Woman reveals life in an ultra-religious Christian ‘cult’

A 28-year-old woman who was raised in an ultra-religious Christian “cult” has been sharing her story on TikTok.

Elizabeth Hunter was raised by her adoptive parents in Texas in an organization called the Institute in Basic Life Principles and its home-schooling arm, the Advanced Training Institute.

The conservative ministry — founded by Bill Gothard and made popular by reality TV stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar — includes teachings that rely on conservative Christian principles, some of which can be perceived as extreme.

On her TikTok and Instagram, Hunter explains the strict rules she grew up with and how she eventually realized her family was part of what she says is a cult.

Hunter was abandoned by her biological parents when she was 3 years old and spent several years in and out of foster homes. Once her new parents took her in at 9 years old, they raised her with rigid IBLP-endorsed restrictions.

“Whatever your dad said was absolute law, and you had to do whatever your dad wanted you to do or you were disobeying God himself,” she explained in a video.

“There was no TV in our house. We weren’t allowed to watch movies or television shows. We weren’t allowed to listen to any contemporary or non-Christian music. I was not allowed to cut my hair. I was not allowed to wear makeup.”

Hunter was also forbidden from wearing clothes with words on them because her mother felt they drew attention to her body. She said she also couldn’t wear anything green, simply because her father didn’t like the color. 

In one video, the avid reader lists the books she was banned from reading, including “Bridge to Terabithia” (it has the word “hell”) and the American Girl “Meet Felicity” book collection (Felicity is too independent and lies to her parents).

Whenever she got sick, her mother told her, “‘God is punishing you because you’ve gone out from the umbrella of protection. This is why you’re sick. You must have done something to be punished.”

As a young girl, she was taught how to bake bread, sew and play piano in order “to be a good wife.” By the time she was 17, her parents had her thinking about marriage, although she wasn’t allowed to flirt or date because her father would choose her husband.

As is common in IBLP, Hunter was tasked with raising and home-schooling her younger siblings. Many IBLP members do not earn college degrees, but Hunter convinced her parents to allow her to get a degree in education to better teach her siblings and future children.

She was 22 when she enrolled in Bob Jones University, a nondenominational Christian school in South Carolina that has been ranked as the country’s most conservative college. During her sophomore year, through therapy, she realized she was raised in a cult.

“I did not know I was in a cult until I was a sophomore in college, and I was talking to my therapist,” she said in another clip. “I was explaining that my parents used the Duggar ‘buddy system’ to discipline me and my sister.”

“If it weren’t bad enough that my parents were having me parent my younger sister, when my younger sister fought against it and would refuse to hang out beside me, my parents got a rope and tied us together,” Hunter said.   

“When I told that story to my therapist, she looked at me and she said, ‘Elizabeth, not only is that child abuse, but your parents are a part of a cult.’ And it just dawned on me, and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, you’re right.’”

A year after coming to her first revelation, she also came to terms with her sexuality and came out as gay. She was outed by her college and nearly kicked out during her senior year, which lead her to sue the federal Department of Education for allowing legal discrimination at Christian schools. The lawsuit remains ongoing.

Hunter has since broken away from IBLP and is now working in TV news as a writer and digital creator. Her first novel, “Hearts of Clay and Tempest,” a retelling of “The Little Mermaid,” will be released on June 14.

She continues to share insights into her traumatic childhood and subsequent recovery to help others through their hardships. Hunter also speaks out about the dangers of rehoming.

When she went to enroll her sister in public school, she learned she had been rehomed and was never legally adopted by the people she calls her parents.

“My legal guardians drove me up to a home, unloaded my one backpack full of things and then drove off,” she said. “For the rest of my life, I believed I was adopted by my mom and dad. I told people that. I thought they were my parents. Nine-year-old me thought I was adopted.”

“When I was rehomed at age 9 and thought I was adopted, within two weeks, my parents told me, I had asked to call them Mom and Dad,” she said. “I remember being so happy that somebody wanted to be my mom and dad because, from the ages of 3 to 9, everyone told me very plainly, ‘I’m not your mom.’ ‘I’m not your dad.’ And these were the first people who were like, ‘Yeah, you can call us Mom and Dad.’”

“So, it’s hard to let go of that, even though I thought they were abusive and wrong in many ways,” she explained. “I know that they still loved us even though they did not do right by us completely.”

“And they’re the only parents I have.”