What Now? Life After ATI | Recovering Grace

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

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What Now? Life After ATI

Category Archives: What Now? Life After ATI

What Sexual Abuse Counseling Can Do to Help You

12 June 2015, 19:59

Moderator

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 […]

Why is that Person your Friend?

23 October 2014, 06:00

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A commenter recently asked an obvious question of another: “Why do you think that person is your friend?” That rang a bell in me. There are times, when reading the stories people send me, that I ask something similar in my heart. Why do you think that person is your friend? Why would you keep […]

The Question of Grief: “Who am I now?”

28 February 2014, 13:00

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Photo credit: Charlie Johnson

Beginning September 12, 2013, the northern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado received more than its yearly precipitation in just a few days. Rivers that normally flowed from one to three feet deep were ten or more feet above their flood stage. Eighteen miles of Highway 34 between Estes Park and Loveland were […]

The Right Thing for The Wrong Reason

20 December 2012, 06:00

Moderator

Recently, a Christian counselor whom I have been seeing said something that was a revelation to me: “You can read your Bible and be sinning.” As I let her words sink in, the truth hit me like a ton of bricks. God does not care about external devotion as much as He cares about internal […]

Rethinking Grace

15 October 2012, 06:00

Carolynn

106

As I’ve discussed with my parents various teachings I learned through the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and through the homeschooling curriculum published by the Advanced Training Institute of America (ATIA), I’ve frequently heard from them, “We never taught you that!” They are sometimes defensive and sometimes horrified at the concepts I absorbed as […]

Free to Worship!

3 September 2012, 09:30

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Listening to a CD of praise and worship songs as I worked in my kitchen one morning, I found my heart rejoicing in Jesus and my body dancing in joy and worship to Him. The CD I was listening to was an old one that a friend recently gave me with popular worship songs from […]

As the Pendulum Swings

6 August 2012, 06:00

Carolynn

When I look back at my parents’ decision to join the Advanced Training Institute (ATI), I think I can understand many of the reasons behind their choice. They first encountered Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) when their friends attended the Basic Seminar in the 1970s. A few years later, my […]

Here’s The Courtship; Where’s The Love?

25 July 2012, 06:00

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When I was twelve, my parents came home and said, “Just so you know, you’re never going to be allowed to date.” This was fine by me; I was more into books than socializing. In fact, although I had a speech prepared on why I didn’t date, I never did get to use it. Still […]

If Mama Ain’t Happy . . .

9 July 2012, 06:00

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I was in high school when I first went to a Basic and Advanced Seminar, and my family enrolled in the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) homeschool program. Prior to that, my folks hadn’t attended a Basic Seminar in nearly a decade. While they appreciated what they had learned the first time around, they didn’t implement […]

I Just Want to Be Normal!

25 June 2012, 09:00

JoyS

“What does this song remind you of?” my husband asked, as the song Take My Breath Away played on the radio station. I thought for a second before responding, “I don’t know. — Nothing, I guess. What does it remind you of?” He laughed. “Top Gun!” “Oh.” I said, feeling that familiar embarrassment overtaking me. […]