The Corrosive Tentacles of Gothardism Widespread

One thing that I told myself and my people was that I was only going to spend a minimal amount of time on the topic of Gothardism. For me it is very unpleasant to have to read the materials and read the reports of so many who have been damaged and harmed by that error. I had hoped that by now I could have left off that topic and moved on to other more meaningful issues. But, alas, it is like an irritating rash that won't go away.

Now a dear family that we know and love is being directly affected by Gothardism. One of the daughters in this family is seeking a relationship with a young man who has been reared in a strict Gothard home and now the issues are coming to the forefront. The young man seems very mature and sees the error of some of his parents Gothardism. But the young man's family is rigid and unrelenting regarding "courting," and this threatens to derail an apparently godly relationship between these two youths. I am aware of at least another similar circumstance in my own milieu, and there are likely many others.

Indeed, while we were talking to the mother of the girl in a local restaurant the other day, a man in the booth next to us was eavesdropping on our conversation, in which I was going over some of my concerns about Gothardism. My view of Gothardism is not favorable, to say the least, but my criticism was not a mere rant but taken primarily from the perspective that Gothard does horrible things with Biblical interpretation to justify and rationalize his sometimes bizarre views. After that man had finished his breakfast, he stopped at our booth to tell us that he was a Gothardite and that he felt it necessary to stop by and defend Gothard's name. I expressed my strong view that Gothard's teachings were unorthodox and not Biblical; the man did not seem to want to engage the conversation further.

Out of that experience I concluded a couple of things. First, the teachings of Bill Gothard are widespread among evangelical people. This is a bit surprising to me, as I have said in another article, because his teachings so obviously and blatantly differ with orthodox evangelical faith that I would have thought that few would follow such error. But apparently I am wrong about that. I was reminded that even the churches of Revelation were stained by false teachers and false prophets, so why should I find it so strange in this day of dwindling religion among the masses? Indeed. But one thing that interests me is that Gothardism is not primarily a church phenomenon. The adherents of that way of thinking do not always learn Gothardism from the church. In fact, many churches have been split and even destroyed by zealots of Gothardism insisting that the church order itself according to the tenets of Gothardism.

Secondly, it is apparent that the adherents of Gothardism are bold and brash to defend their system. My wife said, "I wonder if that man would have been so bold to defend Jesus Christ?" Good question. They seem to thrive on controversy and hold tenaciously to their ideas even if one shows them the error of that way. The combination of ready acceptance among the weak in faith and the zealousness of converts to that way is especially troubling and dangerous. This is what the Bible means by the "blind leading the blind." This is nothing short of a cultish kind of system, following a man so blindly and with such devotion that they will imbibe open heresy and theological error to do so.

So, we are taking the advice of Jesus Christ as He dictated to John the letters to the churches of Asia. To the church of Pergamos He had words of condemnation because they tolerated the error of Balaam and foolishly tolerated the teachings of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus said to the church, "... which I also hate." He called that church to repentance, lest He come quickly and fight against them with the "sword of My mouth."

To the church of Thyatira, Jesus had John write that He hated the things of "that woman Jezebel," which they seemed to tolerate. Jesus warned them sharply to repent and turn from allowing false teaching in their midst.

In the same vein, I sense a strong need to oppose this false teaching called Gothardism. My own sense is that it is a pox on the church in today's world, just as those churches in Revelation had many problems and false doctrines with which to deal. But the battle will not be easy; the adherents of that view are excitable zealots who crave power. This is especially true of the men of Gothardism, who in my own experience thus far are frankly weak men who have no intrinsic personal power or influence and thus are ready to welcome any constituted power given to them by Gothard, as is done with the Gothardism notion of the "umbrella of authority," an entirely unbiblical concept which grants to the fathers of Gothardite families [and to Gothard himself, of course] near total authority and power over the members of the family. And like Gothard, they are unable, it seems, to handle confrontation by knowledgable men outside their own "umbrella of authority." This notion, along with many other of Gothard's views, is utterly un-Christian, really, and ought to be rejected outright and the proponents of such unbiblical views sternly scolded.

On a personal note, I cannot help mentioning that I think that Gothardism is almost always, when it is brought to my attention, a problem associated, one way or another, with homeschooling. That view, of course, will irritate many genuinely serious homeschooling families, but I cannot help but make the correlation. I will leave the details and analysis of that nexus to a future article for the time being. Could it be that the inherent isolation and segregation of homeschooling makes those families more vulnerable to errors like Gothardism? Something to think about.

I continue to read the box of Gothard's materials that I was able to obtain and will, I promise you, return to the series of articles that I began some time ago. It is a very busy time of ministry for me, and a kind of marvelous revival is breaking out among us. The blog is low on my list of priorities, so those who are waiting may have to be patient with me.