Tag: Advanced Training Institute

Regretful Years: IBLP/ATI

  Drinking from my saucer bcz my cup’s overflowed.  But that doesn’t mean regretful things don’t resurface and flood my mind from time to time. And my mind surely is flooded these days.

 

From March 2014

Blue & White

teacuppamelaI love blue and white things.  Blue is my favourite colour.  It’s not my favourite mood, though I struggle with that one.  Sometimes, a lot.  Blue is my favourite for hydrangeas, dishes, gemstones, berries, skies and seas.  And though I mostly prefer to wear pink and black now, navy clothing has long been pretty much the only colour I’ve worn. 

So you can imagine, that when I went to my first Basic seminar (wearing my favourite colour and that favourite colour was the colour of my dress),  I felt right at home that night.   I hadn’t learned yet that how things feel and seem in a situation are both critically important to me—and bcz of this, I, early on, was taken in by all the new information, all the new approach to life.  All the blue and white.

A few years later I would be sitting in a Mother’s Meeting in Tennessee and I would hear a phrase  that would come to have incredible significance to me.   One of the mothers commented to another:  Well, you don’t have to be so blue and white about it!  I let that sink down in my ears.  Tucked it away for some future day… and when that day came, I understood.  I totally understood.

I was not raised “in a christian home” and did not have the background or the foundation of faith that I have today.  I was growing in the Lord and was eager to do the right thing to live right,  to do the right works, to not make mistakes, to have bright and cheerful, obedient children, to not suffer shipwreck.  And on and on.  So… the blue and white!  There was so much blue and white  (remember, I’m not talking colour here)!

All the stuff I didn’t agree with or that didn’t set well with me or things I didn’t/couldn’t grasp, began to pile up—but instead (in the early days) of discarding or walking away from those things, I kept thinking I would/should/could try harder.  The blue and white appeal was so alluring, so compelling—I felt I must strive to do/think/be better.  I thought if I worked harder, I could get it… I could finally get to a successful, faithful Christian life. That was a lie.  It would, in time, become clear to me.

The trouble with cleverly orchestrated, tightly controlled information, firmly established methods and the appearance of righteousness  is that somewhere along the way, that original, sincere desire to know and serve the Lord God, to understand His Word and to observe it and to walk in His ways, to give Him honour and glory, to live in faith by the grace of God, to know and love the Lord Jesus and to obey Him… well, all that gets set aside or gets redefined by following all the rules instituted by a man  instead of simply seeking to know and do the will of God by daily seeking Him in the Word and in prayer and following the Lord Jesus Christ in the light of the Holy Spirit.

As I’ve written in some previous posts, it’s been a long time since I(we) sat in one of those Basic or Advanced seminars.  It’s been a long time since we’ve read anything the Institute publishes and a long time since we began to question and throw off the shackles of IBLP / ATI.  But, like an onion… or any engrained erroneous teaching or any engrained bad habit or patterns of thinking, there are layers and layers and layers that need to be peeled away, cut back and removed in order for the truth to have preeminence.  

With each passing year… I see yet another thought or principle that is incorrect or is a false teaching that I’ve believed and I’ve had to stop, see the error for what it is and repent of the practice of the teaching/idea/etc.  Freedom comes from each exercise of faith, each revelation of Truth. 

What I thought was freedom was really a cage… what I thought was a solid foundation of truth was really a slippery slope and the new approach to life was really an intricate web of false teaching.   You gotta understand, it all seemed so good… life seemed so much better when it was all blue and white… I thought we were doing all the right and best things for our home and family.  We were so sincerely seeking to know and do the will of God and thought that the careful constructs of the Institute were the ones to follow.

A battle I’ve had to fight through the ensuing years has been the battle of what if’s.  What if we hadn’t been in ATI?  Or what if we’d never followed the principles of the Institute?  What if we’d not been so legalistic or so rigid in our parenting?  What if we hadn’t been so blue and white?  Would we have been able to escape some of the problems we’ve experienced?  Would we have been able to avoid some heartaches?  I don’t know.  I don’t know the answers to the what if’s.  But I do know this:  God is and has been faithful to us.  And I trust His word.  And what the devil intended for evil, God intends for good and so… the what if’s?  Eternity will sort them out.  I cannot.

