No Offense But...

I really think we should have another discussion board for religious DL programs. That way, those who are interested in Liberty U. etc. can go straight to the religious section and those of us who do not have an interest in religious schools can get to the meat of the matter without having to sort through all the chaff. I simply think it would be easier for all parties involved.

 

Ditto.

 

Not a bad idea.

 

Autodidact:

AMEN!!!...(oops,...I mean, I agree!)..

though slightly uncomfortable with my interest designated as "chaff."

Also like your handle=self taught in Greek.

 

I don't consider the discussion of religious distance learning programs discussions about religion. Like psychology or sociology, theology is arguably an academic discipline as well. I do take some exception to the notion that "those who are interested in Liberty U. etc. can go straight to the religious section." Doesn't Liberty University offer programs in education and counseling as well? What about those of us who want to avoid sorting through the "chaff" of discussions about for-profit DL programs? Should the board administrators create a different section for non-profit schools only? And how about a section for American schools only? After all, some of us don't want to sort through the "chaff" or foreign GAAP schools. I think you get my point.

 

Re: Re: No Offense But...

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How about a section for foreign GAAP, South African, ThD programs in ONLY Systematic Theology? Then I need not cull out all of that pastoral theology, counseling, and Christian Ed chaff that I have to struggle through each day just to find my own erudite , meaty comments? (just spoofin autodidact )

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How about a discussion board specifically for those who "have no interest in religious schools but only want to get to the meat of the matter?"

We could call it the Anti-Religious Matter board.

 

I both agree and disagree.

In my opinion, this general discussion forum should be about distance education. I don't think that it's the proper place for theology students' technical shop-talk. I'm not for a moment saying that people shouldn't post that stuff, just suggesting that the off-topic forum might be a better place for it.

On the other hand, I don't think that it's wise to banish religious schools to a separate forum. Dividing up Degreeinfo is a bad idea.

One reason, as has already been mentioned, is that sectarian schools offer secular degree subjects. In fact, it's often hard to even decide what a sectarian school is. Bob Jones, OK. But is Regis in Denver a religious school? It's Jesuit. What about Naropa? It was founded by Buddhists, but is now basically non-sectarian. So does it get thrown into the pit with the fundies? What about ITP? It offers graduate degrees in transpersonal studies. Are transpersonal studies religion? I don't know.

Another reason to oppose dividing up Degreeinfo by subject is the experience with the IT forum. It is a desert, full of dried up bones. Part of that is obviously due to the dot.com implosion, but part of it is due to the fact that it never developed a critical mass. Most people post in active groups, as a response to other people's posts. If a forum is dead, nobody will be stimulated to post there.

 

You know, if you line up 20 people and ask them their opinion about nearly anything...you'll get a variety of answers. I, for one, would like to see the religious distance education moved to its own forum. Since I have a lot of interests in religious distance education, I would be more inclined to spend time sifting through posts that appeared to match my interests.

I don't want to see a religious branch of degreeinfo.com turn into a "wasteland of dry bones", but would appreciate a forum where new life might be breathed therein and eyes would not roll about the theological analogies that could be made.

Just my $.02,

Steven King
BA, Bethany College
MBA, Touro University International

 

Re: Re: No Offense But...

Dried bones------ah, the prophet Ezekiel spoke of dried bones---is this a religious topic??????

 

Bill Dayson: I agree entirely.
The big benefit I get out of this site is the information on DL and accreditation issues. Sometimes a theological characterization of a school or professor is useful or even funny, but only as ancillary information. It's useful, say, to hear that a given theological faculty or seminary has a particular "take" on eschatology, but to debate the merits of one eschatology over another seems out of place in this arena.

 

Re: Re: No Offense But...

 

Re: Re: Re: No Offense But...

 

Throughout my involvement in aed and degreeinfo my personal DL goals have been quite narrow. Despite this, I've waded through countless threads that were irrelevant to my own specific DL interest and I feel that I'm better off for the effort. I've learned a lot about DL in general, how to assess different schools, different programs, application guidelines, dissertation guidelines, etc., etc. I can tolerate being your chaff as long as you recognize that you are the chaff for 95% of the rest of us.
Jack

 

I personally do enjoy hearing about programs and ideas from a number of fields. For example, I am not a business major but get to understand some of the professional accreditation issues and degree issues on this forum.

