Finally, some news!

As mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin (Rep. VP Candidate) became affiliated with Gothard's Character teachings. Salon has the article here.

"Thanks to Palin's efforts, Wasilla is now among roughly 200 cities nationwide (and others in 27 countries around the world) that have committed themselves -- in name, at least -- to following the teachings of the International Association of Character Cities (IACC), an organization that purports to be secular but is modeled on the evangelical teachings of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP)."

New story by daveixoye. Check it out.

From the story: I cannot understand why anyone would take such a narrow view of such a wise and practical application of scripture. If you don't believe the Bible is the Word of God, then it would make sense that you would have difficulty with the IBLP system. But if you accept the logical progression from God the creator, through Jesus Christ the redeemer, and restorer, then the IBLP system is brilliant!

While this is most likely going to be flame bait, we've had little to no pro-gothard content. I commend daveixoye for being the first.

New story by Brunester. Check it out.

From the story: I've noticed that many of the postings I've read on this site have to do with parents who buy into Bill Gothard's teachings. In 1983, after the death of an infant son left me looking for answers to questions about God and about my own "backslidden" state, I became one of those parents.

There were a couple news articles about the Crim Fitness Foundation's offer to buy the Character Inn here and here (video). But later in the day an article stated that Gothard said that the offer was low here.

From the latest article: Gothard said the Crim proposal will be accepted or rejected by the institute's Board of Directors next week. The group could also make a counter-offer to the foundation.

New story by Grace Alexander. Check it out.

From the story: I remember there was one old man with his wife and a bunch of kids who was wandering around saying he was the elder from the house of Moses and Aaron and everyone should tithe to him, and they were getting ready to go up on the mountain next month for the Lord's return...

Another new story by WishICouldEscape. Check it out.

From the story: My first Knoxville experience I was more than a little creeped out by all the robots I found and the strict observance of gender separation and - what the heck was up with all the 15 passenger vans???

One last new story by Eliyahu Jones. Check it out.

From the story: So my mom attended Basic seminar in like 1989 and wanted my dad to go with her, but he had heard about some of the more cultic aspects of the organization and was reluctant. He was already pretty violent, so I can't blame IBLP for that, but when he finally did attend and got the authority doctrine he was off to the races. Before the end of the week we were conducting regular wisdom searches and had announced that he had unilaterally decided that our family would no longer watch television.

Some members have been wanting to submit their own articles to the site. We haven't really had a good spot for those. So, I've set up a section called "Member Articles". If you have a relevant topic you want to write an article about, log in and click the "Submit an Article" link on the side.

New story by addicted2truth. Check it out.

"I was raised in a strict-ish ATI home, we didn't watch much TV, and listened to only music purchased from seminars. except of course old records. for some reason those were all acceptable. and therein lies my problem with the whole program. the hypocrisy that seems to be inevitable."

Another new story posted by grace2live. Check it out.

From the story: "In fact, when my husband asked me to marry him, I directed him to ask my father first, per an agreement my father and I had made at one of the seminars. My father was bemused and flattered--he didn't even remember discussing the issue!"

New story posted by Supernova. Check it out.

From the story: I chose to go to a foster home instead of returning to the zoo that I had just escaped. I made repeated attempts to establish visitation with my siblings but my parents would not allow it. The Human Services began a long investigation which eventually drove my parents to move to another county.

Well there has certainly been a flurry of news activity with Gothard mentions. Time to play catch up...

Articles stemming from the Colorado shootings mentioning Gothard:

• Shooter had problems at Christian facilities (Summit Daily News)
  
• Mapping the gunman’s path (GetReligion.org)
  
• Gunman boasted of following 'wickedest man in the world' (WorldNetDaily)
  
• Gunman came from 'good, grounded family' (Rocky Mountain News)
  
• Colo. Church Gunman Left Twisted Trail (The Associated Press)
  
• Killer's Web rants full of venom (Rocky Mountain News)
  
• Murray's online posts (Colorado Springs Independent)
  
• Institute defends teachings in wake of posts by Murray (Rocky Mountain News)
  
• Jack Wilson column (Pueblo Chieftain)
  
• Don't blame the music, metal frontman implores (Denver Post)
  
• Church gunman cited his 'insane' home schooling (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
  
• Stan Nelson column (Pueblo Chieftain)
  

And in other news

• A true believer (Colorado Springs Independent)
  

And lastly, for all of those early U.S. presidential election followers, just type in 'Bill-Gothard Mike-Huckabee' in to Google and feast your eyes.

To all members and visitors. As many of you know the member known as Chrstnghtmr was, in fact, Matthew Murray of the December Colorado shootings. iGirl and I have certainly been going through a number of emotions over the past few weeks. We are extremely saddened by what Matt did. Those affected by the shootings are in our prayers.

While we would never wish these events to happen to anyone, this has brought about a lot of new discussion and attention directed at Gothard and his teaching. We certainly wish that would have happened under different circumstances, but are glad more people will know about the dangers.

We were not sure what would happen with the site when we found out about the connection to Independent Spirits. Many news sites and blogs are pointing to here as examples of Matt's postings. The site seems to have held up with all of the new traffic and activity.

I have been working with Colorado authorities by providing information regarding Matt's postings. There have been no requests by any authorities to remove Matt's postings, nor do I believe there will be. Matt's postings will remain on the site untouched.

For those who are new users to the site and have experiences with Gothard or his teaching, please submit your story. When you log in you will see a "Submit Your Story" link of the left hand side where you can do that.

I will do my best to be more active with the forums and news postings than I have been the past few months.

--iGuy