So the last 16 or 17 years have been sort of a free-fall *into* the everlasting, strong Hands of the Lord.   We’ve clearly seen God’s tender mercies and work in our lives:  we’ve been weaker and we’ve been stronger… we’ve been more sure and more doubtful of different Christian beliefs/practices… we’ve made a bunch of blunders and have had a bunch of good things happen… but most of all, we’ve come to the place of looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, by the mercy of God, seeking to live daily following Him and Him alone and by the grace of God we seek to finish well.

More ATI / IBLP Baggage & Freedom

teacuppamelaA continuation of posts in a series of thoughts looking back on our life and experiences with the Advanced Training Institute and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (hereafter, ATI / IBLP)…

I want to say at the outset, that it wasn’t all bad — ATI / IBLP — for  I cannot really accurately recount the good things we learned in the ATI / IBLP years in our family or the blessings we reaped from what we experienced.   And I don’t want to belabour an increasing list of negative points or excuse some of the more egregious errors in the teachings and programs — this isn’t an airing of dirty laundry or a rant of yet another disgruntled ATI family indulging in mudslinging.  But error is error and a whole lot of error causes a whole lot of problems — error begets error and down the way a bit, error causes an avalanche of problems.
Errors ought to raise red flags. flag_red
The have with me… and if you/your family was involved in the program, probably with you, too.  It may seem a moot point to bring all this up, now, but actually, I’ve shared much of this in the past and stuff keeps resurfacing.  And then there’s this strange unspoken cardinal rule that one doesn’t question the Institute or Mr. G.  (Yep, and that oughtta be a red flag for ya!)

From our old AChristianHome.org website:
“Our family was involved with the various ministries of the IBLP and ATI for many years and we determined that some of the teachings, the errors of those teachings were destructive to our walk with the LORD and therefore no longer supported the “ministry” and the myriad of programs of, or associated with, IBLP.     There were MANY, MANY benefits for which we are grateful but the erroneous teachings forced our decision.  We no longer support much of the work of this organization—however(!) we DO support our brothers and sisters in Christ and pray the LORD’s will for them and do not seek to divide over this matter.  We believe that the erroneous teaching leads to an erroneous view of the Word, the grace of God, His design, the sovereignty of God, teaching “character” [the Character First* program] to unregenerate souls,  and the methods of lifting Scripture and its Truths and application and therefore do not endorse, as a whole, the ministry…”

And I linked to numerous articles (on the AChristianHome.org website) in the early days, some 10-12 years ago; many links are broken now, so the articles would require some searching — even then, I was reluctant to say much so I let other’s articles do the talking, so to speak.  One of the articles I linked to was on the Personal Freedom Outreach site, an article regarding issues with the Institute and some ongoing communication Bill Gothard and his team.   And over the years I’ve had communication with Don Veinot of Midwest Christian Outreach and the work dedicated to bringing error to light.  Here’s a most recent article he’s written regarding some more current matters and past issues with the institute and with Bill Gothard.

If you clicked the last link and read the article, you’ll readily see why people are so reticent to say anything, to comment or to question the work of the institute. Just like hush money is paid to keep people quiet, sometimes “hush verses” are cited by different ones to insulate people/organizations from scrutiny.   But lately, many have been speaking out and the mounting accusations have been increasing.  And these must be taken seriously.  Even today as I have written this, a turn of events has come about.  Bill Gothard has resigned from the ministry he founded after allegations of abuse and sexual harassment.  Here is Recovering Grace’s response to the resignation. 

So, why talk about this whole thing any longer?  Error.  Truth.  And the ATI/IBLP Institutes are carrying on.  That’s why.

