Bill Gothard earned a bachelor's and master's degree at Wheaton College. His also has a fake PhD. His brother Steve.
Here is an account of Bill and Steve's abuse - Biblical Search Reports.
The method of selected young women for work at the headquarters - and grooming them - is described here.
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| Josh and Anna Duggar met at a Gothard conference, the Duggar family was extremely loyal to Gothard's training. Josh was sent for "treatment" to a Gothard location in Little Rock. |
I was vaguely aware of the Duggar connection to Gothard, and Gothard's scandals, but I am not bewitched by the Evangelicals and their Pietim.
The alarm bell went off when I read how Josh and Anna Duggar met, although they were careful to omit the Gothard name or even the full name of the group.
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| Bill Gothard never married, but used youth women as unpaid, poorly paid or paying staff, isolating and grooming them. |
Josh and Anna Duggar Website
Josh: In early 2006, my Dad was campaigning for State Senate. We were a couple weeks from the Primary Election when my family took our annual trip to the ATI Conference. I was busy working with the A/V team, and had very little free time… but during one of the breaks I ended up talking through my lunch break with some new friends!…
Anna: …My siblings & I enjoyed meeting Joshua,
[a year later]
Anna: Our family made the trip from Florida to Texas again to attend our annual ATI Conference.
[a year later]
Anna: Our family made the trip from Florida to Texas again to attend our annual ATI Conference.
Advanced Training Institute is the final name for Gothard's non-profit behemoth for training Fundamentalist home-schoolers. Another name is Institute in Biblical Life Principles.
Bill's brother Steve resigned from the IBLP when Steve's many affairs with institute secretaries were revealed. Bill resigned too - for three weeks - and came back.
ATI/IBLP
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Various authors have documented Martin Stephan having the same kind of sex cult and robotic followers as Bill Gothard. Stephan made sure he was accompanied by young woman on late evening strolls through the woods.
Stephan contracted syphilis and gave it to his wife, children, and groupies. That was the real crisis that allowed CFW Walther to realize - with a shock - that his bishop was an adulterer.
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ATI/IBLP
Founding
The Advanced Training Institute International was founded in 1984 by the Institute in Basic Life Principles![Offsite Link]( "Offsite Link")
through the vision of Bill Gothard![Offsite Link]( "Offsite Link")
. It began as the answer to the request of Basic Seminar alumni who desired to train their children in the Biblical principles that had transformed their lives.
through the vision of Bill Gothard. It began as the answer to the request of Basic Seminar alumni who desired to train their children in the Biblical principles that had transformed their lives.One hundred and two families were selected from over 2,000 who applied to pilot the program. They met together with Bill in the north woods of Michigan for a week of planning and made commitments to turn life into a classroom and use Scripture as the main textbook for studying every academic subject.
[GJ - Brother Steve had his affairs with secretaries at the North Woods campus, and Bill sent them to him "to help with the curriculum."]
***
GJ - The Duggar family shows made me uneasy about their strange language and behavior. Josh explained, lamely, the concept of "defrauding," which rang hollow to me. The Gothard material shows how Bill Gothard used his special cult language and shaming to cultivate and manipulate the young women who appealed to him. Defrauding came up as one of his favorite terms, easily used in various ways.
If you find Jim Bob annoying, who covered up his son's abuse, you will see that his dogma comes directly from the Gothard cult.
The Duggar clan was just getting noticed and have specials when Josh's abuse of his sisters came up, due to Oprah's program refusing to run their tape, after warned of the scandal. Oprah's referral to authorities led to an investigation, and the police report details are on the Net.
Book - A Matter of Basic Principles
Sometime around 1964, Gothard was invited to teach a course on youth ministry at Wheaton. Forty-five students attended, including pastors, youth workers, and educators. The materials he presented at the time became the foundation for his seminars. In 1966, Gothard presented a seminar to 1,000 people in the Chicago area. He repeated the performance in 1967 and held his first out-of-town seminar in Seattle for 42 in 1968. Gothard’s new organization, the IBYC, was born. The Ministry Takes Off From such small beginnings, it was difficult to see the great popularity he would enjoy down the road. His combined attendance for all his seminars in 1968 was actually around 2,000. But then things really took off! As Wilfred Bockelman later would report in his book, Gothard — The Man and His Ministry: An Evaluation, “In 1969 there were around 4,000; 1971, 12,000; 1972 over 128,000 including 13,000 in the Seattle Coliseum; in 1973 more than 200,000.”12 Before you could say, “post-Watergate social malaise,” Gothard’s public career had outlasted that of most major rock-and-roll stars, including the Beatles (as a group), and his live audiences were at least as huge as those at rock concerts. Churches in every city, town, and hamlet in America were taking their young people to his seminars by the busload. Little bands of three-ring-binder-toting Gothard disciples sprang up on college and university campuses across the country. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 618-631). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition.
