Scandal in Suburbia

1961 Based on his master’s thesis at Wheaton College, Bill Gothard founds Campus Teams, a conflictresolution program for wayward youth and a precursor to IBLP, out of his La Grange home. 1974 The organization changes its name to Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts. 1980 Gothard’s brother Steve is dismissed from the organization after confessing to numerous affairs with staff secretaries. 1984 Gothard founds the Advanced Training Institute, a homeschooling program with a curriculum based on the Sermon on the Mount. 1989 The overarching organization changes its name to the Institute in Basic Life Principles. 1992 The prefame Duggar family (later stars of TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting) start using ATI curriculum for homeschooling. July 2012 Recovering Grace, a website for people negatively affected by IBLP and Bill Gothard, publishes “Lizzie’s Story,” a first-person account by a former staffer of alleged sexual…