Shiny Happy People and the Church

This was originally published in my Substack Newsletter – Rethinking Faith

I finished Shiny Happy People last week with my husband. It was a glimpse into my life for him and a difficult reminder for me. Some of the episodes were harder to watch than others. Unexpected emotions, pieces of memories, and a looming sense of dread welled up in ways I didn’t expect. I had to stop and explain, process, and breathe. (Episode 160 of my podcast was my response)

As hard as it was to watch, it was also validating. I’ve been saying to people for years that I think Gothard has had more influence on Evangelical Christianity than we will ever know and people looked at me like I was a conspiracy theorist. But if a secular documentary can connect those dots, then maybe I’m not crazy after all. And that’s what I want to talk about today.

For every family who joined IBLP like the Duggars and lived a controlled and isolated life, there are hundreds—if not thousands—of people who have been subtly influenced by Bill Gothard’s half-truths and outright lies. Maybe they attended his Basic Seminar in the 70s and 80s, bought his books, and swallowed some of his teachings. Maybe they were taught by someone who was influenced by him. If you were on the outer fringe and never truly stepped into the whirlpool that was IBLP, then you wouldn’t necessarily know that you needed to actively reject those teachings. And those teachings—which then influence your view of God, authority, and more—can continue to infect and pollute your heart and mind.

Here is an example. From 2017-2022 my family and I attended a large, well-known church in this area. It appeared to be edgy for a church that had the word Baptist in its name. They talked about Christian psychology and had worship dancers on stage. The church ended up being a huge part of my healing and growth. But like many things, it ended with paradox and tension. Good and bad mixed together.

My parents kept telling me that we had come to this church in 1994 for my first Basic Seminar, but I told them that they must be mistaken. There’s no way that this church would be connected to Gothard. Then I found my scrapbook from 2000 when I first started teaching Children’s Institutes during the Basic Seminar. And there was my name badge staring me in the face.

It was the same church. I’m not sure when they started hosting the Basic Seminar or when they stopped. Most people I’ve talked to at the church are new enough that they don’t even know about it and don’t have a reference for who Gothard is.

But there I am in my brocade vest, brainwashing children with definitions that were made up by Gothard and not from Webster’s dictionary. Teaching them that obedience is about following their authority’s expressed and unexpressed wishes. And that grace is the desire and power to do God’s will. I hate that I was ever a part of spreading these lies.

A former church staff member told me that they don’t remember ever hearing Gothard’s teachings renounced in anyway. As his seminars lost popularity later in the 2000s, the church eventually stopped hosting.

This is what I’m talking about. People attend a seminar full of formulas, false promises, fake definitions, and other lies, and even if they never do another Gothard thing, they will still have taken away ideas about power, authority, patriarchy, gender roles, and following steps to get God’s blessings. They hear, and often embrace, a sneaky prosperity gospel and a works-based salvation.

The church where I taught my Children’s Institute and later became part of is not an isolated situation. In my last 13 years here in West Michigan, every church I’ve attended and organization that I’ve worked with has somehow been lightly entwined with IBLP. And I’ve felt the false teachings about obedience, authority, power structures, gossip, and gender roles at every one. (I talked more about this on episode 161 of my podcast.) The Institute estimates that over two million people have attended the Basic Seminar over the years. This is heartbreaking. Most people just assume that they heard Christian concepts and ideas at the seminar because Gothard talked in Christianese phrases and used Bible verses. But the things he taught weren’t Christian and the god he spoke of wasn’t the Real One. I know because in the middle of it all the real Jesus found me.

Is it an accident that my book, Religious Rebels, just came out? Two weeks after Shiny Happy People released? No. When the Holy Spirit prompted me to finish this book in January and I went away on a writing weekend in February, I had no idea that I’d have a physically published book in June. I had no clue that there was a documentary coming out that exposed the Institute. But the real God did.

In the book I push back against the spiritual formulas and twisted ideas of God that I learned in Gothard’s cult. But I also don’t think we can blame Gothard for everything wrong with modern Evangelical Christianity, because people willingly accepted his teachings out of their own brokenness. We are naturally religious in our corruption by sin. Formulas are appealing. False promises make us feel safe. There is a reason Gothard was able to draw such large crowds in his heyday.

But right now many of us are desperate for the real Jesus.

Religious Rebels is now available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback forms. You can also order an autographed copy on my website, ChristyLynneWood.com. This whole thing is a wild and crazy ride, but I’m holding on and having fun seeing where the Spirit is taking me. Thanks for being a part of it with me!