Posted on 02/28/2014 6:59:58 AM PST by Gamecock
(RNS) Bill Gothard, an Illinois-based advocate for home-schooling and conservative dress and who warned against rock music and debt, has been placed on administrative leave after allegations of sexually harassing women who worked at his ministry and failing to report child abuse cases.
Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles was once a popular gathering spot for thousands of Christian families, including the Duggar family from TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting.” Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute conferences were also popular among devotees of the Quiverfull movement, who promote large families and eschew birth control.
He’s also rubbed shoulders with Republican luminaries. He and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee were photographed at a campaign lunch together; former Georgia Gov. Sunny Perdue spoke at one of Gothard’s conferences; and Sarah Palin, when she was a small town mayor in Alaska, attended his International Association of Character Cities conferences and declared Wasilla among Gothard’s “Cities of Character.”
In a statement posted Thursday, board chairman Billy Boring told World magazine: “After completion of the review, the board will respond at an appropriate time, and in a biblical manner.” Until then, the statement said, Gothard “will not be involved in the operations of the ministry. The board of directors will be prayerfully appointing interim leadership.”
Gothard is 79 and single.
The allegations against Gothard dovetail financial woes. In recent years, IBLP’s net revenue has dropped significantly, and the ministry is losing money. In 2009, it reported a net income loss of $1 million. It lost $4.1 million in 2011, and $3.5 million in 2012, according to its most recently available tax forms. Its net assets dropped from $92 million in 2010 to $81 million in 2012.
Since it started as a class at Gothard’s alma mater, Wheaton College, in 1961, more than 2.5 million people have gone through his “basic seminar” training on authority, success and other issues. IBLP held 504 seminars in 2010, but that number dropped to fewer than 50 in 2012.
The financial decline came around the same time that the whistle-blowing website Recovering Grace was formed in 2011. A string of allegations have been posted on the website, including one alleging Gothard molested a woman who was underage in the early 1990s. Four articles allege Gothard engaged in sexual harassment, and four articles allege his failure to report child abuse to Child Protective Services.
Calls placed to IBLP Thursday were not immediately returned.
Gretchen Swearingen, who goes by her middle name “Charlotte,” wrote on the website that Gothard requested she come work for him in 1992 at IBLP’s headquarters in Oakbrook, Ill., when she was 16. During her time there, she said Gothard would play footsie with her and hold her hand. At one point, she said, he had coordinated a ride from the airport to be together. “That’s when he first put his hand between my legs and felt me all the way up,” she wrote.
Now 38, she said the statute of limitations has expired, leaving her unable to sue. She said she told her mother, who told her that she was lying, so Swearingen assumed there was nothing she could do.
“No one was there when the molestation was happening,” she said in an interview. “I never had the guts to say anything. I thought if my mother didn’t believe me, who would? You’re not to bring home false witness against someone at headquarters.”
She said that she and her mother have reconciled since she wrote her story piece.
Swearingen said she reported her story to the Hinsdale (Ill.) Police Department a week ago. A police spokesman said no investigation has been opened at this time.
“It’s not about revenge, not about suing him or taking him to court,” she said. “It’s about my healing and giving other people voices.”
Gothard would create an emotional bond with several women during counseling, said Rachel Frost, who also worked at IBLP’s headquarters when she was 16, but was not harassed.
“There was a very common grooming pattern of creating emotional bonds and physical affirmations, the footsie, the leg rubs, the stroking of the hair, the constant comments on physical appearance,” she said.
She also wrote about her experience on the Recovering Grace website.
Julie Terrell, another woman who worked at IBLP’s headquarters, said Gothard sexually harassed her when she worked there in 1998. But before stories were posted at Recovering Grace, she never thought to say anything.
One woman behind the Recovering Grace website, who declined to be named because she did not want to hurt the reputation of her husband who is a pastor, said 34 women claimed sex harassment and four women alleged molestation. She said she refers anyone whose story is within the statute of limitations to the police.
IBLP is not the only institution in more conservative evangelical circles currently under scrutiny.
Last year, another prominent homeschooling leader, Doug Phillips, stepped down from his ministry that shut down after he acknowledged an extramarital relationship. The New Republic recently published a piece on Patrick Henry College, a school popular among homeschooling families, suggesting that the college had failed to report sexual abuse. In a statement, the college took issue with some of the allegations made in the piece.
Earlier this month, Bob Jones University, which started popular curricula for homeschooling families, fired and then rehired an independent firm to investigate sex abuse reports just one month before the group planned to release its 13-month review findings.
