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

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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 […]

Vow vs. Relationship

1 December 2011, 06:31

Moderator

I was saved at the age of 5. I remember where I was and the basic content of the conversation with my dad that led up to me accepting the gift of eternal life. Over the next 8 years, I don’t remember many specifics about my life as a Christian. I do remember a hunger […]

They Will Know You Are Christians… By Your Standards?

29 October 2011, 05:00

Julie Terrell

There is an abundance of teaching within the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) about “high places”–about the danger of putting things in the place of God and our relationship with Him. But isn’t this exactly what has happened with our “standards” and “character”? In a recent conversation with […]

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 […]

A Jonah Tale

11 October 2011, 06:05

admin

In the latter part of the 1990s, I spent the better part of two years working at the Oklahoma City Training Center (OTC). I worked primarily with Character First! Education (CFE), specifically going into the local schools and teaching the curriculum to mostly low-income children. While I now see some of the flawed philosophy behind […]

A Tale of Two Abigails

7 October 2011, 08:57

MatthewS

The first Abigail is a wise and beautiful hero, an inspiration to women and men everywhere. Her quick thinking, deliberate action, and diplomatic speech saved many lives. We meet this Abigail in a delightful story told in 1 Samuel 15. Sadly, many of us raised under the Institute in Basic Life Principles and ATI’s teachings […]

Sweeping the Stairs: An Exercise in Will-Breaking

27 September 2011, 06:15

Moderator

It was 1995. I was 20 years old. I had recently arrived at the Moscow Training Center in Moscow, Russia, and was eager to begin my first day of “ministry.” I was assigned to the housekeeping detail. The woman in charge was giving me instructions for sweeping a flight of stairs at the training center, […]

“Just Get Over It”

22 September 2011, 06:04

Moderator

Imagine that you and I are in a horrific car accident. Our car is “T-boned” on the driver’s side. We roll down an embankment and land topside down. Our vehicle is in the ditch, making it hard for other drivers to see that we are in trouble. Finally, a police officer sees the wreck, stops, […]

My ITC Prison Sentence, Part 3

20 September 2011, 06:15

JessicaF

The assignments I was given when I was confined to the prayer room at the Indianapolis Training Center (ITC) were all intended to make me aware of my sin and failure. For example, I was to write a two-page description of my sins, how they affected others, and the specific ways that God was using […]

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 […]