TX Supreme Court Rules Against Bill Gothard and the Institute for Basic Life Principles

Image Source: Bill Gothard - Wikipedia

By Isaac Wood - Posted at MinistryWatch:

Published July 29, 2025

Court says accusers can move forward with lawsuit

The Texas Supreme Court ruled on June 27 that a lawsuit against the Institute for Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and its founder Bill Gothard could continue, despite the defendants’ petition to dismiss the lawsuit under the First Amendment and the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine.

In the original lawsuit, Phoebe Merritt and Abigail Doty allege that from approximately 1996 through 2011 their brother, Samuel Grant, sexually abused Merritt, and their father, Stanley Grant, sexually abused both Merritt and Doty. Among other assertions, Merritt and Doty alleged “civil conspiracy” against the Grants, Gothard, and IBLP.

Merritt and Doty claim that IBLP constitutes a cult that teaches distorted and heretical Christian doctrines, grooms girls to be available to sexual assault, and “indoctrinated boys and young men into the Gothard/IBLP sex abuse cult, teaching them to abuse and to overlook abuse.”

Gothard resigned from IBLP in 2014 after allegations of sexual harassment. In 2015, over 10 plaintiffs alleged “sexual, physical, and psychological abuse by Gothard and his organization” in a civil suit.

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See also:

• Why The Duggars, And Millions Of Other Baptists, Were Deceived By Bill Gothard (Wretched/Fortis Institute)