Have you Shiny Happy People? Looking for more info? Start here.

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

Personal testimonies of finding true freedom through God's matchless grace.

Living and thriving through the grace of God.

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

Tag Archives: manipulation

Trapped in the Shadow of ‘God’s Anointed’: Breaking free from an Unbiblical Concept

5 May 2014, 06:00

Moderator

379

  As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you…and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. —The Apostle John — 1 John 2:27 [NASB] You may have heard someone tell you God “anointed” him or her to be your leader. Or, perhaps, someone else pointed to another […]

Speaking Up Late in the Day

3 May 2014, 08:48

Moderator

77

Over the past two weeks and previous two Aprils, Recovering Grace has focused on personal narratives by former Advanced Training Institute (ATI) alumni who endured sexual assault, abuse, or harassment in the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) subculture, sometimes within a context of broader physical abuse, and almost always within a context of spiritual […]

Twelve Characteristics of Fundamentalist Societies that Shelter Sexual Abuse

30 April 2014, 09:00

Moderator

163

How could he have fooled so many people, so thoroughly? How did the abuse go on for so many years, unacknowledged? Whenever a leader at this level is ousted or steps down, questions like these come to mind. In the wake of revelations of sexual harassment and abuse pouring in from survivors of Bill Gothard’s […]

A Long Night’s Journey Through the ATI / IBLP System

24 April 2014, 06:00

Moderator

213

I grew up in Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute of America (ATIA, later renamed ATI) home school program from 1985 through 2005 — twenty years! I worked at five different Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) training centers run by Bill Gothard and his staff, as well as working at IBLP Headquarters in Oak Brook, […]

How Could This Happen Here?

15 April 2014, 08:42

Moderator

101

Recovering Grace will observe Sexual Assault Awareness Month for the remainder of April.   In April 2012 and 2013, we published some very difficult stories of sexual abuse in ATI [Advanced Training Institute] families. Some critics objected that these families were extreme outliers within the program, and that ATI and IBLP have never condoned sexual […]

Was It All Wrong?

27 March 2014, 06:00

Moderator

261

Okay, now we have left the legalist church/organization/teacher. Now what? Where do we stand? Do we throw out everything we learned? How do we sort out all of this? Does it all just need to go? I have been getting a lot of these questions lately. Doug Phillips and Vision Forum are gone. Bill Gothard […]

LA Committee Questions to IBYC

20 March 2014, 06:00

Moderator

219

Realization, Fear, and Action without Acquiescence: Joy Wood’s Story

13 March 2014, 06:00

Moderator

65

Joy and her daughters, c. 1980

Editor’s Note: Joy Wood, an IBYC staff wife from 1974–1980, tells in today’s post of her and her husband’s time with the Institute, and of their resignation when asked to promote “lies of omission” after the 1980 scandal broke. This narrative, combined with Joy’s reflections composed shortly after her family left IBYC, records a journey […]

Robin’s Story

10 March 2014, 06:00

Moderator

197

I had a smattering of random dots on a field of a thousand points. Reading the testimony of “Meg” a few weeks ago allowed me to connect some of those dots for the first time in 21 years. Her story struck a cold pang in my heart when it dawned on me that she was […]

The GOTHARD Files: Failure to Reconcile 1981–ATI, part two

8 March 2014, 06:00

Moderator

120

Today’s post is a continuation of yesterday’s article. Accountability The LA Committee was launching its own massive last-ditch effort to hold Bill accountable. Using their personal funds, the committee drafted a unified letter dated January 19, 1981, with a list of 28 questions they wanted answered, stating that in spite of their removal from seminar […]