I have a deep suspicion for:
-Parachurch agencies that are built on current fads
-Parachurch agencies that do not exist to proclaim Jesus as their primary mission
Likewise, I'm suspicious of those that are not partnered with a local church or denomination.
Are there any organizations that are good? Where did the mandate to “organize” come from?
Couldn’t agree more.
30-35 years ago I knew a number of people who got caught up in Gothard’s special brand of legalism. People who aren’t Bereans aren’t likely to be discerning. I’d like to know what has happened to some of those families.
I recall those basic youth conflicts seminars from when I was in a christian high school.
What put me off them was that there was a directive to the seminar goers not to disclose what was said in the seminars.
Needless to say, I never went to any of them.
It was after school for Monday through Friday, and all day Saturday.
Gothardism is a brain-washing cult.
I’ve seen hundreds of lives ruined by their participation in the teachings of their “Institute,” and I have endured the oppression from these people in a church we were members of. It has corrupted many Christian denominations and homeschooling groups.
Read some of their stories:
Recoveringgrace.org
Beware of getting on just any site, however, for the Gothard geeks have put bugs on many.
Gothard was good for business wherever his taught his seminars; at least it was good for psychologists and psychiatrists.
There are some good organizations out there, for sure, and some good teaching from them, but more and more it seems that these leaders have become full of themselves. Just like many of the mega-church pastors who have started making their own doctrines more important than Scripture, they eventually fall pray to their own devices. You can only fool people so long before it becomes obvious that something is wrong. The worst part is that most these leaders make excuses for themselves and make others submit to secrecy...so that the media doesn’t distort “things”.
Personally, I think it is time to get really connected to a local church that you like, would like to minister in and with, and forget most of the TV evangelists, etc. When “tshtf” these big guys are going away and the local church will be the one still in business in some way. Local churches can do a lot for the needy and for God’s Kingdom. It also helps to stabilize the community one lives in. We may need to all take our local churches out of the tax exempt status to survive, so it behooves us to make sure buildings are paid off, bills are current, etc. That way we can afford to stay in the business of saving souls and caring for the needy.
We make a mistake when we put any human on a pedestal. They will surely disappoint us.
I think we also make a mistake when we point out the "mote in our brother's eye."
Alex Murphy wrote: Likewise, I'm suspicious of those that are not partnered with a local church or denomination.
I am leery of any Christian leader who is reluctant to be put under strong accountability. Bill Gothard, Doug Phillips, and other fallen Christian leaders have a tendency to put yes-men on their boards. The results are predictable.
I can understand why parachurch ministries may want to avoid denominational distinctives. They often have messages directed to the Church as a whole and not just one aspect of Christ's Body.
Agree 100%. One of my relatives is a preacher. He’s had a problem with the huge building programs (youth centers, giant church buildings) that involve the church taking out debt. His argument is that having the debt and having to pay a note on that prevents the preacher from really preaching the gospel. If the preacher offends people bu speaking out against divorce, homosexuality or the like, they’ll take their tithes elsewhere. ‘My little Johnny was BORN that way, he is NOT going to hell!’. etc.
At the time our family thought he was just being a spoilsport. Turns out he may have been right about that.
Is it possible that the accusations are untrue? I have met this man and heard his teachings. I have also heard many, many false accusations against him.
Thank God, my salvation does not depend on Bill Gothard’s righteousness. He is just a fallible human being. But based on my encounters with him, I would not listen to accusations that are not supported by strong evidence.
I will say however, as a minister, he should never, ever put himself in a situation of being alone, counseling (or otherwise) with teenage girls. For someone who puts a strong emphasis on wisdom, he would be very unwise to allow this, even if the policy was merely to protect him from false allegations.
I can’t speak to this man’s character or the veracity of the charges, but I believe some of his teachings were extreme legalism that turned a loving relationship with God into a legalistic set of rules.
This is similar to many cults - mormonism comes to mind.
That too!
If you want to know what his teachings are, get on the site and read:
www.recoveringgrace.org
Thanks for your voice in this wilderness. God used Bill Gothard in my life: I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior on Friday evening of a week-long Basic Youth seminar (I was 28 at the time) in 1977. Whether or not Bill Gothard has always obeyed his Lord (and who has?), he has certainly accomplished much for Him.
I am already very familiar with his teachings and have read quite a bit from the website you posted as well.
Bill Gothard is just a man. I have carefully compared what he teaches with scriptures and believe most of what he says is well-founded on the Bible. When it comes to the basic tenets of the Christian faith and basic Bible doctrines, it lines up with mainstream Christian doctrine. His ministry is far from being a cult in terms of doctrine.
