http://www.recoveringgrace.org/gothardfiles/
Posted on 08/26/2014 10:53:34 AM PDT by DariusBane
“same one Catholics use to defend their pederast priest...”
Human nature stinks - have you heard of original sin? Does your denomination escape this or are your “elders” perfect?
Nobody is perfect. However, every denomination I’ve attended with there’s immorality, the person, lay, elder, or pastor, is removed.
It’s not covered up and hidden by those in charge. Church discipline is practiced and in the case of adultery by the pastor, his credentials were revoked.
... It’s not covered up...”
Of course there is cover up. Human nature tends to sin.
This is separate from purity of doctrine.
True teaching is divorced from our fallen natures.
Heather apparently does not have one legitimate complaint, rather than imagined ones, from what she has written in the article. From it, we are only hearing one self-serving view (neglecting yours), so far fictional according to reliable investigators.
Despite your allegation, your responses are the evasive ones, not mine.
I am not the subject nor the author, nor the compiler of any article i have cited.. Your attempt to make me the subject of this thread will be frustrating for you.
Then keep your venom to yourself.
No venom. But thanks for your opinion.
I’ve been busy the last two days....
... first time I saw this article.
Thank you for posting it.
BTW, the first time I ever saw a Gothard publication (about 20 years ago), I was struck by how I could NOT NOT NOT ...
...find an author’s name, a city of publication or a name of a publisher.
I was suspicious of Gothard from that point on... the more I dug into his teaching, the worse it looked.
His evil Scripture twisting has come home to roost.
You are being lazy.
Period.
I hope you punched your time card for your loyal work here.
I doubt if you are NOT on the Gothard payroll.
http://www.recoveringgrace.org/gothardfiles/
I think his materials are authored by 15 year old girls at minimum wage who work overtime but are not paid overtime.
Did Gothard finally get fired or not?
Yup that’s what I thought and why I didn’t cooperate with him.
The tactic he is using is not subtle but works like this:
Ignore the issues at hand. Create lines of questions designed to discredit the messenger. Churn, spin, throw chum in the water until nobody even remembers why the conversation started.
So I would not play with him, and figure he is a staffer, or former staffer or even legal council to BG.
Individual witnesses reported that in the late ’70s, when Bill was visiting the Northwoods, he would wait until all the staff ladies had gone to bed, and then he would knock on their door to give them a long good night hug while they were dressed in their night gowns. Ruth often said how much all the girls hated it, but felt powerless to stop it. Ruth’s writings contain this quote, “Bill treated staff women with a level of intimacy only appropriate in marriage and did discuss marriage with several women. He did so without consulting the parents, even though he teaches in the seminar that this is an evidence of a man with questionable motives. What good purpose could Bill have had in discussing marriage with more than one woman? If this was a means of creating loyalty to himself, it is not one we believe God can bless.” It was only after leaving IBYC that Ruth discovered that Bill had used the same technique of discussing marriage in a non-committal way with several other women during the same time period he was discussing it with her.
By this point Ruth had worked at the Institute for 7½ years. Bill had interfered with every relationship she had attempted, yet he failed to move to a point of commitment. He hinted at marriage, discouraged or forbade all other relationships, and left her stuck in emotional “never-never land.” Ruth writes, “I was threatened with demotion by Bill Gothard in 1978 when I asked him to emotionally free me to date and seek to build relationships with men other than him.”
After years of working as Bill’s personal secretary, Ruth fell out of favor with Bill after an emotional breakdown. The psychological control he held over her and the way he kept her reliant on him and his “rhemas” were taking their toll on her mentally and emotionally. As a result of her breakdown she told me she felt like she was punished by being demoted. She was given a choice: she could work as a clerk in the registration department (an entry level position) or leave Headquarters and go to the Northwoods property and work for Bill’s brother. Ruth writes, “Even after I told Bill about the moral pressures I faced from previous visits to the Northwoods, he pressured me to relocate there.” This was a fateful decision that would have her working with an immoral man and land her in the middle of one of the most grievous cases of widespread sexual harassment and abuse in a Christian ministry.
http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2014/02/ruths-story/
Accepting the position in 1979 was in God’s gracious plan; He knew that Ruth and I would reconnect and get married, and for me to understand all she had been through I needed to see it for myself. It gave me the background to help her regain her spiritual and emotional freedom as she left the Institute. Even after leaving the Institute Ruth found it very difficult to make decisions. Shortly after we were married she passed out in a grocery store while trying to decide which product to purchase. Even to go to the mailbox, in our rural setting, she had to get dressed up; the Institute’s requirement of appearance had been so strongly drilled into her that it was hard to break free from the Institute’s bondage.
Ruth, Matt, Any, Larne 1992I had the privilege to hold her hand as she walked through her final journey after she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer at 37 years old. When Ruth was diagnosed with advanced, aggressive cancer at such a young age, her doctors told her it was most likely exposure to intense stress that predisposed her to this particular form of cancer. She had not experienced anything as stressful as her ten-year employment with IBYC from 1970–80. Together we endured a grueling four-year battle as she bravely fought for her life. She filled my life with love, taught me how to communicate better, and blessed me with two beautiful children. They were 9 and 11 when she went home to be with the Lord after losing her battle with cancer. She never got to see them grow up—a regret we all feel deeply.
As I close, I want to share a paper that I found a few years ago in Ruth’s handwriting. I don’t know if it was the start of a letter to Bill, a journal entry, or maybe something to add to her barely-started book. Whatever its purpose, she bared her soul. For thirteen years she was tormented by nightmares revolving around her experiences at IBYC until just before she died.** Oak Brook was hell on earth for Ruth, but today she walks on streets of gold, bathed in the warmth and light of our loving God and His Son, Jesus.
What makes me angry is that Charles Stanely, Bob Jones, Gary Smally and others stuck up and protect BG for political reasons, and because they believed in his ministry. Absolutely disgraceful.
Big ministry and big bucks, the professional ministry environment is absolutely toxic.
Yes, he might be a professional BG hitman.
The sad thing is, there seem to be plenty of people ready, willing and able to pick up Gothard’s “mantle” and continue his teachings.
My first disagreement with GOthard had to do with legalism. Then in the early 90s when the internet got cookin’, it became MUCH easier to get the Gothard materials for research.
(For interested readers here, I mention that for many many years, it was IMPOSSIBLE to even get any Gothard books and materials WITHOUT going to the “Seminar”. It was impossible to compare and contrast his teachings.
I successfully stayed away from all but one “Seminar”, but received hours and hours of pleading and encouragements that I should attend even more and more of them.
The Gothard cult is one of the worst dark spots on the modern American church.
Who’s a Goatherd and who gives a Shiite?
My sentiments entirely. But a whole bunch of poor well meaning but misguided people held and hold Mr. Gothard in the highest possible regard.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.