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[somber theme music plays]
[Megyn Kelly off screen] After we interviewed Jim Bob and Michelle,
two of their daughters sat down with us.
The Megyn Kelly thing, I don't really like to even talk about it
because it's not something that I'm proud of.
I look back and I think, you know, my parents did such an amazing job.
If I hadn't felt obligated to like one, do it for like the sake of the show,
and two, do it for like the sake of my parents,
I wouldn't have done it.
[intense theme music]
It breaks my heart to think about the girls, and how they've been treated.
For my family, with filming commitments, we knew there were expectations.
There was definitely an awareness
that they assumed that they were gonna be able
to continue filming with us, and it wasn't gonna stop right after.
Yes, we were taken advantage of.
[Jim Bob] Really, it's not that invasive, and our children have gotten to the point
where they just kind of ignore the cameras,
and we really feel like this is a ministry
that God has opened up through the television show.
Whatever we go into oughta be full-time Christian work,
because whatever we do oughta be done for the Lord.
Growing up in that world, you have to obey, obey, obey, obey.
It's a lot of hard work, but it's worth it.
There was a core teaching of IBLP's servanthood
where you're taught to serve.
The idea of signing a contract
to agree to a specific set of rules or behaviors was very common.
- [dramatic theme music plays] - [Floyd] And it never ended.
Fundamentalism, it exploits people who have no other options,
and then you have the people who see the potential of that
and want to exploit it more.
People in Gothard's sphere need to be held accountable
for how many children have been abused as a result of that.
It makes me wonder if more will come out, more secrets will come out…
…and how many families are suffering
behind closed doors that no one knows about.
[haunting choral theme music music]
[music fades]
Now to the Duggar family…
Speaking out since being rocked by a series of scandals.
Several family members
are speaking out in TLC's new show, Jill & Jessa: Counting On.
Everybody makes their own decisions, and everybody makes their own choices,
but they're not the only ones that suffer the consequences.
I don't think there's any way any of us would've known
that my brother was living such a secret life.
19 Kids and Counting was canceled, and the spinoff show,
Counting On, took its place with a focus on the girls.
We will come out of this fire stronger, as a family unit.
[Tia] I look at that kind of a thing as just further exploitation of the girls.
They now are responsible for being the breadwinners,
keeping the show going.
They're doing this on the back of their own abuse stories.
You've already worked through that, you've already dealt with it,
and you've already moved on,
and you don't want that rubbed in your face all the time…
[Tia] And at some point you're like, when is this crap gonna stop?
How long of a rope does Jim Bob have?
I could probably jump this fence if I had to.
He doesn't look too friendly.
The show really tries hard to portray Jim Bob as kind of a lovable lug.
We never see him like yelling at anybody,
or raising his voice, or anything like that.
And I think this is designed to kind of diffuse our understanding
of the power that he really possesses in this family.
[gong crashes]
[male narrator] In a land far, far away in the kingdom called Arkansas,
there was a shogun named Jim Bob.
Shogun Jim Bob also had a group of lovely maidens
who are, by far, the fairest in the land.
In 19 Kids and Counting, literally, we see Jim Bob handpicking the man
who he thinks should be Jill's husband.
Did Mr. Duggar ever grill you guys
about your financial situation before marriage?
It's on the 45 page application.
Jim Bob made you guys fill out questionnaires that were…
- He is not kidding, yes. - [sister] Yes, they did.
[intense theme music plays]
We're from the same area in northwest Arkansas,
but growing up, never met each other.
And I was about to go to Nepal, and had actually contacted Jim Bob
about being a prayer partner of mine.
Knowing that someone's praying for you is encouraging.
So we developed a relationship, and then he said,
well my daughter Jill, here's her number.
He also knew that I was having two dates coming up
with two friends trying to set me up,
so he was trying to get his guy in there first, and he won.
[both laugh]
If it's all right with you…
I'm itching to start an official courtship, so.
- [both chuckle] - So?
Would you be interesting in courting me?
- Yeah, that would be awesome. - Yeah?
[gentle music plays]
Courtship has to be understood in terms of patriarchal authority.
It's about sexual purity, but more than that, it's about control.
When God worked out the ideal society,
one of the things in that ideal society was that the father was responsible
for the purity of the daughter up to the point of marriage.
[somber theme music plays]
[Kristin] It's about a father controlling
his daughter's sexuality, and controlling his children's future.
You may kiss the bride.
