Jinger remembers chuckling with her sis at the shopping center while trying out a blonde wig as they joked about “being ready for headquarters.”
Meaning, she composes, that the blonde hair made them appear like “Gothard’s Girls”: Girls and girls, many with “long hair, big smiles and petite body types,” numerous from single-parent houses “without a father or grandfather to guide and protect them,” who operated at IBLP head office in Hillsdale, Ill.
“For us, this wasn’t more than an odd quirk of our little world,” Jinger composes. “Now, after everything that’s happened over the past 10 years, I realize the joke wasn’t funny.”
Gothard would welcome a lady to talk, she describes, and after some time he ‘d “rub the women’s feet and hold their hands, both of which were strictly forbidden between a man and woman who were not married. A lot of Gothard’s girls have said that Gothard would touch them inappropriately or engage in explicitly sexual activity. Ten of those ladies filed a lawsuit against Gothard in 2016.”
He resigned from the IBLP board in March 2014 amidst an evaluation by outdoors legal counsel into accusations he had actually sexually pestered and molested ladies. In June 2014, IBLP specified the examination figured out Gothard “acted in an inappropriate manner” however didn’t dedicate criminal acts. (Gothard stated in a since-deleted declaration, “My actions of holding of hands, hugs, and touching of feet or hair with young ladies crossed the boundaries of discretion and were wrong.”)
The 10 complainants dropped their grievance in 2018, however stated in a joint declaration to Recovering Grace, “We want to make it abundantly clear that by dismissing our lawsuit at this time, we are not recanting our experiences or dismissing the incalculable damage that we believe Gothard has done by his actions and certain teachings. Nor are we disregarding that his organization chose to protect themselves instead of those under their care.”
Gothard, now 88, has actually rejected any misdeed, specifying on his site that the very same ladies who implicated him of sexual misbehavior “had written marvelous letters of gratefulness to me during those 20 years, thanking me for ‘being their best friend,’ ‘bringing about the turning point” in their lives, and “giving them help and encouragement” that they will constantly keep in mind. There was never ever a tip of harassment since there was none.”
