Fundie school

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A fundamentalist college or fundamentalist university, colloquially and pejoratively referred to as a "fundie school", is a type of higher-education institution established by fundamentalist Christian conservatives. Some fundie schools have actual campuses, possess legitimate academic accreditation, and resemble secular universities. Others are shameless diploma mills which offer "degrees" to anyone with a credit card. Many are located in the Bible belt in the United States. Fundie schools often incorporate pseudoscience, young-earth creationism, and evolution denial into their curricula. In some cases biblical studies make up enough bible courses that equal to a second major in Bible. Many fundie schools are accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, a creationist accreditation authority.

Several types of fundie school exist. At the bottom tier are unaccredited diploma mills, that run shady web-sites and operate out of a double-wide trailer or of someone's private house. The next tier are weirdo schools like Bob Jones University and Pensacola Christian College that have an actual campus run with a fundamentalist mindset. These types of schools often impose strange, restrictive standards of behavior on their students, but usually possess at least national accreditation. The third tier encompasses the fundamentalist right wingers, epitomized by Brigham Young University, Liberty University, and Regent University. These type of schools usually possess regional accreditation. Rounding out the field are the mainstream fundies that are owned or controlled by a church, such as Loma Linda University, Notre Dame University, and Emory University.

Many fundie schools, especially Pensacola, Liberty, and Bob Jones, get tons of bad reviews online because ignorant parents (some of whom aren't even fundamentalist or Christian) force their problem children to attend as if they were boot camps, thinking these institutions' strict rules will straighten their troubled youngsters out. Most of the time, those parents are dead wrong and setting their children up for a miserable failure.

Sexual abuse and fundie schools[edit]

Many schools linked to the evangelical community are known to deny and cover up sexual abuse issues.^[1] These schools are noted for multiple incidents of improperly handling cases of sexual abuse, rape, and other seamy matters, often engaging in victim blaming in the process, and discouraging victims from reporting the attacks to the police.^[2]

In multiple cases at Pensacola Christian College, victims of rape were expelled for being a "fornicator" (basically calling them whores, or slut shaming) while no action was taken against the people who committed the rape.^[3]

This type of behavior is not exclusive to fundie schools; campus rape is a serious problem in campuses of all sorts and is mishandled on a wide scale despite efforts to change the way rape victims are treated.^[4][5][6][7]

Examples[edit]