[Derick] You had no choice in the fact
that 4.4 million people are watching your wedding.
[Jill] It was the highest rated show at that time that TLC had ever had.
[tense music]
The day before we got married, I signed a contract.
I just saw the signature page.
It was like on the end of the kitchen table, like hey,
we just need you guys to sign these. Like, everybody was signing 'em.
We were literally running through the kitchen,
and it was like whoever you could grab on the way through,
like I didn't know what it was for.
[Producer] Who put it in front of you?
My dad.
[suspenseful theme music plays]
What we found out later was that it was a commitment of your life
- for the next five years to the show. - They had their negotiations,
they had their business meetings, it just wasn't with us.
[Derick] We were just told when to be there what was going on,
what we needed to do.
We had taken a couple pregnancy tests earlier, and we're expecting.
- [all gasping] - [all laughing]
So, 30 days into your marriage, you find out you're, actually-
Tomorrow's our one month anniversary.
[Jill] So a few weeks out from the birth,
the production company, they're like, hey, so we're thinking about the birth.
Are you good with us being, just like one person there, like early labor?
And I was like, well actually,
we don't want you guys there at all. And they're like, like at all?
- And they're shocked, like what? - Whoa.
[yelling]
[Derick] You didn't wanna go through what Anna went through.
We're having a baby right here in the bathroom.
[Michelle] Here's your baby, here's your baby.
Oh, thank you Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
I knew for sure, I was like nobody's in my delivery room.
Like, nobody, and nobody's there for the labor watching me.
I don't want any of that.
It is 3:43 in the morning, and my water broke.
[Derick] We basically lost, and they're gonna get what they want.
[Jill] They gave us cameras, you know, and they were like, you guys shoot.
We've been laboring for a couple days now, it's Monday.
- [Jill] We did diary cams. - [Derick] Oh yeah, on the tripod.
[Jill] We did a lot of work.
So they still got, you know, the footage.
[suspenseful theme music plays]
The women and girls in this family, they are really the draw of that show.
When they have more babies,
that's how they get a lot of their viewership,
which is actually really similar to the Kardashians.
[Kris Jenner] Oh my gosh.
But the difference is that the Kardashians
are getting remuneration for their participation in the show.
[Jessa] Oh, this is painful.
The Duggar women are doing the labor, literally doing the labor,
but they're really being shut out of who has the money
and who has the power.
- [upbeat theme music plays] - After Israel's birth,
we asked TLC to pay us enough just to cover
what our out of pocket costs were for health insurance for Israel's birth.
[Derick] They said they paid the family.
Paid the family means we don't get anything, at that point.
And they said, well we paid your dad, so take it up with him.
[intense theme music plays]
19 Kids and Counting was a juggernaut for that network,
so it's not like the money wasn't there.
It is normal for the father to take all the money,
because the wife doesn't get it, the children don't get it.
They're under their father's authority, so of course he has it.
[male producer] In the whole run of your time being a star,
did you ever get a distribution?
Mm-mm, no, I never received any payout.
No check, no cash, no nothing.
For 7 and a half years of my adult life, I was never paid.
[dramatic music fades]
[saw buzzing]
[machine sounds]
- [hammer tapping] - [gentle theme music plays]
[Michelle] I'm just amazed at what can get done with a group of children
that are willing to work, and every one of those children are out there
sweating and working, and some of the hardest working people you will ever meet.
It was expected that you would serve for the benefit of serving alone.
[Bill voice over] And there are many, many ministry opportunities
that are out there for your sons and daughters,
and we want you to avail yourself…
These families, they had loving parents who wanted the best for their kids,
but who still believed my son, my daughter
can go work at any of the different programs
that's offered under this giant IBLP umbrella.
[Chad] The programs that you could participate in range from a week or two,
like a summer camp, all the way to several months,
to several years if you were working in the training centers.
At the training centers, it's usually kids in their late teens, early twenties,
who would be going to college, but have basically been convinced
that college is a useless waste of humanism brainwashing.
What the parents didn't realize is what they were signing their kid up to
were horribly long hours, where they would be working 15, 16 hours a day.
Bill Gothard's like hey, have your kids join my homeschool program,
and then afterwards, send them to work for me for free.
When Josh was away at the IBLP facility, they were doing construction work there.
Yeah, that was one of his punishments.
We were expected to help with the conferences, the work to set up…
…tear down. Entire civic centers would be transformed
into these IBLP oases with the red carpets, and the potted plants.
