A Response To Bill Gothard

[muffynbear]

An interesting rebuttal to Bill Gothard's latest letter to all past and current followers:

 

 

 

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Gothard also has a long history of blaming rebellion against his standards on the "evils" of rock music. In this section of his letter, he says that "In almost every single case [of someone who has rejected his standards] the root cause has been their acceptance and involvement with unclean music." In two short sentences, he dismisses every challenge against his program as the result of rock music. (It is also worth noting that he refers to his teachings as "the way of life that their parents have taught them"so as to shift blame from his failed methods to the parents who trusted those methods. It is also a thinly-veiled attempt to manipulate by guilt any adult former-student who might have since come to a separate conclusion than their parents on the issue of rock music).

 

He proceeds to take his argument one step further when he states that listening to such music leads to addictions, immorality, and possession by unclean spirits. The assertion is that most of us have rejected his standards because of rock music, and therefore are also likely addicted to pornography and controlled by unclean spirits! This is not only an easily disprovable 'œslippery-slope' fallacy, but also a low blow to those of us who are standing up to Gothard on behalf of the thousands who were spiritually destroyed because of his addiction to legalism.

 

ETA:

 

 

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Gothard preaches isolation and separation from the world. Because of this mindset, many former ATI students were not only ill-equipped to speak to a lost person, but were also discouraged from doing so lest the "world" rub off on them. Their only form of evangelism was supposed to be the brightness of their countenance and their high standards, in hopes others would notice and inquire about what made them different. There was no encouragement to engage those in the world unless it was to challenge them to adopt higher standards. Gothard created the very problem that he is blaming for the lack of outreach and evangelism in his program.

 

 

 

http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2012/01/ ... l-gothard/

[doggie]

Boy is that convenient like if you argue with me you are arguing with god not me.