I do wish that these groups would be seriously investigated and exposed.  They've caused so much misery for people around the world- and worse yet, driven people from God through their perversion of the Gospel.  And, as everyone here knows, they haven't changed very much since the days when I was a member- when their "college" students that I hung out with were being taught to steeplejack other denominations/churches.

by ArchaeoBob on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 12:16:21 PM EST

All seem to be rather supportive.  I wonder why there isn't any serious investigative reporting?

by ArchaeoBob on Sat Mar 08, 2008 at 07:34:38 PM EST

a) The group will go through accreditation mills offering accreditation through very lax standards (one example is with Patrick Henry College and Liberty University attempting to get accreditation through TRACS; TRACS has a known rep as a dominionist "accreditation mill" (which was almost removed as an accepted accreditation board by the Department of Education before Dubya became president).  Many go through less legit groups).

b) Going for a very limited form of accreditation, in that specific BA degrees may be offered in fields of study that generally are not subject to high scrutiny (low-level courses in "counseling", business management, and so on).  Of note, proper degrees in the sciences and degrees above the master's level in anything other than religion are almost never offered.

Southeastern University has taken the second approach--namely, they have a fairly limited BA and master's program (the only master's level courses are in counseling, business administration, "elementary school education"  and "ministerial leadership") that claims to be accredited by SACS, a regional accreditation board covering the Southeastern US.  This way, they can claim to have accreditation even though only a very few of their courses are actually eligible for accreditation--and those courses have been selected to be relatively "safe" courses for accreditation.

In general, regional accreditation boards don't touch the religious degrees (like "ministerial leadership") so much; more scrutiny is given to stuff like medical degree programs, other hard sciences, and the like.  (This is why you almost never see a dominionist college offering medical training above the pharmacy-tech or nursing school level; if they offered MD or DO degrees, they'd start running into the accreditation board's requirements for educational content.)  The "counseling" degree in question is actually one designed for people going into social work (and specifically pastors going into work as "Christian counselors")--not psychiatrists or psychologists.

Even with the programs offered, I'm a little surprised they could pull off the "counseling" degree; the Assemblies not only considers LGBT people to be a sinful "abberation" but also quite officially supports "degaying" therapy (as shown by the so-far unsuccessful attempts to "degay" Ted Haggard by the leader of the largest Assemblies megachurch in the US).  This would be incompatible with, for instance, the present ethics guidelines of the American Counseling Association, not to mention the present ethics guidelines of the American Psychological Association and National Association of Social Workers; even a recent article in Social Work Today has condemned the practice.   Licensing for social workers and counselors in most states requires that the counselor follow ethics guidelines; most states use the NASW or ACA ethics guidelines.  (Literally the only way that a graduate would be able to use the degree--even based on the supposed accreditation--would be as a counselor in a church, probably associated with NARTH et al; the degree is likely designed for both this and for "Christian counselors" wishing to promote Scientology-esque "theophostic counseling".

I'm also surprised they could pull off the education degree; most likely they are specifically gearing the course for elementary school educators in private dominionist schools (and "mothership schools" of dominionist home education programs) and I would be extremely surprised if the course met the basic requirements for teachers entering the public school system.  (At the same time, though, this might not prevent such persons from being hired; some states have been willing to hire teachers with minimal education due to shortages.)  I also expect high school education degrees are not being offered because of a real chance of accreditation problems (namely, over the extremely deficient educational material used in most Assemblies private schools; the problems are not just in the math and science curricula, but as Chris Rodda has recently shown in "Liars for Jesus", throughout the US history and world studies sections as well).

by dogemperor on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 10:54:27 PM EST