On November 6, 2011, Recovering Grace blogged about a news article on Joshua Komisarjevsky’s family and their involvement with Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute (ATI). This is my take on that sad story.
Benedict, Joshua, Naomi and Jude Komisarjevsky
Jennifer, Michaela, and Hayley Petit. Three lives cut tragically short in a brutal robbery, rape, and murder. William Petit, sole survivor of the family, his life forever changed. The Cheshire, Connecticut home invasion murders have received nationwide news coverage since they occurred on July 23, 2007. The unbelievable callousness of the murderers contrast dramatically with the pain of a husband and father who tried and failed to save the most precious thing in his life–his family.
Steven Hayes was sentenced to death. Joshua Komisarjevsky is currently on trial and faces either the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Click here to read more details about the case.
Brief Bio of Komisarjevsky
Joshua Komisarjevsky was adopted at two-weeks-old by very “religious” Christians. The father, Ben, was described as critical, cold, and controlling. The mother, Jude, was quite submissive. When a child, Jude was molested by a foster child in her family. This factor probably worked against her, since she did not seem to know how to handle the problems that later occurred in her home with her own children. Joshua was molested by an older foster child, and several years later Joshua, in turn, molested his younger sister.
The Komisarjevsky family was involved with a conservative, strict church that taught separation from “the world.” According to the Hartford Courant online, “Their church rejected psychology, psychiatry, or any kind of mental health treatment, and so did Komisarjevsky’s parents.” The children did not receive sufficient mental health treatment once the sexual abuse was discovered.
Just before turning 15, Joshua set a boarded-up gas station on fire. He was hospitalized in a mental health ward because police recognized that he was depressed and suicidal. He had also begun experimental drug use. Joshua was receptive to counseling treatment and medications at the time; however, his father did not want him on medication and instead sent him to a faith-based residential treatment program.
The Komisarjevskys studied Bill Gothard’s teachings through the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). They were enrolled in the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) and utilized the homeschooling curriculum for several years. Gothard teaches throughout his materials that the causes of mental illness are guilt, irresponsibility, believing lies, fear, inanimate objects, and psychiatric fallacy. He emphasizes that the individual who has a problem is at fault, and he recommends self-examination, prayer, and taking back strongholds. These teachings have had a devastating effect on many people who have followed his leadership, yet continued to struggle with mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Gothard’s teachings must have influenced Komisarjevsky’s parents, as they decided not to utilize mental health services when he began displaying obvious warning signs as a young teen.
Gothard’s View on Mental Illness and Treatment
On BillGothard.com under the section “What I Teach,” Gothard states that mental health problems are caused by guilt. Gothard emphasizes that guilt is a main reason that people feel stress, which develops into mental dysfunction, such as depression or anxiety. Finding the root of the problem and fixing it will alleviate the guilt, leading to moral freedom.
He wrote an entire book, How to Resolve 7 Deadly Stresses, based on the theory that lies can cause stress and physical disease. Where do these lies come from according to Gothard? In the study guide for this book (“The Lies We Believe that Cause Stress and Disease”), the problems listed include using our intellect to question, choosing to believe lies, and culture. To overcome these lies, Gothard created “power statements” to repeat several times to oneself.
Gothard promotes as fact that painful memories are caused by incorrect responses to an offense. He emphasizes the need to learn why God allowed hurtful events to happen and to thank Him for allowing the events. The next steps to resolve painful memories are discovering the benefits of the offense, blessing and forgiving the offender, and asking forgiveness for our own offenses.
Click here to see a YouTube clip of a seminar in which Gothard states the following: a “Jewish psychiatrist shocked the psychiatric world. He made a statement and demonstrated through his work that much of what we call mental illness, such as schizophrenia and so on, is not mental illness at all. It’s varying degrees of irresponsibility. If we allow ourselves to act irresponsibly, we will soon begin to think incoherently.”
