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Bill Gothard, ATI, IBLP, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, Homeschool Curricula
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The Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar family has been a long-time supporter and promoter of Bill Gothard’s ATI homeschool program and foundational program at Institute in Basic Life Principles. Bill Gothard resigned from the Institute in Basic Life Principles in the Spring of 2014.
Gothard’s ministry had been 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 families within the Quiverfull movement, who eschew birth control and promote big families. (Source)
After Gothard’s resignation, it appeared that the Duggars were distancing from the ATI homeschool program. The Duggar family publicly said they were now using Switched-On Schoolhouse (SOS) homeschool materials. Here is an interview Michelle Duggar gave with someone at SOS describing how the SOS program has benefited their family.
Last week, during the height of the Josh Duggar sex abuse scandal, I went to both the IBLP website and connecting ATI website to see if the Duggars were still connected with this organization or homeschool program in any way. I found that they were on the schedule. I waited another week and they are still listed on the schedule.
The Duggars are indeed still connected with IBLP and ATI and are scheduled to speak this summer at conferences. Some of the conferences will be via video; however, we can see in the image below, they are also scheduled to speak live at two events.
This family clearly approves and promotes the materials of Bill Gothard, even after his sexual grooming of 34 known women who have come forward. Something is very wrong here.
Conference Speakers List from IBLP site
On this pdf, you can see that they will be speaking live at ATI Family Conference.
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Spiritual Sounding Board 
Why do I think these people could get away with murder by being praised as examples of grace and redemption?
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Duggars are also scheduled to speak (with family musicl program) and man an IBLP booth at the Colorado Home Educators Conference next week. Also there will be a booth for Alert and Verity College Education among others and I’m not sure about ATI (didn’t check on it). Kevin Swanson is listed as one of the speakers along with R. C Sproul and a few others I’m not acquainted with. Here is a link to it: https://www.rockymountainsuperconference.com/speakers/
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Thank you, Eva. All is well with the Duggars – – – except for those pesky people on social media who keep wanting to dig up old bones. :::sarcasm::::
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WOW, look at the speakers list LOL . Maybe it’s time to buy a RV and start picketing these events like Westboro Baptist does. Even the wife spanker is going to be there. You know this couldn’t get any more surreal then if they announce Josh Dugger will be providing free babysitting at the event. Maybe Ole Jim Bob and Michelle can speak on good touch / bad touch. Unbelievable !
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When you have the parents saying they never said they were a perfect family….and that gets them off the hook of being hypocrites. When you have Jill Duggard ( Dillard) telling People magazine they choose to do the FOX interview because “most of the stuff out there is lies–it’s not truth.” They minimize, deny, and certainly can not tell right from wrong, as they claim. What is it going to take for them to see how much damage has been done, and now the role they are playing in continuing the suffering of others? Biblically, what they are promoting is law, not the gospel.
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Will Sarah Palin be introducing them as Victims of PERSECUTION(TM)? There’s already been newsfeeds about Palin claiming PERSECUTION(TM).
“For all who live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution…”
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Beth Caplin said: “Why do I think these people could get away with murder by being praised as examples of grace and redemption?”
Well, as long as they admitted that they acted “inexcusably” , they probably could.
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HUG said: “Will Sarah Palin be introducing them as Victims of PERSECUTION(TM)?”
Probably. “Persecution” readiness is the cash-crop that the elite feed to the sheltered pewpeons.
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Eva said: Duggars are also scheduled to speak (with family musicl program) and man an IBLP booth at the Colorado Home Educators Conference next week. Also there will be a booth for Alert and Verity College Education among others and I’m not sure about ATI (didn’t check on it). Kevin Swanson is listed as one of the speakers along with R. C Sproul and a few others I’m not acquainted with. Here is a link to it: https://www.rockymountainsuperconference.com/speakers/
Actually, I think it’s R.C. Sproul, Jr. who is also problematic in my book.
