Via
Conservative leader Bill Gothard resigns following abuse allegations by Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Religion News Service (via Washington Post), March 7, 2014:
Bill Gothard, an Illinois-based advocate for home schooling and conservative dress who warned against rock music and debt, has resigned from the ministry he founded after allegations of sexually harassing women who worked at his ministry and failing to report child abuse cases.
...Gothard’s ministry had been a popular gathering spot for thousands of Christian families, including the Duggar family from TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting.”
Via
Duggar Family Mentor Sex Scandal: Bill Gothard Resigns From Conservative Religious Organization After 35 Women & Teenagers Accuse Him Of Sexual Harassment, Staff Report, March 7, 2014, Radar Online:
"...Mr. Gothard has resigned as president of the Institutes in Basic Life Principles, its Board of Directors, and its affiliated entities,” David Waller, administrative director of the Advanced Training Institute to families involved in the ministry, wrote in an email.
ATI is a homeschooling program in which Jinger Duggar quoted the organization’s theme song in the Duggar’s book The Duggars: 20 and Counting!
4/3/14 UPDATE: In hopes of getting the Duggars on record about Gothard's resignation, in recent weeks
I sent multiple e-mails to the Duggars representative, Sylvester Smith at Legacy Consulting in Little Rock, Arkansas, and to Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.
I came up empty, but a couple days ago,
reporter Abby Ohlheiser at TheWire.com scored:
So it's important to note that the Duggars are promoting this way of
courtship in an interesting time for their particular religious
communities. Right in the middle of the press tour for Growing Up Duggar, Bill Gothard — a Christian patriarchy leader whose teachings are referenced multiple times by the advice book as a resource — resigned as the head of his own organization after facing dozens of accusations of sexual harassment. Given their endorsement of Gothard's influential teachings, The Wire asked the family for a statement on the Gothard scandal. Jim Bob, the father, said:
"I think it's important for each person to put their faith in Jesus and not follow any man. For us its so important for each of us to have a relationship with the Lord. And the foundation of the relationship is asking Christ to forgive us for our sin, and to turn over the control of our life to Him, and to follow him. And so we don't follow any men, and that's just where we're at."
When asked specifically if the advice in the book still stands, despite the controversy surrounding the man who produced it, Jim Bob added, "What we do as a family, is we just follow what the Bible says. As a family, that's our goal. ... People will let us down, but Jesus won't." In other words, Gothard's ideas will remain a part of their family, even if the man behind them doesn't.
