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Tuesday, November 01, 2005
We WILL hunt you down...
The Institute is now using its families coordinators as sales people. This is an actual email -- not satire -- and yes, I have permission to post this from a recipient.
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From: "Sarah McMains"
To: [recipient]
Subject: Important Feedback Needed
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:47:44
Dear Mr. [Recipient],
I have noticed that you have not yet signed up for Daily Success! I just wanted to make sure that you don't miss out on such a valuable tool that can help you in discipling your family. Daily Success is not an in-depth program, but rather a simple daily email sharing insights on one command of Christ per week. Some have used them for morning Wisdom Searches with their family, while others have used them in their personal devotions to help them in their walk with the Lord. Our family has found them to be a great encouragement personally in keeping our focus on the things of the Lord during the day.
Mr. Gothard has asked me to contact you and find out if there is something hindering you from receiving the Daily Success emails. Please call or email me and let me know how we can assist you in receiving this valuable discipleship tool. I will send this information on to Mr. Gothard and we will do what we can to help you. If I do not hear from you within the next few days, I will try calling you as Mr. Gothard is looking to remove hindrances as soon as possible.
God bless your family and may His Word be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path today!
In Christ,
Sarah McMains
ATI Family Consultant
[e-mail and phone deleted]
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Obviously, anyone who has not signed up for Daily Success! (for the cost of $49) is in spiritual crisis.
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40 Comments:
X-er, it's like you once observed; the guy sure knows how to make money.
Now THAT'S disturbing! I can't believe they are telling family consultants to harass ATI fathers about this "daily success" thing. They make it sound like not signing up for it makes you a bad father.
That email is almost threatening. It sounds as if the "hindrances" are the ATI families who don't order Daily Success! Totally over the top....
remeber ati is all about being more godly than everybody else and it appeals to that instinct in evry christian. ati is very good at playing off of that instinct and making a killing from it. it nearly put my family in debt trying to buy wisdom booklets.
ati emailmarketers
Tell G-money that the ONLY hinderance to receiving the "Daily Success" email is the $49 debit to my credit card. Ms McMains, PLEASE tell G-money if he is SO concerned about my walk with the Lord, he would spare me from this debit and add me to the cult email list immediately, before I stray too far!!!
It IS kind of threatening. Sort of like "we'll tell Mr. Gothard that you don't want to order and THEN you'll see what happens!!!"
It's amazing how transparent ATI becomes when the "scales" fall from your eyes.
This is just tacky
I don't know which frightens me more, Bill himself or the zealots that work for him.
It hasn't even been a year since I've left and already this dialog is obscene.
I'm ashamed that I was ever affiliated with such a group.
What dialogue are referring to?
See what happens when you give your email address to spammers ? Unsubscribing families will have hinderances now 'cuz they can't afford the daily success. & the "evil one" will soooo get a stronghold. What will happen if the father's don't reply at all ? Will their sons and daughters be plucked from their homes and sent to ALERT or EXCEL ? "We here at Headquarters give complimentary Daily Success-es to all young people that are in the A&E programs.." This is so crazy, wish they would call me and ask why...
Hey, today is Mr. G's birthday! So, when you call him to wish him a happy birthday, you might also give him your feedback on the $49 email subscription for daily success. This is not a joke.
" I will try calling you as Mr. Gothard is looking to remove hindrances as soon as possible..."
Sounds like a threat or line from a dark movie!
The really queer thing is that for years BG has insisted that children learn how to stand alone and not give in to peer pressure; to stand for what is right without giving in to the demand to conform to the group. Now BG's own program uses, in effect, peer pressure to force conformity.
One day some ATI dad will get an e-mail from his family consultant and it will read, "Mr. Gothard is concerned that you have only eight children. Since your wife hasn't given birth in three years, Mr. Gothard wants to know if there are any hindrances. I will try calling you as Mr. Gothard is looking to remove hindrances as soon as possible."
LOL, I can't believe that's a real e-mail... but at the same time, looking back on my previous ATI days, it rings true. My dad used to go back and forth between thinking he should buy this or that new publication, and feeling guilty about how much in debt he was.
This is disturbing. I mean, its just an e-mail, but what it represents in the ATI pysche is way more complicated. This is like Orwell's 1984. I used to have a few remaining qualms about intentionally attempting to "free" ATI kids from their matrix, but now those are gone with this.
my issue is that its $49... it should be free...
oh, yes...don't let the 52-year-old hooptywagon he faithfully drove for 30 years fool you... Gothard is all about raking in the dough. But to him it's just another control issue.
He has officially replaced Al Capone as Chicago's most infamous racketeer....
when we were in the program my mom almost had a nervous breakdown (ok...she actually did...)because ati always had something "fresh and new and more spiritual" to add to the routine when she was already swamped and dad was broke. as if gothard is some god who has a right to tell adults what to do!
i say we all demand $49 in reparations from ati and send him an email which he must read every day.
