What Should the Church’s Response Be to Hillsong, Shiny Happy People, and Other Excesses?
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Not long ago, I sat down and binge-watched the docuseries “Shiny Happy People”.
I want to emphasize that I didn’t watch the docuseries as a hate-watcher or out of morbid curiosity about the Duggars and the scandal surrounding them.
Advanced Training Institute
Institute in Basic Life Principles (aka Insitute in Basic Youth Conflicts)
Bill Gothard
These played a large role in our family at one time.
What Should the Church’s Response Be to Hillsong, Shiny Happy People, and Other Excesses?
My parents attended their first “Basic Seminar” (at that time Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts) in the late 1970s.
It had a very positive impact on our family, as much of what Bill Gothard shared helped my dad work through some of the trauma was battling from childhood.
He was able to lay a lot of that to rest in the past and move forward.
From then on, my parents attended the Basic Seminar each year and many people from our church would attend in groups.
My sister and I began attending them each year from the age of 13
At that time, the things Bill Gothard shared were basic strategies for how to live a successful life of good character and integrity.
Some of these teachings were based on Scripture, some were admittedly based on Scriptural examples taken out of context (but not in a particularly damaging way).
In the mid-1980s, Bill Gothard announced a homeschool program called “Advanced Training Institute of America.
In the first year, they made it available to 100 pilot families (a beta program). We applied and were accepted.
Over the next couple of years, while using the program, we began to see more and more legalistic and out-of-context teaching; which eventually led us to leave ATI.
My dad would continue to use the material from the Basic Seminar that changed his life, and in the early 1990s, we reentered ATI.
We attended their large conference in Knoxville, TN that year, at which time it became abundantly clear that there was a huge discrepancy between our standards and the standards of many other ATI families.
It wasn’t long before I left home to serve in the Indianapolis Traning Center and my sister attended EXCEL, after which she served in the Russia Training Center.
It was at this time we came face-to-face with the legalistic and extreme teachings of Bill Gothard as well as the abusive practices in the training centers.
When my sister and I returned home and shared with our parents what we’d seen and experienced, we pulled out of ATI for the final time.
I share this brief history to illustrate that I approach this topic from a place of personal experience, not as a spectator.
My opinions are not based on the Duggars (I’ve never watched any of their shows).
My opinions are based on first-hand experiences with religious extremes, legalism at its worst, and out-of-balance and out-of-context biblical teaching.
With each episode of the Shiny Happy People docuseries, my heart sank further and further.
They heavily portrayed one side of the story. Heidi St. John talked about this in her podcast Off the Bench: Shiny Not-So-Happy People: A Legacy of Legalism
Ex-ATI students who were bitter and angry at God, a YouTuber who snarks on fundamentals for a living, and evangelicals who have shifted left.
This was something I feared would happen, as I had at one time loosely followed “Recovering Grace” – a website sharing the stories of Ex-ATI students.
Many of whom have deconstructed their faith.
Some of whom are now atheists.
It grieves me that this is the path they chose to take – throw out everything having to do with Bill Gothard, even God.
But there is another way!
Deconstruction isn’t the only path out of extreme and abusive Christian circles.
Whether that’s extreme Charismatic or extreme legalistic Christianity!
Dear Church here’s what we cannot afford to do: We cannot afford to allow fallen churches and fallen leaders to become our entertainment.
The Hillsong documentaries, the Duggar news, the Shiny Happy People docuseries (that I understand may possibly get a 2nd season) must not become our entertainment!
This is not glorifying to God!
This is not edifying of the body!
This is a mockery of the Church that God established to be the visible representation of His story of redemption!
We cannot afford to take a spectator role in this open mockery of the Church.
Instead, we need to stand up and take a proactive step, sending a message loud and clear:
Deconstruction is not the only way!
There is another way!
I am grateful to say that my sister and I had a good example of this in our parents.
As we came home from the training centers we served at, wounded and confused by our experiences, our parents guided us through to a healthy place.
We took each teaching and experience and lined it up with God’s Word.
That which was taken out of context was put back into context and held on to.
That which was extra-biblical, man-made doctrine and another’s personal conviction was thrown out.
Over the coming weeks, I would like to address some of these topics to see where God’s Word stands:
Patriarchy
Modesty
Purity culture
Courtship
Authority and the Umbrella of Authority
Submission
What the Bible says about Bill Gothard’s principle of a woman “crying out” when sexually assaulted
Let’s see what the Bible has to say about these topics and others.
Then, I’d like to turn over the coin and see what the Bible has to say about the other side of extreme Christianity.
What are some topics you’d like me to address?
Let me know in the comment section below and be sure to share this with someone you feel would benefit from this series.
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This study through the Book of Galatians really helped me to understand my freedom in Christ in a whole new way.
Freedom from the legalistic doctrines of man, and freedom to receive God’s grace to live in total obedience to His Word.
I encourage you to check out this verse-by-verse study:
Walk Free in Christ – A Study Through the Book of Galatians
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I almost never comment on blog posts, but I’m so glad this popped into my Pinterest tonight.
Somewhat like you, I have some indirect experiential knowledge of Gothard and the like – not quite as in-depth as yours but it impacted me deeply.
The last 20 years has been a time of what I at one point even called deconstruction, but since then I’ve come to avoid that term, because I don’t feel it adequately describes the process. Like you, I’ve found another way, and come out with my faith stronger and fuller and deeper.
I hope you will take a chance to read this post I wrote a few years ago:
Call it deconstruction. Call it doubt. Call it weeding. Call it whatever you want. But for a time there, my hands were dirty with the hard work of pulling it all up by the roots. All the legalism. All the rules and regulations. All the spiritual abuse. All the truths couched in bad motivation.
But rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater (aren’t you tired of that metaphor anyway?), I threw all the faith-junk in the compost pile. My compost pile was protected with the chicken wire boundaries of a loving husband, parents, and church family. Every time someone reached out to me, listened to me, or prayed for me – it was like a cup or two of compost starter was added to the pile. Every once in a while I would read a book or an article or hear a sermon and hit the compost pile with a pitchfork – turning all the junk over and over and over and over. Those who loved me, and told me “come as you are, but don’t stay there,” were like the sun and rain melting the waste down into messy goodness that would help me grow again.
So my faith deconstruction story became a faith reconstruction story. Or as a favorite song of mine says, “I’ll build an altar with the rubble that You’ve found me in, and every stone will sing of what You can redeem.”
Because the tree grows on the fallen forest. If it died, it can live again.
Excerpt from Compost piles, faith deconstruction, and Joshua Harris:
http://beautifulinhistime.com/2019/07/28/compost-faith-deconstruction-joshua-harris/
Thank you for speaking truth.
Thank you so much for sharing your post with me, my friend. I took some time to read it and really enjoyed your metaphor. Even more, I’m so encouraged to read that instead of letting go of faith, you chose to untangle things and found a safe place where you could be renewed. That is so wonderful!! I need to look up that song now. I’m so glad you took the time to leave a comment. I pray that God will continue to draw you, encourage you, strengthen you, and that you go from glory to glory with Him!
Very profound, and yes what we must do with every teaching. Our roots must go deep beyond a leader and into God himself.
Amen! Yes – we have to remember that leaders are still fallen man – and sometimes very flawed. We can learn and glean from them but we must be wise Bereans.
A very interesting read as my parents also studied with Bill Gothard for a while, then left.
Thank you for stopping by to read this post and commenting.