Gothard's "house" has so many flaws, so many questions, so many aberrational leanings, so many structural weaknesses and a foundation that is not New Testament. Its occupants may not be very safe and should move to safer quarters.

The Charter School of Excellence, which receives some $800,000 in state tax dollars annually, has more ties to religion than its being inside a church building. Character First! is published by Character Training Institute (CTI) in Oklahoma City, which itself is an offshoot of the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP). The Chicago-based IBLP is the brainchild of a 64-year-old evangelical Christian guru named Bill Gothard, who boasts some 2.5 million "alumni" of his Bible-based seminars, and he promises to give the world a "new approach to life." The Character First! curriculum is directly based on Gothard's teachings — but with overt references to God and Christianity edited out.

Gothard has been accused by fellow Christians of everything from misinterpreting the Bible to ignoring spousal abuse to being a borderline cult leader. (...)

Gothard doesn't focus on the Ten Commandments — he teaches his seven "universal, nonoptional Principles of Life," and he extends those principles to what food to eat and what clothes to wear. Breaking any of Gothard's principles leads to the highway to Hell, quite literally. (...)

Now Florida is slated to become Gothard country.

State Rep. Tracy Stafford and Sen. Howard Forman, both Democrats from Broward County, have introduced bills that would force every public elementary school in the state to teach Character First! — which is mentioned by name in the bills — or, as the bill vaguely puts it, a program "similar" to it. (...)

When asked about Bill Gothard, both Stafford and Forman are stumped. Neither did his homework on the curriculum — they've never heard of Gothard and weren't aware that the man behind Character First! is an evangelical minister. When told about Gothard's emphasis on the "chain of command," Stafford immediately recognizes the danger in such teachings. "I can see how that could lead to a continuation of child abuse," he says.

Howard Forman now says he doesn't believe Character First! should be put in Florida's public schools. "I never heard of Gothard, and I think his ideas sound kind of screwy," Forman says. "I don't support the kind of character training where people sing songs about discipline. I don't support religious extremists of any kind." (...)

A number of ministers and theologians have found defects in Gothard's teachings. Christian scholar and psychologist James Alsdurf wrote a book in the late '80s about domestic violence among churchgoers and came to a conclusion: Bill Gothard's teachings can lead to a continuation of domestic violence. (...)

Dr. Darrell Bock, a professor at the Dallas Theological Seminary, says he's uncomfortable with Gothard stressing authority and hierarchy without tempering it with "Christ-like" qualities. (...)

Baptist pastor G. Richard Fisher wrote in a published article called "The Cultic Leanings of Bill Gothard's Teachings" that Gothard has a habit of "legislating, directing, and regulating just about every phase of life."
[...more...]

It looks like Hamilton Forman, Broward County's chief political potentate, was right: His bill requiring that every elementary school student in Florida be taught ''character education'' will likely be passed into law by the state legislature. But the multimillionaire was wrong about one thing: His favorite character-training curriculum, Character First!, won't be the model program. Character First! was stripped from the bill after a New Times article revealed that it was designed by authoritarian Christian minister Bill Gothard and includes obedience drills -- complete with group salutes and ''hup, two, threes'' -- demanding that children ''follow orders instantly.''
(...)

Gothard, known to be a media recluse, has refused to speak with New Times, but his teachings can be found in seminars held around the world. He espouses ''universal, non-optional'' principles and a ''chain of command,'' which holds that authority figures represent God, and therefore wives must obey husbands, workers their employers, and citizens their politicians. He boasts of 2.5 million ''alumni,'' who are given rules on everything -- what clothes to wear, what music to listen to, how to manage money.

Many of Gothard's controversial teachings are not included in Character First! Overt references to God and Christianity, for example, are absent. But his patented authoritarianism remains, and all the lessons involve drills and repeating ''I will,'' such as, ''I will not exaggerate to make things seem different than what they are'' and ''I will always be cheerful.''
[...more...]

A Matter of Basic Principles repeatedly accuses Gothard of not living by his own teachings on authority and truthfulness. At great length, the book describes meetings and correspondence in which Gothard promises to investigate a matter, or pursue arbitration, but then fails to follow through.

An important issue to consider regarding Gothard's influence is that it is directed to the core leadership of our nation's conservative Christian churches. Gothard has largely succeeded in reaching that audience. While many have winked at Gothard's teachings on authority, what's more alarming is how readily his supporters accept his interpretation of Scripture.

Here we have what amounts to a contemporary textbook on the error of reading something foreign into a text (eisegesis) as opposed to extracting the author's meaning from the text (exegesis). Though many movement leaders fall into this trap, it's alarming how consistently Gothard reads texts through an authoritarian lens.
[...more...]

A Matter of Basic Principles deserves a hearing. What the reader discovers is sad news for the body of Christ. Those unfamiliar with Gothard may find the reading tedious. Those who have experienced abusive spiritual authority in any context will be more inclined to find this book refreshing for its thoroughness.