What was the nature of the “gross immorality” which shocked Samuel Schultz, former professor at Wheaton College and Institute board member since 1965, as well as the other board members? Bill’s brother, Steve Gothard, Institute employee and a vice-president, had been involved in sexual affairs with seven of the Institute secretaries. In fact, a total of 15 people were involved in sexual immorality — a very bad (and sad) situation in any Christian organization and particularly so for one whose primary emphasis is high moral character. The scandal that rocked the ministry in the early 1980s is not new news. It is a matter of record, having been reported in such Christian periodicals as Christianity Today and such secular media as the Los Angeles Times (some of which will be referenced in this chapter).
Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 719-725). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition.
By all accounts, however, Bill Gothard who is a bachelor, had known for over four years that Steve, who was a bachelor at the time, was having affairs with his secretaries, but he misused his power “at the top” to silence witnesses within the ministry. Instead of dealing with this crisis openly, with the hope of a resultant repentance and restoration, Gothard moved Steve and his “problem” to a remote location — and only when the secretaries publicly brought charges did Gothard remove them from their positions at the Institute. We realize the seriousness of this claim, but the documentation which follows will bear this out. This is the story as it unfolded:
Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 775-780). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition.
Dr. Ronald B. Allen, former professor of Hebrew Scripture at Western Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon (where he taught for 25 years), was very concerned about Bill’s erroneous teachings. He attended a seminar with his wife in 1973. He wrote: In this seminar I was regularly assaulted by the misuse of the Bible, particularly of the Old Testament, on a level that I have never experienced in a public ministry before that time (or since).2 His misgivings about Gothard’s teachings were so great that he spoke with the then president of Western Baptist Seminary, Dr. Earl Radmacher. Dr. Radmacher voiced similar concerns and proposed to set up a meeting with Bill Gothard in an attempt to address these concerns. Bill Gothard declined to meet with Dr. Allen. About this futile attempt at resolution, Allen recalls: Gothard said his instruction is from God and that he will not be instructed by one of Radmacher’s seminary faculty.3
Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 953-963). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition.
Duggar Courtship Law Duplicates Gothard's Law
Nothing is quite so nauseating as Jim Bob's courtship rules, which come directly from Bill Gothard, serial sex offender, dedicated cover-up artist, bully. con-man, false-teaching murderer of souls.
Gothard, like all cult leaders, would declare something to be wrong, evil, and from Satan. Cotton Patch dolls were on that list.
Dating was the font of all evil, so he had people wrecking their families with absurd rules - our family favorite being the side-hug. What was Dear Leader Gothard doing in the rooms, alone, with young girls who were just going to bed and in their jammies or nightgowns?
The Duggars made a sacrament out of No Kissing Before Marriage, with several babies following soon after the ceremony (another sacrament, but not the chief one.). One must recognize in the Duggar-Gothard Church Luther's rule - "They turn Moses into the Savior, and Jesus into Moses."
The Law saves. The more laws, the better. And yet their legalism is accompanied by Antinomianism, just like WELS. Gothard even used the Galatians passage, twisted, "The Law was a tutor, leading us to Christ." No more Law (for Gothard and Duggar) but lots of laws.
As we all know, Josh's parents sent their errant boy to a Gothardfacility to get straightened out, but that was a face-saving device. It hardly amounted to anything. Jim Bob also used a state policeman, a very close friend, to talk to Josh and start the clock ticking on the statute of limitations. The state trooper, now in the hoosegow for child porn (he re-offended, like Josh), never filed a report.
One suspects the parents dealt with lawyers very early. Jim Bob would not let the police interview Josh, which was his right as a father. Jim Bob did not have a duty to report, but their church did, since the molestations happened on church property, a rented house. The state trooper did, but he failed to do so.
The Synodical Conference Parallel
Various authors have documented Martin Stephan having the same kind of sex cult and robotic followers as Bill Gothard. Stephan made sure he was accompanied by young woman on late evening strolls through the woods.
Stephan contracted syphilis and gave it to his wife, children, and groupies. That was the real crisis that allowed CFW Walther to realize - with a shock - that his bishop was an adulterer.
WELS, LCMS, the ELS, and CLC (sic) still lie about Walther's role as a cult follower and self-appointed pope over the movement. All the evidence goes against the Great Walther myth, but it continues to burden the synods and justify victimizing the members.
Did WELS inform its members when DP Ed Werner went to prison for molesting girls in his own congregation, over a span of decades? No.
Did WELS report the theft of St. John in Milwaukee, its property and endowment? No.
The same things could be said about the others. I have some very pointed examples, but they inflict harm on the victims, so there is no need to repeat them. The clergy know many of the stories.
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| Gothard - Stephan - Walther. |