Second, I think your mentioning Liberty U in terms of religion shows a fundamental misunderstanding (pardon the pun) of Liberty U's program and why it may be beneficial to non religious students. Their distance learning portion makes no relgiouis requirements on the students and therefore is practically secular. They have a well developed distance learning program in the field of Masters in Counseling and an MBA program as well as Masters level Teacher ed programs.

Third, using your logic why just banish religion. Let's have a separate forum for each kind of degree so that no one need to have to separate the wheat from the chaff in relation to any field they are not interested in (business, education, liberal arts, science, social sciences, undergraduate degree, masters degrees). Then none of us would have to be bored and certainly we should banish Arminians who were not predestined to be a part of the main forum anyway and whose views are marginal and therefore would fit well within the context of being marginalized on this forum (ooops sorry Russell ..........ooops sorry autodidact for boring you

North (PS autodidact, none of this was meant to be in any way personal. I appreciate your thoughts but feel that the broad range of fields views and interests helps me to learn).

 

Frankly, I have lng thought that a separate forum for religious programs would be appropriate, just as there is a separate forum for IT programs. We are talking about an esoteric subject area here, and it is natural that posts on religious programswould delve into theological matters (whether we like it or not).

I stress programs rather than schools because, quite obviously, while Regis University is a religious school (or Georgetown, or Texas Christian, or Brigham Young, or even Bob Jones), they either focus on or include secular majors. However, threads about Liberty, Dallas, Trinity, (the good one and the bad one), and even UNIZUL clearly enter more into the realm of theology.

(In fact, posts about Liberty may appear in multiple forums, since they focus on both religious programs such as the M.Div. and D.Min. and secular programs like the M.B.A. or licensure-based M.A. in Counseling.)

Besides, I think it would do the secular nature of the board well to have a place where the God-freaks can engage in their mutual theological masturbation.*
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* Sorry, but when it comes to distance education I'm secular at heart. Even though I taught at Biblical Theological Seminary and Philadelphia Biblical University Graduate School, not to mention having been published by both Moody Presss and Baker Book House. Not to mention having written Name It and Frame It...

 

eeeeuuuuwww!

 

Re: Re: No Offense But...

OK Guys,

I call for a specific forum for those who hold the following positions:

Arminian <1-----------------------------------------10>Calvinistic
Wesleyan
Pentecostal
DL Advocate
Inerrancy of Scripture
Pre-tribulation Rapture
Eternal Punishment

Or course, on DegreeInfo I may be the only participant.

 

)

Besides, I think it would do the secular nature of the board well to have a place where the God-freaks can engage in their mutual theological masturbation.*
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* Sorry, but when it comes to distance education I'm secular at heart. Even though I taught at Biblical Theological Seminary and Philadelphia Biblical University Graduate School, not to mention having been published by both Moody Presss and Baker Book House. Not to mention having written Name It and Frame It... [/B][/QUOTE]

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This is an irony. When Walston's online religious thesis was criticised as not being PhD material, I and those critics were slashed and said to be making personal attacks. Personal attacks were thought improper. We could not convince any that we were not. But when Levicoff calls those occasions when brief theological comments ( and I make many of them)are made--and mine are short and usually I apologise--then my words are stated to be theological masturbation! I take this as a personal insult to me and to the One who is the subject of such comment and it is generally offensive as well. Curious that a PhD still finds such language to be his most effective mode of communication. Steve, I don't care where you used to teach. I don't care whether Moody published you. Were I to use your language in the classroom , I would be fired. Further,I would never call the religious sentiments of others what you do. I value sometimes your opinion but I much resent your word choice here. Are you not lucky that you are the high Mucky Muck of DL so everyone will say, "Oh that's just Steve's way." I don't care whether we have a separate place for religious DL or not, BUT what I DO think is needed is a separate place for those like Steve who feel they must cloth their remarks in vulgarity!

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If I could venture to "weigh in" as a newbie, I would say that something has to be done about it.

Honestly, I have really enjoyed reading everyone's threads since I joined. One the one hand, I do feel a bit responsible for waxing on theology a little, but I have not done that outside of "choosing a school" issues since I'm not on this site to talk theology. Besides my occasional comments, however, I have noticed some people want to talk theology just to be annoying. More will come.

In this case, I can see the possibility of having a separate section on non-profit schools which are open for theology topics. Theology will inevitably come up in that discussion because, since theology has practical implications, it will affect how decisions are made and how research is done.

For those of you who want to find out if there are any golden nuggets in that arena (Liberty, etc.) you are free to sift through the chaff when you have time. I don't want annoying theologians to be taking up my time, if they don't have to, either.