Lighthouse Christian Seminary: Dr. John Scheel (ACI), President

OW! Somebody just hit me with a tricycle. Or a Tricycle. I'm outta here.

 

New thread on Trinity

So Uncle Janko won't be hit with a tricycle, I have opened a new thread on the Trinity.

 

Sure you are, professor...............

 

Re: BASTA!

Forgive my lack of clarity, fellow participants, I sometimes forget that not all are charter members of this esteemed forum. It is because of ACI that The Little Book of Fishes evolved from a kindergarten textbook to become the standard text of college level biology courses................

 

Tell us a story, Vladica. Quite a few may not know of this inane little episode.

 

Here's part of my article for University Business Magazine:

Great Moments in Accreditation:
The Case of IAC, ACI, and The Three Stooges

In 1982, there opened for business in Missouri the International Accrediting Commission (IAC). They aggressively marketed their accreditation services among hundreds of then-unaccredited institutions in the United States. Their standards were rather modest, but they were operating within the law, and they were able to bestow that magical word "accredited" upon their clients.

More than 130 institutions had achieved IAC accreditation by 1989, when one Eric Vieth established the Eastern Missouri Business College and immediately applied to the International Accrediting Commission. Vieth opened his headquarters in a one-room office in St. Louis, Missouri, and issued an eight-page typewritten catalog that listed faculty members such as Arnold Ziffel, Edward J. Haskell, M. Howard, Jerome Howard, and Lawrence Fine.

Trivia buffs may recall that Arnold Ziffel was the pig on the TV show Green Acres, Eddie Haskell was the obsequious friend on Leave It to Beaver, and the Messrs. Howard, Howard, and Fine were collectively known as the Three Stooges.

It gets better. The college seal was emblazoned with the phrase Solum pro Avibus Est Educatio, which means "Education is only for the birds," and the motto was Latrocina et Raptus, or, loosely translated, everything from petty theft to highway robbery. Doctorates were offered by mail in dozens of fields, from aerospace to marine biology. The marine biology textbook was identified as The Little Golden Book of Fishes.

Unlike what you may have been imagining, Eastern Missouri Business College founder Vieth was wearing a white hat. As assistant attorney general for the state of Missouri, he had set up this clever sting operation. And when the head of the International Accrediting Commission stopped by, had a quick look around, accepted a cashier's check, and pronounced the East Missouri Business College fully accredited, he was immediately slapped with an injunction and was ultimately fined heavily and ordered to shut down his agency.

End of story? Sadly, no. Immediately after the closing of International Accrediting Commission, there opened, the next state over, in Beebe, Arkansas, the Accrediting Commission International (ACI), which immediately invited all of the IAC schools (except, presumably, Eastern Missouri Business) to become automatically accredited by ACI.

Note: the head of ACI, John Scheel, has said in print several times that this is not true, and I am lying. However I have two original copies of the letter that he sent to IAC schools making this exact offer. (Since I announced this fact, he stopped accusing me of being a liar. Whose pants are on fire now?)

 

Might one obtain a copy of this letter, John?

 

Sure. If this isn't clear enough, I can email or fax a copy if you (or anyone else) tells me where. The key sentence is: "We will accept all members who have members status with the old organization on a 'grandfather' basis until January 20, 1989."

John

 

Thank you, John, this is interesting.

1. Dr. Reuter retires, recomending that all AIC members transfer to ACI.
2. Dr. Scheel assumes the helm of the newly formed ACI.
3. All institutions are given from Dec. 22, 1988 -- January 20, 1989 (28 days) to be grandfathered from AIC to ACI. To facilitate this decision, each school is sent an accompanying form and return envelope.
4. ACI is committed to printing a quality newsletter, one which will make all member schools proud.
5. ACI is committed to providing quality accreditation.

Ummmmm, if all the AIC member institutions were in good standing with the association, what is wrong with the offer to be grandfathered into AIC? After all, it was only a brief 28 day window of opportunity.......

