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Tag Archives: courtship

Finding the Key

18 January 2012, 06:00

Ileata

When my husband and I were courting, we carefully set our “line” of physical touch. There would be no kissing until our wedding day; handholding was ok after we were engaged. Yes, we were following the “courtship model,” albeit loosely. We had been friends and had a lot contact before we were officially courting. We […]

The Thing About Purity

12 January 2012, 08:30

Moderator

The funny thing about purity is how the pursuit of it drove so many people into utter promiscuity. Odd statement, I know. But let me explain. It wasn’t the concept of being or remaining pure that led me to that room where I reached the pinnacle of my self-destruction one night. It was a process […]

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

10 January 2012, 06:45

Moderator

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 […]

My Life in ATI, part three

13 December 2011, 06:00

DavidA

Courtship? After ALERT, our family moved to North Carolina. I had a crush on a girl back in Texas and told my Dad about it. My Dad thought that our personalities were not compatible, but I was insistent, so he told her father about it. The girl’s father said that they would be attending a […]

Life Unexpected

5 December 2011, 06:00

Cyndi

Having been raised for 13 years in the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) home school program I was confident of a successful marriage. I followed the formula. I waited for God’s Best. I saved my first kiss until after engagement (though I’m sure I should have saved it for the wedding day). I had my parents’ […]

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 […]

Once a Child Always a Child???

31 October 2011, 06:00

Moderator

When I was 15, a lifelong dream was fulfilled–I finally got to go to a Bill Gothard seminar. My parents had been going annually for years and I was ecstatic that I was old enough to attend. When my parents first went, they were astonished at the practical nature of Gothard’s teachings. He had a […]

Courtship Covenants

20 October 2011, 06:35

Moderator

What is a Courtship Covenant? A young girl walks down the aisle of a crowded church. She’s wearing a lovely white dress, and the pastor and her father are waiting up at the front… is she about to be married? No, she is making a public commitment to courtship in this very wedding-like […]

Breeding Relational Immaturity

18 October 2011, 06:00

admin

It is no secret that Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) have a bizarre outlook on male/female relationships. In a world where falling in love means losing a piece of your heart forever, relationships are a spiritual distraction, and in a place where marriage is a last resort, it is no […]

Broken Glass

19 September 2011, 07:00

Wendy B

As I am going through this process of recognizing and healing from the effects of growing up with IBLP/ATI, I find that daily life can often draw parallels to what I am feeling internally. I was washing a window in my kitchen today and realized that one of them is broken. It is pointless to […]