When asked for comment regarding Komisarjevsky, Gothard is quoted in the November 6, 2011, Hartford Courant online stating that he is not a fan of professional psychological or psychiatric treatment. “We are counseling thousands and many of them have already been counseled by a psychiatrist…and they’ve gotten worse.” He said psychiatry and psychology don’t deal with the spiritual factor, which his programs do. “We get down to the root of the cause and find out why they are having a problem. We don’t focus on demons [although] they are real. They are there. We focus on the person’s will and when they have a will to get free from these things that are destroying their lives,” Gothard said. “It’s so easy to say the devil made me do it. We want to have a person deal with their own responsibility, not blaming their parents, not blaming the devil.”
Despite his statement above, for many years Gothard has blamed inanimate objects for troubles with behavior, thinking, and health. Many families associated with ATI and Gothard’s teachings have purged their homes and resorted to the infamous Cabbage Patch/Troll Doll/Rock Music burning sessions.
Debunking Gothard’s Teachings
Gothard’s ideas regarding mental illness are full of dysfunction and error. His story about the “Jewish psychiatrist” was so general that it completely lost credibility. To base a whole theory on one unnamed person’s opinion is irrational. I did some research to figure out which psychiatrist Gothard was referring to. The signs point to Thomas Szasz, who authored a number of books, including The Myth of Mental Illness, published in 1961. That’s 50 years ago! His major goal was deinstitutionalization—to fight against involuntary mental institutionalization—not to point out that irresponsibility is the root of mental illness.
As he does so frequently, Gothard simply pulled a random statement to validate his point. During his time of practicing as a psychiatrist, Szasz thought mental illness lacked physiological signs, a theory that has been soundly debunked. Physiological and chemical changes in the brain have been scientifically demonstrated for decades. Mental illnesses are now regularly approached, measured, and tested in scientific fashion. The list of groups that reject Szasz’s opinion that mental illness is a myth include the American Medical Association (AMA), American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Szasz’s writings have been rendered hopelessly obsolete, and citing him was a very poor choice. The very thought that genetically-linked mental illnesses “such as schizophrenia” are due to irresponsibility of the individual is laughable. An unrelated factoid of interest is that Szasz was partnered closely with the Church of Scientology on research, so Gothard is actually glorifying Scientology’s line of thinking!
Gothard’s statements about lies causing mental problems is also puzzling. He believes that using our “intellect to question” leads us to “lies that we believe.” I think the exact opposite is true; using our rational minds to question things that don’t make sense is something that is very much encouraged as a responsible, healthy thing to do. Questioning leads to truth. The lies of “culture” could be interpreted in many different ways, but we have to think that Jesus related to the people He ministered to in their culture in a way that they understood. Why would we need to remove ourselves from mainstream culture? Wouldn’t isolation from society compound depression, loneliness, and social fears? Gothard fails to make sense.
It’s tragic that Gothard pushes the notion that painful memories are caused by “incorrect responses to an offense.” What about someone who has been raped? What about the one who has lost a child? What about the individual who has been repeatedly abused? I find it insulting to ask a victim to thank God for allowing it and then requiring them to examine their own “incorrect response” to the offense. Asking them to find the “benefits” of the offense and blessing the offender? Absurd! Someone who has been deeply hurt or victimized needs to process what happened and release the emotions. That is the way to start healing.
In an article on BibleandScience.com, the author tells the story that at a pastor’s conference, Gothard “warned us that if your daughter has a Cabbage Patch doll she could become mentally ill because their middle names are demonic. So I went to Toys-R-Us to see what some of their middle names were. They were just common names, not demonic. If Cabbage Patch dolls cause mental illness then most children should be mentally ill.”
