UNITED STATES
The Investigative Fund
POSTED BY SARAH POSNER
MARCH 1, 2016
Nine additional plaintiffs have joined the lawsuit against disgraced evangelist Bill Gothard and the ministry he founded, the Institute in Basic Life Principles, charging that the organization’s board tolerated and covered up decades of sexual harassment and abuse.
In partnership with Talking Points Memo, the Investigative Fund published an investigation into the Chicago-area ministry last September, documenting decades of charges by women who said Gothard sexually harassed them, told them that rape was a woman’s fault if she dressed immodestly and failed to “cry out to God,” and subjected them to grueling and humiliating physical work at his training centers for little or no pay.
The investigation also detailed how the Duggar family, of 19 Kids and Counting fame, were longtime acolytes of Gothard, and used IBLP’s Advanced Training Institute to homeschool their children. The Learning Channel, which aired their reality television program, canceled the show last summer following the admission of the Duggars’ oldest child, Josh, that he sexually abused five girls, including four of his sisters, as a teenager.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.