From a reader here.
A few short weeks
ago LCG was visited by the accreditation powers that be in an effort
to further the process of getting Doug Winnail's beloved Living
University (LU) accredited. Accreditation is a process of external quality
review used by higher education to scrutinize colleges, universities and higher
education programs for quality assurance and quality improvement. Part of this
accreditation process requires Living University to undergo a peer review of
the prepared materials and curriculum.
It would be fun to
be a fly on the wall when the reviewers get to read
about British Israelism and LCG's denial of the efficacy of carbon dating
and other archaic scientific (or non-scientific as the case may be) teachings.
If you ever want a good laugh, ask an LCG minister how dinosaurs fit into
things.
Because of the
process of accreditation, students can trust that the education they are paying
for is valuable and worth their time, money, and effort so Meredith, Winnail
and the other LU proponents are head strong about getting this validation
despite the unpleasant consequences it may bring in it's wake.
One of the biggest
complaints I hear from those in LCG is that LU classes are "too
expensive" at $300 a class. Students are only able to obtain federal financial
assistance if the institution they are attending has achieved appropriate
accreditation status from an accreditation organization recognized by the
United States Department of Education (USDE). This could be one big reason LCG
wants LU to become accredited. I can see Ol Spanky up in his ivory tower
imagining that their attendance numbers will quadruple if potential
students could only qualify for federal financial aid.
The USDE is also
concerned with factors such as a college or university's standards of student
admission and practices of student recruitment, financial well-being, and
student learning achievement outcomes. Many in the Living Church of God are
concerned that this translates into LU having to accept applications from
people "in the world"; more specifically, homosexuals, Catholics and
other people they disdain.
Will Living
University have to "water down" their fundamental teaching and become
more mainstream to satisfy reviewers and potential non-convert students? It is
certainly a concern expressed by those currently in LCG who watched
precisely that happen when they left Worldwide. Compromise for numbers is ACOG
history bound to be repeated.
Another complaint I
have heard for years from grumbling LCGers is the old adage of "freely you
have been given, so freely you should give". Many in LCG feel that LU is
in direct violation of that scripture by charging for their
"knowledge".
Still others query
as to why it is so important to replicate Ambassador College, which is clearly
Spanky's dream of dreams for LU. Did anyone graduate from AC and get a good job
as a result of THAT education? Probably not, but they sure did learn how to
step on others to exalt themselves and how to look down at others with
righteous indignation.
The number one
concern voiced in LCG about this willful push to get LU accredited is the
exorbitant cost associated with obtaining the accreditation. They have already
spent close to 1 million dollars on the accreditation process which is not yet
complete. Many on the Counsel of Elders are opposed but as usual, none of them
are really willing to make a stand for their beliefs. LCG is also
presently in the market for another piece of commercial real
estate for which to house their classrooms and LU office staff. They are
also actively shopping for condominiums which they plan to use as dormitories
for all the students they hope to entice into the fray. It's no secret that LCG
is hemorrhaging money (and members). They seem to have a smaller bottom line
with each passing year. One could speculate that that 1 million dollars worth
of tithe payer money could have so been used to "preach the gospel"
and save more people from the tribulation through conversion to LCG membership.
Ezekiel warning vs. accreditation, hmmmm tough choice. Winnail and Meredith's
full steam ahead mentality is kind of like the Titanic thinking it's
unsinkable. Is this forced accreditation the metaphorical iceberg that will
ultimately cause the impending LCG bankruptcy? Time will tell.
“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.”
ReplyDeleteThomas Huxley
Let them put this statment over the lintels of Embarassing College VI
(3WCG, 1LCG, 1PCG, 1RCG) if they are so intent on truth. "Faculty falsely so called" would not last two minutes in the presence of the truly educated paleontologists, geologists, theologians and the realities of both human and biological evolution. Throw in some cosmology the study of myth and Biblical errancy and they are toast.
I am so thankful I never felt the compulsive need to church hop in the COGs. I was mistaken in my youth but intend to live on the other end of life less mistaken...
Ya know? Actually, it doesn't even matter. Everything these groups are doing has ended up being a cheap imitation of a bad role model, and therefore, inconsequential. Best thing they could do right now would be to put all of their resources into climatology, and graduating people committed to making sure that we even have a life-sustaining planet left. This is something that GTA realized back in the late '60s, and incorporated it into his programs. Accredited Armstrongism is still the epitome of excrescence.
ReplyDeleteBB
I'm also glad I didn't church hop as well. The peace I've enjoyed the last forty years is due to not being embroiled in all this warring factionalism. Once I decided it was all garbage, even my tenuous connection with Dr. Martin went by the board as I soon found him to be just as dogmatic and closed minded in many areas as all the rest. Once a book takes over all of your reasoning, you're doomed to continuing factionalism and argumentation over theological nothings. Being a humanist solved everything and brought great peace.
ReplyDeleteDr. Michael Germano: In 2008 or so, he debunked British Israelism (using DNA?). Now (last we heard), he's joined LCG.
ReplyDeleteSo which is it? British Israelism or not?
The Accreditation committee would like to know.
And are there going to be a lot of Black, Chinese and Native Americans attending?
It's doubtful that gay students would want to attend, since the standards are already firmly established and quite at odds with the views of the Living administration. Why would anyone want that sort of uphill battle, particularly when you already know that their doctrines are crap and their prophecies have failed (for 60+ years). What would Living University have to offer... (anyone, for that matter).