Consequences of Spiritualizing Mental Health Problems
Gothard’s teaching that mental problems are caused by guilt is overly simplistic. What about important factors such as grief/loss, abuse, or genetic predisposition? Why point the finger at someone who suffers from a mental disorder and tell them it is their fault, that they must be reacting to guilt over some hidden sin? Adding blame to a person’s pain can only compound their overwhelmed feelings, adding to their pathology. This can lead to lowered self-esteem, less productivity, clouded thinking, and even loss of valued relationships. Sometimes people turn to self-medication through alcohol and other substances. Or self-harm and cutting the outside of one’s body. These are behaviors that punish oneself for transgressions and provide distraction from the painful emotions inside, by bringing dysfunctional relief. Ultimately, feeling that it is one’s own fault for mental illness compounds the problems and could lead to thoughts of hopelessness and suicide.
The biggest problem I see, beyond the blatant misguidance, is that Gothard completely ignores many important factors. Scientific research is full of evidence that physical, sexual, emotional, and/or spiritual abuse have a major impact on emotional functioning and the ability to interact with others. Grief over loss is a process, and often counseling can help. Genetics also play a major factor in mental health. For example, if a parent struggles with depression, there is a higher chance that the child will suffer from depression as well. Physical health problems can greatly impact a person’s mood and their ability to think, especially if there are thyroid problems. Ignoring any of these factors is an injustice to the sufferer. Our health care knowledge has come too far to foster the ignorant ideas that Gothard puts forth.
Komisarjevsky wrestled with numerous issues as a child and adolescent. First, we do not know the mental health of his biological parents, but his adoption would be a source of insecurity. Next, early in his life he experienced sexual abuse that was not addressed by his mother, despite her awareness of it. This sent the message to young Joshua that his was a secret so dark that it shouldn’t be discussed, which caused him to bury it for a while. Komisarjevsky went on to become a sexual abuser to his sibling, whom he cared about. By ATI standards, his painful memories were his fault for an incorrect response to being abused, and his sister’s painful memories would be her fault.
We can imagine that Komisarjevsky was discouraged from questioning what he was taught and what he experienced. In confusion and hopelessness, no doubt exacerbated by physically-induced mental issues, his attitude shifted to defiance of authority, vandalization, and drug use.
Finally, as Komisarjevsky became a teen, and his troublesome behaviors became more and more obvious, he felt unable to discuss his true feelings with his parents for fear of repercussions. He most likely realized that he was unable to fix himself, and he was equally unable to relate to a God he couldn’t please. He must have felt more and more isolated, tormented, and left alone to decide his destiny.
Conclusion
The horror that unfolded that summer day didn’t happen by chance. It developed over the course of years, festering under the guise of maintaining a “good family image.” I don’t believe that Bill Gothard or ATI are completely to blame for the tragedy that Joshua Komisarjevsky caused in Cheshire, Connecticut. However, I do believe this is a crystal clear example of the repercussions of spiritualizing serious health conditions.
If you or someone you know are dealing with mental health issues, please get professional help. Don’t allow someone else to blame you for your inability to “snap out of it.” If you are having thoughts of hurting or killing yourself, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or visit their website. There is help. You will heal. Reach out.
What makes this even more tragic, in my opinion, is that Joshua was adopted, his mom was molested by a foster child, and then Joshua was too. This will only give fuel to Gothard's anti-adoption stance, which is also completely unScriptural. My husband & I plan to adopt a foster kid one day, and hearing a story like this always breaks my heart. Joshua's story could have been so different.
I used to think psychologists were quacks, and while some are, there are plenty that aren't. One of our Sunday school class teachers is a psychologist, and his teaching has definitely helped break down some of the legalistic views we didn't even know we were still clinging to.
Thanks for posting this. It's still easy sometimes for me to think that a mental health diagnosis is just an excuse for whatever behavior, etc. I do think sometimes illnesses are over-diagnosed, but I know there are legitimate cases. When it comes to mental illness I think I still have a "Gothard" mindset, to some degree, more than I realize. It's probably at least in part because I don't really know anyone with a mental illness so it's easy to be ignorant or believe without questioning what someone else has said. Anyway. This is a good reminder.