I wrote of some of the ATI /IBLP baggage in another post… here’s another bit of baggage—–careful here, there’s a lot that’s good—which is why, initially, one might embrace the teaching and become a loyal advocate.  But watch…

quoteWhat Are Basic Life Principles?
[the “seven non-optional, universal basic principles of life taught in the Basic Seminar.” ]

1. Design: Understanding the specific purposes for which God created each person, object, and relationship in my life and living in harmony with them. Thanking God for my design brings Self-Acceptance.
2. Authority: Honoring the responsibilities of parents, church leaders, government, and other authorities and learning how God works through them to provide direction and protection. Honoring my authorities brings Inward Peace.
3. Responsibility: Realizing I am accountable to God for every thought, word, action, and motive. Asking forgiveness of those I offend brings a Clear Conscience.
4. Suffering: Allowing the hurts from offenders to reveal blind spots in my own life, and then seeing how I can benefit their lives. Fully forgiving offenders brings Genuine Joy.
5. Ownership: Understanding that everything I have has been entrusted to me by God, and wisely using it for His purposes. Yielding my rights to God brings True Security.
6. Freedom: Enjoying the desire and power to do what is right, rather than claiming the privilege to do what I want. Regaining ground surrendered to sin brings Moral Purity.
7. Success: Discovering God’s purpose for my life by engrafting Scripture in my heart and mind, and using it to think God’s thoughts and make wise decisions. Meditating on Scripture brings Life Purpose.”

Pat answers.  Neatly fit in a box answers. Formula in, success out.   No need for any other material–just the booklets.  It all seemed so biblical, seemed to be the Bible fleshed out, so to speak.  There were so many biblical references, so of course it was a biblically based program!  That was the hook.  That was the draw.

But it was also the underlying problem, tension and reason we could never fully buy into the program and eventually had to reject much of it.  So many of the biblical references were  lifted and twisted to fit the neat packages, the neat boxes.  And, in a fast moving seminar, you take in so much in such a short space of time, that discernment often lags behind as the screen shots keep changing… but you take home your Red notebook, mull it over, line it up behind Scripture and you begin to see… O, wait-a-minute, this isn’t in line with Scripture.  But you press on trying to figure out how to make it fit.  Kinda like the Emperor’s New Clothes.  And then you can’t do it anymore.  At least that’s where we were.

But, interestingly, there was more baggage to sort through when we no longer received our $675. wisdom booklets, newsletters and additional offers for more slick New! exciting information and materials.  There was a bizarre longing to belong— but it was a bad fit, it was something we didn’t even want — but isn’t it curious that we had that longing?   This period of time was to last a couple of years for us, but when it passed, by the grace of God, it was incredibly freeing — so incredibly freeing.  That baggage was so heavy and so confusing.

We didn’t exit the faith—no, not at all.  We didn’t exit conservative homeschooling.  Not at all. We didn’t walk away with nothing from all that we’d learned.  We had gained a great deal and God, in His mercy, was continually rebuilding what He’d begun years earlier.  We give Him glory.

But what to do with all the rules.  The unspoken rules… the ATI village lore... I think these were the hardest things to grasp, sift through and sort through, to stop carrying and to reject!  These were the inferred, unwritten regulations and rules.  And then there were outsider’s interpretations of the ATI rules… sort of like rumors about the rumors and village lore.  So then, ATI-ers were confused or maybe even duped into believing the rules really existed  — many did, though, by the way — that’s why it was such a tangled web to know what was what.   Seriously… these were some of the greatest bondage makers and some of the hardest to break.  These rules were often not questioned — just accepted — publicly, at least.  Sort of like the rule of never questioning the actions/activities of “ministers of the gospel” when the conduct is made public or when there is clear evidence of violations of scripture, etc., etc.  See the dangers here?  These are but a few of the dangers of following a man — instead of seeking the Lord. 