The grievances against him or his ministry may have validity. I have seen some of what is described first-hand in terms of people who participate in the home school program and other parts of that ministry. They tend to be way out of mainstream in their lifestyle, sort of like the Amish and similar groups. But I do not see that as necessarily a bad thing. These same people are very loving and self-sacrificial.
The problems I have seen tend to be from those who do not have a desire to be part of the ministry but are forced to because of their families being in it; and also many of the participants are focused on the outward conformity to rules without really comprehending the much more important issues of being transformed inwardly by their relationship with Christ.
I personally will continue to hold Bill Gothard in high regard as someone who spent his entire life seeking to serve God and help others in a very self-sacrificial way. I am convinced he is a true brother in Christ and will pray for him as well as those making these accusations. If Bill Gothard sinned in the ways being claimed, God will discipline him. But his trials are not necessarily a testament to his guilt.
May God’s mercy be upon those who are humble, merciful and truthful. May His judgment be upon those who are proud, liars and unforgiving.
Well, I agree with your last two sentences. My knowledge of Bill Gothard’s teaching is first hand, not from the website that has helped expose him. Bill Gothard has finally been exposed, although it has taken 20 years.
He will most certainly fall under God’s judgment for his aberrant teaching and legalism, as well as his own perversions and covering up his brother’s perversions within their so-called ministry—just as Jesus pronounced judgment upon the Pharisees of His day, so it will be with Bill Gothard.
“Bill Gothard has finally been exposed, although it has taken 20 years.”
I am not sure how this constitutes him being exposed. There is a fairly high standard for evaluating accusations against fellow believers. Rejoicing in his being “exposed”, failure, or being removed from leadership seems a lot more like what anti-Christian groups do... groups like abortion promoters, atheists, homosexual activists, and socialists.
Show me one teaching he has that is clearly against the teaching of the Bible. I can list many of the Mormon doctrines which do not stand up to scrutiny even without being very familiar with that group. If you compare a Bible teacher to a cult leader, you should be able to identify the specific teaching that is heretical. This generic accusation of legalism and Pharisee-ism is nothing. You could be called the same thing for being against homosexuality. Paul could be called legalistic for all the moral instruction he wrote in his epistles. Bill Gothard has opinions that I personally disagree with in some cases, but that does not make him a false teacher, because my opinion is also just an opinion. I don’t know two Christians who agree on everything. That does not mean everyone is a false teacher who has a mistaken view on a subject.
One Christian may think modesty requires a hemline below the knee while another thinks a few inches higher is fine. Another may think there is no universal measure. Every one of these is an opinion because the Bible does not explicitly define modesty in such terms. Believers can disagree about things like this as long as they are focused on Christ. A believer who thinks they should dress a certain way, ought to do so and not judge and condemn others who do not. A believer who does not accept such standards should follow Christ and try not to cause other believers to stumble in their liberty. Unless someone is claiming that their standard is necessary to be saved, then they are just holding an opinion and are not a heretic or enemy of Christ. Therefore we are supposed to have tolerance for those believers with whom we disagree.
“his own perversions”
You will be judged by the standard you are setting for him. I read a lot of accusations against Bill Gothard and do not see any that constitute what is Biblically a perversion. I would like to meet the man who could boldly look me in the eye and claim he has never committed the sin of adultery in his heart. A true believer in Christ should be grieved at learning of the sin of a Christian leader rather than gloating and rejoicing in it like the enemies of God do.
“as Jesus pronounced judgment upon the Pharisees of His day, so it will be with Bill Gothard”
To call a believer a Pharisee is itself a serious offense. The Pharisees plotted to murder Christ. They had zero compassion, mercy or effort in helping those who were trapped by sin. The Pharisees who refused to repent at Christ’s teaching are in hell. Bill Gothard spent many, many years putting his life in danger working with inner city gangs in Chicago before beginning this IBLP ministry. And in that ministry he has spent many years serving in a very sacrificial way from everything I have seen. The fruit of his ministry includes many thousands of people professing faith in Christ, many broken marriages being restored, many people overcoming bitterness, and many other positive evidences of a real God-ordained ministry. These things do not match the life or attitude of the Pharisees that plotted to kill Christ.
I am not minimizing the accusations against him, but the things you are saying lead me to believe that you despise the moral standards he advocates and are therefore glad that he failed to live up to them himself (apparently or supposedly), so you can gloat and proclaim how God is judging and will judge him. That is an extremely foolish position for you to publicly stake as a believer in Christ.
I am sad to hear someone who is a prominent leader among evangelical Christians has been removed from ministry due to accusations of immorality. Whether they are true or untrue, it is a sad day. I am also even more saddened to see fellow believers like yourself celebrate this as if it is something to rejoice in.
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