I understand what you are describing, thinking that mental problems are over-diagnosed and some psychologists are quacks and I do agree with that. Kids are overmedicated because they act like... kids! Thanks for your comment!
On the flip side, I have also seen people, including my own family members, experience mental illness that is completely debilitating and that has changed their personality. The brain is an organ, just like the liver, the heart, the lungs... when chemicals get unbalanced in different organs, our bodies react in quite different ways from the way they normally function. Sometimes we need medications to help things stabilize again. Sometimes we need physical therapy. Sometimes we just need to rest and de-stress and let our body heal itself.
I have counseled patients who had depression, post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, addictions, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of mental illness and how to treat it - until I was hit with debilitating depression last fall. It was so bad that the thought of getting out of the bed in the morning made me cry. I just couldn't bear to face that day. And it was just another normal day; a day of caring for my 3 little boys, cooking, and cleaning. Nothing remarkable. But all I could do is sleep. I was irritable all the time and that impacted my marriage. There were days I had to call my husband to come home from work early and take care of the kids, because I couldn't get off the kitchen floor or stop crying. It sounds ridiculous, right? Trust me, I know. I felt like such a failure on every level. I went to my doctor when I started having thoughts about hurting myself. He put me on meds for depression, and I began weekly counseling sessions. I'm still on meds, and I don't like them, but I feel like "me" again. The counseling was helpful too. It's been very humbling to experience mental problems myself, and I have certainly learned so much.
I hope I haven't shared too much. I'm normally a fairly private person, but I feel strongly about battling the stigmas that are attached to people with mental illnesses. If I could help another person feel less alone, less ashamed, or less guilty, then to me, it's worth sharing. It's the truth, and it is what I experienced and if there is one thing I have learned in life, it is this: the TRUTH shall set you free.
Thank you.
I second Erin. The anti-adoption stance always upset me; it is the complete opposite of Scripture, which teaches that we are all "adopted" by Christ.
Furthermore, you are absolutely spot-on when you say that Gothard teaches that abuse is the fault of the victim. One teaching states that you won't ever be sexually abused if you dedicate your body to God--so the fact that I roundly declared that ridiculous meant that other girls who'd been abused as children were secretly coming to me, "confessing" what had happened to them, and asking how I'd dealt with it. How had I "responded," that I felt so okay with it? I told them, "I'm sorry, but I absolutely don't believe that the God who saved me holds me responsible for something that I could not stop from happening." Novel idea.
Jamie,
I'm so glad that you were strong enough to allow others to further victimize you by that poisonous thinking that you are responsible for your abuse. I think it's great that by standing up for what you believed, you became a trustworthy person that the other girls could talk to. Thanks for sharing your story.
And like you, I believe the reasons behind Gothard's strong stance against adoption are pure hogwash. Does not Scripture command believers to care for the widows and the fatherless?
This just breaks my heart that Gothard actually teaches these things. The last thing a victim of abuse needs is to be told that
it was there fault. Lord have mercy on us. As an adult survivor of childhood molestation, the most helpful book I found was "Wounded Heart" by Dan Allender. Christian Group therapy with this book was the most healing thing I ever did.
It is no surprise to me after reading this article that the father (ATI family) of some good friends of mine gave me the most awful look when I stated I was majoring in psychology. Now I understand what he must have been thinking. Christian Counseling is a wonderful thing and mental illness is real. A course in Physiological Psychology is very revealing in regards to the chemical imbalances in the brain that impact our thinking.
I pray for those who are coming out of this group (IBLP) who have endured abuse, that they will find the true healing and freedom they need; rather than being victimized again by someone telling them they needed to "have the right response to it."
Thank you so much for writing this article.
Thanks for the book recommendation! I am SO glad that you have found healing. I appreciate that you shared your story.
I think "Wounded Heart" by Allender is a wonderful book. Your comment motivates me to make it readily available at our church.
