The last bastion of those who would defend the ills of fundamentalism is protesting that nobody has ever shown them proof positive that any charge against them has merit.
I recently observed this in person via an online conversation where apologists for a particular fundamentalist college claimed that nobody has ever proven to them that someone has been denied entrance to a graduate school because their undergrad degree lacked accreditation.
I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.
Whether it’s a scandal that is common knowledge or a truth claim that is patently false, the rallying cry of fundamentalists will inevitably be “you have no proof!”
Since our pastor was given a plea bargain to a lighter sentence than the original crime he was charged with, you have no proof that he actually did it! Who cares if the evidence presented to the grand jury was overwhelming? You have no proof!
Since you can’t produce audio tape that our college president actually said that crazy thing you can’t prove he actually said it! It doesn’t matter that there were 5,000 witnesses. You have have no proof!
Hard on the heels of this cry that there is no proof, will come the accusation that lacking this smoking gun all further references to this event are gossip, slander, and attacks upon the blameless figure of God’s man.
Who are you going to believe after all, me or your own lying eyes?
If someone needs proof that the problem is the accreditation, I’ve got a letter to prove it. 🙂 I wasn’t even trying to get into grad school–I just needed my two years worth of BJU credits to transfer to another school to finish my degree. Well…that didn’t happen.
And to the person who suggested doing research before investing in four years of college–yes, that is an excellent idea. Unfortunately, my family and I were dumb enough to think that a Christian college would tell us the truth about their accreditation when we asked them about it.
Apparently, Bob Jones University doesn’t have a problem with lying.
I wonder what would happen if people started flooding the Greenville newspaper editorial sections with their accreditation stories?
They would get circular filed. Trust me on this.
Erika, Liberty University will take your credits. I had three years of Baptist Bible College East under my belt and they took 84 credits of mine. I’m almost finished with my degree in Psychology and have been accepted into my Masters program at The Methodist Theological Seminary in Ohio’s Professional Counseling program…it’s worth checking into!
🙁 The only real hope I see is that more and more people are finding out their degree is not what they thought it would be, and that hopefully in the near future the implications of a BJU degree will become common knowledge.
It’s easy to get into a graduate school for music. Because the proof is in the pudding — that is, the performance. You perform well; you’re in.
Law schools don’t care much either because it’s about your LSATs. Period.
But teaching and medicine and counseling — it’s not about your performance. It’s about your qualifications.
My son was graduated from BJU in composite science. He was accepted at Ohio State and received a masters in Anatomy. Then he was accepted at a medical school for the M.D. degree. He had both good grades and did well on the MCAT.
This whole thing reminds me of the cigarette companies. They have spent billions of dollars researching smoking and have for some unknown reason been able to find a link between cancer and smoking. They promise that they will stop making cigarettes the moment they find the evidence. Oddly, they never do find that elusive evidence.
@Tony,
I was just informed yesterday by a friend that Randy Ross deleted his Facebook page, because his pastor didn’t think it was a good idea for him to keep it. I’m not sure what to think about this. Either he was caught doing something bad, and the whole “pastor doesn’t think it’s a good idea” thing is a coverup, or maybe it’s something else…
I think his days of being a real creeper online to Fundy teens are mostly over, though. He used to get support from churches for running his site, but I don’t know if he does anymore.
Jocelyn Z et al:
The issue is really honesty. This mess will only continue until the consumers demand truth. It will be a long time before truth is demanded. There are still too many lemmings that haven’t yet made it over the cliff.
To be fair, the holders of unaccredited degrees are not the only ones in buyer’s remorse. My co-worker’s daughter has a bachelors and masters both from a properly accredited Roman Catholic college. She can’t find a job to help her pay off her $70k student loans. A year ago some man called the morning radio show to complain that he has a degree from Cornell in theater and is working a $10 an hour job to pay off his $120k (sic!) student loan debt. Do you remember what mom and dad said to do before you crossed the street or before you leaped?
The first rule of sales: you need what I am selling. The second rule of sales: you need more of what I am selling. This is why they invented graduate school. America is flooded with Ph.D’s. You graduate school students have been asking those impertinent questions, haven’t you?
But, it is one thing to not be able to find a job in because of a tough job market, and quite another thing to be denied a job only because your degree isn’t properly accredited.
Yeah, agreed Erika. And a down economy has absolutely *nothing* to do with accreditation problems and whether or not someone gets a job because of it. A state will either accept non-regionally accredited degrees or they won’t. Period. No more discussion.
It does not matter ONE iota if the country is “booming” or it is in recession. And right now only 15 states allow for non-regionally accredited degrees for certification and the laws are getting STIFFER, not better.
So that still leaves those with teaching degrees from BJU and counseling degrees from BJU with BOGUS “credentials.”
My understanding is that BJU is accreditated by TRACS, which both the Departments of Education and Defense accept. My son was accepted at a Big Ten University and a MAC school medical college, and he was graduated from BJU.
Reminds me eerily of some of the comments on Bob Bixby’s blog recently.
I am a Bob Jones University graduate and I must say the university had tough standards by that I mean … While in the USAF I took advantage of doing University of Maryland courses and was accepted by the university when I was honorably discharged for the Air Force. I received A’s and B’s but at Bob Jones University it was tough … I MEAN TOUGH! I did not have a problem getting a job following my BJU graduation. My degree is Radio/Television/B.A.
Ike