Gothard loved some potted plants.
This was manual labor being performed by children,
and this was not an uncommon thing. This was everywhere.
It is almost impossible to describe what IBLP looks like.
It's in every home, but there's a headquarters,
and then there's all the training centers all over the place, and it got bigger,
and bigger, bigger, more and more and more programs.
So there's like one training center for Character First,
and then there's one for Excel, and then there's one for Commit,
and there's one for Telos, and there's one for Alert,
and there's one for Verity, and Sound Foundations,
and all these different branches that they have,
and each one functions a different way, and they're everywhere.
It's super confusing.
Bill Gothard loves acronyms.
There's IBLP, the Institute of Basic Life Principles.
There's ATI, the Advanced Training Institute.
There's EQUIP, which I don't remember what it stands for.
There's Commit, Excel, Alert,
and I think that they're a way of confusing people.
So you know, Alert sounds really cool.
A militia of homeschooled boys sounds a little scarier.
- All unit 63! - Hoorah!
[Chad] Alert is Gothard's paramilitary organization,
very deeply steeped in IBLP'S teachings on authority.
[male narrator through recording] Our God is a God of order.
He will continue to guide and control all that He has planned for our future.
[Heather] I don't think our parents realized how intense it was,
or that anything terrible was happening at these places.
They controlled every single thing that we did.
If you were in trouble, they would lock you in the prayer room
for hours, up to days, up to weeks.
It was just an empty hotel room with no furniture,
and they would give you a Bible
until they thought you were appropriately repentant,
and that was wildly up to other kids, team leaders.
[male narrator] When the team leader raises three fingers,
the children know that it is time to smile.
[Lara] My worst stay there,
my team leader did not like the shoes that I had worn.
They had a bit of a heel on them, and that wasn't against the rules,
but she personally just didn't like it,
and thought it was sinful and distracting to the men.
And by a bit of a heel, I mean.
I was in the prayer room for four days, I think.
I was 16. It was just a nightmare, yeah.
Every two weeks we would go to Walmart. I bought a box of tampons.
When you get back, they go through your stuff, and they took them instantly,
and I couldn't have them anymore. They were like, these are a form of pleasure.
And I got locked in my room, because I took my own virginity with them,
and like robbed my husband of the right to break my hymen, you know?
So they took my devil sticks.
[Floyd] You'd go through these sessions
where they would grill you on what you did wrong,
and how you could do it better,
and over and over, be forced to confess.
Shame was a tool that really kept all of us in line.
I feel like shame, uh, was killing me.
At the Oklahoma City Training Center, they sealed the windows shut
so that we couldn't go out on the ledge, and attempt to commit suicide.
One day, I see my housemate with a big knife to her throat.
She's like, the Bible says that it is better
to put a knife to your throat than to be a glutton.
Wait, what, what? This Bible verse brought you to this place?
They worried about us becoming the best godly females for our husbands.
So it was about, you know, this maintaining of your weight.
We had people right in front of us that needed the biggest help,
and all we ever did was throw prayer at them.
We were all brainwashed by Bill.
Mr. Gothard lived everywhere.
He would visit all of the training centers, just all of the time.
Gothard flitted about the country, and really the world, like a celebrity.
[people chattering]
Mr. Gothard had always projected this image
that he only took a very small portion of money, he drove a very old car.
I found out that the entire Gothard family was living incredibly extravagantly
off of the Institute's money.
He came across as authentic, but IBLP is modeling the exact opposite
of everything that it claims to represent.
Instead of simplicity, you're gonna see planes,
you're gonna see gold-plated hallways.
My family struggled to pay for this seminar because it was very expensive,
and the homeschool program was very expensive.
Bill Gothard used IBLP families to grow the Institute
into this huge organization with real political power, and connections.
- [intense theme music plays] - At the various training centers,
a lot of the things that they were doing was election campaigning
for candidates that Bill Gothard had an interest in seeing elected.
He was connecting with politicians.
Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Sonny Perdue, Rick Perry.
IBLP's biggest donor is David Green, who is the CEO of Hobby Lobby.
Obviously in our culture, you've seen a lot of deterioration of character,
and so it should be obvious to just about any businessman
that this is a a great need.
A lot of the training centers they had were gifts from local governments.
City officials have a lot of money that they can disperse,
and when Gothard found this out, he ended up sticking his fingers
into this government tax money pie.
Now, our look at the family and a movement in communities around the country
to teach morality as part of the public school curriculum.
