education

Honorary Degrees

10 Comments

diplomaIf you meet a pastor who’s business card reads Evangelist Rev. Dr. Bro. Phil Armenik Moe.D., D.D., D.Min, D.I.P., Th.D., Ph.D., D.Litt, D.Hum., D.Miss.1 you may well be assured that you are in the presence of a fundamentalist who has been the recipient of a good many honorary degrees from fundamentalists Bible colleges. Gird your loins and prepare to be in the presence of greatness.

Honorary doctorates are useful in fundamentalists circles not only for establishing who’s “camp” someone is in but also to provide their hosts with great material for introductions when they’re out guest speaking. For example: “Tonight we are honored to have with us Dr. Lazarus McSnuffy who holds not one but two doctorates in bus ministry and baptistry design from Hyles Anderson College.”

Even more noteworthy are the tiny church-basement colleges that award doctorates to their own faculty — but that’s a story for another day…

1.Read more about “Bro. Armenik” here

10 thoughts on “Honorary Degrees”

  1. A young theologian named “Fiddle”
    Refused to accept his degree.
    He said, “It’s hard enough being ‘Fiddle’,
    Without being ‘Fiddle D.D.”

    Thanks for the laughter!

    1. because anything other than faithful adoration of every little quirk, must simply be mere hatred.

  3. On honorary doctorates, Basil Manly Jr. said that he would rather not have one, and have people wonder why he did not, than have one, and have people wonder why he did.

  4. Unless the recipient has, say, single-handedly completed an Aramaic dictionary, I’m agin’ em. Degrees are meant to show knowledge. If you want to award a guy for great work in ministry, give him an award–not a “degree.”

  6. Ah yes, the DD or Didn’t Do it. Also reminds me of Richard Hand at Bob Jones. He had a juris doctorate and called himself Dr Hand. I’ve never seen another lawyer call themself “doctor”. LOL!

    1. If I remember right, someone with a JD degree is called “Doctor” if they are working in an academic capacity. If practicing law in the “real world” they are not addressed as “Doctor”.

  7. I just read this here with references to a dead link on Sharper Iron and an eyewitness account on FFF. So . . .

    But HAC gave John R. Rice’s horse an honorary doctorate in the 70s? Yeah, yeah, I know it was a joke. That’s the POINT!

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