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My Heart’s Guardian: Missing in Action

10 October 2013, 06:00

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My family joined the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) when I was about 9 years old. I was taught the traditional courtship by ATI and Bill Gothard. Keep my mind pure. If I fall in love with someone who is not my spouse I’ll have less love to give him. My future spouse will ask my […]

From Rules to Grace

23 September 2013, 06:00

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In the past few years, since I have expressed many disagreements with the theology of Bill Gothard, ATI (Advanced Training Institute), and his parent ministry, IBLP (Institute in Basic Life Principles), I have invariably been asked how ATI had negatively impacted my life. Here is my story. My family joined ATI in the ‘90s. It […]

Finding My “No”!

9 September 2013, 06:00

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As a teen growing up in the Advanced Training Institute (ATI), my parents would not have said I was compliant. But I was. My parents decided to homeschool me the summer before I entered seventh grade. Four years later, I ascertained it was most certainly not in my best interest to continue. I fussed, argued […]

There You Go Again—An Open Letter to Bill Gothard (1997)

5 September 2013, 06:00

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There You Go Again1 BILL GOTHARD AND “THE FACTS” An Open Letter by Ronald B. Allen, Th.D. 7 November 1997 An on-again/off-again interaction-through-intermediaries between Bill Gothard and me seems to be on-again. The newest provocation was the publication last month of the first in a series of four articles critical of the Gothard ministry. The article […]

Fellow Fundamentalists Denounced Gothard’s “Chain of Command” (1974)

26 August 2013, 06:00

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In the November 1974 issue of “The Projector,” a newsletter for Christian Fundamentalists, editor Dr. Dayton Hobbs challenged Bill Gothard’s “Chain of Command.” You can read the entire issue here: http://www.theprojector.org/projectors/nov1974.pdf As with most issues of “The Projector,” much attention is given to separation from non-fundamentalist influences. (Dr. Hobbs did not foresee how severely Gothard […]

A Culture of Addicts—The Problem with Living for Eternity

5 August 2013, 07:00

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Dictionary.com defines an “addict” as: 1. a person who is addicted to an activity, habit, or substance* Growing up in the Advanced Training Institute (ATI), a quasi-cult, I was constantly bombarded with ideology promoting service, self-sacrifice, organizationalism, and a general detachment from the real world. As someone who was born with many talents and abilities, […]

Experiencing Freedom

1 August 2013, 06:00

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I remember the day I was saved. It was after church on a rainy night, by my little bed, just before being tucked in. That was the day I asked Jesus to come into my heart and save me. I wasn’t a horrible sinner, being not quite five, but I knew that I did and […]

Anniversary Milestones

25 July 2013, 06:00

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Dear Recovering Grace Reader, This week marks the second anniversary of the launching of Recovering Grace. It hardly seems possible that a little over two years ago, our website was only a germ of an idea being shared among a large number of former students of Bill Gothard and his Advanced Training Institute and Institute […]

Gothard’s Biblical Inoculation

18 July 2013, 06:00

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Question: How do you ensure that your children don’t catch a deadly disease? Simple…inoculate them. In the 1700s, it was discovered that dipping a needle into the pus of a smallpox blister and then inserting that same needle into a healthy person prevented them from getting the disease. The infected dose was large enough for […]

A True Shepherd’s Heart

11 July 2013, 06:00

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My family joined the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) when I was 13 years old. My dad was a pastor and my parents had been familiar with the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP), the Basic Seminar, and the Advanced Seminar for many years, so when their homeschooling friends told them about ATI and its “new […]