[Brooke] Bill Gothard's teachings have been used in public schools.
[male news reporter] Gothard freely admits
he wants the 10 Commandments back in public schools,
but insists Character First, which contains no overt reference,
to God or the Bible is not a backdoor way of doing so.
[Heather] The Oklahoma Training Center, the first two weeks were spent teaching us
how to gaslight children into Bible studies.
[male news reporter] These are Character Coaches.
We didn't need their parents permission,
and we were absolutely indoctrinating them.
[male news reporter] Critics claim the lessons
teach blind obedience to authority.
His teachings had made it into private prisons.
Correction Corporation America has this program in 28 of their facilities.
This year, they're gonna put it in 12 more.
This is why I came to prison, for these teachings that I'm learning right now.
[intense theme music plays]
[Josh] So at this point in time,
the IBLP teachings in some areas are beginning to spread
into the military, and into the police.
It's just what soldiers need to have with them.
If all the layers of authority are lined up correctly,
the one in authority should simply have to speak, and it should get done.
ATI was not just an academic curriculum. World domination was the goal.
They had training centers in Russia, New Zealand, Australia.
Mexico, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore.
They are taking this stuff everywhere.
Coming up next on 19 Kids and Counting.
[Derick ] We're getting ready to go on this big trip
to the other side of the world.
[Josh] Reality TV, to me, is a very powerful force.
19 Kids and Counting becomes a recruiting tool for the Institute.
[male TV narrator] Discovery Networks,
with more than 1.5 billion global subscribers.
These programs have built TLC Discovery into this international empire.
They've given us the ability to really use a show
to include a lot of Bible principles that we live by,
and it's actually through TLC, it's gone around the world.
They've taken the family on all these international trips.
[Jim Bob speaks Spanish ]
[people laughing]
[Brooke ] A lot of the older show was fish out of water stories.
[Jim Bob through recording] We're getting ready to go on a Japanese TV show.
[Michelle through recording] This definitely was much different
than what we were accustomed to.
[speaking Japanese] Konichiwa!
[Jim Bob] What's your faith background?
I don't really, kinda, believe in God.
He's got a plan for your life, and He loves you,
and we just have to repent from our sin,
turn to Him, give Him the control of our life.
- Cheers! Thank you, man, thank you. - Thank you.
That was impressive.
[Jim Bob] All right guys, let's go invade the castle.
[tense theme music plays]
[music crescendos]
In 2016, we were living in El Salvador at the time, doing mission work.
Jim Bob just gotten the show back up and going
with Jill and Jessa: Counting On.
We're sitting in our new home in Central America.
We're so blessed to be here with our little family.
[Jill] TLC was pressing us about coming back for a shoot.
It's called Jill and Jessa: Counting On. You can't not come.
Like, we have to do this, the pressure was on.
We said, news to us, like why are you so surprised that we can't come?
We said we're here for 10 months.
You guys have been coming down here filming us.
Now it's a matter of principle, like we're gonna be here.
[Derick speaks Spanish] Patience.
That was like the first time that we really put our foot down, and said no.
I'd never said no to my family before, and just been like, no, no, no.
We cannot do what you're asking us to do.
And it was one of those like a-ha moments for us
that basically they're like, well you have to.
[intense theme music plays]
[Jill] My dad sends us the signature page,
along with like just the obligation section of the contract.
I was like, somebody forged my signature, I'm sure of it.
And then I look at it and I'm like, that is my signature.
And that's when we realized that I had signed this
the day before we got married. It's so exciting, Pops.
And then I'm like, "Oh I remember that.
That's not what I thought I was signing."
We never gave our word that we're generally
gonna be committed to anything. This was fraud.
[Jill] And I'm freaking out, 'cause now we're aware of this contract.
Like, does it hold any water? Are we gonna get off the plane,
and they're arrest us because we've violated something?
Because if we're giving up something, then we should get something in return.
Jim Bob said, "Well what do you want, like $10 an hour?"
And I said, "I don't know, what's it worth?"
And he's like, "Well, what's your price?" I said, "What's it worth?"
He goes, "What's your price?" "What's it worth?"
He's like, "I could pay you $10 an hour."
[dramatic theme music plays]
- That's when we asked to talk to TLC. - [Jill] Chad said something about…
[Derick] Chad reached out and said,
"You can't talk to them without me on the phone."
"Without me on there, because the contract's not with you.
It's through your dad, and I'm his representative,
so I have to be involved in these conversations."
