





Daniel Webster and Bill Gothard Made Simple Bruce Wilson print page Thu Oct 07, 2010 at 05:22:38 PM EST "I enjoy the advice he's given. I think it's been a major part of my life. I'm not ashamed of that. What he has said I believe to be the truth." - Alan Grayson opponent Daniel Webster, as interviewed about his relationship with Bill Gothard for a February 16, 1997 St. Petersburg Times story. "Wives are instructed to submit to their husbands. (See Ephesians 5:22, I Peter 3:1)" - Bill Gothard, from Rebuilders Guide, published by the Institute For Basic Life Principles, 1982. "In their advice to women, the books [Gothard's books] read like sharia law, with strict instructions on how to dress, date, and run a home, and with strict consequences for disobedience." - Hanna Rosin, God's Harvard, 2007, page 92 "By disobeying God's word and taking matters into her own hands, the wife destroys both her own family and her husband's family. She sows the seeds of destruction in her families of her children and her grandchildren "to the third of fourth generation." (See Deuteronomy 5:9.)" - Bill Gothard, from Rebuilders Guide. "Once they are married, the husband "gives the law" and the wife "works out the proper procedure to carry it out." Equal authority in marriage is "Satan's goal." The key to a happy marriage is "the wife's submission and the husband's sacrifice." - Hanna Rosin, quoting Bill Gothard, page 93 Alan Grayson has recently been taken to task by the media (most recently on Anderson Cooper) for releasing a campaign ad that took his opponent Daniel Webster's words from a 2009 Nashville religious conference out of context. Grayson's ad portrayed Webster as saying "submit to me," suggested Webster was advocating female submission. But Bill Gothard, the religious leader behind the conference who Daniel Webster has been very close to for over 3 decades, does indeed teach a doctrine of female submission, and as Daniel Webster told the St. Petersburg Times for a February 16, 1997 story, concerning his relationship with evangelist Bill Gothard, "I enjoy the advice he's given. I think it's been a major part of my life. I'm not ashamed of that. What he has said I believe to be the truth." The St. Petersburg Times story noted that Daniel Webster and his wife have used Bill Gothard's curriculum to homeschool their 6 children. Gothard teaches a literal interpretation of the Bible, including Young-Earth creationism and doctrines of submission to authority and female submission to men. When a Wife Initiates Divorce, As Bill Gothard described the consequences of wives initiating divorce, in his 1982 book Rebuilder's Guide , published by Gothard's Institute For Basic Life Principals, in a chapter titled, "



WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?





1. She exposes herself to Satan's power [...] Wives are instructed to submit to their husbands. (See Ephesians 5:22, I Peter 3:1) This means they are to "get under the protection of their own husbands."





The alternative to scriptural submission is not freedom, but defeat by Satan and exploitation by others. 2. She destroys many families





By disobeying God's word and taking matters into her own hands, the wife destroys both her own family and her husband's family. She sows the seeds of destruction in her families of her children and her grandchildren "to the third of fourth generation." (See Deuteronomy 5:9.) " In her 2007 book God's Harvard - A Christian College On a Mission to Save America (link to New York Times review), author Hanna Rosin described Bill Gothard's advice as being "like sharia law" (note - Rosin seemed to be referring to far-right, fundamentalist Islamic interpretations of sharia law.) As Rosin writes, "In their advice to women, the books [Gothard's books] read like sharia law, with strict instructions on how to dress, date, and run a home, and with strict consequences for disobedience." - Hanna Rosin, God's Harvard, page 92 "Once they are married, the husband "gives the law" and the wife "works out the proper procedure to carry it out." Equal authority in marriage is "Satan's goal." The key to a happy marriage is "the wife's submission and the husband's sacrifice." - Rosin, quoting Bill Gothard, page 93 As I've detailed in a recent Alternet story, Alan Grayson's GOP Opponent Directly Tied to Christian Group That Wants Permanent Subordination of Women, Daniel Webster's intimate, over three decade long involvement with evangelist Bill Gothard appears similar to a classic guru-disciple or mentor-pupil relationship and has included speaking multiple times at Gothard's conferences, traveling with Gothard to Korea in 1996, using Bill Gothard's material to homeschool his six children, making an instructional video for Gothard's Institute For Basic Life Principles, and, when Webster became speaker of the Florida legislature in 1996, hiring four of Gothard's IBLP employees as high-level Florida State House staffers. Gothard's program teach a doctrine of submission to authority, as described in a February 18, 1999 story in the Broward/Palm Beach New Times, by Bob Norman, on Bill Gothard's Character First! curriculum now being taught in public school systems across the United States, and as illustrated by the following image, from a Gothard program for teenagers. image, below: diagram from workbook used in Bill Gothard's "Basic Youth Conflicts" course, with student notes, circa 1974 Bill Gothard also teaches a doctrine of "generational iniquity" in which sinful behaviors are passed down through ancestral lines, as curses. He claims that schizophrenia is "irresponsibility" and distributed tracts which warn that listening to rock music can lead to demonic possession. Gothard's addiction-recovery and behavior modification centers have been accused of child abuse and of performing exorcisms. Also outlined in the Alternet story linked above, Gothard has been accused of promoting odd teachings concerning Cabbage Patch and troll dolls: Perhaps the most eccentric charges against Bill Gothard have been leveled by conservative Christian critics concerning Gothard's teaching on Cabbage Patch Dolls and troll dolls. According Richard G. Fischer, writing for Personal Freedom Outreach ministries, in 1986 Gothard taught that Cabbage Patch dolls caused "strange and destructive behavior" (as Fischer characterized Gothard's teaching.) Fischer states that in that same year Gothard's organization sent Personal Freedom Outreach a letter calling Cabbage Patch a "violation of the first Commandment." The Cabbage Patch Doll controversy continued well into the next decade, according to Fischer, when in 1996 one of Gothard's organizations mailed out a strange newsletter: "[The] January 1996 Basic Care Newsletter from his Medical Training Institute defines the potential of the once-popular dolls. The publication stated that there are a core of midwives that are working against "Satan's program from Genesis to Revelation to destroy the Godly seed." This report endorsed by Gothard and his organization then describes "cleansing the home from evil influences." The midwives searched the homes for Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and Troll dolls. They believed the destruction of these facilitated the births. Just having these items in the home retarded a speedy delivery, said the newsletter. Attributing this much power to a doll goes beyond the pale of reason and lapses into pagan superstition." A history of the Christian homeschooling movement (upon which Bill Gothard has been a major influence) published in the now defunct Gentle Spirit magazine appears to corroborate Richard G. Fischer's account: "In 1996, Gothard stated that a core of midwives is "working against Satan's program... to destroy the godly seed by helping pregnant women to "cleanse" their homes from evil influences, to include Cabbage Patch Dolls and troll dolls. The rationale was that having these dolls in the house hindered the birthing process. As did Fischer, the report cited a Basic Care Newsletter allegedly mailed out from Bill Gothard's Oak Brook, Illinois Medical Training Institute.



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