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Tuesday May 06,
2008
Degree or not degree?
Is Charlie McVety's doctoral degree a
cheap, Korean knock-off model? Yes, I think it is.
I've
mentioned before that when I was 9 my parents got
"saved". It's not an easy life on the road to heaven
because you
constantly have
to adjust your thinking to the whims of the current pastor. One
year
TV
watching is a sin; the next year it's just harmless
entertainment. One
minute makeup = Jezebel; next minute it makes you more gorgeous in
God's eyes - see Tammy
Faye Bakker.
Movies were bad; now some movies are good, especially if God is
mentioned. The jungle beat of Rock 'n' Roll was of the devil, but
it's
okay now if the lyrics are "Christian". Cussing was verboten,
(and
still is out loud), but if your pastor muttered, "Gingerale!" when he
got mad at a flat
tire, that didn't count as cussing, even though it sounds awfully like
something else that is very bad cussing. My father used to say,
"My eyehole!" to show his incredulity at something in the news, in the
same way that I would say, "My great aunt Fanny's fanny", but my mother
told him he might as well be saying the word it sounded like, so he
stopped.
In those days a common expression among Born Agains was "educated
fools" (now it's a rock
group). The Bible says it's hard for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven, but our pastor said that it's much harder for an
educated
man (or woman). I suppose because the educated - or even just
smart people - are notorious for asking questions.
I never heard Billy Graham, for instance, mention that he had an
undergraduate degree in
anthropology (Wikipedia). It was a waste of time
anyway, because soon
after he graduated he decided to accept the Bible as literal.
Maybe that's because his degree came from an evangelical university and
maybe he didn't ask too many questions. He was smart enough, though, to
turn
down an offer of a bona fide theological education at Princeton
Theological Seminary.
Just as a sidenote, Graham got his start as an evangelist by touring
with
Charles Templeton, who later became an agnostic and wrote a great book
called Act
of God" (Amazon),
a fascinating novel about the discovery of the bones of Jesus, and the
mysterious death of the anthropologist who dug them up. Who
dunnit?
Could it have been his friend the catholic cardinal? I'm no
spoiler.
You'll have to read it.
But you want to know something odder? Wikipedia tells only of
Graham's
undergraduate degrees, yet later on in the article it refers to him as
"Dr. Graham". There's a whole list of awards and honours, but no
mention of an honourary degree. Why? The answer may be here.
The point is, though, that it was important to call him "Dr. Graham";
it was important that he appear to have an advanced education.
Obviously, even though an advanced education slams the pearly gates
shut, fibbing about having one opens both heavenly and earthly doors
(with possibly some help from a Vatican conspiracy).
Graham certainly had phenomenal success, even becoming pastor/confessor
to a number of (Freemason?) presidents. This may have everything to do
with the whole "Dr." trend in evangelism.
Fibbing may not have come easy to Graham, but he did it when necessary
for the greater good. For instance, he denied
having an "anti-Semite" conversation with Richard Nixon (Wikipedia),
and then when he heard the tapes
he said he didn't recall saying what he said.
Now, believe it or not, I really want to talk about Charles McVety,
pastor to Prime Ministers - one at
least, so it seems (HarperIndex).
Would he have got where he is without "Dr." in front of his name?
Hard
to say. But one thing's for sure - he's going to get into heaven
because he doesn't have an advanced education, only a
mysterious
advanced degree from the illusive California State Christian
University
(CSCU).
First of all, there is no state accreditation for religious degrees in
the United States. There is a theological body, however, which
governs
accreditation: The Association of Theological Schools. Here is a
list of their accredited member schools on which you will not find
the institution that granted Charlie his degree.
In fact, I defy you to locate that university at all. Oh, it has
a website, allright, which provides a locator map,
but the map does not actually show a Devonshire St.
A Google map of the address given - 17145 Devonshire St., Northridge ,
CA 91325 - looks very different and has
differently named cross streets.
A
Metrobot map shows that what is located at that address is: KOREAN
GOSPEL MISSIONS INTERNATIONAL, INC. Sure enough, in the "About" section
of CSCU's website
its history is given as having originated in Korea under the son
(Samuel Saychang Kim) of a hero figure, "Dr." Chi Sun Kim, who studied
theology in the United States in the 50s and 50s and returned to Korea
to spread the gospel.
But, a Google search of "Korean Gospel Missions International, Inc." turns up this
history written by a founder named Yoon Kwon Chae:
"My
father was the first Christian Church minister in Korea ... I had the
privilege of coming to the United States to study. I attended San Jose
Bible College for B.A. degree and Lincoln Christian Seminary for M.A.
degree. I returned to my country in 1961 with a prayer in my heart:
"God, give me Korea.""
The colleges Chae
says
he attended were real, but in January 2007 someone named Lester LeMay
added a comment to update Chae's credentials to a doctorate - obtained
at "Immanuel Baptist Seminary of Atlanta, Georgia".
Google has no information for that school, but here's
another guy who got a bunch of degrees there between 1996 and 2000,
so it's not as if it disappeared or anything - if it ever existed.
It's not included in this long list of
Christian Colleges (and neither is Charlie's college).
Google does come up with the name: "Immanuel Baptist Seminary" at
195 Fischer Rd, Sharpsburg, GA 30277, but there's no website. A
search of Sharpsburg
churches
shows a College Heights Baptist Church at that address. No
website for
the church either, even though it apparently does double duty as a
college offering doctorates.
Back to Charlie and his California State Christian University
(CSCU).
I suggest you don't phone the number given on the Contact Us
page. Bill Kinnon (Achievable
Ends) tried it a couple of times and never reached anyone but a
woman who claimed to be unable to speak English but said to "call back
tomorrow".
When did tracking down ministerial credentials become synonymous with
"wild goose chase"? When evangelicals decided to become political
and
rule the world?
Oh, that's another thing. It used to be a sin to be
political. It
still is if you are the last holdout in a "Third World" country being
invaded by multinational corporations and Christian missionaries, not
necessarily in that order.*
* Excerpt from synopsis
of film "The Tailenders":
How does the evangelical message of personal salvation sound, not in a
developed country like the United States, but in a land of mass poverty
like Mexico? For one thing, some evangelical missionaries in the
developing world teach avoidance of political engagement, at least
among the poor. Among the critics in "The Tailenders" are Mexican
villagers who find that their evangelical neighbors no longer
participate in community politics and organizing, or even in the
villages' traditional saints' festivals, which the evangelicals
consider idol worship. The money is better spent on things like cars,
says one villager.
yayacanada
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