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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.

Category Archives: Featured Article

Too Good to be True

16 September 2013, 06:00

Moderator

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Grace 101 Let’s face it.  If we are pointing out enemies of grace, particularly those areas where the path is hard from years of tradition and wrong thinking, we don’t have to go any farther than our own minds.  I define the flesh as the system we developed to handle life.  Perhaps we could broaden […]

We’re All on a Journey

12 September 2013, 06:00

Moderator

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Families can be hard. Families of people coming together in order to flesh out the abuses in their past, reconcile those experiences, figure out who they are outside their old religious-cult like identities, and setting about finding their way in the sunlight of a true understanding of Grace can be much harder. We often hear […]

Finding My “No”!

9 September 2013, 06:00

Moderator

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As a teen growing up in the Advanced Training Institute (ATI), my parents would not have said I was compliant. But I was. My parents decided to homeschool me the summer before I entered seventh grade. Four years later, I ascertained it was most certainly not in my best interest to continue. I fussed, argued […]

There You Go Again—An Open Letter to Bill Gothard (1997)

5 September 2013, 06:00

Moderator

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There You Go Again1 BILL GOTHARD AND “THE FACTS” An Open Letter by Ronald B. Allen, Th.D. 7 November 1997 An on-again/off-again interaction-through-intermediaries between Bill Gothard and me seems to be on-again. The newest provocation was the publication last month of the first in a series of four articles critical of the Gothard ministry. The article […]

Issues of Concern—Bill Gothard and the Bible (1984)

2 September 2013, 05:00

Moderator

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A Report by Ronald B. Allen, Th.D. Professor of Hebrew Scripture Western Baptist Seminary, Portland, Oregon May 30, 1984 The week that I spent at Basic Youth Conflicts in 1973 (Portland) was one of the most difficult of my life. In this seminar I was regularly assaulted by a misuse of the Bible, particularly of […]

Whelp, there it is: 15 Signs of False Humility

29 August 2013, 06:00

Stephen Smith

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The leader of a Texas sect once wrote a letter to me in which he said that he wished he could open a vein for me in order to save my soul. That sounded quite nice, though I already follow Jesus—a point I had (fruitlessly) made in several private Facebook messages back and forth with […]

Fellow Fundamentalists Denounced Gothard’s “Chain of Command” (1974)

26 August 2013, 06:00

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In the November 1974 issue of “The Projector,” a newsletter for Christian Fundamentalists, editor Dr. Dayton Hobbs challenged Bill Gothard’s “Chain of Command.” You can read the entire issue here: http://www.theprojector.org/projectors/nov1974.pdf As with most issues of “The Projector,” much attention is given to separation from non-fundamentalist influences. (Dr. Hobbs did not foresee how severely Gothard […]

Life Isn’t a Role-Playing Game: Part Three

22 August 2013, 06:00

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This is Part Three of a three-part personal story. Click here to read Part One; Click here to read Part Two. After much thought and prayer, I settled on pursuing a marketing degree at a local, small Christian engineering and flight school called LeTourneau University. Most of my first two years were spent obsessed with […]

Life Isn’t a Role-Playing Game: Part Two

19 August 2013, 06:00

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This is Part Two of a three-part story. Click here to read Part One. During my early high school years, I was very blessed to find an incredible youth group with leaders who valued relationships over rules and encouraged guys and girls to know each other more intimately as friends instead of remaining isolated from […]

Life Isn’t a Role-Playing Game: Part One

15 August 2013, 06:00

Moderator

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“Your face…I don’t know what it is, but it’s like it’s glowing!” That comment was made by a character in one of my favorite role-playing games (RPGs). For those who don’t know, RPGs are a fascinating video game genre in which the game player must create a character and develop his or her skills, abilities, […]