Institute in Basic Life Principles

[SouthCarolinaGirl79]

I was on the Duggar's website and I saw a link to the Institute in Basic Life Principles. It's a Bill Gothard thing apparently. It costs $500 to $800 depending on ATI membership, and you get to meet Bill Gothard on the first day one on one. Anyway, I was checking out the Journey to the Heart thing that the Duggar girls attended, and the age ranges just don't make sense. From their website, "Journeys for young ladies and young men are for ages ranging from 13 to 30 years old. Journeys for fathers and mothers are designed for anyone age 30 and above."

 

A) I don't understand how they could lump people 13-30 together.

Why must one be over 30 for the father/mother one?

C) If you are a motherfather who is younger than 30 can you attend the one for 13-30 because I get the impression the one for "young ladies and men" are geared towards single/nonparents?

D)If the one for 13-30 yo is only for single/nonparents, what the heck would you do if you wanted to attend the conference if you are married with children but under 30?

 

I tried to click on the registration link out of curiosity a few weeks ago, and I swear the one for the 13-30 group asked for parental information, which makes me think it was only for single people. All of that has changed now though. Can any of you figure this out? I'm not expecting it to make sense as it is a BG thing, but if they are excluding married parents under 30 it doesn't make sense from a financial standpoint.

[gustava]

Not sure there's much point in trying to make sense of the senseless.

[SouthCarolinaGirl79]

I'm sure that is true, but I'm still curious. I'm sure many of their families are young couples who have children before 30, so one would think they would have a Journey to the Heart for this group.

[formergothardite]

Actually, IME, there aren't that many young parents in ATI anymore. There are lots of adult "children" who haven't been allowed to leave home, though.

[Bookworm89]

For people with large families, that is a steep price to pay...

And yeah, most of the "children" are now in their 20's and up because Dad and Mom don't want to give up control of their lives so they can find a spouse.

[Kaylee]

Actually, IME, there aren't that many young parents in ATI anymore. There are lots of adult "children" who haven't been allowed to leave home, though.

This is what I was thinking. Most of the people I know have gotten married and/or had children before age 30, but there seem to be a lot of ATI families keeping their children at home to assist in their father's "vision" well into their 20s, so maybe they didn't want to alienate them or put ideas into some of these 30 year-old SAHD's heads when they see women younger than them married or with families.

I know Gothard picks up random biblical concepts and tries to apply them to today, like not eating pork. This is just a hunch, but I have heard people argue that a man is not fully an "adult", or qualified for ministry, until he is 30 years old, because that's the age when Jesus started His public ministry. It could be related to that.

As for parental info, that doesn't surprise me. I looked into ATI several years ago, and they ask for information about the mom and dad's parents and whether they'd support it, before the family enrolls. That's a good thing in my case, because my dad would not have, which was the only thing that kept my mom from enrolling us in the 90s.

[FloraDoraDolly]

Actually, IME, there aren't that many young parents in ATI anymore. There are lots of adult "children" who haven't been allowed to leave home, though.

So Josh and Anna Duggar (under 30, married, two kids, still ATI) are very unusual in Gothard land and there aren't any programs targeted toward them and other families like them. Interesting... It sounds to me like Gothard is putting himself out of business. Despite the news of Duggar #20 and Bates #19, eventually this first generation of ATI women will stop having babies. If there aren't many young parents coming into the movement, it will die out. Or does Gothard plan to start a new Journey to the Heart type ministry for the stay-at-home daughters and sons who are over thirty years old? Maybe he doesn't care. Isn't he eightysomething years old? He doesn't have any children to take over his fundie fiefdom when he passes. So maybe it will all just gradually fizzle away...

[formergothardite]

So Josh and Anna Duggar (under 30, married, two kids, still ATI) are very unusual in Gothard land and there aren't any programs targeted toward them and other families like them. Interesting... It sounds to me like Gothard is putting himself out of business. Despite the news of Duggar #20 and Bates #19, eventually this first generation of ATI women will stop having babies. If there aren't many young parents coming into the movement, it will die out. Or does Gothard plan to start a new Journey to the Heart type ministry for the stay-at-home daughters and sons who are over thirty years old? Maybe he doesn't care. Isn't he eightysomething years old? He doesn't have any children to take over his fundie fiefdom when he passes. So maybe it will all just gradually fizzle away...

Josh and Anna are pretty unusual in ATI. I read on some site about ex-ATIers that it is less than 5% of students who were raised in ATI and then get married and enroll their own families. ATI is dying pretty quickly. I will be shocked if it is around another 10 years. Gothard is in his late 70's I think, so he doesn't have too much longer and it probably won't last without him. All the promises he made to parents that if they would just follow his program their kids would turn out perfect have been proven wrong and with the internet to show any newbies interested in ATI what the results really are, there really aren't many new people joining up.

[FloraDoraDolly]

Josh and Anna are pretty unusual in ATI. I read on some site about ex-ATIers that it is less than 5% of students who were raised in ATI and then get married and enroll their own families. ATI is dying pretty quickly. I will be shocked if it is around another 10 years. Gothard is in his late 70's I think, so he doesn't have too much longer and it probably won't last without him. All the promises he made to parents that if they would just follow his program their kids would turn out perfect have been proven wrong and with the internet to show any newbies interested in ATI what the results really are, there really aren't many new people joining up.

Less than 5%-- wow, that number is low! I wonder how long Josh and Anna will stick with ATI? Already, we're seeing some deviations from Gothard's teachings, with that huge TV in their living room and Mack wearing pants. Some of Anna's siblings have defected from Gothard. But with the TV show, Josh and Anna might not want to make waves right now. Everyone has to be happy all the time, or at least while the TLC cameras are rolling. But things might change once the show is over.