Amid Pride Flags, Christian Leader With Duggar Ties Lives Quietly In Suburbs

LA GRANGE, IL – Bill Gothard once delivered speeches to coliseums full of fundamentalist Christian members of the group that he led for decades.

These days, the 88-year-old lives on a tree-lined street in La Grange. He drives around town in an older model Ford Taurus. His yard is immaculate. And he flies the American flag.

Nine years ago, Gothard was ousted as the leader of the Institute in Basic Life Principles after sexual harassment allegations against him surfaced.

A Wikipedia entry is devoted to Gothard, a Lyons Township High School graduate. And two weeks ago, Amazon Prime released a four-part documentary titled "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets." It was about the reality show family with 19 children, as much as it was about Gothard.

Gothard's nonprofit group was long based in a building on Hinsdale's Ogden Avenue, where the alleged harassment took place.

A few years ago, the group moved its headquarters to Big Sandy, Texas, where the institute’s paramilitary Christian discipleship and training program for young men is headquartered. The Duggars are believed to be informally leading the nonprofit.

The Alert Academy campus in Big Sandy is the venue for the institute's annual family homeschool conference, where families camp out in tents and RVs, and participate in a week’s worth of Bible-based activities and seminars.

For many years, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were headline speakers, but their names did not appear on the list of speakers for this year’s conference. Their oldest son, Josh, is serving 12½ years in a Texas prison for receiving child pornography.

The conservative Christian institute founded by Gothard believes that women must submit to men. Women are required to wear long skirts and adhere to other standards of modest dress. And, when a daughter marries, her father transfers his authority over his daughter to her husband during the wedding ceremony.

Gothard's neighbors on Arlington Avenue in La Grange are not so conservative. Next door, a neighbor flies a Pride flag. Another across the street has a newly designed Pride sign.

Last week, two Patch reporters approached Gothard as he was exiting his car in his driveway. Wearing a suit, Gothard greeted the reporters by saying, "I'm rejoicing."

The reporters asked him for a comment about the documentary. When he asked about the documentary's material, the reporters described it.

"I'd rather not get involved if that's OK," Gothard said.

He slowly walked up his porch steps.

The neighbor with the Pride sign across the street said he has lived there for a dozen years.

He said he has had scant interaction with Gothard, who once complimented the neighbor's garden. He said Gothard hasn't waved to him in a few years.

The neighbor said he used to see girls in long skirts go into Gothard's house, but that also hasn't happened in a few years.

A Pride flag can be seen flying next door to the home of Bill Gothard on Arlington Avenue in La Grange. (Lorraine Swanson/Patch).

He said he did not post the sign in response to Gothard's conservative beliefs. Rather, he did so because the LGBTQ community is "getting the worst of it."

The neighbor suspected others in the neighborhood were unaware of Gothard's history as a religious leader. He said he didn't see the institute as "any different from any other religious racket."

Gothard still maintains a Facebook page. He has said nothing on the page about the documentary.

In November, a "moderator" posted a photo of Gothard at a men's gathering taking place at his home.

The post noted it was Gothard's 88th birthday and said he had an eventful year – "shattering his ankle while pruning his trees, as well as having a positive COVID test (no symptoms, praise the Lord)."

Earlier this month, Gothard posted a photo of a coliseum he filled years ago and indicated another group was challenging the one he founded. He offered no details.

It may have something to do with Gothard’s reported attempt to crash the 2018 family homeschool conference in Big Sandy when he was tossed out by another high-profile board member and father of 19, Gil Bates.

The Tennessee clan’s own reality show, “Bringing Up Bates,” was abruptly canceled in 2021 for unknown reasons. Some have speculated that the Bates show was dropped when Amazon announced it was doing an exposé on the institute.

In the recent Facebook post, Gothard said he was attacked by critics when he began the Basic Youth Conflicts Seminar in 1964.

"Since then, I have had many other attacks. Rather than hurting the ministry, they have actually helped it! What they meant for evil, God meant for good," Gothard wrote. "Now, after three million youth and adults have attended a seminar with life-changing results and 120,000 pastors and Christian leaders have chosen to come from all over the globe for training, it is really absurd for a new group to think that they are going to damage what so many have found to be totally beneficial!"

Gothard's group encourages its adherents to marry and have many children. He never did either of those things.

On June 2, the institute responded to the documentary, saying its aim was to put the group in a negative light.

"The recent docuseries focuses on a narrative that is not representative of Jesus Christ, or what IBLP teaches, for shock value and profit. In doing so, many good people are used while others are maligned," the institute said in a statement.

At the same time, the group distanced itself from Gothard in the statement, saying he was no longer associated with it.