Those of you who followed last year’s implosion of America’s most famous babymakers, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, know that they are big fans of Bible teacher Bill Gothard and his Institute in Basic Life Principles. Gothard’s archconservative views influenced the homeschooling movement for the better part of half a century. The Duggars continued to stand by Gothard even after he was forced to resign in 2014 amid charges that he groomed, assaulted and harassed several girls who worked for him as far back as the 1970s. Now, ten of the women scarred by Gothard’s crimes have filed a $500,000 lawsuit against both Gothard and his former ministry.
According to The Washington Post, the ten women–including three Jane Does–allege that several women and girls told Gothard and other IBLP personnel at the ministry’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois that they had been sexually assaulted and harassed. However, according to the lawsuit, they never passed on those reports to child welfare authorities as required by Illinois law. The suit was originally filed in October by five of the women, including one Jane Doe, with IBLP as the sole defendant. This new suit adds Gothard as a defendant. According to the plaintiffs’ attorney, David Gibbs III, several more plaintiffs could sign on in the next few months; he has been contacted by several men and women with allegations of abuse at IBLP.
One of the Jane Doe victims claims that when she told IBLP staff that her father had raped her and sold her into sex slavery when she was younger, Gothard actually threatened her when the father denied the allegations. Gothard taught that kids are to obey their parents without question, even when they are sexually abused. To add obscenity to insult and injury, the Jane Doe then says that Gothard raped her–thus scarring a woman who was already scarred to begin with. Three of the named plaintiffs in the case–Gretchen Wilkinson, Jamie Deering, and Ruth Copley Burger–say that they were molested by either Gothard or IBLP staff.
Another Jane Doe says that when she posted her story to Recovering Grace, a group of former IBLP students who helped expose Gothard’s crimes, Gothard bombarded her with phone calls for three weeks and browbeat her into taking it down. This would come as no shock, considering what we know about Gothard’s teachings on child sexual abuse. As I mentioned last year, Gothard taught that there are ways that a victim can be responsible for his or her ordeal. Supposedly, a victim can “defraud” his or her attacker by dressing or acting in a way that stirs up lustful thoughts–even by something as innocent as a toss of the hair.
Gothard also taught that if you’re scarred by sexual abuse, you may have brought it on yourself by sinning and putting yourself outside the protection of your father. As long as your father has no sin in his life, nothing can happen to you if you stay under his protection. If you sin, however, you leave yourself vulnerable to such evils as sexual assault.
Incredibly, students at Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute were taught to ask a victim if there was any way they were to blame for what happened to them. It’s a near-certainty that when Josh Duggar fondled his sisters and at least two other girls when he was a teenager, their “counseling” took place along these lines. I ask the same question that I asked then–what parent with any love for his or her children would tell them, or allow them to be told, that they were to blame for being assaulted?
IBLP’s own board conducted an internal investigation after Gothard resigned. It found that while there was no criminal activity, Gothard could not return to his post for acting in “an inappropriate manner” and showing “lack of discretion.” However, the suit contends that the entire investigation was a whitewash, and that the board never contacted any of the victims. Gothard himself still maintains his innocence, and told The Post that “never in my life have I touched a girl sexually.”
To my mind, even if Gothard and the IBLP are innocent, they will have to answer for having further scarred people who have been abused with teachings that encouraged victim blaming and victim shaming. After all, they’re a big reason why so many elements of the evangelical world are far behind the game in responding to child sexual abuse.