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Carmen S. said: When you have the parents saying they never said they were a perfect family….and that gets them off the hook of being hypocrites. When you have Jill Duggard ( Dillard) telling People magazine they choose to do the FOX interview because “most of the stuff out there is lies–it’s not truth.” They minimize, deny, and certainly can not tell right from wrong, as they claim. What is it going to take for them to see how much damage has been done, and now the role they are playing in continuing the suffering of others? Biblically, what they are promoting is law, not the gospel.
You know, I read somewhere (was it SB or TWW, maybe?) that “There is no such thing as a perfect church” is one of the excuses spiritual abusers make to shut down opposition.
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Thanks for noting Jr, not Sr., refugee. Jr is definitely part of the destructive homeschool culture.
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@refugee
Warning in advance…this is a joke: Yes, there is a perfect church! “Only Perfect Church”…OPC…Orthodox Presbyterian, of which I am a member 🙂 All human creatures are fallen, and thus, not perfect. We don’t compare ourselves to each other, but rather to God. Playing the “I’m not perfect, just forgiven” card doesn’t undo consequences for any Christian. Everything the Duggar family is doing is what people in denial do. IF the professional, licensed counselors that the ENTIRE family saw were NOT connected with Bill Gothard, wouldn’t that be simple information to provide? This family needs real help, as do so many others.
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JA, how do we respond to this: “It doesn’t seem right for us to join in with the liberal pundits and other god-haters because we enjoy the sight of blood. I can’t help thinking we are in modern day rome, feeding the Christians to the lions”.
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We have entered a new phase in the total and utter politicization of Christian faith. Now it is not just abortion and homosexuality that are subject to politicization. Grace and redemption have become politicized as well.
Remember when Sarah Palin’s daughter was found pregnant? Well forgive her and extend grace. Don’t mind all that hypocrisy behind the abstinence movement the Palins are fully vested in. Newt Gingrich’s messy divorces and infidelities? Forgive! James Dobson says so. Don’t mind Gingrich’s vicious rhetoric against the proponents of gay marriage.
Can you imagine what would have happened if Obama’s daughters were found pregnant? Or remember the outrage over the Monica Lewinsky scandal? The only qualifier for forgiveness and grace isn’t faith in Jesus, but slavish adherence to right wing conservatism. This smacks of tribalism, not grace and redemption as God intended. Extend grace and forgiveness only to those who align with your politics.
Grace and redemption have become political weapons against liberalism now. It’s time to fold our tents and leave the political arena all together. But I am afraid that it is too late to do that. There are too many people with vested financial and political interests in the status quo.
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Carmen, my response would be that those of us Christians trying to hold the Duggars (and others) responsible for criminal and immoral actions aren’t motivated by a desire to see blood. The desire is to see justice; the tragedy is that we’re being bested by some “god-haters” in this arena.
And also, if we deny justice because it may result in strange bedfellows, aren’t we practicing the situational ethics we claim to depise?
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Washington Post: “In A Duggar World, The Real Victims Take A Back Seat To The Parents” ( Mary DeMuth)
They are not victims of the liberals ( or conservatives). They are simply experiencing the fallout of a very public life, after a very sad situation made its way to the light. Jesus confirmed this when He said, “For all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and made known to all” ( Luke 8:17). Have we considered that this public outing is actually a gift from the creator who loves truth?”
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Carmen, in response to
“It doesn’t seem right for us to join in with the liberal pundits and other god-haters because we enjoy the sight of blood. ”
This whole “Christians vs. Liberals” dichotomy is a non-starter. It is full of assumptions, suppositions, and conclusions based on nothing. The whole conservative-liberal paradigm is a relatively recent western paradigm with full of loaded words. Where did that “conservatives = God loving Christians, liberals = God haters” come from? I must have missed that memo.
