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An ATI Education, Chapter 4: The Law of Grace

17 December 2015, 14:18

Sara Jones

“If a woman doesn’t cry out when she’s raped, God holds her equally guilty with her attacker.” Bill Gothard states this outright in Wisdom Booklet 36; hundreds of people, most of them well-meaning Christians, read and accepted it. I was one of them. I wrote this series for Recovering Grace to give a glimpse into the long, […]

An ATI Education, Chapter 3: Thou Shalt Not Trap the Eye

14 December 2015, 12:15

Sara Jones

“Ye are the light of the world; a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” According to Bill Gothard, this verse clearly directs women to avoid clothing with “eye traps” that might attract a man’s lustful attention. As a quick recap, my previous articles explained: 1. Bill Gothard set himself up as the final authority […]

The Brilliance of Bill Gothard

29 April 2015, 06:00

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129

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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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 […]

Resurrection Rhythms

4 April 2015, 11:26

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As Easter approaches with its commercialization of eggs and bunnies, the irony of new life is not lost upon those whose thoughts turn towards the events of Holy Week. In the first century a new faith came on the scene of the pagan Greco Roman world that literally turned that culture on its head. Its […]

ATI: Designed Around a False Education “Principle” (Part 2)

26 March 2015, 06:00

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by Myron Horst Click here to read Part 1. The Dangers of Analogies Donald Simanek, physics professor at Lock Haven University, wrote and an excellent article on the dangers of analogies (click here to read). His perspective is from the field of physics, in which there are many concepts that are in the abstract and […]

ATI: Designed Around a False Education “Principle” (Part 1)

23 March 2015, 06:03

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by Myron Horst The Advanced Training Institute (ATI) curriculum was promoted and sold to pastors and homeschool parents as the best homeschool curriculum in the world. Instead of being the best, it has failed horribly in many ways. The ATI curriculum was produced by Bill Gothard and his Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and […]

Manipulation by Humiliation

8 March 2015, 14:13

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Every once in a while a light shines out revealing the truth of our surroundings. Sometimes it only lasts a moment, but we gain insights that change our understanding of the world. Suddenly, the explanation we have been looking for explodes like a flash of lightning. For several years we observed a phenomenon we struggled […]

Sorry, Mom and Dad. We DO Have Regrets

22 January 2015, 06:00

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Growing up in ATI, our parents often told us, “Because of the way we’re raising you, you won’t have any regrets.” Their regrets included broken relationships, sexual sins, temptations, “wasted” years and the like. All of which we would to avoid because of our sheltered, carefully controlled upbringing. We don’t know if our parents honestly […]

An Open Letter to ATI Parents

12 January 2015, 16:58

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You wanted us to grow up strong and mature and capable and effective Christians, above all else. Thank you. You wanted us to love Jesus more than the world, you wanted to protect us from the failures your experienced at our age. Thank you. You wanted the absolute best for us and were willing to […]