- And we were not able to talk to TLC. - Yeah.
Honestly they probably would think if you have a problem with it,
you'd speak up. But it's not the boat that I was in.
[female reporter] Family relies on food banks…
We have Jill Duggar, who is saying she never made a dime.
That she even had to, at one point, rely on food banks t help feed her family.
[Jill] Around that time my dad said,
"Thanks to Derick, I'm gonna go ahead and pay some people,
pay some of the older kids, a lump sum."
Something that we could work…
He said some of the boys are getting to the point
where they wanna start businesses and stuff,
so I think it's good timing, and blah blah blah.
[Derick] The amount that he ended up paying in a lump sum to each person,
I don't think it would be a coincidence that that would be very
close to what minimum wage would be up to 18.
But, in order to receive that, you had to sign another deal with my dad,
his production company, Mad Family Inc., that would be like, forever.
We were automatically like, we're done.
We found out on social media that our relationship,
if we ever had a relationship with TLC, came to an end at that time.
It was a difficult decision, but something that we knew
we really needed to do for our family.
Do you regret leaving the show?
- [both] No. - We're not on the best terms
with some of my family. Um. We've had some disagreements and stuff.
We don't wanna just be like, oh they're sorry, so we should just move on,
and everything's okay, and basically nothing change.
It's obviously hard when there's continued stuff happening.
[Derick] When I got threats, like someone reached out anonymously
on a very lengthy text message, it was just bizarre.
[eerie theme music plays]
Somebody who claimed to be a true friend,
why are you anonymous using a burner phone, then? He wants…
[male producer] Did Jim Bob send you that text message?
- I don't know, I can't speculate. - [Jill] I don't think so.
[dramatic theme music plays]
I did report it to the police department, and shared exactly what the threat was.
[Jill] It's just like, this whole culture. I don't know, the fear and lack of trust.
Disobedience doesn't mean dishonor, like you're dishonoring me
just because you don't agree exactly with what I think.
We don't bless what you're doing,
so therefore you have to do what we want you to do.
Honor, and respect, and obey were all on the same level back then.
- [eerie theme music plays] - In the culture that Gothard created,
there is an unchecked power dynamic at play, and whenever that happens,
you're going to start seeing some form of abuse.
[Floyd] The idea that your parents are your ultimate authority
wasn't necessarily true,
because it was whoever was in charge of you at that moment.
Basically, the oldest male present was in charge.
When I was at a training center,
one of the boys who was in charge of the maintenance at the training center,
one night he came in, and he climbs in my bed.
I didn't know how to say, "I don't want you in my bed, get out please,"
because I'd never been taught that. And not only that, but any back talk
was beat out of us at a young age. So, I can say with experience
that sexual assault and training centers
within the Institute, under Bill Gothard, is very real and rampant.
[somber theme music plays]
Bill Gothard had actually been the subject of a sex scandal back in 1980.
Steve Gothard, Bill's brother, was using his position of power in IBLP
to sexually harass women, and to coerce them into performing sex acts on him.
[eerie theme music plays]
People are coming forward and saying that Steve has sexually abused,
and harassed multiple people in the office.
And so what Bill did was take his brother, sends him out to a campus
that has even less oversight than the main campus does…
and then leaves Steve to basically do whatever he wants out there.
[male narrator] Northwoods Conference Center
in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Tubing, kayaking, and hiking
were just a few of the many activities they were able to enjoy.
There is a landing strip for the Learjet that they owned.
[Brooke] Girls who disobeyed Bill got sent to Steve in the Northwoods.
At one point, Bill Gothard is caught with a young woman in a cabin,
and so this kind of comes to a head, and Gothard and his brother
are confronted by everyone who's working for them.
Bill keeps trying to find ways to keep Steve in the organization,
and one of his solutions is, why don't we just have him marry one of the women?
And when you try to get an understanding of what was going on in this culture,
and how were women viewed, and how is sexuality viewed…
…That story is terrifying.
And even at the time, that was so out there
that even his own board was like, no, that does not fix this.
Even by their standard, that was too far.
[Brooke] In kind of a compromise, what Bill Gothard ends up deciding to do
is to get rid of Steve, but he came up with this new teaching.
It's the Matthew 18 teaching.
Calling this biblical, basing it on Matthew 18,
making it impermissible to gossip,
which means making allegations against leaders, in particular.
This is also part of the Duggar's commitments.