So with people who have bought into the dichotomy, the conversation is already dead. Their minds are completely made up, so what is there to talk about? If I may use a buzz word loved by spiritual authority fetishists, they are not “teachable,”
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The Duggars would not be able to answer these questions, which come from another Christian. I suspect they’d find Janet Mefford too Liberal. Anyone putting them under scrutiny is ‘other.’ All they can do is go to events where their fans hang out.
http://janetmefferd.com/2015/06/questions-questions-what-i-would-have-asked-the-duggars/
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This whole situation makes me so angry that I want to smash things.
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David C.
Finally, someone who hit the nail on the head with a sledge hammer. Amen and Alleluia, the sound of resounding truth!
Have we forgotten that Jesus was NOT a Democrat nor a Republican?
Have we forgotten that Jesus was NOT a liberal nor a conservative?
Have we forgotten that Jesus had NO double standards and did not need man’s ways – including the political realm – in calling people to repentance and salvation in Him alone?
When we attempt to politicize Jesus, then we have created another jesus who has become an idol in our thoughts, words, and actions; a mere man, as carnal as we are, instead of God in the flesh. I once had a man get so angry with me, spitting in my face in defending his position that if Jesus were alive today, we would vote Democrat. Of course I was a moralistic Republican at the time, having voted Democrat in during my college years. So I stood my ground with this man, my senior, as I was well read concerning the issues of the day. Then a change occurred in my thinking as I listened and watched……..both sides of the fence……and what I observed broke me of my allegiance to the American political system.
Our LORD led me out of politics long ago for I know too much about the muck, the manure, and the disgusting, gross sin that is alive and well within the Republican party. Little children, be careful what you see…………a song of wisdom.
Psalm 118:8-9
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I am not defending Lena D. because although I haven’t read her book, I am told it shows that she had a pattern of not respecting all kinds of boundaries with her sister. She doesn’t sound like a person I would like. However, I do not think that a seven year old looking at her sister’s genitals out of curiosity once is indicative of pedophilia nor comparable to a fourteen year old repeatedly groping his sisters and the baby sitter.
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Oops that last post was supposed to go on a different thread.
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Dash, I’d like to smash things, too.
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Marsha, go ahead an put it on the thread where you want it and I’ll delete the other one. I’m out playing in CA for the weekend, so I may not be timely.
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Well if you guys want to join me in going full blown loony and SMASH things, may I suggest JD Hall’s computer, Doug Phillips ladder , Sproul’s beer funnel, and Billy Gothard’s false teeth. While you’re at it burn ole Billy’s very bad toupee. That thing looks like a dead cat in some photos.
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Lol, Scott!
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Is In Touch a tabloid? I saw today’s issue on the newsstand, and the whole thing is sensational Duggar news, and not at all complimentary.
Examples from the cover:
– Prison for the Duggars (how their actions of the past could have led them to be arrested)
– Doctor says son can’t be cured
…and more of the same
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in touch is an entertainment and celebrity news magazine thing. I think much closer to tabloid than anything else. Isn’t this the magazine that released the police reports that indirectly identified the victims (which is illegal)? They certainly did not care about the girls at all.
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In Touch obtained the police report legally through Arkansas’ Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). The record was never sealed because the charges were never prosecuted, and Josh was 18 by the time the report was filed. The reports were heavily redacted and did not identify any of the victims by name. Jessa and Jill Duggar (for crying out loud, it’s like a Dr. Seuss rhyme) both chose to identify themselves on Fox News to Megyn Kelly.
Basically, In Touch has played by the book, whatever you may think of their motives, and frankly I’m thrilled they printed this story. It’s an election season, and the Duggars have been cornerstone supporters of a secretive, ultra-conservative Dominionist faction within the Republican party. Even Mike Huckabee is now distancing himself from the Duggars, despite his bold defense a week ago; Jom Duggar’s political endorsement of Huckabee’s candicacy has gone missing from Huckabee’s website.
