Introducing myself... and a question

Hi, everyone. I guess I'm the newbie (or at least one of them). Just wanted to introduce myself. And, to make my posting here (as opposed to the "Off Topic" area, perhaps) legit, I actually do happen to have a distance learning question:

• What, in everyone's opinion, should be the attitude of a police department's chaplaincy service toward a chaplain applicant whose MDiv is from a seminary which certainly appears not to be a diploma mill, and which requires (or at least seems to require) completely legitimate work, but is, nevertheless, absolutely not accredited by any CHEA-recognized entity (and doesn't pretend to be accredited by anyone, actually)?
  
  And what's the general consensus around here about GRADUATE THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION (GTF)? I had been told that there were some really detailed and comprehensive posts about GTF here, but I can't seem to find them. I mean... I find some, obviously... but not what I'd hoped to find. (I also heard there have been database problems here, and that sometimes archival posts disappear... could that be why I'm not finding all these really big, amazing posts about GTF?)

So, anyway... those are my questions. I'm interested in reading anyone's responses.

I love this place, by the way. Thanks, whomever's in charge of it, for your good work!

By the way, is this pretty much the biggest and best distance learning forum? It certainly seems so, but I haven't really researched it as much as I'd like. Or is it a violation of the TOS or something to discuss the competition, if any, around here? (If so... oops! Sorry. Someone please let me know if I goofed-up.)

 

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20361
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24644

 

We had a change of servers in May 2005 and lost some info on the search engine.

 

Yup.

 

Even after 1 year and 9 months on this board, I'm not sure if it's against TOS, but I've posted links to my threads on other distance learning board and I have not been banned yet.

 

Re: Re: Introducing myself... and a question

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2805
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11568
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13090
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13570
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18905
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21326

 

Any police department (or, indeed, any organization) can have any policy they want on unaccredited degrees. Personally, I think it would be nice if people got at least some credit for unaccredited, albeit earned, degrees; however, my opinion is not the one that counts in this situation and, moreover, accreditation does serve as a handy device for poor, abused, overworked HR professionals who don't have the personal time to investigate every school.

 

Some think it's a mill, others think it's a legit unaccredited school. Refer to the threadlinks hereinabove.

 

I don't know the school and cannot comment on that part of the post.

Police Chaplains in this country are an important component of human resource management. They are heavily engaged with officers who are suffering from stress related illnesses. Sometimes these issues end up in court rooms over payouts etc for police officers unfit to continue with service.

My advice for a Chaplain ( in this neck of the woods anyway) would be to focus on how the credentials would stack up in an industrial action in the court. Would the attorney focus be upon the advice and counselling by seeking to undermine the credibility of the person offering it?

Counselling police officers is an area for me that is "two edged" to say the least. Most are grateful for the help, but some are eager for revenge upon the service. Fortunately, they are relatively small in numbers, but create a lot of noise.

The role and litigation may well be different in your jurisdiction, but that is the way I would examine the question.

 

Welcome to degreeinfo Chaplain Bob