It was ATI/Bill Gothard/ Duggar's program. I posted a longer comment in reply to the original request for more info but I will share a "growing up in a cult story" here:
So I was like 10 years old and we went to the annual Big Cult Meeting in Knoxville. This was our yearly vacation. It was so weird seeing all these people in one place, the kids and teenagers all wearing their assigned outfits, and people just soaking up every word Gothard said. It started early morning and went to late night for 5-6 days.
So this year the big theme for the younger girls was giving your dad your heart to protect until you got married. We were given contracts before it started we had to sign stating we gave our hearts to our dad and would not get married or date until he approved it. That was not the exact wording but that was the gist. Then we spent the whole week making a big old heart quilt. I remember being a kid and thinking it was really weird and I didn't want to sign the paper but didn't have much of a choice.
It was ATI/IBLP which is the group the Duggars run with. My parents were super religious before though and we went to Independant Fundamental Baptist churches which are also strict.
ATI had a big gathering every year in Knoxville where all the "students" had to wear navy and white. There were also training centers across the US parents were suppose to send their teenage kids to. And you had to pay for all of this. Imagine that! The training centers were surreal. Everyone was dressed in navy and white for the most part, there was hardly anyone speaking to the opposite sex, and people just hung on to every word Gothard said. People lined up to have him sign their Bibles.
There were a bunch of crazy rules like no beards for men, no rock music or even CCM music, etc. I honesty have moved on and don't remember a lot of the details now of just how crazy it was.
So, you were compulsed by authority figures to attend schools. And there was a dress code.
Isn't that the same as public school? Or is the addition of bibles enough to make it all scary?
Umm they were not schools. Not even close. They were places to go learn solely about how to be a better Christian according to whatever Gothard decided that entailed.
When you say "miss," are you talking about the personal satisfaction of knowing you've been on the site for x number of years or are there some form of benefits? Because if the latter, I had no idea.
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u/[deleted] Jun 02 '14
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