UNITED STATES
New York Daily News
BY LAURA BULT NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Thursday, February 18, 2016
Two women who are accusing an influential Christian preacher with ties to the Duggar family of sexual assault spoke out for the first time Thursday about their hellish years of forced labor and abuse in the cult-like organization.
Joy Simmons and Jennifer Spurlock are two of the many men and women who have made the horrifying accusations against Bill Gothard, who ran Institute in Basic Life Principles, saying they were deprived of an education, forced to work and were groped by the Christian leader.
“To have your education ripped from you and to have your childhood ripped from you, it’s extremely difficult. It’s just evil,” Spurlock, who spent three years as a minor at one of Gothard’s training centers, told the Daily News.
Gothard retired in 2014 as president from the IBLP after running the organization for 40 years when the sexual assault allegations first came to light.
The women are two of eight new plaintiffs who joined a lawsuit filed in DuPage County Court in Illinois against board members of the IBLP and Gothard, whose influence in the Evangelical Christian world was exemplified by his relationship with conservative politicians — Gothard was photographed with Huckabee at a campaign lunch during his 2008 presidential bid and former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue spoke at one of his conferences.
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