Breyer State THEOLOGY University has achieved exemption as a religious educational institution by the state of Florida, Department of Education Commission on Independent Education and has been authorized to award associate, bachelor, masters and doctoral degrees as long as their degrees contain a religious modifier. Does Florida authorization signify that a number of states having similar religious exemptions for religious schools may allow acceptance of "religious" degrees from Breyer State?
It doesn't look to me that this thing is operating within the terms of its Florida religious exemption. 1005.06 Institutions not under the jurisdiction or purview of the commission... 1 (f) A religious college... 3. The titles of degrees issued by the institution cannot be confused with secular degree titles. For this purpose, each degree title must contain a religious modifier... http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=1000-1099/1005/Sections/1005.06.html All of this thing's offerings appear to be secular degree titles. In fact, I didn't see any theology offerings at all. https://breyerstate.com/bachelor-degree-programs/ https://breyerstate.com/master-degree-programs/ https://breyerstate.com/phd-degree-programs/
I agree. So the question remains as to how Breyer U obtained religious exemption from the Florida Department of Education Commission on Independent Education?
State licensing laws shouldn't be confused with degree-use laws. The state licensing law prescribes what the owner of a postsecondary school must do in order not to be prosecuted for operating the school illegally in a particular state. The legality in question is all about legal operation of the school. That doesn't imply anything about whether the degrees the school awards are "legal degrees". (Though degree mills and their proponents will often try to make that argument.) The majority of US states don't have any laws defining what is and isn't a 'legal degree'. Whether a degree is acceptable or not (a rather different thing) is typically left up to individual employers, clients and licensing bodies. The situation may be different in different countries, where university diplomas are treated more like legal documents. If a religious exempt degree obtained in State A is being used for a religious purpose in State B, that will probably fall within the separation of church and state in State B. So would claiming prophethood bestowed directly by God. The fact that the school that awarded the degree was religious exempt in State A wouldn't have any effect on what State B is doing. But having said that, individual employers (including religious employers such as churches) would be free to reject the religious-exempt degree. Most of the churches that everyone has heard of have pretty clear educational requirements for ordination and other church purposes and may want candidates to have religion degrees accredited by ATS that teach the particular beliefs and doctrines of their own denomination. So they will examine it closely.
Probably because they filled out the one page application, had it notarized and sent it in with their fee. https://web02.fldoe.org/CIE/Downloads/Form113RE.pdf Don't go reading into this. A religious exemption is exactly that, an exemption. It means that the state specifically did not do any of the things it normally does with a non-religious school.
Indeed. The original Breyer State University's history includes its beginning in Idaho, on a Reservation, though neither the owner nor his wife are Native Americans. BSU moved from there to Alabama and got a State License. IIRC the only accreditation BSU had was from the Central States Consortium of Colleges and Schools - an organization said to be run by BSU's owner. See this article: https://newrepublic.com/article/65239/the-scourge-fake-diplomas When Alabama decided not to re-license most of its unaccredited schools, Breyer State went back to Idaho for a short stay (not on a Reservation, this time), then California, during the old BPPVE's sunset period, when there was no State Approval to be had. Failing to secure BPPE approval, when that agency took over from its predecessor, BSU moved to Panama, where it obtained a license as a private university, legally issuing degrees that did not have the same standing as degrees of mainstream Panamanian Universities. Forums like this one have been full of commentaries on BSU for more years than I've hung around them. I think the owner still lives in the same Ohio town where he has lived throughout all these moves of Breyer State and the establishment of this new offshoot, if such it is.