 

We'll never know how many of the IAC members accepted the offer to be instantly accredited by ACI, since ACI is perhaps the only accreditor that refuses to reveal the names of any of the schools it accredits.

I've often wondered if, since all IAC members were invited to gain automatic ACI accreditation, that would have included the East Missouri Business College.

The story at the time was that Dr. Reuter retired due to ill health. The period of ill health began, I would guess, at the moment that he accepted the cashier's check for his instant accreditation of EMBC, and the undercover agents suddenly became overcover.

Reuter, incidentally, previously was co-founder of the Accrediting Commission for Specialized Colleges, run from the same dairy farm in Gas City, IN, that served also as the campus of Indiana Northern University. The only requirement for candidacy was a check for $110.

Indiana Northern University, incidentally, is the place from which the founder/owner/president of one of the largest and most aggressively-advertised unaccredited universities used to (and perhaps still does) claim his own doctorate.

Stop me before I drown in a sea of "Incidentallies."

 

And the accrediting agency of Crossroads Bible College and Graduate School of Divinity, Farmland, IN, founded and operated by the late Dr. Robert Shockney.

The school was on main street in a former mortuary.

All instructors held doctorates from Crossroads. Shockney founded the Evangelical Christian Churches, claiming Horace Bushnell (Congregationalist) was the "Father of the Evangelical Chrisitian Churches," and claimed the Evangelical Christian Church, Ft. Wayne, was a member church. They were not.

Shockney managed to get Indiana approval and VA approval but the school ended up closing around 1992 after a student lodged some complaint with the State of Indiana.

 

I could not remember the name of the man who co-founded the Accrediting Commission for Specialized Colleges when I posted the above but it finally came to me.

His name was Dr. Gordon DaCosta.

 

Ah, yes, Gordon DaCosta, whose only degrees were those he issued to himself from Indiana Northern. He owned the goat farm in Gas City, Indiana that was the campus and the HQ of the accrediting agency. He used to write me charmingly annoyed letters because of what I used to write about him. He did insist on being called Bishop DaCosta, but I was not clear what he was the Bishop of.

 

Oh yea, he was Bishop of something called the Protestant Free Episcopal Church, or something like that.

 

Lighthouse Semiunary/ Oneness Doctrine

I just discovered the discussion concerning the Lighthouse Christian Seminary, Accrediting Commission International, and the doctrine taught by the school.

First, the doctrine is not Ayrian. We believe that Jesus was BOTH human and divine. Acts 2:47, 1 Timothy 3:16, John 10:30. The Bible refers to "Holy One" over 500 times -not once does it refer to "Trinity". The word was coined by Tertullian in the 2nd Century! Jesus was God as to His diety. He was the Son of God as to His humanity. Hebrews 1, Hebrews 5:7, Acts 2:47

Please refer to the website for ACI and be sure to look at the links:

[Link Removed by Admin]Accrediting Commmission International[/Link Removed By Admin]

The Lighthouse Seminary has graduated over 2000 in the past 31 years. It is small, but answers a real need to the church world!

Sincerely,
John F. Scheel, Ph.D.

 

Isn't Accrediting Commission International a silly organization? Accrediting Commission International - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I realize that this is an "old" thread. In the latter part of 2011, I had a phone conversation with a facilitator (in Milledgeville, GA) of Jacksonville Theological Seminary. He proudly told me that JTS was fully accredited by ACI. He directed my attention to JTS' website to look at the picture taken of "staff members" photographed in the area of the fireproof filing cabinets. He assured me that those cabinets met ACI's rigorous standards for quality. That is ALL Dr. Stair had to say about JTS' accreditation...the filing cabinets were fire proof. Dr. Stair's boast explained a lot about ACI before I read John Bear's article. I guess Scheel's Little Golden Book of Fishes is stored in a fireproof box, as well.