the spanking without interpretation.
Once, when a child was taking a math test on the multiplication tables, a sheet with the tables printed on it had inadvertently been left near his desk. The mother became infuriated with me, even though I had begun my shift well after the test had begun and was in no way responsible for administering it. When her daughter took up for me and explained the situation, the mother insisted that it was my responsibility.
During this fourth year, we learned about the Institute’s plans for the South Campus. I was shocked. Since the beginning of the program, we had been told we were training these children to be ministers in their own land. I had grown to know and admire several of the orphans’ guardians and could not imagine that they would allow their 6–13-year-old children to go to America for several months.
I wrote to Bill Gothard and delin
eated a couple of problems that I saw. First, the children were losing their Russian skills, because everything they did outside of classroom study and time on the weekends was done in English. They would not be able to relate to their native culture if they spent several months in America. Second, many of the guardians, while unable to care for the children, were positive influences. We would also lose our ability to minister to the guardians for Christ if their children were in America.
Mr. Gothard responded with his reasons for bringing a large number of the children to America for an extended period of time. His first reason was that most of the guardians were bad influences, and the benefits of our influence to the guardians was not as great as their bad influence on the children when they were at home on the weekends. His second reason was that a great number of donors had given to these children and needed to be encouraged by their presence in America.
I was flabbergasted. Several of the children brought to South Campus that first year had no family. It seemed clear that the only reason for their being in America was to show them off to Institute donors. After a performance at Knoxville, one of the children told me, “I felt like we were begging for money.” The very next year, a collection for the Russian ministry was taken after the orphans’ program. As far as I know, this was a first for the Institute, which had previously not requested donations for specific causes. I later learned that at least one orphan’s family had been threatened with expulsion from the MTC if they did not give permission for him to go to America. Other, similar boarding schools in Russia were much, much worse, and it was the only school he had ever known. They felt that they had little choice.
At the beginning of my fifth and (though I did not yet know it) final year in Russia, my entire family traveled to the MTC to serve as an orphan family. We were excited to participate together in something that had been a part of our lives for years. However, the educational methods had deteriorated in the last couple of years. While Mr. Gothard had supposedly requested that only Christian Russian teachers be hired, this was not the case. Some of the teachers even seemed anti-religious. More and more time was being taken away from the families, and the children were placed in classroom settings. For parents who had given up on traditional classrooms long ago, and had looked to ATI as the final answer, it was confusing.
My father began to question the reasoning behind many of the decisions and philosophies prevailing at the time in the fathers’ meetings at the MTC. He was criticized for questioning. When I brought my concerns to the then-leader of the MTC, I was told I was being judgmental and acting as a pawn and stooge for my father. I was amused by this assumption because my father had gotten most of his information from me.
That Christmas, Mr. Gothard came to the MTC. He and the leader of the ministry (M—) had a long conversation with my parents. They were told that the children were not their responsibility, that they were under the authority of the Institute and the Moscow Department of Education, and if we wanted to leave, we should leave.
We left the MTC in December 1999, and that ended my involvement with the Institute’s ministry. It took me several years after that to work out what I truly believed about God and His Word and our response to the less fortunate.
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Robert Moore II was homeschooled from sixth grade through high school. He joined the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) in 1991, at the age of 17. He participated in many Children's Institutes and served in IBLP's Russian and orphan ministry from 1994 to 1999. Since then, he has worked in Chinese orphanages and as a foster father in America. He is married and currently resides in his native state of Mississippi.
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My heart breaks for the kid that endured this prolonged spanking by a woman who could not even speak his language (this really stirs up memories from my own childhood), and for the kids who were uprooted from their culture.
I hope I would have had the presence of mind to begin standing up for the victims like you did, Robert. I respect you for doing that.
5 Years, man, you were more of a martyr than I ever could've been.
Still, even the most committed martyrs to the cause of IBLP/ATI know that you broke the first and weightiest commandment of Gothardism:
"Thou Shalt Not Question 'Authority.'
Never, under no circumstances, not ever, not once, not in any way, shape or manner.
Thou shalt certainly not question Gothard (or his servant M.), for there is no god but Jehovah and Gothard is his one and true Prophet."
Appreciate you sharing. Good to hear your story.
Robert, were your parents at south campus when the kids were moved there? I'm thinking that I met and spoke with your mom.
Good people like you and your family is why people like me joined ATI and the only reason we enjoyed our time with the organization. On the other hand,that is what makes the hypocrisy so upsetting!! I do beleive that Mr.G exploited people to build his ministry empire. He was able to convince many to join with all these wonderful outreach ideas. In the end, many of these outreaches were dropped in place of money making projects. Think about that!! Before I left, the only outreach that was left was the boys and girls log cabin program and even that ended up being a lot of ATI kids needing help. My daughters spent 2 to 3 years in this miistry.
