connection.
I found this blog post last night about how Palin brought Wasilla into the Character Cities program
Is Sarah Palin a Gothardite? Wasilla’s ex-mayor and “Character Cities”http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/contents/comments/is_sarah_palin_a_gotharditeAfter some googling I found out some of the reasons why having anything to do with Gothard is a bad thing
Cult of Character
How the ‘secular’ Character Training Institute is working to build evangelist Bill Gothard’s vision of a First-Century Kingdom of God—one city, one state, one school board, one police force and one mind at a time.http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2450/The concept of obeying God-granted authority runs through virtually all IBLP-published materials. “The key to understanding authority is identifying four areas of God-ordained jurisdiction: parents, government, church leaders, and employers,” reads an introductory passage to Basic Life Principles Seminar. “When a decision is to be made, we must ask, ‘Whose jurisdiction is this under?’ God gives direction, protection, and provision through human authorities. If we rebel against them, we expose ourselves to the destruction of evil principalities. … This is why ‘rebellion is the sin of witchcraft.’ “
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The list of Character First! seminar attendees already reads like a who’s who of top corporations and government institutions: McDonald’s, Burger King, Aflac, Costco, Coca Cola, the Correctional Corporation of America, the Better Business Bureau, Tyson Foods, the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the Arkansas Prison System and the U.S. District Attorney’s office are all mentioned, in addition to more than a dozen school districts (including Denver, Memphis and Ft. Lauderdale), and eight healthcare companies and hospitals.
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In the blue book and other IBLP materials, the 49 character qualities take on a more strident and extremist tone. “Obedience” is defined as the “freedom to be creative under the protection of divinely appointed authorities. All legitimate authority comes from God. He is the One who sets up rulers and takes them down. … God ordained government to carry out his will in matters of justice.”
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To take but one example, the workbook materials distributed to the prisoners in the CCA-run Grants, New Mexico, women’s prison include a breakdown of “basic life principles,” including “Moral Purity,” “Yielding Rights” and “Proper Submission.”
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord,” reads one of the biblical selections. Emphasis is placed on “courting” rather than “dating;” on women obeying their husbands; avoiding the “addiction” of all forms of music except for those written and/or approved by the IBLP; preserving marriage at all costs; and on the need for Christians to respect, obey and submit to church and government. These institutions and their rulers, as the workbooks explain, exist because of God’s will.
dogemperor who has written much about dominionist and reconstructionist groups has posted many times about Gothard. Here is one on W and Ken Blackwell's connections:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/30/135025/272Another on Mike Huckabee's connections which details more of the abusive practices by gothard's groups
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/1/19/192431/131/Diary/Mike_Huckabee_Member_of_destructive_Bill_Gothard_cultFirstly, I am not exaggerating when I refer to Bill Gothard's material as a bona fide Bible-based cult. Gothard's material more than meets the criteria for coercive religious groups; Rick Ross Institute considers it a group of grave concern, among others.
Gothard's teachings are almost assuredly responsible for the tragedy of Michael Murray's church shooting and death, up to and including what ended up being a terminal mental breakdown caused both by being raised in the abusive Gothardist system and his later involvement in Youth With A Mission.
Gothard also combines in his own way two of the most disastrous, mind-bending, damaging tactics ever used in coercive religious groups--the practice of "deliverance ministry" (which teaches that literally anything can be infested by demons, and is essentially a "Christianised" version of the same stuff Scientologists teach about "engrams", "body thetans", and "suppressive persons"; Gothard has specifically taught, among other things, that Cabbage Patch Kids are possessed by the devil and that adopted kids are damned to suffer due to "generational curses" inflicted on them by their natural parents) and an even more coercive (in comparison) version of abusive "cell churches" and discipling/shepherding movements (Gothard rather explicitly teaches that everyone must have a "covering"--a shepherd over them--and that this "shepherd" who has their "covering" can never be opposed or even questioned for any reason).
It is, again, not a case where I am exaggerating to state these are the two most harmful methods ever devised by coercive groups. "Deliverance ministry" enforces an almost complete isolation from the outside word and even essentially teaches that any doubts about the group are due to demonic oppression or possession; people are often subjected to violent, occasionally involuntary, "exorcisms" where mental breakdowns (some requiring inpatient treatment in psychiatric units) and suicide are not uncommon sequelae. (Matthew Murray himself was a known victim of this who eventually snapped and killed seven people including himself when he was unable to escape.) Gothard's program is known to be extremely isolating even in comparison to the general isolation of neopente dominionist groups in general; even Christian music with a "rock beat" is absolutely prohibited (and yes, people participating in his programs are required to sign contracts promising not to play music with a "rock beat"--rather ironic, seeing as Huckabee seems to regularly play bass guitar).