Praise publicly, and if you have something negative to say,
just go to that person privately.
[Kristin] This culture is shaped in a way
that makes abuse incredibly difficult to report for women,
for other members of the community. They really have no recourse.
[dramatic theme music plays]
[Emily] I do remember listening to some of the sessions
that Michelle and Jim Bob did together.
I wished that my parents had had the kind of marriage
that I thought Michelle and Jim Bob had, or at least they were showing.
When I was about 10 years old, my family really shattered apart.
[somber theme music plays]
My father molested me.
A lot of people ask me if my mother was aware of the abuse going on.
She knew our family was in great danger, but my mother was in a cult too.
When Bill first spotted me, I was 13 years old, and he was 71.
He asked as soon as I turned 14 for me to quit homeschool,
to move up to Chicago, and live at headquarters indefinitely.
Bill took one of his female assistants.
He pointed at me, and he looked her straight in the eye,
and he said, "Don't let this one go."
- [unintelligible background chatter] - As time goes on…
…It becomes very obvious that Bill Gothard has like, a type.
It was kind of the rumor that like, the blonde girls get picked.
[male narrator] One of the most exciting ministries
the Lord has entrusted to the Institute this year is the Journey to the Heart.
Students on the journey also receive training,
and one-on-one counsel from Mr. Gothard.
Journey to the Heart was a 10 day camp. Mr. Gothard would be there,
teaching these lessons throughout the day.
Every person that came on a Journey to the Heart had a meeting with him.
Every single person.
Journey to the Heart seems to me like a vetting process
for like, which types do I like to invite for further long-term things?
Like, learn more about their vulnerabilities,
because you're gonna learn those things through an interview.
- [bells chiming] - [Lindsey] I was 18 when I met him.
I go into a room, it was kind of a dark room.
[suspenseful theme music plays]
I'm in there, his assistant's sitting over in the corner,
Bill Gothard's sitting at his desk. It just felt ominous, and intimidating.
[music intensifies]
He basically just kind of leans back with this sort of like, he's admiring you.
"Well Lindsey, so glad you're here.
I would love for you to come to headquarters.
Would you like to come and work at headquarters?"
Now, I don't know how to put enough emphasis on this,
headquarters was the shit.
You could not get any higher than working at headquarters, especially as a female.
And if this is what Gothard wants, this is what God wants.
You want a future? Then fulfill our special calling.
Meeting Bill Gothard is like meeting the pope, the president,
and Justin Bieber all rolled into one.
I just have gotta be the most blessed person I know.
He does have an odd physical appearance. You know, he's got a Lego-shaped head,
and his ill-fitting Men's Warehouse suit.
He can just draw anybody in. [scoffs]
It's like watching the snake in The Jungle Book.
♪ Trust in me ♪
Husbands, treat her like a china teacup, not a coffee mug.
Bill never married.
Repopulate the nation with godly sons and daughters. Now is the time.
And he never had any children.
I just made up my mind that I would never kiss a girl
until I was at that wedding night.
- Never been married. - Yes.
- Never had children. - Yes.
- But yet, he has this entire plan… - Of like, how to model a family.
But that's how you're trying to model a family,
but he's never been a husband, or a parent?
Yes.
I don't think anyone ever questioned it.
I mean, he got his revelations directly from God, so.
[gentle theme music plays]
You would get chosen to ride in Mr. Gothard's van.
All of us were under 18.
He would always have a girl next to him.
There was always petting to heavy petting, his hand on knees, up skirts.
- We never talked about it. - [dramatic music plays]
I knew it was weird, but I didn't know it was wrong.
He didn't need to test our boundaries
because our boundaries had been tested in so many other ways
and we had already been proven faithful, in a sense.
[Emily] When I was 18, I finally ended up at headquarters.
Bill called my father and he's like,
"So your daughter explains to me that she wants to learn how to respect her father."
And as he said it, Bill looked at me and winked.
Then when Bill talked to me, he made my dad out to be the villain,
and proceeded to tell me that my father had lost all authority over me,
and that Bill was my new authority.
[Lindsay] At headquarters, we would have these weird,
almost like a therapy session.
And he would always wait for his assistant to leave.
And he was like, "So are you a virgin?"
And I was like, "Well, yes sir, of course."
I didn't know what sex was. I didn't know how babies were made.
I didn't know anything.
I just knew virginity was like, this thing that I had within me
that was only meant for this one person.
He's like, "Well, let's kneel before the Lord."