Thanks for this article. One slight correction -- I remember for a fact that in the Basic Seminar, Gothard made a point that not all mental illnesses are spiritually caused... and he went on to tell about a woman who battled depression, and found out it was due to a thyroid problem. So although Gothard didn't give a completely balanced account of mental illness and psychology beyond the 'youth group counseling' that was his field, he did at least acknowledge the physical chemical factors you're concerned about.
Gothard acknowledged mental problems that were rooted in another recognized medical problem, such as hypothyroidism. As I recall, he did not acknowledge mental illness in and of itself, he did not believe in the philosophy of mental illness caused by imbalances of brain chemistry, citing instead irresponsibility/sin or spiritual/demonic oppression as the cause.
[...] on the early life of Joshua Komisarjevsky. LINK Share this:ShareDiggFacebookStumbleUponTwitterRedditLike this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]
Psychology is not scientific in the sense that what is being claimed (chemical imbalance in the brain) cannot even be measured. Instead, there are experiments with drugs and if their use results in improved behavior or sense of well-being, the chemical imbalance is "proven." By that measure, there are people that are suffering depression caused by a deficiency of marijuana. If grief, abuse or trauma are the causes of mental illness, then we should expect to see mental illness in all people who suffer those events. This is not what we see. However, if you shoot 100 people through the liver, all 100 will have a damaged liver. We can see it and measure the damage. There is no measurable cause and effect between emotional trauma and mental illness. How would one explain the physiology of that? Man I don't know touches my privates, my brain chemicals become unbalanced, but if my husband touches me in the same way my brain chemicals remain stable? How can you deny that the person being victimized and the victim's perception of what happened contributes to or is the cause of the mental illness?
Im not an expert in neurology but im pretty sure you an do an MRI or some other scan that does measure chemical balance in the brain.
I believe Dr. Amen actually is pioneering a brainscan for mental health purposes, making it actually measurable. Psychiatrists don't typically do a brainscan, but Dr. Amen is doing it.
We do not see the same results in every person because the human psyche is much more complex than, for instance, a liver. There are innumerable variables to account for. Just because some people get over abuse should not be a reason to ignore to detrimental effects that abuse can have, or to excuse abusers.
Well said, Robert. Thank you.
Also, there are biological physical components/causes for mental illness.
Nothing like a highly educated woman to bring out the haterz.
Good on you, Joy. I enjoyed the article. :)
I agree with Sam. Anyone who actually pursues a degree so they can be informed on a topic, then has the dedication to pursue a career in that field is clearly unqualified to address it. Personally I would rather listen to someone who bases their knowledge and opinions on anecdotal evidence and traditional beliefs. Thanks for pointing this out, Sam. Along with the fact that Joy is a woman, her education and career choice absolutely invalidate any opinions she purports to have.
lol, Maria!
Your reply did not make sense to me. I really did try to decipher your message, but it seemed that there wasn't much to it other than to put down women in general. Anyway. I hope you find truth in your life and are eventually able to value yourself and other people. That's what matters in life. Not being "right". People will always differ in opinion.
If you're talking to Maria, she was being sarcastic in reply to a nasty comment that was deleted by the Admins.
Very well written article Joy! Fabulous observations....keep it up!
I'm sorry for this familie's loss, and any factors that contributed to the crime deserve close scrutiny. However in the end Joshua made the desicion to invade the house and carry out the crimes. There are stories of abuse leading to crime and there are stories of abuse leading to redemtion. All stories have many factors in them. Its heartbreaking to sea a family mess up on there parenting. Hopefully we will have the wisdom to recognise false or incorrect instruction in our own lifes even when it comes from a respected authority or from our own hearts.