If you’re carrying the baggage of ATI / IBLP… I pray for you—I pray you will have freedom from the bondage, freedom from carrying that baggage of legalism, fear, error, man-centered programs and from following after a man’s program instead of following after the Lord Jesus.  I pray you will be set free—and be free to walk hand in Hand with the Lord and hear His voice.  He says you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free. ♥

Unpacking The ATI / IBLP Baggage

teacuppamelaWhat I’m writing about these days isn’t sensational and isn’t unique to me.  It’s not isolated and it’s not rare — at least not in homeschool and/or conservative Christian circles.  It’s probably going on all over the place to one degree or another.  Most everyone who’s been caught up in a particular group/movement/method comes to a day of reckoning and has to unpack the baggage they’ve intentionally or unwittingly picked up and carried as their own along the way.  And it’s in the unpacking that some things — some ideas or ideals — are seen for what they are: good or bad — valuable or harmful, truth or lies.It’s my hope that the unpacking of some of the ATI / IBLP baggage will be a freeing experience — that it will be an encouragement to other women to be done with wondering if you’re doing the Christian walk right enough  or — if you’re in, or formerly in, ATI: whether you’re good enough, charitable enough, hard-working enough, orderly enough, diligent enough, attentive enough, thorough enough, bright eyed enough, smiling enough, industrious enough,  virtuous enough, resourceful enough, wise enough… or any other enough of the 49 character qualities.   I’m not mocking character qualities — seriously, I’m not — but if the source of character is anything or anyone  but the Lord Jesus, then it’s just flesh.  It is walking/operating in the flesh.  It’s just like what Eve did… it’s wanting to make self wise and using personal resources and personally determined logic or reason to attain a desire — and in the case of most   lots of ATI families, usually the desire is meet the ideals set by the Institute… superior appearance, accomplishments/achievements, the appearance of goodness and righteousness, honour and purity, etc., etc., all the while personally battling (unbeknownst to others) inferiority, lack of accomplishment, lack of measurable achievement, failure, incompetence and depression.Giving the World a New Approach to Life?  No need to try and do that any more.  One man — one man alone did that and that man was/is Jesus.  He alone is the only “new approach” we need for life.  ATI and IBLP boasted of “giving the world a new approach to life” over and over again.  A group of people following the standards of a man will not succeed in giving the world anything but *another* approach of behaving/believing and that other approach will likely lead them away from, or will inoculate the ‘followers’ against, the Truth of the gospel.

If this sounds like a critical, bitter rant, believe me, it’s not.  And I’m continually stopping to assess what I’m saying so that this does not become something of a mudslinging session.  I desire, above all, to be faithful to the Word,  to sound the alarm, as it were, to a parallel society that uses much scripture, pat answers and formulas to enforce and require adherence to particular behaviours and beliefs and one that fosters a false sense of spiritual ‘security’ that is based on works, appearance and surperior ideals instead of shedding light on the Scriptures and exhorting the simplicity of walking day by day in the faith of the Lord Jesus, in light of the Scriptures by grace, because of the finished work of the Cross: our salvation, redemption, sanctification and continued daily guidance of the Holy Spirit because of that finished work and our relationship with Jesus, our Lord.I want to be very careful in this series of articles to encourage a faithful and sincere walk with the Lord—-and not to encourage throwing away *everything* you’ve believed to be true.  Sift it out, examine it, weigh it before the Lord, but don’t walk away—leaving *everything* of faith behind you.  Take the hand of the Lord and seek Him to guide you into all Truth and be willing to lay down the burdens you were never meant to carry.
The different components, unscriptural teachings, formulas, programs, diagrams and charts in the ATI / IBLP baggage may take years to unpack, examine, sift and discard.    Seriously.  Years.  I’m only going to touch on a couple of pieces of that baggage today.
ATI baggage…
One of the heaviest pieces to unpack is the gravest burden of all — the weight of works.  Works look very different in different people, situations or in practice or expression.  But it’s a heavy one, I tell ya!  Unpack and leave that one!
quoteFor by grace are you saved by faith; and that, not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.
Ephesians 2.8-9
And surely not to be overlooked is this other heavy piece of baggage—probably the most egregious, really and this is the baggage of misunderstanding the doctrine of grace.  You really gotta take this one out, examine it, and throw it away if you’re carrying this one.   You get the definition/understanding of grace wrong and you enter into a quagmire of misinterpretation and application of what is anything but grace!
ATI Grace defined: the power and desire to do God’s will.  But that’s not grace at all — that’s not what God’s grace is.  That grace is like self-created pixie-dust, a lightsaber or whatever other imagined or self-willed tool, action or reaction is — but whatever it is, it isn’t the grace the Bible refers to — it isn’t the Grace of God which has appeared to all men.  Get that wrong and you miss the precious gift of the Lord Jesus… His grace manifest in your life through redemption in Him — not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His grace, He saved us; when we deserve(d) wrath, it was/is His merciful grace that saves us, it is His sovereign work in us, through us, round about us, carrying us, working all things together for good for us… His favour, His particular presence, that we can know Him — this is the grace of God in Christ Jesus.  This is what Jesus gives us, works in us, does for us.Other erroneous teachings… the chain of command.  You gotta dump this baggage and study what God really says about authority.   And who our authority is/authorities are.  Those images in the booklets and on the screens from the overhead projector are still indelibly imprinted on my mind—-and I keep having to unpack them, take them out and look and them through the lens of Scripture to see what God really says, what He really intends for me and how dangerous it is to swallow error laced truth.  Makes a real mess of things.  But, by the grace of God and His mercy we can sift through all this and walk with Him.

