FL Sen. Daniel Webster + BIll Gothard, St. Petersburg Times, 2-16-97

Speaker Has Strong Ties to Institute

by Peter Wallsten, T. Christian Miller, St. Petersburg Times, February

16, 1997

Last summer, Daniel Webster journeyed to South Korea on a religious

mission, meeting with the country's president and other political and

spiritual leaders.

He was joined by Bill Gothard, the head of a $30-million Christian

evangelical group.

Four months after the trip, Webster ascended to one of the most

powerful positions in Florida: speaker of the state House of

Representatives.

He brings with him 14 years of experience with Gothard's Institute in

Basic Life Principles, where Webster has not only attended seminars,

but also taught classes and even made an instructional video that

raised money for the institute.

The group preaches a literal interpretation of the Bible, including

the belief that women should submit to their husbands' authority. With

programs for lawmakers, judges, doctors, juvenile delinquents and home-

schooling courses, the institute's reach is wide. It says that 2.5-

million people around the world have participated in its programs.

Webster is an enthusiastic supporter. His six children learn at home,

taught by his wife, Sandy, using the institute's curriculum. The

family, which also is active in its Orlando Baptist church, has

participated in numerous institute seminars over the years.

Webster said he does not want to force his beliefs on other people.

"I've never tried to say this is what's right for everybody,'' he

said. ""All I've said is, "Here's what works for me.' ''

Webster said he will not let the institute's teachings dictate his

legislative agenda in the House, where he is the first Republican

speaker in 122 years.

Still, the institute is attracting increasing interest in Tallahassee.

Webster has hired four House staffers whom he met through the

institute, although Webster's press secretary, Kathy Mears, pointed

out that hundreds of people work for Webster. Mears herself has

participated in institute courses.

Over the years, Webster and state Rep. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville,

have recruited at least eight other Florida lawmakers to the program,

including Sen. John Grant, R-Tampa, and Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port

Richey.

But Webster said there is no connection between Gothard's seven Bible-

based principles and the five principles Webster is using to rank

every measure the House will consider this year.

Gothard's precepts fall in seven broad areas: responsibility,

authority, freedom, suffering, stewardship, design and meditation.

Under Webster's system, House committees will assess bills based on

whether they meet these requirements: less government, lower taxes,

personal responsibility, individual freedom and family empowerment.

"Those are right out of the Republican manual,'' Webster said. "If you

were to listen to speeches at the Republican National Convention, you

would have heard those things five times.''

The Institute in Basic Life Principles began more than 30 years ago in

Gothard's suburban Chicago home.

He applied lessons he learned as a counselor of troubled youths to

create what he called ""basic life principles.''

From those modest beginnings, the enterprise has grown to a net worth

of $30-million. Much of the money comes from fees for seminars and

home-schooling curriculum. Revenues from home-schooling courses and

seminars rose 38 percent between 1993 and 1995, to $15.6-million from

$11.3-million.

Participants first take the Basic Seminar at a cost of $125 per couple

or $75 per person, a board director said. Gothard was in India on

institute business last week and could not be reached.

For those who wish to study further, there are advanced and

specialized seminars, at least one of which will be offered in the

Tampa Bay area this year.

A central tenet of the institute's teaching is a command structure

that makes the husband the head of the household. The man's wife and

his children are to submit to his authority, though the man has the

responsibility to treat his loved ones with respect and devotion.

It would not be natural for a woman to work outside the home and the

man to raise the children, one institute director said.

"That puts a wife in a role that she's not equipped for inwardly or

outwardly and puts the man in the same position,'' the Rev. Tom

Brandon said.

"A man is the lover and leader. (The wife's) role is to trust God to

supply her needs through the leadership of her husband and to serve

with him and fulfill his needs.''

Teaching such philosophy, Gothard's institute has expanded

dramatically during the past decade, opening training centers across

the country and around the world.

He refurbished downtown hotels in Indianapolis and Dallas for

institute use. The institute also owns facilities in Oklahoma City and

Russia and is eyeing sites in Dayton, Ohio, and Jacksonville.

At one advanced school in Dallas, teenage girls in white blouses and

long, dark skirts learn homemaking skills and basic medical

techniques. In Michigan, teenage boys, in white shirts and dark

slacks, are trained in construction and emergency management. The

institute has opened a correspondence law school in California.

Despite the institute's success, it has had its share of controversy.

In the woods northern Michigan, where the institute owns a 3,000-acre

retreat, Gothard's attorneys have waged a decade-long battle over

property taxes.

The town fathers of tiny Watersmeet, Mich., argued that the institute

was not a religion and should not be tax-exempt. But the institute

prevailed when an appeals court recently ruled that the township must

pay the institute about $500,000 in tax refunds, said Robert Barth,

the institute's general counsel.

The group's status as a religion came under controversy again in 1993,

this time in Indianapolis. After buying an abandoned downtown hotel,

the institute opened a juvenile rehabilitation center there.

A local judge began offering juveniles a choice: detention or the

institute.

But the Indiana Civil Liberties Union charged that sending the

children to the institute violated the U.S. Constitution's separation

of church and state. Despite the ICLU's objections, the program

continues to operate.

Perhaps the most notorious of the institute's troubles dates to the

early 1980s. In 1980, Gothard's brother, Steve, was accused of having

sex with seven institute secretaries and was kicked out of the

organization.

In the early 1990s, Julie Dantzler attended one of the institute's

training seminars for legislators with her husband, Florida state Sen.

Rick Dantzler, D-Winter Haven.

A presenter in one class, a pleasant, soft-spoken woman, told the

group that women should wear white blouses and long, dark skirts and

avoid bathing suits.

Julie Dantzler sat in the front row, clad in a top and a pair of

spandex jogging shorts.

"It was an interesting perspective. It's not one that I share,'' said

Dantzler, a mental health counselor. Neither she nor her husband

returned.

"It was much more concerned with the traditional view of women being

submissive, which works for a lot of people,'' she said.

Critics attack the institute's treatment of women, which they say is

based on a literal interpretation of the Bible. But institute

participants say that is an unfair simplification.

"Our goal is to help them in whatever they want to see accomplished,''

said the Rev. Brandon, of Sherman, Texas.

Brandon also scoffs at critics who see an ulterior motive in the

institute's seminars and politicians.

Government leaders have the same problems that others have in marriage

and family relationships, he said.

"When they go and hear (Gothard's seven) principles, it really sets

them free in their lives, in their marriages and families. It gives

them a fresh opportunity to go back and serve the people.''

Webster concurs.

"Life is relationships between people, whether you're at work or in

the Legislature, Republicans and Democrats, or your own teenage sons

and daughters,'' he said. ""The better you are at getting along with

people and resolving conflicts with people, the better off you are in

life.

"I enjoy the advice he's given,'' Webster said of Gothard. ""I think

it's been a major part of my life. I'm not ashamed of that.

"What he has said I believe to be the truth.''

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Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

@1997 St. Petersburg Times;