Thank you so much for this article! It needs to be read so badly. I suffered unecessarily for at least three years with clinical depression. I was constantly trying to harm myself, always crying, always thinking about suicide and feeling completely hopeless. My parents (and I as well) tried to dismiss it as a "spiritual problem," but somehow, it went away when we finally decided to try the "worldly" methods of medication and therapy. I now feel like a relatively normal person, and I try to thank God every day for the medical miracle that is Zoloft! Yeeee! My heart goes out to other young Christians struggling with mental issues and guilt about something that isn't their fault. I know so many under the bondage of that nasty legalistic train of thought. Kids being hyper and teenagers being dramatic is one thing, but depression is a monster that needs to be treated. DO NOT LET IT FESTER.
How sad for this family... I hope the husband is getting the help and healing he needs for this horrific tragedy.
This shows that you cannot follow a man. Unless that man is Jesus Christ. Too many of us are told by man or men or churches..."Here is the way I walk, you walk that way too." Then we have tragedies like Andrea Yates, told by her doctors not to get pregnant again to give her hormones and post-partum depression time to even out, yet she and her husband had to "obey God"! And 5 young innocents are drowned when she goes off the deep end.
[...] doing so, failed the number one requirement of parents: to protect their children from spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical [...]
This story hit home to me. My husband was a resident with Bill Petit at the University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital where he met his dear wife. Bill is a wonderful, selfless physician-one of the good guys. We have participated in his foundation in memory of his dear wife and daughters.
This incident shocked us.We saw the pictures of Bill when he was brought to the ER. It is a wonder he survived. My husband and I wondered what might contribute to anyone doing such a heinous crime.
Our blog, The Wartburg Watch, will be doing a series on Bill Gothard. We plan to draw a lot of information from this wonderful website and encourage people to visit here. We plan to start the series off with our connection to Bill Petit and this story.
Thank you for the work that you are doing.
[...] Tragic Misguidance: Gothard’s View on Mental Health Treatment and the Petit Family Murders link [...]
When we were invited on staff at Headquarters our fourth child was turning two years old and had been adopted. He was placed in my arms when he was 5 minutes old and we had not only secured his birth mom's blessing to raise him for the Lord but also the birth father and both grandfather's. Considering he came from an unsaved family group that was really God's stamp of approval to us. The day after our son was born the papers were signed, he was ours. A year or two after coming on staff I found out what Mr. Gothard thought of adoption. He asked me if I had ever thought of giving our son back! This child had been with us since birth and had no idea who his birth family was other than the fact I sent them pictures once a year! He started to press me and I very firmly told him that this was our child (now about 4 yrs. old), given to us by God, and that it would be traumatic for him and our family for that to happen! I let him know in no uncertain terms was this matter open for discussion by him or anyone else! Our son is grown now. A few years ago his birth mom wanted to meet him. The day he found out he said, "why would I want to do that, I already have two emotional women in my life (his mom and sister), I really don't need any more." My son has given me a compliment I wish all adopted children could say, he told us that he never in his life "felt" adopted. He always just felt like our kid and can't imagine life any other way. He feels complete and whole. We can't imagine our lives without him, he has been a joy to us! People adopt for all kinds of reasons. Some want to look good in their circle of friends and adopt because they can't have children, others think they are doing the world a favor and are planning to raise that rebels kid to be some sort of perfect person, some have kids dumped on them by death, I could go on.... The reason we adopted is because we had enough love in our hearts to extend beyond our own little family to include a new family member. My older children would never tell you that our son is their adopted brother because he isn't...he's our son and he's their brother. I've read so many stories about wicked parents who mistreated their kids that it makes me sick. When my grown kids come in and kiss me on the forehead and thank me for the life they had it makes me want to cry out to other parents and tell them it's ok to raise kids who aren't perfect. Love your kids, let them fail, pick them up and help them try again. When my son leaves to spend time with his friends he always stops before leaving the house and kisses my forehead and tells me he loves me. Now he has friends who call me mom and yup they will stop and kiss my forehead... that is the love of Christ that is properly built into the heart of child and extends to those around them.