More later.

The ATI-IBLP Mess

teacuppamelaEvery once in awhile there comes a stir on the internet about Bill Gothard or ATI (the Advanced Training Institute) or IBLP  (the Institute in Basic Life Principles).   Welp… things sure are a-stirring… and seem to have finally come to a point of boiling and bubbling over.  If you’re not familiar with all this, then this mess probably will just seem like yet another airing of grievances by former ‘cult members, or grown children of ______ parent(s), or divorced people talking about their former mates.   I chose those different categories bcz most of us have either been in those situations or are intimately familiar with one or all of them.

As the Bill Gothard – IBLP – ATI mess unfolds (again!), I’m mindful that there are a whole bunch of things — failures, systems, legalism, fears, formulas, etc., etc., that happened to, or in, people’s lives that may well have happened at some other time or in some other way  regardless of the influences of Bill Gothard, IBLP or ATI.  So… as the stories unload in the days to come, I don’t want to jump on the bandwagon and pin ’em all to one guy and his enormous structure of causes, effects and solutions for life’s *conflicts.

My husband attended “the Basic seminar” for the first time in 1987.  We were raising our young family, had come to many conclusions about faith, marriage, family, children, etc., etc., and so when the different seminar topics were presented, we tended to accept them as affirmation or confirmation of things were were in the process of already living or deciding or working to implement.  It was, as it were, a perfect storm.

As different things came up, what should have been red flags to us, we just dismissed some things as “not for us.” Problem is, it’s these very things sometimes that come back to bite you on the backside.   Kinda like when you watch a “made for TV” movie and you recommend said movie to friends and they rent it from Blockbuster and think: Wow….! and forever question your morals, etc., etc.  But, I digress.

In 1988, I attended the Basic seminar(S) with my husband.  The couple who had invited my husband to attend the week-long seminar the year previous had offered to watch our children so we could attend.  We would attend the seminars each year for the next six or seven years.   Every year getting more and more ‘training’ and every year setting aside more and more ideas we just couldn’t get.  Sometimes when I didn’t get an idea, I thought, maybe someday I will be spiritual enough to get this!  Maybe I just need to mature in the Lord.  While I did/do need to mature in the Lord, many of those things were not of the Lord and maturing in the Lord would later prove this.