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*Jim Duggar. Blasted keyboard
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Don’t smash your keyboard, Dash. We need to hear your voice! ~ja
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Amen to what Katy says June 6, 2015 @ 7:43 AM. Personally I have been registered unaffiliated since shortly after August 3, 2007, which the the day I discovered that legislation passed and administered by my political party had landed me on TSA’s terrorist watch list.
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It is not illegal to identify victims of sex crimes. It is a media convention.
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“So with people who have bought into the dichotomy, the conversation is already dead. Their minds are completely made up, so what is there to talk about? If I may use a buzz word loved by spiritual authority fetishists, they are not “teachable,””
your entire comment was spot on. I know many small government proponents who are disgusted with the Duggars. I suppose most who think in terms of liberal or right wing would call those types conservative or right wing , too?
So if one disagrees with the over reach of Obamacare that would have to mean they agree with Sarah Palin and therefore agree the Duggars are being persecuted?
I do not know how this country is ever going to move forward with that sort of dichotmatic thinking.
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@ David C. What drives the religious right is either pre-millennialism or post-millennialism. The Duggars are post-millennial Reconstruction-Dominionists. I am amillennial, and you won’t find that position represented in the political religious right. Liberal-conservative seems to be a false, but very “useful” political dichotomy.
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@Katy
Great verses from Psalm 118.
You know what they say. God created man in his image. So we get to return the favor and create God/Jesus in our image :).
I immigrated from Korea at age 14. In high school, I decided to leave my parents’ Korean church and join an American Evangelical church. I felt that my Korean church held me back from my quest to assimilate into American culture and become serious about living out a Christian life.
Conservative Evangelicalism seemed to fit what I was seeking. Its emphasis on patriotism and also bringing Christ to daily life, not just in church, appealed to me while the Korean church seem too preoccupied with retaining and passing Korean culture onto young people. So I decided to join American Evangelicalism to kill two birds with one stone: become American and also more Christ like at the same time! When in Rome…
Fast forward 30+ years. I have now come to the painful conclusion that American conservative Evangelicalism is neither very Christian nor American. What do you get when you mix politics with religion? 120% Politics. Whipping out the persecution card when criticized (as is the case with the Duggars) isn’t very Christian or American. But of course they market themselves as the paragon of what America and Christianity are all about.
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Carmen and lydia
As we are discussing the conservative-liberal dichotomy, I find this quote applicable.
This is applicable not just to politics, but Christian culture as well. Topics related to abuse do not fall within the spectrum which is why the powers that be work very hard to repress them and move the narrative back to the “spectrum of acceptable opinion.”
The conservative-liberal dichotomy is useless. But worse, Christians place themselves squarely on the conservative side of the dichotomy that very secular to begin with. Politicization of Christianity has secularized the church beyond the wildest dreams of secular humanists.
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Ooops. I guess it does not allow images. The quote I am referring to is:
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum”
– Noam Chomsky
image of quote
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The liberal/conservative vision of the world would tell us that George Washington & Benjamin Franklin are somehow created by crossing Attila the Hun with Josef Stalin……Umm, I don’t think so. I have long ago stopped thinking it makes any sense at all to think in those terms.
The problem is to try to convince all the other people.
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I just read that the Roloff’s, of the “Little people-Big World” TLC family show, are getting divorced. I have watched the show years ago and they seemed like a Bible believing Christian family….. Sad..
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The liberal/conservative vision of the world would tell us that George Washington & Benjamin Franklin are somehow created by crossing Attila the Hun with Josef Stalin
Excellent.
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““It doesn’t seem right for us to join in with the liberal pundits and other god-haters…” Are atheists seen as “god-haters”? From an atheist, that seems like a contradiction in terms. How can one hate something they don’t even believe in? Do Christians hate the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or do they just dismiss it as a silly belief that some adhere to? Same thing.
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Good point, Carol. I just don’t get all of this hate spewing.
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carol, here is one explanation. It is fully of logical fallacies, but there you have it. They believe atheists to be dishonest with themselves about the existence of God driven by their deep hatred of God.
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