When we joined, college was bad, bad for your kids and they didn't need it. When I left, they neded Verity to educate them. Next,I heard that girls working as private secretaries for married men was dangerous. Well, we know what happenned there because he didn't take his own advice. After this incident, they quickly reversed their message to the wives concerning not questioning your husbands. Another one,letting our daughters out in the world's work place was putting then in jeopardy, yet, he convinced many parents to send their girls off to live away from home and serve his ministry because we beleived that they were protected. Protected from what? My girls could deal with the world's unfair treatment but when it came from so called Christians with such "higher Standards", that pill was hard to swallow. If you were a pretty girl with long blond and softly curled hair, well, you could get whatever you wanted. Beleive me , some of these girls knew that and took full advantage of this fact. You get my point!! We were, I guess you could say, looking for heaven on earth because that's what was essentially promised. Reality hit some of us hard!!
I'm glad that God kept you through this and your most likly an even better man for it.
Blessings to you and your family
"We were, I guess you could say, looking for heaven on earth because that's what was essentially promised. Reality hit some of us hard!! "
Yeah, that sounds about right. Dreams of Utopia almost always die a hard and ugly death.
I am horrified to hear that families at the MTC were spanking the children they were caring for. Was the Ministry of Education aware of this?
Did those overseeing this program ever make any effort to educate themselves on PTSD, RAD, and other issues common in orphans/institutionalized children? What about the "orphan families"?
Denise, my parents only visited South Campus for a short time Christmas of 1998. The only time my parents were at a training center other then to visit was Aug-Dec of 1999.
Janee, The Department of Education was aware of what was going on. Spanking was an on and off again thing, and BG changed what was allowed based on the permission from the DoE.
In defense of the orphan families, they had bought into the Pearl/BG teachings, that spanking was the final and only solution to childhood "rebellion". The situation I shared above, spanking without interpretation and continued over a long period of time, was rare in my experience. Of the several orphan fathers that I interpreted for, (including my own) this family was the only one that did it, and the above situation was much more about putting me in my place (i.e. don't question my methods or I will simply remove you from the situation) rather than any real effort to teach the child something.
For the most part, the orphanage families had believed the child discipline books they had read and thought it would carry over to the Russian children. They were severely uninformed, but most of them had their hearts in the right place. The institutional, hierarchical system in place, however, really prevented any individual family from doing anything about standards or practices at the MTC. Ultimately, that is why we had to leave.
Hey Robert,
Aaron and I read your story and understand exactly what you've described. I had no idea that you were so falsley accused of that earlier years. Your genuine love for the kids was so obviouse! Your family was such a wonderful family there. They were friends to the kids and your Mom was such a good friend to me. 1999 school year was one of the hardest years at the MTC in my opinion. Just as you mentioned of what you did matters to God. It was not in vain. And many lives were touched by your presence there and your family. I have my stories also of what happened at the MTC and other training center. My husband and I are both part of the recovering ATI group on fb and it's been so healing for both of us. You stood up against the wrongs of those "authorities" and suffered unjustly. I remember that situation with (m.B) in 1999. I had my confrontation with him also and tons of misunderstanding. I know as a fact that some of those families don't even live to what they forced the kids and all of us to stand to. Anyway, I just wanted to say "thank you" for sharing. I think all of us need to get it off our chests and bring it to the light. And I wished Mr.G would read some of these heart breaking stories and publicly appologise. That would be certainly a miracle.
Just one more instance of child abuse encouraged by the Institute. This story makes me so neauteous. No, not suprised. Just neauteous . =(
Stories like this are why I am personally ashamed, embarrassed and horrified to have been part of this organization. It makes me angry that there are people who participate with, support and/or align themselves with the IBLP-ATI organization in spite of what has been uncovered by those courageous enough to come forward with truth.
ATI seemed to have a way of attracting parents who had grown up in legalistic churches or did not have a firm understanding of God's marvelous, unmerited grace. My husband felt comfort in those kind of surroundings. He was so excited about the program when he first heard about it--I thought, "What's the big deal?" Unfortunately, after about 6 years of being brainwashed in the program, frequently pregnant, and pushed to my limits in time and energy, with few spiritual teachings outside of IBLP's material; I, too, turned off my spiritual radar and began to gradually accept the ATI teachings without discernment. Who was I to argue with such spiritually mature and fruitful(not so)authorities? The legalism and condemnation slowly undermine the true beauty and sweetness of your relationship with Christ. Now after 15 years(!!!) our family seems to have mostly recovered! (We were in the program 11 years.) PRAISE GOD!
Wow! I remember the orphans coming to Knoxville and being so amazed! How pathetic to use them to raise money! I am so sorry about this whole story.
Thanks for your story. My family went with Gothard's organization to Moscow in 1992. We were part of the first group of families who went to minister in the orphanages. We had been in ATI for a while, but had not mingled with the higher ups. We had harbored concerns over the years, but I remember that it was in Moscow that we really saw that something was rotten in the state of Denmark. There was a lot of nonsense, deception, and manipulation. My parents are career missionaries, but Gothard made it clear that he rejected all input from missionaries, since he had concluded that missions had failed until he came on the scene.