In 1991 we enrolled in the Advanced Training Institute.  I say with all sincerity, it really did seem like the best  thing for our family as we were already homeschooling our children and we really wanted them to have a full-well-rounded Christian education. At home.  I see now how easy that program was to get lured into desiring.  We’d already been receiving much training through the seminars and materials and so it seemed the likely next step. As we saw the ATI materials and the bright, smiling faces — who wouldn’t want that for their family?!?  I sincerely thought they were all h.a.p.p.y.  And I wanted to our children to be well educated, smiling, grounded and h.a.p.p.y. like that.  I know, I know, some of you are, at this point, taking a break to throw up in a bucket.  Sorry if your keyboard is a mess.  But I guess I just want you to understand — or, really, I just want to recall to mind what really was going on at the time.  And subsequently.

The stuff that was going on behind the scenes we would not know about for a few years in.  And the stuff that was slowly dawning on us was to become the turning point for us to totally back out.  But in the meantime, we pressed on trying to get it.  This is all hard to write or hard to dare to share bcz I know there were and are a whole bunch of people who thought or think that our mistakes and our failures as parents are probably the result of that construct.  Or our rigid rules.  Or our legalism.  Or _____.    Actually, like I said at the onset, I know me… and I believe I could have made a mess of things with or without IBLP/ATI.  And, but for the grace of God, His mercy and His sovereignty, I’d have no hope today.  Nor would our children.

I share this all as sort of an introduction and want to encourage other former ATI mothers and  ATI kids to have a little mercy and understanding as to the why we (all?) were drawn to the program and what we’ve learned from those experiences and to trust the Lord for His work.  To not be bitter or, more importantly, to not reject the Lord.  Go ahead and reject the Institute, reject the false piety, the religiosity, but seek the Lord God and His Truths. Be in the Word.  I’m not minimizing or excusing anything… but if one is to understand someone else, they’ve got to, I believe, have a little mercy and attempt to understand a bit of where they’ve been. And why.

More later.  This mess will take time to unpack.

*The Institute in Basic Life Principles was formerly called the Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts — seminars that were (are?) held in cities that used to draw tens of thousands of people.  Night after night, polished presentations to give the world a new approach to life;  the premise that all troubles/patterns/etc., etc., of life can be traced back to the flawed structures of our youth, rebellion, unresolved conflicts, rejection of authority, rejection of personal unchangeables, etc., etc., etc.

ATI / IBLP Tangled Web

teacuppamelaConsider the spider who spins a web and yet begins with no thread.  My friend, Margaret, told me that a long time ago.  I’ve considered it many times.  I’ve considered other sorts of webs through the years, too.  Webs of good intentions.  Webs of ignorance.  Webs of deceit.  Webs of understanding. Webs of desires. Webs of guilt.  All sorts of webs in our lives… these are the webs that connect good things and blessings to other blessings, lessons learned, desires realized, etc., etc.   But there are also a lot of tangled webs that only eternity can sort out.  ATI/IBLP is probably one such web.

What’s to follow is sort of a synopsis of some aspects of our ATI days.  Man was it a sticky mess sometimes.  Problem with good things is that they are so often a substitute for best things—good things are so often the enemy of best things —– we see the good things and grab onto them, not taking the time to fully weigh them to see if they are best things.  So we settle for good things… thinking they are best things.  This analogy breaks down, of course, but thinking in analogies is one of the good things in the tangled web of ATI/IBLP [Advanced Training Institute / Institute in Basic Life Principles].  Thinking in analogies (life situations seen in light of Scripture) was a valuable life lesson for us and a critical thinking method or understanding we needed to learn to implement in our lives.  Sincerely, there were many valuable lessons and benefits for our lives personally and for our family as a whole.  This blog entry gives the mix of ’em.

When we were planing to attend the ATI conference in Knoxville, Tennessee and a few people asked us, what about the facial hair?  What the heck? Facial hair?  What do you mean?  You’re not allowed to have facial hair in ATI. flag_red I can’t remember what my mustached husband’s reaction was, but it was probably something like, so send me home.  Or something like that.

