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The Formula Problem: Why Duggarizing Your Marriage is Not Recommended

9 March 2012, 06:00

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Baking is one of my favorite pastimes. I make a killer banana bread. I love baking cookies and many times, like Marie Barone, bake a cake just because. I follow recipes very closely but always add vanilla even if it is not called for. I can follow those recipes to the letter for one simple […]

My Year as an LIT

7 March 2012, 06:48

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At the age of 15, I had already been heavily enslaved to a serious eating disorder for five years. According to my psychologist/counselor at the time, the eating disorder was accompanied by Borderline Personality Disorder and clinical depression. He prescribed three different medications that gave me headaches and made me more irritable–they didn’t really solve any […]

The Art of Manipulation

5 March 2012, 06:00

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“Joseph, I wouldn’t be surprised if God caused the plane to crash in order to punish you for not honoring your mother.” That’s what my mother said to me in the summer of 2002. I was 25 years old and it was the night before 4 of my friends and myself were to board a […]

Forced Fasting

8 February 2012, 06:30

Beverly

In daily life at the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) Training Centers and Headquarters, it was always understood that the kitchens were to be closed on Sundays. The explanation I was given when I first arrived at the Indianapolis Training Center (ITC) in 1995 for my year of service with EQUIP was that the […]

Uniquely Me!

6 February 2012, 06:00

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Journal Entry, September 2009– “I want more!! I really thought I could be happy with this life…but I was wrong. I feel like I’m going to explode. This isn’t me– *sigh* I don’t think it is, anyway. The sad part is, I don’t really know who “me” is…but it’s not this person, I’m sure of that. I […]

Sensitivity vs. Callousness

24 January 2012, 06:00

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Callousness Sometimes Won The leadership at Advanced Training Institute (ATI) training centers could be incredibly insensitive in dealing with personal tragedies and misfortunes. Especially if those situations affected, in any way, the performance of one’s duties at the training center. Sometimes, just the fear that leadership would misunderstand or react insensitively to a situation could […]

Snooping, Spying, and Snitching: A Training Center Status Quo

10 January 2012, 06:45

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Former ATI students share stories of how they were watched, spied on, and tattled on regularly At Advanced Training Institute (ATI) training centers, students and staff quickly learned not to expect privacy in any activity. E-mail, telephone conversations, and even letters and packages from home were monitored for contraband and for forbidden contacts, especially with […]

PTSD for Christmas

20 December 2011, 06:00

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Moscow, Russia. December 1995. — I sat in the lobby of the Moscow Training Center (MTC) orphanage, watching the snow fall. The red carpet and chandeliers cast a cheery glow upon the white blanketed view beyond the windows. I could sit and watch the snow fall for hours. As one unaccustomed to snow, I was […]

My Life in ATI, part two

5 December 2011, 06:00

DavidA

Life Focus Advanced. Soon after I turned 15, I received a letter about a new program called Life Focus Advanced. The concept of the program was this: two Life Focus graduates would room with a leader in training (LIT) for three months and try to counsel and help him out. I was like, “It’s the […]

My Life in ATI, part one

29 November 2011, 06:00

DavidA

Beginnings. I was raised in a normal home until we joined the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) in 2000. Up until then we did normal family things and went to church. I had friends and held normal expectations of myself — as did my parents. Our family attended the annual conference in Knoxville and quickly afterwards […]