And I was like, whoa, that's an elevated measure of prayer.
So we get down on our knees and I immediately do this,
and I'm just like all ready, and then all the sudden,
I feel his hand creep up against mine,
and he kept rubbing his thumb across the back of my hand.
Which, we have a thing within the ATI system
that we call the six inch rule, to keep six inches between a female and a male.
And he seemed to have no problem.
This became routine. This happened three times a week, maybe four times a week.
[intense theme music plays]
One night at headquarters, he said, "You belong here.
I love you. You know that, right?"
"Your father doesn't love you, but I love you."
He played with my hair, and he rubbed my shoulders,
and he put his hand on my thigh.
The building was empty.
Bill said, "Why don't you come up to my office?"
[music intensifies]
He took me by the hand.
We started to walk through the dark hallways,
and just as we opened the door,
I saw that there was still a male staff assistant
sitting at the computer doing some work,
and Bill was startled. He did not expect that man to be in there.
[dramatic music fades]
Shortly after I arrived home from headquarters,
the abuse at home got significantly worse because Bill had made promises to my dad.
My dad was expecting me to submit more to his authority.
I am one of many, many, many young ladies
that Bill preyed upon, and took advantage of.
I would walk by and sometimes I'd be like, oh, I wonder who he's praying with now.
But then I couldn't really bring myself to like really look in,
or stop and and take a peek. So many other girls were going through
that exact same experience, and none of us felt that we had
even the ability to say anything to anybody
because we wouldn't be heard. If he were to, you know,
do anything wrong, I brought it upon upon him.
[suspenseful theme music plays]
[Brooke] Wisdom Book 36 teaches the law of crying out,
which is that if a woman is sexually assaulted,
and she doesn't cry out to God for help while it's happening,
she's equally to blame.
It's a teaching that basically re-situates sexual assault as the victim's fault.
- [ominous theme music plays] - [Heather] In one of the morning
wisdom searches, they had us go around in this circle,
and talk about if we had been attacked, or molested, or raped,
and what we did to deserve that attack.
[Michelle] I was involved in cheerleading and gymnastics.
You know, kind of dancing around out there in a short skirt.
- She had no clue how guys thought. - And how defrauding that was,
because defrauding is stirring up desires in someone
that cannot be righteously fulfilled.
All of these examples were just existing as a person.
Like, oh, well did you see how short her skirt was?
It was like, oh, did you see that? She had to bend over to scrub the floor.
Like, you can't exist without being accused of tempting a man to attack you.
[Bill] Why does God let tragedies take place?
If He allows our physical to be damaged, He just increases the spiritual power,
and that's a principle, through scripture.
[intense theme music plays]
[Heather] They glorified being attacked.
Would you rather have never been attacked, and not be spiritually mighty?
Like, well now you're lucky, you know? I almost became jealous
of my friends who had gotten raped, because God wanted to use them more.
And that's so weird to say out loud.
- [lively piano music] - ♪ It will be worth it all ♪
♪ When we see Jesus ♪
♪ Our trials will seem so small ♪
♪ When we see Christ When we see Christ ♪
[Josh] When you track Gothard's teaching long enough, you see that
what we're talking about is the playbook of a powerful narcissist, and a dynamic
where there's not any institutional checks and balances put in place.
We have a gift, a gift to you, sir.
Give you assurance of our love and affection for you.
- Ah! - [audience laughing]
- [man in box] Your suit is ready! - [audience cheers]
[Josh] You look at all the different stories, all the different families,
you look at all the different campuses.
Everywhere you go, you're gonna see the exact same thing happening,
abuse shows up in everything that it touches.
[tense theme music plays]
Shortly after I arrived home from headquarters…
…I came across a website called recoveringgrace.org.
[Chad] Recovering Grace was a community online for people
to share their stories of the abuse that they experienced in ATI,
and their own personal stories of recovery.
It is where a lot of the momentum came about
to push back against Bill Gothard for his sexual harassment.
[Emily] On the front page, it was titled
[heavy sigh] "Sexual Harassment at Headquarters."
On impulse I jumped in the comment section and said, "Hey, this is my story."
- [dramatic music plays] - [keyboard keys clacking]
A few days later, I got a phone call from Bill.
He was… livid.
He just lit into me for an hour, on the phone,
and said I needed to remove the comments immediately.
He started calling multiple times a day.
You know, you have this kind of parallel of Bill Gothard abusing young girls
in his program, and Josh Duggar abusing young girls in his home.