So we got there. And upon filling out the student application form for our son, we stumbled over different questions and statements.  What the heck?  Boys must this…?  girls must this…? wait, what?  Long, soft curls?  I’m thinking, well, this is a strange thing.flag_red  What happens if you’re not able to grow long hair and/or have soft curls.   A curious mix of what I believe about hair and this requirement suggestion.    There were all sort of things on that student leader in training application—I sincerely cannot recall what they are today, but at the time we noted the odd questions. flag_red

We enjoyed our time together… additionally, we received valuable instruction.  While I was already using a pretty good day-planner method, I received many tips and suggestions for ordering my days, family’s schedules and meal planning.  Couldn’t go for the “playpen in a purse” method flag_red of blanket training babies,  but I did glean some valuable training on helping young children learn to do their chores.   This is also where we first learned of the cool teaching method of making Lap Books for different subjects and Scripture memory helps — in addition to hearing Ray Comfort and a few others who’ve proven to be reliable teachers.  Many of the teaching tools are ones we would keep utilizing long after the ATI materials were added to landfills.   We were accustomed to dumping things in landfills… you know, most all of our hundreds and hundreds of record albums, tapes and CD’s were dumped one day after an extended music fast.  But that’s a story for another day.

Then there was that dream fulfilled of seeing our boy sing in the homeschool choir.   I didn’t know what a high place that was for me… the sight of all the bright and smiling faces, hearing the beautiful music and seeing right before my eyes, youth who didn’t *seem* to be concerned with worldly things.  Only later would I recognize this potential red flag flag_red concerning outward appearances masking inward hurt, rejection or rebellion.  All I could comprehend at that time was the breathtakingly beautiful voices and attractive students.  I’m still Polyanna-ish about this one sometimes.  It really was beautiful to me…  but at the time I didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes.  I’m glad.

We worked on our Wisdom Books (the numbered homeschool materials/books that each family received, one for each child, covering a myriad of subjects all centered around a specific theme based on the Sermon on the Mount) faithfully each day.  We’d get “wrong answers” which were puzzling to us sometimes.  Again, I hoped to one day gain enough wisdom and spiritual maturity to understand the questions and get their answers.  After awhile, my husband began to say—I believe this other answer is the better one, so, you may mark your answers accordingly, even though “they” say it’s flag_red incorrect.  At first it felt like we were sneaking around the institute’s rules… but,  Ah, our first taste of freedom (though it would be a few more years before we dropped the program entirely).

Regarding the “academic” portion of ATI  (not all things ATI were academic), we truly did see the wisdom in the method of tying all the subject matter together around the basic theme or word from the verses contained in the Sermon on the Mount—that aspect (but not the specific material) is something I very much miss today.   It’s what made us interested in the program in the first place — thinking it was just a homeschool curriculum instead of a new way of life.  But as we studied, and sifted through all the different aspects that were ATI,  the lifting and flag_redtwisting of Scriptures became intolerable — unbearable, really, bcz we so highly value the preserved Word of God and the bizarre or conveniently rearranged Scripture was painful to endure.  I can’t even go into the giant 3 volume Character Sketches.  flag_red While we can glean from animals/nature (Consider the ant, thou sluggard…), to attribute reasoning/motive/character qualities or wisdom to animals/nature… flag_red bleck.

We developed the suggested activity of having daily family Bible study every morning — a practice we’ve kept to this day.  We called it Wisdom Searches in those days.  We do not call it that today.

We didn’t finish all the allotted  books each year.  We never went back for the annual pilgrimage  to Knoxville.  We still paid $675. for the privilege to be in ATI.  And for the newsletter.  Eventually we qualified for our next box of Wisdom Booklets.  We never made it to completing WB 49.  Another high-place.

Only one of our children went to headquarters and to the Oklahoma Training Center.  While he was there, strange contradictions began to spell the beginning of the end—-though his invaluable education seemed to outweigh the questions we had at the time.  We began to see the flag_red attention to outward appearance (trainees wore specific clothing *if* they were going to be seen by parents/others who might be visiting the training center), they could not go to the mall — but on occasion they were sent to the mall so that visitors could  tour the facility.  I know this all sounds so petty today… but I share it simply to say, it took little things like this to open our eyes to the duplicity…

The end-end came after the last Seattle seminar… when none of it made sense anymore…