Accredations

Do we have government accreditation NO

Do we have Christian accreditation Yes

http://chea.org/degreemills/frmPaper.htm

By definition, the word “accredit” means to authorize, endorse, and officially approve of. What ordination is to a minister, accreditation is to a school. Accreditation is a group process by which schools voluntarily agree to participate in a set of established standards in order to encourage quality education.

Schools are not legally required to become accredited, but it is a very desirable standing. Accredited status means a school has voluntarily undergone a comprehensive examination to determine that it operates at a worthy level of performance.

Learn about bad accreditation

Accreditors and schools identified, in websites maintained by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) or CHEA, as recognized or accredited, are highly likely to be legitimate. And some accreditors or schools not so identified are legitimate a. For instance, legitimate schools that are in process of becoming accredited are often not listed, and some religious schools choose not to be listed. Thus, some legitimate higher education accreditors, programs, and institutions are not accredited or recognized by CHEA, USDE, or both. Because often no simple “litmus test” is available to gauge whether an accreditor, school or program is legitimate, members of the public act prudently who consult resources such as those CHEA and government bodies cite, and who conduct further inquiries. In this area, not to “look before you leap” can be a costly, painful, and consequential mistake.

How can I determine if an accrediting organization may be a mill?

If the answers too many of the following questions are “yes,” the accrediting organization under consideration may be a “mill”:

• Does the operation allow accredited status to be purchased?
• Does the operation publish lists of institutions or programs they claim to have accredited without those institutions and programs knowing that they are listed or have been accredited?
• Does the operation claim that it is recognized (by, e.g., USDE or CHEA) when it is not?
• Are few if any standards for quality published by the operation?
• Is a very short period of time required to achieve accredited status?
• Are accreditation reviews routinely confined to submitting documents and do not include site visits or interviews of key personnel by the accrediting organization?
• Is “permanent” accreditation granted without any requirement for subsequent periodic review, either by an external body or by the organization itself?
• Does the operation use organizational names similar to recognized accrediting organizations?
• Does the operation make claims in its publications for which there is no evidence?

There are accrediting organizations that may not be recognized but are not accreditation mills. For example, the accreditor may be seeking recognition, but the process is not complete. Or the accreditor does not meet the requirements of CHEA or USDE for reasons that do not relate to quality.

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

• There as secular education and there is religious education.
• Secular schools seek secular education, and sacred schools receive sacred accreditation—each by their own peers.
• Religious institutions need no secular accreditation because they offer no secular degrees.
• Secular accreditation associations in turn are recognized by governmental agencies. They trace their authority back to the capitol of a country, like Washington, D.C.
• Religious accrediting associations are recognized by the Church of Jesus Christ, which has no supreme central office on earth. Our authority is derived directly from Heaven.
• Civil and religious interests are different and have separate realms of jurisdiction.
• The State is not superior to the Church. The Church need not wait for approval from the secular world.
• Civil agencies should not be dictating standards of Christian education, any more than a police officer should be directing the worship of God.
• Theological Seminaries should not be accredited by accrediting associations that are “recognized” by an agency of the federal government, because it is contrary to the Biblical principle of “Separation of Church and State,” indicated by Christ when He said, “…Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s…” (Mark 12:17).
• What business does a Christian educator have going to the world of unbelievers for recognition and acknowledgment when 2 Corinthians 6:14 clearly tells us, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?”
• A Christian educational institution securing accreditation from an association which is attached to a governmental agency is a Scripturally condemned and unholy union as James 4:4 says, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?”

The National School of Theology has its accreditation with http://cfiaccreditations.webs.com/