I read stories like this, and books Bill has written such as The Power of Crying Out, and the one about Spoken Blessings, and if I were not already convinced, these works affirm that the man is absolutely clueless. He is totally deluded and has not an ounce of the true knowledge of God. But he has his laws and principles. The Bible says the letter killeth. It says that those under the law are under a curse. It says that Christ is of no effect for those under the law. Every one of these stories and accounts, as well as the direct teachings themselves authored by Bill Gothard, evidence these terrible fruits. Destroyed lives. Perhaps the most destroyed lives of all are those who remain under Bill's teachings, happy, content, thinking themselves blessiing. Total deception.
As the father of an adopted child,oh, and as a Christian, this makes my blood boil!! How could he even possibly begin to defend his view biblically?!? I am praying for repentance for Gothard and the board, and I'm praying the ministry goes down in flames and goes away. There is nothing here that needs to remain. I feel compassion for those people who that will affect in the short term, but there is entirely too much systemic rot for this to survive. It's foundation is sand! I'm thankful you would not be swayed by the utter anti-gospel of his view on adoption. I'm thankful that the Spirit of adoption has set me free from the slavery of gothardism.
I have attended several IBYCs and Advanced seminar a couple of times. Whenever I heard the undocumented reference to the "Jewish psychologist" in the seminars, William Glasser came to my mind. I am not sure if Glasser was Jewish and haven't been able to document one way or the other. Glasser got more than a passing reference in my nursing school education in our psych quarter in the early 1980s. Frankly, I think I remembered him and his approach (choice therapy) because it seemed to me it made a lot more sense than what I was seeing at my VA clinicals using mainline psychiatric approaches. Those patients just didn't seem to have any hope. Nursing school preceded my contact with Gothard.
Check Glasser out, and see if you don't think he is also a likely candidate for Gothard to have been using anecdotally. Start here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/peaceful-parenting/201308/william-glasser-md-1925-2013-8
His obituary here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/us/william-glasser-88-psychiatrist-who-promoted-mental-health-as-a-choice-dies.html?_r=0
So much on Recovering Grace that is so very disturbing. My knee-jerk reaction is to throw out all Gothard materials. I am processing and praying grace over the deep soul-wounds of so many. Grateful that my husband I saw that ATIA was not an approach we wanted to choose in educating our children. We live in Knoxville and as a matter of Christian hospitality, we hosted three different families attending ATIA in the 90s. With some of the families, we felt a real connection, with some we felt the "divide" because we were not choosing the program.
[…] allegedly a teenage child that the Komisarjevsky family had fostered. Several years later, Joshua molested his younger sister Naomi. The church that the Komisarjevsky family attended “rejected psychology, psychiatry, or any […]
I'm guessing that there is a chance that some valuable gems of truth are buried deep in the vast pile of crap that Gothard has burdened so many people with over the years.
My wife is a counselor and routinely counsels with Christian families that want to cling to those teachings, hoping that SOMETHING in them was good for the family. And their might be. Maybe.
But overall, it's SO much easier to find those gems by going directly to Scripture yourself, digging with appropriate tools of exegesis, and applying the truth in the way that God, through His Spirit, gives you. To trust one man, and one man only, to do this on your behalf is proof itself of a form of insanity on the part of the followers.
We have spent years relating to many young people who had grown up under Gothard's teachings, and are only now as adults coming to grips with the psychological and emotional damage.
Kudos for articles like this that systematically dismantle the manure pile and help people to get cleansed.
Too bad that there isn't a good use for all that BS. I wouldn't spread it on MY garden....
I'm wondering if Gothard's new teachings on the source of mental illness include any denouncing of what he's already taught? Because he's proclaimed himself as having identified the cause of schizophrenia for the past 50 years. Incidentally, this is same claim made by the guy who abducted & imprisoned Jaycee Dugard that got the cops onto him as a kidnapper. He was at Berkeley giving out his 17-page literature on "The Origins of Schizophrenia" when he was recognized by a policewoman for having imprisoned girls with him to help him advertise. Maybe he was just copying Bill Gothard.