It feels like I spent 2 hours reading all the contents related to the Bill Gothard controversy. WOW! Is that both sad and anger-inducing!
My only experience was ever so briefly around 1981 or so. I went to one conference and hardly remember anything at all. I guess I wasn't impressed. But it did seem that he had the reputation of being ultra-strict --unreasonably so.
But this new news (to me) is way out there. A good heads up a few decades after the facts.
Rip - I was the same way, Wow! As I went through this article and then the website and saw the stories of the people my heart broke for them and at the same time I could feel myself becoming more and more angry at Gothard and his minions.
I checked using the search feature and there wasn't much about Gothard here, but felt as if it needed to be seen.
Whoa! Bill Gothard is not "wounded." He's been wounding people for years with his prescriptive, legalistic nonsense. Now we're starting to find out that he's been wounding young women in a different way all these years.
It's disgusting, and it needs to be brought into the light. Gothard needs to go away and his group put out of commission. Unfortunately, he wasn't stopped long before now
So we gotta "shoot them" by airing the body's dirty laundry in public, in a Christian forum? Let the police and courts deal with the guy, pray for him, and move on. Others prattle on ad infinitum, ad nauseum about the leadership failings in our churches today without us adding fuel to the fire by gossiping about them like little old women. I knew about Gothard. The news is on Yahoo!, Google, MSN, etc., etc., etc. If no one else did, it was because they don't watch, hear, read or look at the news. Trumpeting this stuff on here is a waste of effort and the needless irritation of billions of electrons.
There are many who follow if not specifically what Gothard says, in similar, though a less rigid manner, what Gothard says, the quiver full ideology being an example. He is big in the conservative evangelical homeschool culture and influential among that segment of the population, of which there are those on this board.
Also, I was never a fan of Gothard for ideological and theological reasons, but had no idea about the extent of the volume of accusations concerning his predatory behavior. I understand he has not been convicted in a court and is innocent until proven guilty, but the flood of testimonies and first hand accounts of such behavior simply cannot be dismissed or ignored.
Nice canned response, but it has nothing to do with this thread. Gothard is unrepentant, and is nowhere near being authentic or transparent. You can't make him be so, nor can anyone else, commenting on his sordid activities, alleged, real, or allegedly real. This thread does nothing to hold Gothard accountable, and it does nothing to convince him to repent. It is Christian gossip, "oh, look at him, we're not that bad," etc.
And how is this thread going to provoke "character" in Mr. Gothard? And who is going to "approve" him? Nothing but excuses to flap our jaws ... or in this case, irritate electrons.
Anyone can read that post and know the answer to that one. Anyone who has seen me post on this board knows better. Do I seem like a fundamentalist troglodyte to you? Like judging much?
Your concern for Christian gossip is admirable, just not sure how we are to warn other Christians about wolves who have slipped into our flocks. If only there was a way in which a large amount of information could be distributed quickly and easily.....
My canned response, is exactly what this thread is about, I would know because I started it.
How did you know? I love judging, stay awake at night dreaming of ways to judge people - don't bother me with facts, just get out of my way and let the judging begin! You realize you just judged me for judging? Now, I'm judging your judging of me through your initial statement accusing me of judging - your turn.
My understanding from the original website is that the statute of limitations has expired for these most recent allegations. Though looking at the comments there seems to be some question about that. The authorities have been contacted according to the original website. Part of the reason for posting these stories was to encourage others with similar stories to come forward.
Seems to me the drive-bys, as Rush calls them, would be on this like flies on cow pies. Hard to imagine better fodder for anti-homeschool, Marxist propaganda.