☂️ TREE 607: JG – Bill’s umbrella

Notes:

Today’s post mentions sexual abuse but does not go into detail of any specific incident.

There’s a little announcement at the end. Scroll all the way down.

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My parents believed that my sisters and I deserved nothing but the best. When Bill Gothard created a home school curriculum and said it was the best, my parents went for it. It made sense. Bill was a was highly respected Christian leader back in the 80s. Except that Bill Gothard’s values are significantly different than my parents’ values. Bill Gothard believes that music with a strong beat is evil. (It comes from Africa, see, the continent with all the demon worshippers and witch doctors.) Also long hair is evil (on men) and short hair is evil (on women). And jeans are rebellious. And authority is always right, even when it’s wrong. And it is the responsibility of women and girls to keep men from being sexual predators. And, if you are Bill, you can interpret the bible to mean anything you want with no regard for context or good scholarship or translations other than the King James Version. When you followed Bill, you ended up in a twisted world where Jesus didn’t come proclaiming actual good news, he came to inflict the world with an impossible set of rules that you had to keep or pretend to keep while wearing a constant smile of obligatory joy.

But it was the best, and there was no internet which made it a lot harder to get information, so under Bill’s umbrella we went – authority as an Umbrella Of Protection for those under it is one of Bill’s favourite metaphors – and there we stayed seven or eight years. My family got out after my parents saw what living under the umbrella for four months in Russia did to me.

While I was in, I kept quiet about listening to ‘evil’ music or wearing jeans whenever I was hanging out with other people under the umbrella. I gave my parents stress when I got an ‘evil’ early 90s wedge haircut just before heading out to one of Bill’s conferences for teenagers under the umbrella. I spent a lot of time in a navy blue suit learning and teaching the ways of Bill.

On the plus side, I had a fair bit of fun, even in a shirt and tie, at his conferences. I got to go to Moscow, Russia three times. And I made some great friends.

The things that was blew Bill’s umbrella inside out for me were 1) the incredibly angry man who was in charge of Bill’s Russia mission and 2) Bill made the mistake of filling his curriculum with things that taught you how to think. When a person starts to think, they start to notice things, like how flimsy an umbrella can be.

The thing that shredded the umbrella for the general public was the sexual abuse that he perpetrated and that he enabled with his teachings. Because of course. If we’ve learned anything over the last two decades it’s that unchecked authority leads to lots and lots and lots of sexual abuse.

I was in Bill’s programme, had this album, listened to it a lot but had no idea it was about Bill until years later. I’m clever like that.

Obviously, I recommend that you watch Shiny Happy People. The Duggars came along after I left but the documentary is a good introduction to who Bill Gothard is.

The little announcement: My book of short stories will be released in mid-July. Monday next week, I’m going to show you the cover. I got the final artwork I commissioned yesterday. I am very excited about this cover!

Grow slowly
Jeff