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

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Stories and accounts of the destruction caused by the teachings of Bill Gothard.

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A Legalist Goes Shopping

28 January 2012, 06:00

Moderator

I was musing over how a legalistic mindset makes life more difficult, and wrote the following illustration: Rebecca walks into the shoe store. She needs church shoes. She’s uncomfortable; the first salesman to see her is male. He walks toward her. She immediately does a mental check of her outfit to make sure it’s modest: […]

Clear as Mud

11 January 2012, 06:00

RyanR

Several years after I ended my formal association with IBLP (the Institute in Basic Life Principles), I did something wrong. What it was isn’t the point of this article. At first I didn’t think much about it, but later that evening, I began to feel guilty. Very guilty. As I had been trained to think […]

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 […]

The Glory of Hair

9 January 2012, 06:00

Moderator

Gothard was not shy about what he found to be attractive on a woman’s head–long hair, soft curls. I heard girls reacting to that all the time. There were girls who couldn’t get their hair to hold a curl. One friend said to me, “Look how limp my hair is, and I had it all […]

The Gift of Imagination~

24 December 2011, 06:00

Moderator

Ever since I was very young, my life has been filled with villainous plots, daring escapes, and heroic feats. It’s all in my head, of course; I am a champion daydreamer. Most girls go through a horse-loving phase early in life, but not me: I didn’t want a horse. I wanted a flying unicorn. We […]

The Gift of Peace

19 December 2011, 04:00

Ileata

I was lying in a hospital bed recovering from an emergency D&C. I had given birth to a beautiful baby that morning in a free-standing birth center with a midwife. After he was born, things had gotten complicated. His placenta had grown into the muscle wall of my uterus and wouldn’t detach. So, after some […]

Keeping Up Appearances.

21 November 2011, 06:00

Moderator

I am a survivor of Gothardism. I fully believe ATI is a twisted system of unrealistic rules and regulations. Even more, it gives abusive parents the tools and justification they need to rationalize their behavior. Let me start at the beginning. I went to public school from preschool through first grade. After that, my family […]

Circumcision and Victory Over Sin

18 November 2011, 06:00

Ileata

I went to my first Basic Seminar when I was 12. My family enrolled in The Advanced Training Institute (ATI) three years later. It was about seven years after that when I began having serious problems with the teachings of Bill Gothard. Oddly enough, my doubting started because of the Institute’s teaching on circumcision. I […]

Spiritual Gifts

11 November 2011, 06:00

DavidM

In the Advanced Training Institute (ATI), your spiritual gift often became part of your identity. “I am a mercy,” or “I am a prophet,” became commonplace statements which people used to identify and explain themselves. I still vividly remember encountering Mr. Gothard’s teachings on spiritual gifts in the Advanced Seminar. I really latched onto this […]

Promises, Promises…

4 November 2011, 06:00

RickH

How Do I Stop? Which one of us does not want to stop mistreating our families? Which one of us does not want to stop “raising our voices” at our children or spouse? To stop allowing our eyes to wander and our hearts to lust? The list could go on.Who wants to say, “No, actually, […]