"hinderances"-a gothard buzzword. makes it sounds like there might be demons lurking in your computer stopping you from getting them...oh my!
What Commenter #4 and others have referred to was a "blessing" for my family. I'd thought that the first 100 (or was it 101) families wouldn't ever have to pay fees, but the enrollment fees and wisdom booklets kept getting more expensive. That's what caused my parents to leave ATI: my father was 100% anti-debt at the time.
Even so, I doubt I'd have been allowed to participate in any of the special training programs. Even at the parents-only annual meetings (what were they called?) my parents were shocked at the worldly influences present. All the southern women wore makeup! And some of the parents present were fat, testimony to the spirit of gluttony in their lives. Plus, my father was offended that Inge Pohl (as a woman, and egads, one with a secular background) was permitted so much influence.
Has anyone else read the first (free on-line) chapter of this "success" product?
It was the first 102 - myself being a member of one of those unfortunate family.
I know what you mean about Inge! With Gothard being so "women must be mindless doormats", he sure did let her run free.
The same holds true for Kathy Voyer.
Anon Previous -
Having known Kathy (Voyer) Mears both before and after marriage, I can say that she has certainly mellowed out some, though how much of the credit goes to having to live with Matthew and how much to working for the (secular!) Florida legislature is anyone's guess.
I was just looking at Bill's "Holiday Traditions - meaningful activities for you and your family" and I was wondering: Does ATI have anything for Kwanzaa?
What do you want to bet that Daily Success! has never done squat for Ms. McMain's family? As a former writer for ATI, 75% of what's written to the families is pure BS and the other 25% is very, very creative "stretching" of the truth.
Ah yes... The wonderful IBLP BS machine. I've always wondered how they trained their people to write identical copy.
I think even more shocking is how much people I know still read and appreciate IBLP material. There have been several people who, after I read it to them, wondered why I was so upset at that email.
I was even told that it was a really great resource.
You know, I was there at HQ when most of this stuff was being developed. I printed a lot of the current editions.
It's all crap and lies. I've read the newsletters that shaded, hyped, spun and outright lied about events that took place - events that Mr. Gothard bragged about as God's abundant blessings.
IBLP has caused a lot of pain and hardship to many families - my family included. We left IBLP mainly because, like some of you mentioned, the cost of the program became prohibitive.
If God is so mighty and powerful, Mr. Gothard, why don't you trust him for our tuition fees instead of making us 'cry out' against our opressive curriculum?
How successful is this for Sarah? I dunno, but is this her on this website?
Is this Sarah?
They should change their names from ATI Family Consultants to ATI Family Controllers.
Has anybody wondered why there's been no post since Tuesday? Or are posts usually this far apart?
Dude! Whoever it was that posted the link to "sarah's website", I can almost guarantee that's not her... it's soooooo not ATI.
Posts are not on a schedule nor are they systemic in being posted when they do arrive. I have seen this blog go weeks with no post, so no worries about there not being a post since Tuesday. Eventually, there will be a post and usually, with much laughter associated with it! Cheers, a never-ati'er.
Bill Gothard,
The GodFather.
"I would hate for you to have any...hindrances. That would be most...unfortunate for you. Your 'spirituallity' hangs in the balance."
Hey this is Merlin from www.merman.us I noticed I got a lot of hits from
"xatiguy.blogspot.com/2005/11/we-will-hunt-you-down.html"
which has led me here. I don't fully understand what this Blog is about, but I have checked with the Sarah Mcmains on my site and she is in no way affiliated with this Daily Success thing. As proof of this truth I've posted a note above the first photo on the site.
Wow! Unbelievable. This is the best one yet. I too am one of the infamous 102 families, and I'm afraid I've strayed far from the fold. However, life continues.
Why pay $49 for Bill when you can get text messages from the Pope?
Maybe (wishful thinking?) when he says he wants to "remove hindrances", he means he wants to waive the $49?
Here's what that dad should say when his "Family Controller" calls him:
"Yes, I do believe that there are some hindrances to my subscribing to Daily Success! One, I have developed a strong diversion to anything with the word "Success" in it, especially when followed by exclamation points.
Two, I am wondering why this email subscription is so very necessary when I have been doing quite well all these years without it.
Three, the final hindrance to my getting Daily Success! is the enormous amount of time I spend every day working hard to support my family. By the time I get home at night, the last thing I want to see is an email from Bill. Instead, I spend my free time loving my wife, enjoying my children, working outdoors, and watching TV/movies. That leaves a very small amount of time for spiritual study. Ten minutes spent reading an email from Bill is ten valuable minutes I could have been reading inspiration for daily living--straight from the Source. If the apostle Paul could do without Daily Success! than so can I."
The $49 dollar charge has been removed, also, you said you got permission from the recipient, not the sender. So, when questioning a copyright, who should you go to, the people who have read the book, or the person who wrote it? of course, with email, you should probably ask both.
wow. i guess the economy IS bad!!
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