25 Most Popular

In the years since Recovering Grace has launched, certain articles been very popular with our readers. The following is a list of 25 of our statistically most popular articles. 

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#1-Sacred Grooming: A Secretary’s Account of Life With Bill Gothard:

Meg shares her experiences working as Bill Gothard’s secretary in the early 1990’s.

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#2-Exploited Innocence: Sexual Harassment at HQ:

Lizzie shares her account of how she was sexually harassed by Bill Gothard while working for IBLP in Illinois.

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#3-A Response to Bill Gothard:

Recovering Grace publicly responds to a Thanksgiving 2011 letter from Bill Gothard addressed to “All Past and Present ATI Students.”

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#4-Forced Family Relationships: 

Betsy writes about how many ATI students were not allowed to develop relationships outside of their families, and how that resulted in stunted emotional and social development.

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#5-A Call to Repentance:

The RG team issues a public call for Bill Gothard to acknowledge, repent of, and make restitution for a decades-long pattern of emotional and sexual harassment of young women under his influence.

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#6-A Different Kind of Sexual Abuse:

Kylar shares a very traumatic story of how Bill Gothard’s teachings led his father to sexually abuse him in some rather bizarre ways.

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#7-A Call for Discernment: 

A republication of an 1998 document by the leadership of Calvary Bible Church in Fort Worth, TX, which gives an excellent overview of the fatal theological flaws in Bill Gothard’s system of Christianity.

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#8-Third Witness: Sexual Harassment at Headquarters: 

Grace shares another account of being sexually harassed by Bill Gothard while working at IBLP headquarters in Oak Brook, IL.

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#9-An Open Letter from Bill Gothard’s First Generation to Basic Seminar Attendees:

An article giving an overview of the problems found in Bill Gothard’s Basic Seminar. Geared towards those attending the seminar for the first time, the article discusses Gothard’s misuse of scripture, anecdotes, and guilt, as well as the missing ingredient of grace.

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#10-Another Witness: Sexual Harassment at HQ:

Annette shares yet another account of being sexually harassed by Bill Gothard while working at IBLP headquarters in Oak Brook, IL.

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#11-The Thing About Purity: 

Mary Elizabeth shares a heart-breaking story about how the extreme emphasis on purity in ATI sometimes backfires.

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#12-Quiverfull or “Full of It?”: 

Ryan shares his personal struggles caused by being raised with the “quiverfull” mindset that having a large family is “God’s best.”

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#13-How “Counseling Sexual Abuse” Blames and Shames Survivors:

The RG team analyzes an IBLP counseling chart about sexual abuse, and discusses how how victim-blaming and/or callous dismissal of abuse survivors’ pain is built into almost every one of the document’s ten points

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#14-Mr. Gothard’s Sexual Rules:

David takes a close look at some of Bill Gothard’s more unusual teachings in the area of physical relationships.

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#15-My Childhood in ATI:

John writes about how being raised in Gothardism affected his spiritual and psychological development, and how God’s grace brought healing to not only to him, but his entire family.

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#16-Here’s The Courtship; Where’s The Love?:

Karen writes about the flaws in Bill Gothard’s teachings on courtship, and how those teachings personally impacted her life.

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#17-The Formula Problem: Why Duggarizing Your Marriage is Not Recommended:

An article on why taking a formulaic approach to every aspect of life isn’t necessarily a safe or healthy option.

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#18-A Matter of Basic Principles-A Review: 

John gives a review of Midwest Christian Outreach’s book entitled, A Matter of Basic Principles, an exposé on the teachings and ministry of Bill Gothard.

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#19-What Have You Done with My Daughter?:

A mom, Vickie, describes the devastating effects of what happened when her daughter attended one of IBLP’s programs.

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#20-A “New” Approach to Easter: 

Recovering Grace takes a close look at the numerous Biblical fallacies in an email sent from Bill Gothard to his followers on Easter Sunday 2012.

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#21-A Difficult Journey: 

Danyel shares her difficult story of dealing with sexual abuse while growing up in the ATI program.

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#22-Circumcision, Blue Jeans, & Cabbage Patch Kids: The Danger of Bill Gothard’s “Jesus+” Theology:

Kevin discusses several of the more bizarre teachings of Bill Gothard, and how adding rules and regulations to the Christian walk is antithetical to the true gospel of grace.

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#23-Courtship Promised To Protect Me: 

Joy shares a personal story about how Bill Gothard’s flawed and unbiblical courtship system negatively impacted her life and her relationships.

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#24-Tragic Misguidance: Gothard’s View on Mental Health Treatment and the Petit Family Murders:

Joy shares her thoughts on a tragic murder committed by a former ATI student, and shares how Gothard’s teachings on mental illness could have impacted the situation.

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#25-Dear Mr. Gothard: One Student’s Letter:

Sara shares a letter she wrote to Bill Gothard after he requested all “offended” students to write to him; a letter to which Gothard never responded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All articles on this site reflect the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of other Recovering Grace contributors or the leadership of the site. Students who have survived Gothardism tend to end up at a wide variety of places on the spiritual and theological spectrum, thus the diversity of opinions expressed on this website reflects that. For our official statement of beliefs, click here.

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