Gothardism is poison. Those are strong words, but in my episode today with Mr. Tom Buck,

senior pastor of First Baptist Lindale, we are going to talk about gothurtism in some detail.

And we're going to try to show folks out there, as we did a few episodes ago on grace and truth,

that we need to be very wary of the system of ideas that we're going to call Godthardism on this podcast.

Others are discussing Bill Gothard's ideas.

He was famously associated with the

Institute in Biblical Life principles for many years and wrote a lot of books and had a lot of

seminars and really had a tremendous influence in evangelical circles. It's hard to even capture it.

I said, I myself have no background in Gothardism, but I'm trying to get my arms around it because even today, decades after Gothard's heyday, people are still sifting through the wreckage of this man's ministry, so-called, and his teachings. So I'm so thankful for Pastor Tom Buck, joining me on the podcast today on this episode of Grace and Truth. Tom, welcome to the podcast. Thanks, everyone. It's great to be here with you today. As I said, Tom Buck is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Glendale, Texas. He's a dear friend. He's a very sharp thinker. He's a pastor theologian in my judgment. And so he has some background with Gothardism, but worked his way out of it by the

grace of God. And so we're going to be, we're going to be picking up where we were several weeks ago,

almost a month ago, I guess. And we're going to talk through specifically Bill Gothard's views

in a few areas, specifically music, adoption, and wherever else we end up. But before we do that, let me just say a

story word, and then I want to hear from Tom Buck about, you know, sort of background considerations.

Let me just say this at the outset. We said this last time, too. I heard from a bunch of you

out there, which is part of why I'm doing another episode or two, actually two, with Pastor Tom.

And it's clear to me that this needs to be said. There were many people out there who were influenced by this ideology. It's very close. It

sounds a lot like biblical Christianity. Indeed, there is overlap in some areas in terms of what

Gothard stood for. We need to be clear that not everything Bill

Gauthord said was wrong, but in terms of the system of theology that Bill Gauthored gave people,

I do not view it as a sound system. Many families out there, though, were looking for a way to

raise their children in the wreckage of the sexual revolution

and they had prominent pastors and leaders say to them, Bill Gothard and his institutes,

...