Name	Accreditation Status	Notes
Ambassador Baptist College	Unaccredited[8]	An independent Baptist creationist school in North Carolina.
Andersonville Theological Seminary	Unaccredited[9]	A "distance learning" seminary located in Georgia. Credits can transfer to Liberty University.[10]
American University of Health Sciences	National	A "Christian based, minority serving university which educates students for careers in the healthcare profession"[11]
Baptists for Israel Institute	Unaccredited	Spend some time volunteering on a kibbutz in Israel and earn a "Master of Arts" "Degree" in "Israel Studies." For those uninterested in an actual MA or MDiv program; also for those not interesting in overseas study opportunities through accredited seminaries.[12]
Bethune-Cookman University	Regional	Historically black college operated by African American fundamentalists; a training ground for Uncle Toms. They invited Betsy DeVos to their 2017 graduation and scolded graduating students for protesting her.[13]
Berea College	Regional[14]	Fundamentalist Christian college and "work college" (students take up jobs within the university to pay off their tuition) in Berea, Kentucky
Biola University	Regional[15]	Maintains a strict Biblical inerrancy doctrine; see also William Lane Craig
Bob Jones University	Regional[16]	An unsavory fundamentalist and historically racist institution in South Carolina.
Boston Baptist College	National[17]	A creationist training camp for fundamentalist ministers
Brigham Young University	Regional[18]	Associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Bryan College	Regional[19]
Cambridge Theological Seminary	Unaccredited	An incoherent webshite ripping off the name of a world class educational institution that claimed it ran a seminary, and awarded worthless degrees.
Cedarville University	Regional[20]
Christian Bible College	Unaccredited[21]	Self-accredited by its own accreditation mill, the American Accrediting Association of Theological Institutions[22]
Charis Bible College	Unaccredited[23]	One of Andrew Wommack's prosperity gospel scams that claims to focus on the Bible as their main textbook.
Cornerstone University	Regional[24]
Crown College of the Bible	National[17]	Fundamentalist Baptist college in Powell, Tennessee
Dallas Baptist University	Regional[25]	"Christ-centered quality higher education"[26] with a creationist worldview[27]
Florida Bible Institute and Seminary	Unaccredited[28]	They have a "campus" in a small office park in Vero Beach, Florida, and claim accreditation from the Association of Independent Christian Colleges & Seminaries, an unaccredited accreditation authority. They offer pseudoscience courses with telling names such as Creationist Geology and Creationist Astronomy.[29]
Florida Gulf Coast University	Regional	State university run by Trumplicans in a Trumpland area of Florida, with several fundamentalists serving on the board. Apparently accepts Abeka courses as an actual education (unlike quality institutions like UC Berkeley), as evidenced by a fundie girl from a Christian school that uses Abeka representing them as an athlete.[30]
Georgia Central University	National[31]	A missionary school for Korean American students. Until 2018, they had a "School of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine."
Haven University	National[17]	Carl Baugh, founder of the Creation Evidence Museum who has a laughably bizarre Young Earth creationist worldview, claims a PhD in Theology from this place.[32] Formerly the California Graduate School of Theology.
Hyles-Anderson College	Unaccredited	Fundamentalist Indiana school founded by Jack Hyles. Has strict rules.
Houston Baptist University	Regional[33]	Maintains a strict Biblical inerrancy doctrine; see also Lee Strobel and William Lane Craig
School of Biblical Apologetics at the Institute for Creation Research	Unaccredited[34]	Accreditation? We don't need no stinking accreditation![Note 1] "This institutional academic freedom...is not restricted by academic accreditation politics."[35]
The King's College	Regional[36]	The former home of Dinesh D'Souza. Based in New York City,
The King's University	National[17]	Charismatic evangelical school in Southlake, TX, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth. Spawn of the non-denominational Gateway megachurch, also based in Southlake. Offers Associate's up to doctoral programs[37] in various subjects, none of them secular; notably, they have an entire school of "Messianic Jewish Studies," providing multiple undergraduate degrees, several Master's degree concentrations[Note 2] and a Doctor of Ministry concentration.[38] Follows the Texas Core Curriculum, except you can only take Christian ethics and philosophy courses, with an additional 15 hours of Bible study and five hours of ministerial practicum required for all undergrads.[39] Carl Lentz of former Hillsong infamy studied here while the school still used its original name, "The King's College and Seminary."[40][41]
Liberty University	Regional[42]	The progeny of Jerry Falwell. Also has a College of Osteopathic Medicine that holds candidate status with the American Osteopathic Association.
Loma Linda University	Regional[43]	A Seventh Day Adventist Church school and home to the Geoscience Research Institute, an organization that advocates a creationist viewpoint in earth sciences and publishes pseudojournals; offers programs in medicine, behavioral sciences, dentistry, pharmacy, health, and religion. Students are required to take Seventh-day Adventist theology courses.
Louisiana Baptist University and Seminary	Unaccredited[44]	A Baptist diploma mill located in Shreveport, Louisiana. Carl Baugh, young earth creationist and pseudoscientist, claims a Ph.D. in Theology from this school.[45]
Maple Springs Baptist Bible College and Seminary	National[17]	An obscure Baptist college that "teaches the pre-tribulational rapture of the church, the pre-millennial return of the Lord, and interprets the Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel, the tribulation period and the millennial kingdom of Christ literally."[46]
Maranatha Baptist University	Regional[47]	Rules modeled after Bob Jones University and Pensacola Christian College
The Master's University	Regional[48]	A fundamentalist Baptist school headed by young earth creationist and evangelical megachurch leader John F. MacArthur. The seminary program's accreditation was placed on probation in 2018 after serious issues in governance were exposed. MacArthur described these events as effort "orchestrated, if not by humans, by Satan himself."[49]
New Covenant International University & Theological Seminary	Unaccredited[50]	A diploma mill operating under a religious exemption in the state of Florida
New Eden School of Natural Health	Unaccredited	An unaccredited distance learning school that teaches alternative medicine woo. Unlike many alternative medicine schools, it teaches Christian creationism. New Eden also has sketchy affiliations with alternative medicine groups and Christian churches.
Oral Roberts University	Regional[51]	Weird, evangelical cargo cult college with a long list of scandals and smarmy behavior attributed to the spawn of its founder.
Oval Bible College	Unaccredited[52]	A creationist diploma mill based in Lake Charles, Louisiana that operates a distance learning web site. They offer a range of low cost, fake degrees from the associate to doctoral level. A PhD costs US$500, but if you pay up front, this is reduced to US$375.[53] They have no classes or faculty. Course material consists of audio CDs and PDF files sent to the student.[54] They claim accreditation from the National Bible College Association, an accreditation mill.
Ozark Bible Institute and College	Unaccredited	A Bible school in Missouri that operates under an evangelical version of Sharia Law. For example, women are forced to dress as if they were in the 17th Century.[55]
Patrick Henry College	National[17]	An unsavory advanced high school training camp for homeschoolers in Virginia
Patriot Bible University	Unaccredited[56][57]	Dr. Dino's alma mater
Pensacola Christian College	National[17]	An unsavory fundamentalist, independent Baptist institution in Florida
Phoenix University of Theology International	Unaccredited[58]	Assigns credits towards fake degrees based on "life experience." Claims accreditation from the Association of Independent Christian Colleges and Seminaries, a pseudo-accreditation authority, while simultaneously demeaning academic accreditation.[58][59]
Regent University	Regional[60]	The progeny of Pat Robertson
San Diego Christian College	Regional[61]	A school with a strict creationist stance; spawned the Institute for Creation Research
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary	Regional[62]	Intelligent Design proponent William Dembski has been associated with the seminary. It is located in Fort Worth, Texas and is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.[63]
Jimmy Swaggart Bible College	Unaccredited[64]	A Pentecostal diploma mill run by Jimmy Swaggart's grandson Gabriel, and part of the younger Swaggart's Crossfire Ministries.[65] They offer associate and bachelor degrees in "Biblical studies." As part of the Swaggart family empire, they spam the masses using infomercials on their Sonlife Broadcasting Network.[66]
University of South Los Angeles	National[17]	An odd mixture of Christianity and alternative medicine woo.
Wheaton College (Illinois)[Note 3]	Regional[67]	Maintains a strict Biblical inerrancy doctrine[68]

See also[edit]

• Academic accreditation
• Acceptance of evolution in Christian institutions of higher education

External links[edit]

• List of unaccredited institutions of higher learning

Notes[edit]

References[edit]