Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

I'm captivated, and can't stop reading it. I want to write to her and invite her to browse through GCM, but I want to read all the way to the beginning (I'm reading it backwards). In a nutshell, it's the daughter of someone who is sort of high up in the Gothard "ministry," and who has left the whole QF/ ATI movement, and is speaking out about her experiences. It's pretty powerful, and she's remarkably insightful. Check this out:

http://razingruth.blogspot.com

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

I've read it and I agree with all your conclusions--she's a great writer and it's insane what she's recovered from. I knew someone in ATI and it was horrible.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

:jawdrop over some of this stuff....

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Fascinating. I've only read the first page of posts, but wow.

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Really interesting. Thanks for posting the link. I can't imagine trying to recover from that. :(

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I had wondered about Gothard...a childless, never married man. How did he get to be such an expert?

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Wow, I've been reading for the last 30 min. How old is she exactly? Early twenties? She seems so mature & well spoken.
I became a follower.

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She mentions in one of the first blogs that she was born in 1984. Her mom was a high school teacher before she was married and homeschooled her kids.

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It won't load for me... :think

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what is ATI?

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Half of it is blocked by my filter and I forget the code. BUT what I have read is amazing. Praying for her!

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I always wonder if any of the Duggars will come out of that.

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I read just about all of it now. Wow! I could say so much... wasn't the story about how the family dealt with 9/11 warped? What a window into a Gothard family.
I pray all of her other siblings come out of it too.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

:cry some sad stuff.

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I love that blog. But yeah, it's sad, too. :(

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Wow - what an insight. Thanks for the link.

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I read the whole thing. So eye opening! And it answers so many things about the Duggars I have wondered about from watching their show as well.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Man, I just read the whole thing. What a crazy story...Gothardism just boggles my mind. I mean, I grew up with some very conservative, fundamentalist people, but Gothardism takes it to a whole new level. :(

Thanks for posting!

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Wow. Incredible stuff. I have tons of work to do this afternoon, but all I want to do is read this from the beginning. :blush

Thank you so much for sharing this link!

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Can someone explain what ATI is?

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Google Bill Gothard and ATI (Advanced Training Institute Internationa)

I really don't much about it except that it's connected to Quiverfull. ???

I was just reading her very first post and how the idea of JOY (Jesus first Others second You third) is so tainted for her that she hates the word joy now. :cry This is so, so, so sad.

---------- Post added at 02:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:02 PM ----------

what is TWOP that she refers to?

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

So Gothard is the one where the whole idea of "covering" comes from right? I've heard this term tossed around a lot since being a Christian but wonder where it comes from Bibically. Do people who throw that terminology around ultimatly get it from Gothard?

For example, the person speaking at our church yesterday said something like "Your pastors and your small group leaders are your covering. If you step away from that, you put yourself in a place where Satan can attack you. Your leaders, however take the brunt of the attack for you if you are under their covering." This is a teaching I honestly feel I have never quite "gotten" and it seems to be something so many just accept without questioning...but where does this idea come from Biblically??? Are there others outside of Gothard that teach this as well?

Read some of the blog backwards, interested to start from the beginning too.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

"Television Without Pity" - it's a message board for TV shows. They have a long thread about the Duggars that I'm guessing she participates in. (I've lurked there before on the Top Chef and Bachelor boards).

ETA: Link - http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

:sick :no Not Biblical - scare tactic to encourage submission to their ideas and not read your Bible and pray for yourself.

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IIRC, an elaboration of a single verse, Paul telling women to cover their heads in church (that is, to adhere to the dress code of the day--women covered their hair in public).

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Wow. Thanks for the link.

I read the whole thing. It is sad.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

what i think i mean is where do *they* think they are getting it from Biblically? What scriptures do they use to back up this argument?

And although many that use this lingo are in controlling like environments, it seems to be something so tossed around at the same time (a sort of common christianese) that not everyone who talks like that is trying to be controlling...not sure if that makes sense or not, but, for example, I don't think the intent of the person who said that in our church the other day was trying to be controlling when he said that, yet at the same time it comes from a theology that is... :think maybe I should think about this more and do a spinoff because this is UPP and I need to get my thoughts together better too.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

I opened the blog and wanted to ask if anyone knows if there is a way to reverse the posts so they start with the oldest first? It's so hard for me to scroll up and down to try to read them in order. Anyone know?

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Oh yeah, I see what you are saying...

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

I don't think so. if there is a way to do so, I've never discovered it.

What you can do is go to the archives in the right hand column, click on 2009 and then it's less to scroll through to get to the very beginning. After that, you can click on Jan 2010 and then by each month. It's a lot more manageable for me to read old archives that way.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Does anyone know what TWOP is?

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Television Without Pity. A message board that has been around virtually forever, very famous for its biting wit, sarcasm, hilarious posters, and "No soup for you" style of administration.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Have you read the comments? It appears her dad has come on and commented. Shows it as she says it really. Assuming it is her dad. It is the internet after all. I think it is though.

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I'm confused about what that has to do with this woman and Gothard. :scratch (I'm prepared to be thoroughly :O by the obvious answer).

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

It's been years since I felt so compelled by a blog, or wanted to scoop someone up and rock her, and pet her hair, and take her clothes shopping, even though she's a grown woman :shifty

I have worked with a LOT of ATI midwifery trainees, and what I've seen from them, this blog is 'spot-on zero exaggeration' I was always sad for those girls, and saw a few escape their parents home through midwifery training.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

the way I understand it, there was a big thread on TwoP about the Duggars and apparently Ruth was a contributor to the discussion there. Then she started her blog as a cathartic and therapeutic way to tell others what life was like for her in an ATI/Gothard family. I think she felt frustrated by the Shiny Happy People Holding Hands image of the Duggars on TLC and wanted to tell fans and critics of the show what her experience was in a family that practices the same approach to religion. (It has been established that the Duggars are ATI people.)

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Has anyone invited her over to GCM, yet?

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

I emailed her over the weekend. She responded a day or so later, thanking me and saying she would check it out. She seems pretty busy- she's putting herself through college and appears to blog fairly frequently, so I'm not sure if she would have time or want to join, but since UPP is public, I'm hoping she sees this and at least realizes that 1) she has many people praying for her, and 2) that this isn't an "either or" situation- Christian parenting/motherhood/women-hood isn't defined by Gothard or anyone, really, and that scripturally, there is a sound base for gentleness and common sense.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

Thank you for this thread! I have been on her blog for the past day and half every free moment I've had. I just finished reading it all, and most of the comments.
I started telling my husband about some of the things she's been through at the hand of Bill Gothard's ministry and teachings. That name rang a bell with him and come to find out the tech school he went to in Texas is a part of ATI!! :jawdrop It's called ALERT Acadamy and Ruth referenced it once in her blog and it made me wonder if it was the same one DH went to. DH has no connection to that ministry in any other way and just happened to get enrolled in the tech school after someone put his parents in contact with it somehow. I asked him if he ever witnessed anything like this, but he wasn't actually around any of the families, just the kids that were part of the school. But they were almost all very very sheltered homeschoolers.

Re: Has Anyone Read this Blog? Razing Ruth...
 

ATI owns an old hotel in downtown Dallas, and I was interviewed by their midwifery school coordinators there, once, as a potential preceptor for their program. Very creepy, that place.