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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

When Asking “Why” Does Not Bring Answers

22 April 2013, 06:00

Moderator

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Editor’s note: The following testimony references Bill Gothard’s “Why Did God Let It Happen?” teaching. This teaching has been delivered in several different formats, many of which do not directly reference sexual abuse. However, the Counseling Sexual Abuse document that was distributed at ATI (Advanced Training Institute) counseling seminars applies this teaching directly to sexual […]

How “Counseling Sexual Abuse” Blames and Shames Survivors

18 April 2013, 06:00

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Versions of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) document “Counseling Sexual Abuse” were distributed at Advanced Training Institute (ATI) Counseling Seminars for over a decade. The document speaks for itself, but Recovering Grace would like to point out how victim-blaming and/or callous dismissal of abuse survivors’ pain is built into almost every one of […]

A Life Defined By Externals

15 April 2013, 06:00

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My story is an interesting one. Until I found Recovering Grace I did not know there were many others like me. When I was eight years old my mom and biological father divorced. Even as a child I understood why their divorce was necessary. People say I was born an adult. Within a year my mom re-married a […]

How “Lessons From Moral Failures in a Family” Blames Victims

11 April 2013, 06:00

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An Institute publication entitled “Lessons From Moral Failures in a Family” [Click here for the full pdf document] was first mailed to Advanced Training Institute (ATI) families in the late 1990s, and it has been periodically distributed at conferences since. Recovering Grace does not know the identity of the family members who shared their story […]

Third Witness: Sexual Harassment at Headquarters

8 April 2013, 06:00

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Editor’s note: This is the third article in a series of stories relating Bill Gothard’s sexual harassment of young girls at Headquarters. Click on these links to read the previous stories: Lizzie’s story Part 1 and Part 2, and Annette’s story, as well as a follow-up article, “A Call to Repentance.” My story begins like […]

Why We Care About Sexual Abuse

4 April 2013, 06:00

Beverly

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April is national Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Last year Recovering Grace dedicated the month of April to bringing these stories of darkness into the light, and we are doing so again this year. Why do we choose to focus our attention on this emotionally disturbing, heart-wrenching subject? It takes only a glance at today’s news […]

We Had Hoped

31 March 2013, 05:00

Micah J. Murray

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Silence. Then suddenly, a breath. Cold air rushing into empty lungs. Grave clothes abandoned on a stone slab. An explosion of earth—shaking light. Hardened soldiers’ knees buckling. Trumpet blasts and angels singing and sunrise. Silence. Then the creaking of a boulder shifting. A cave opening. A dead man walking out of his grave more alive […]

God is Dead

30 March 2013, 06:00

Micah J. Murray

1

This is the second part of a Holy Week trilogy. Find part one here: “The God Who Bleeds.” Find part three here: “We Had Hoped.” God is dead, and we killed him. This is the terrifying reality of what we so cruelly call “Good Friday.” This is the sudden, dark twist in the story that […]

The God Who Bleeds

29 March 2013, 08:00

Micah J. Murray

7

“In Revelation, Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship… I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.” -Mark Driscoll I’m haunted by the mystery that Jesus was God in human form. […]

Why Be a World Changer?

28 March 2013, 06:00

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Am I the only one who gets triggered by the idea of being a world changer? My news feed is full of calls to be a world changer — all from different camps. One is from the “Truth Project,” another from IHOP (the ministry, not the restaurant), another from YWAM, another from…. well, I could […]