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

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Thoughts on “Tangled”

8 September 2014, 06:00

admin

My wife and I watched the movie Tangled last night. For months now, we’d heard from other former ATI students that the movie was a great analogy for spiritual abuse and the journey out of a legalistic system of thought. It’s even been referenced a number of times here on Recovering Grace. (see last Thursday’s […]

Breaking Free

4 September 2014, 06:00

Moderator

They were raised in a normal America. They had children and then, in reaction to the symptoms of societal misdeeds, they were drawn to an organization (the Institute in Basic Life Principles) that held a checklist of answers to life’s every question. (clothing, hair style, vocabulary, music, activities, toys, pets,education, culture, friendships, dating, marriage, raising children, […]

Standards that Divide Believers

28 August 2014, 10:08

Beverly

Ask any church leader who has come into contact with Gothard followers, and far too often you will hear about stories of divisions caused within churches, rather than people who are known for their love or unity. Many instances of division can be traced directly back to the teachings of Bill Gothard through the […]

Wisdom Books and the Beatitudes: Post-It Notes On a Work of Art

20 August 2014, 14:19

Kevin

Sometime last year I told my wife that the pastoral staff of our church were preparing a series on the Sermon on the Mount. Having not grown up in the ATI world (in the Advanced Training Institute), I had not anticipated her less-than-enthusiastic response: “Yeah, I’ve had enough teaching on THAT to last me my […]

The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Overview

16 August 2014, 18:29

MatthewS

The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, Concluding Thoughts The first post in the series is here. We come to the end of this road together. This has been rewarding for me, and I hope it has been for others as well. All the way back in the introduction, the authors asked us to handle […]

The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, Chapter 5: Identifying the Abusive System

12 August 2014, 10:50

MatthewS

The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, Chapter 5: Identifying the Abusive System We continue our series blogging through “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.” The first post in the series is here. What are the common characteristics of spiritually abusive systems? This chapter looks at the unhealthy dynamics that commonly dictate how people function […]

A Tale of Two Abigails: Part Two

8 August 2014, 10:28

MatthewS

This is the second of two re-printed articles examining the biblical character, Abigail. To quickly summarize the first article (found here), Abigail was a hero. Her quick thinking and action saved lives. David praised God for using her to save him and others from needless pain. From the Pages of Scripture This article looks […]

A Tale of Two Abigails

5 August 2014, 12:21

MatthewS

The first Abigail is a wise and beautiful hero, an inspiration to women and men everywhere. Her quick thinking, deliberate action, and diplomatic speech saved many lives. We meet this Abigail in a delightful story told in 1 Samuel 15. Sadly, many of us raised under the Institute in Basic Life Principles and ATI’s […]

Character Sketches or Sketchy Characters?

31 July 2014, 12:54

DavidM

In his Character Sketches series, Mr. Gothard retells many of the stories found in Scripture to illustrate some aspect of character, either good or bad. Often, however, these sketches are better at illustrating how Mr. Gothard will twist Scripture with points that are many times theologically poisonous and logically absurd. In light of […]

Christian Karma

28 July 2014, 15:30

Moderator

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary states karma as: The force generated by a person’s actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person’s next existence. Eastern religions teach that once we die, we re-enter the cycle of life in a different form. If someone performs good deeds on […]