Oh. Right. Has lots to offer sociopaths and psychopaths as opportunity for serious game playing for fun and profit. And when the psychopaths are finished, would the administration even notice what they've done?
When is LCG going to get practical and have their own accredited TRUCK DRIVING SCHOOL! ?? Would be a heck of a lot helpful for the brethren than "Living University".
ReplyDeleteLet them spend a ton of money on accreditation. That will be less money they will have to spend on media to suck more people into their cult.
ReplyDeleteMikey: Germano is related to the McNair's so he's back in LCG 2' to more nepotism (an LCG favorite). He was retired and they offered a paycheck, power and a fancy title. Who cares about integrity and hypocrisy when that's the reward!
ReplyDeleteI agree that homosexuals wouldn't WANT to apply to LU but I'm fairly certain that if the Charlotte LGBT were informed, they would inundate LU with applications just to expose LCG's hatefulness.
ReplyDeleteAs asked: "Dr. Michael Germano: In 2008 or so, he debunked British Israelism (using DNA?). Now (last we heard), he's joined LCG.
ReplyDeleteSo which is it? British Israelism or not?"
He may represent the first of , at least , faculty types being allowed differing views but probably a paycheck...
Living in a city where there are 42 volcanic cinder cones and a rich geologic history, it pains me only be able to say I went to AC and a couple decades slowly realizing , like Allen, the real story and of the Bible is less than presented. I fell for the "Sunday School" version. The only consolation is that I could not now be here if I had not then been there...
Dennis is right! I could not be where I am today if I had not been "there." So, the experience was worth it, I guess.
ReplyDeleteLCG needed Germano's credentials to apply for accreditation. That plus the McNair link was the reason behind Meredith's courtship.
ReplyDelete$300 a a class? That's $280 too high.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm now I am tempted to wait until they announce the accreditation and then call the Charlotte LGBT society!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't in WCG so I might have this wrong, but I always thought that the reason HWA didn't want AC to get accredited was that they would then be required to teach "worldly" things that he didn't agree with and because it would force them to have to water down the truth.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone confirm as to why AC wasn't accredited?
Does it even really matter?
ReplyDeleteEven if LU gets accredited I seriously doubt that there will be a large influx of students.
The church is old and getting older by the day.
Seeking this accreditation is pure vanity and a shameful waste of tithe payer money. I am frankly shocked that LCG members are putting up with it without protest.
If I were tithing to LCG, I would be tempted to write "not to be used for LU" on my check. People typically tithe to support minister living expenses and the production of literature, telecasts, etc.
Using tithe money for LU seems like misappropriation to me.
3:32, what you stated was pretty much what HWA and the faculty stated back in the '60s when they first considered accreditation. It was a complex situation, and I certainly had not understood all of the implications at the time when I filled out my application.
ReplyDeleteBut, here are some of the issues. Accreditation is only important if a student either intends, or needs to use the degree or credits outside of the church. If you wash out after a couple of years, and want to transfer your credits to another institution, or want to do graduate work at a university, or even need your degree to weight a resume, accreditation becomes very important.
There are accrediting bodies which normally deal with secular schools, and often entirely separate bodies which work with Christian colleges and universities. Because WCG is an "odd duck" to most Christian organizations, AC's best bet was in taking its chances with a secular group, although it was not a secular college. The problem is that the accreditation process is a continuing process, in that the school is constantly monitored to make certain that the standards set forth for quality in education are continually met. So, the chancellor and board are in reality voluntarily placing a layer of authority over themselves, to make sure that standards are met. HWA did not deal well with any authority under which he was placed. He taught submission to secular law when it did not conflict with God's law, but considered himself to be the human through whom God administered His government during this era, and therefore the judge or arbiter as to which secular laws should be obeyed, and which should be disobeyed. It is why church members often had to face jail time over military service, over such things as vaccinations for children, and why they were required to lose jobs or face the wrath of school boards over the sabbath and holy days.
Ambassador College had some other serious issues, as well. Some of the freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were not permitted or practiced on the AC Campuses. There was very limited freedom of speech. In class, you could question "authority" but only when you were looking for a clearer understanding of what had been stated, or taught. If you took exception with the material itself, you learned to squelch your thoughts, and not express your disagreement. Forget about religious freedom. There was also very little due process or right of appeal if you found yourself accused of breaking any rules. No reasoning, no logic. The rules were also clearly put together by someone with a bad case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and enforced militaristically.
All of the items in the above paragraph would be subject to mandated change if the college were accredited and regulaly monitored and audited. They were further along in the process when my younger sister was attending, and I understand that there were some pretty wild things (by traditional AC standards) going on in the dorms and on campus. Hair and fashions changed somewhat radically, things were smoked, sex was had, the LGBT community was no longer quite so invisible, and HWA ended up shutting down the Pasadena campus for several years.
Institutions like Liberty University and Grand Canyon University somehow found better balance, graduated students with accredited degrees who went out and made good value-filled, conservative differences in their workplaces and communities, but somehow AC/WCG never was able to find such equillibrium. That is part of the reason why the ACOGs are such a mess today. Nobody has ever learned to work with others, or to give and take in order to reach negotiated solutions.
BB
You are right 9.53pm. In the churches, rights are taboo. So is assertiveness. All you get is obey, yield, surrender, submit. People relate to one another from top dog position, meaning I own you and you have no rights. You cannot socially mature in that church.
DeleteHas anyone considered that maybe sly Winnail is intentionally bankrupting LCG as part of his long game?
ReplyDelete