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Articles about how Bill Gothard mishandles the Bible to support his legalistic viewpoint.

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What Sexual Abuse Counseling Can Do to Help You

12 June 2015, 19:59

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151

Christians and psychotherapy haven’t always had the best relationship. Growing up as I did, adjacent to cultural fundamentalists, I absorbed the following dominant assumptions: You don’t need counseling if you have Jesus. Counselors disapprove of homeschooling and Christianity and might want to take you away from your parents. The only good counselor is a Christian […]

Bill Gothard’s New Website

3 June 2015, 10:42

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230

Late last night, Bill Gothard’s personal website, billgothard.com, launched a complete redesign with new content. Included in this new content was a statement by Bill Gothard in which he attempts to address some of the issues that we have raised on our site over the past four years. Additionally, there is an entire page dedicated to personal testimonies […]

Set Free from Silence

30 May 2015, 06:00

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108

I’ve been seeing a lot of news lately about the Duggars. Comments on the stories run along the lines of, “I bet the victims didn’t receive counseling! I bet they were just told to wear longer skirts. The culture of ATI [Advanced Training Institute] created an atmosphere of abuse.” I’ve decided to jump on the […]

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

22 May 2015, 13:13

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242

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 […]

My Mother’s Day Story

7 May 2015, 06:00

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Mothers Day in the United States is fast approaching… as an American living in the UK, I see people celebrate the day twice, as Mothering Sunday is before Easter here in England. Both days used to fill me with dread, grief and pain. But not anymore. It’s not necessarily an easy day, but neither does […]

The Brilliance of Bill Gothard

29 April 2015, 06:00

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131

Bill Gothard created a cult, and he did a fine job of it. He didn’t create a commune that physically isolated his followers from the rest of the world. He didn’t lead weird sessions with chanting and candles. He didn’t even come up with strange names for his teachings. He conducted his cult in the […]

The Truth About God’s Justice

21 April 2015, 06:00

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100

I grew up afraid of God’s justice. Though my parents were well-balanced in meting out mercy and discipline (very well-balanced considering we went to a Gothardite church), I always imagined God coming down from heaven with a sword of justice in hand, ready to punish all of us for our sins. He had just enough […]

The Shame of Beauty

16 April 2015, 06:00

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142

Before I was born my parents started following the teaching of Bill Gothard and IBLP, and when I was 5, they joined ATI (Advanced Training Institute), the homeschool program that Gothard developed for the families of his Basic and Advanced Seminars. Gothard emphasized “principles” which simply meant there were many different rules that dictated specific activities in my […]

Through the Tainted Window

14 April 2015, 06:00

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Through a cold and tainted window Of reflections from my past I watched silent from a distance At a life that I once had The movement of the players Well rehearsed and finely tuned Not one line misspoken Not a person missed a queue I touched the darkened window As if my soul […]

Belonging

9 April 2015, 06:00

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In groups like the Advanced Training Institute, we have an identity and a community. We might not always like it, but it gives us a level of security. We are surrounded by people who think like us. We speak a different language from other people around us, using words like “courtship,” “motivational gift,” “rhema” and […]