A lot of these stories started being shared on Recovering Grace,
and so many similarities came up.
[Josh] What Bill was accused of ran a pretty wide gamut.
Grooming behavior, petting hair, touching hair, long, uncomfortable hugs.
One woman turned around, and he was sitting at the desk,
and she could see that he had a erection underneath his pants,
and his legs were spread out, and he was staring intently at her.
It's story after story after story of that,
and it almost feels like whatever was repressed
inside of Gothard was spilling out into him testing boundaries
of how far he could go with someone before they freaked out.
[intense music bellows]
There was one woman who accused Bill Gothard of rape.
[audience murmuring]
All right, thank you for returning to your seats.
[dramatic theme music plays]
Whenever you and I are falsely accused,
it's like we've been given this cup of bitter water,
and we must go through this public test.
[Josh] So Gothard was removed from leadership from IBLP
because of all of these growing allegations that are coming against him.
[Bill] Just so you know, this property was given to me.
And so it escalates to the point where there's a moment at an IBLP event
where he has to be physically escorted out of the event
by the same campus police group that he helped create.
[male reporter] William W. Gothard Junior was asked by an Alert Academy official
to leave the private property, and refused to do so.
Now, of course, every single thing the man's ever written
and done is still on the website, and that's still the only thing they're using,
but they no longer want the liability of having him,
the person, officially a part of the organization.
If you're perceived as useful, people will cover up for you.
Bill Gothard had that happen,
and then of course, you know, when he was no longer useful,
they took the teachings and ran with it in other directions.
[Brooke] There were sharks circling, realizing that the Institute
had a tremendous amount of money, assets, and funds equaling about $90 million.
And if you could get rid of Bill Gothard,
somebody who was left gets control of all of that cash.
[dramatic theme music plays]
I encourage you also to bring two or three of your friends with you,
and let's increase this, because I think the more people we can get here,
the more lives that will be changed.
[female producer] Do you think that
Jim Bob, in a way, is trying to emulate Bill Gothard?
Oh, definitely. Because Mr. Gothard has been taken out of it,
from what my understanding is is that Jim Bob and Michelle
are now his replacement.
[eerie theme music swells]
He has changed so much, I don't know if he's even the same guy that I knew.
With them being on TLC's show,
I think that has definitely given them a platform
to encourage people to come to IBLP,
and they've encouraged people to move to Arkansas,
which is completely a cult move.
We used to be part of a megachurch, and we started meeting at home
to have a service on Sunday morning, and it's really a special time for our family.
They do believe that the way they live is the way everybody should live.
I don't think America wants to live like fundamentalist families,
but they don't understand what fundamentalist families look like anymore.
- Oh, Jim Duggar. - Jim Duggar, yeah.
[Tia] It's been shined up and put on TLC.
- [intense theme music plays] - At the age of 7 years old…
[music crescendos]
The last time I talked to my uncle was… um…
…erm, 2019.
You called him, and you said,
"Hey, I'm seeing something about Homeland Security."
- I have reporters, from other countries… - Right.
Who have flown in here, asking us questions…
- About Homeland Security raids. - I don't even know whats going on.
Well, breaking news tonight.
Harsh reality for reality TV star, Josh Duggar.
[female reporter 2] Josh Duggar has been arrested.
[male reporter] Duggar asked agents quote,
"Why are you here? "Was someone downloading child porn?"
[intense theme music plays]
[male agent] We were able to determine that
this was the business where
downloads of child pornography had occurred,
and if there's an electronic device that possibly might have this video, or images,
or anything associated like that that's on it,
we'd like to know now.
[Josh] I'm not denying guilt, but I'm not saying that I'm, you know,
I mean as far as anything goes, I don't wanna say the wrong thing.
[dramatic theme music bellows]
It didn't matter, ultimately, that Gothard fell.
- The movement goes on. - [music continues]
The Duggars have exact steps to follow to fulfill the mission of what IBLP is.
There is a decades long, multi-generational plan
to raise up Christian homeschool graduates
to infiltrate the highest levels of government, and the media.
You can't be a they/them, people, you can't!
I'm sorry, pick one or the other, at least.
[Brooke] They are parroting the older generation.
Jim Bob Duggar is running for a seat in the Arkansas Senate.
[Kristin] It's really bold to run for office while you have a son on trial
for child sexual assault materials.
[dramatic music crescendos]
We just flat out lied.
[tense theme music plays through]
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