Top leaders of a conservative activist group often quoted in Canadian media as representing Judeo-Christian moral values pad their resumes with degrees from unaccredited schools.
…Also on the faculty at Victory Bible Colleges are George and Hazel Hill, co-founders of Victory Churches International, a church-planting organization that sponsors Victory Bible Colleges in the Americas, Asia and Africa.
EthicsDaily.com reported last month that Charles McVety, identified as one of Canada’s leading culture warriors in the fight against gay marriage, received his doctorate from California State Christian University, an unaccredited extension of a Korean seminary affiliated with Victory Bible Colleges International.
The organization’s co-founder and executive director is Brian Rushfeldt, a former pastor who acquired his theology degree by correspondence from Canada Christian College McVety is president of Canada Christian College, which works closely with Liberty University and Oral Roberts University in the United States.
Rushfeldt is former dean of Victory Bible Colleges International, which enrolls a reported 100 full-time students both on and off campus and 200 “distance learning students.” The current dean is George Madden, an apostolic minister with degrees from Rhema Bible Training Center, a non-accredited school associated with Kenneth Hagin Ministries in Tulsa, Okla.
Madden got his master of divinity degree from Victory Bible Colleges International and a doctorate from the Evangelical Order of Certified Pastoral Counselors, which awards degrees through Victory Bible College in Canada and California State Christian University in the United States. California State Christian University, an American extension of Tae Han Theological Seminary and College in Seoul, South Korea, is not listed in a Council for Higher Education Accreditation database of institutions recognized by U.S. accrediting agencies. One of the contacts listed for the EOCPC is Stephen Hambly, who is dean of psychology and counseling at Victory Bible Colleges International.
The rest here: Academic Credentials of Conservative Canadian Leaders Questioned
Ethics Daily, a US Baptist Ethics publication providing a centrist ethical framework with a strong moral witness and cutting edge cultural analysis has done an outstanding job of pointing out some of Canada’s religious right leaders propensity to honour themselves with ‘doctorates.’ Along with progressive bloggers and a couple of faith bloggers willing to speak up and help dig up the information, we continue to encourage Canadian media to stop using the term ‘Doctor’ for these men.
I want to thank our US friends for their willingness to do the work on this and to stand with those of us trying to get the word out, use of diploma mills, and honourary degrees awarded to a cliche of fundamentalist friends in Canada is not acceptable to the average person of faith.
There has been nothing from media, nothing I can find from Canadian religious organizations speaking up on fake honoraries and diploma mills. This goes to the credibility of all of us willing to look the other way. These ‘bible colleges’ are not accountable to accrediting agencies, provincial departments; these doctorates and their ties to diploma mills not touchable as far as I know by any educational or government agency. This is our shame. Brian Rushfeldt of Canada Family Action Coalition was emailed, phoned, and a Calgarian showed up at the office. He received no response.
This is not being out to ‘get’ people, this is not mockery of faith; this is about asking the hard questions about why Canadian religious leaders believe or feel it’s okay to use dubious and false credentials, to by-pass ethics and harm the credibility of Canadian Christianity. This is our shame.
California State Christian University (with thanks to achievable ends, Culture Choc, Mark Peterson, The Heresy, unrepentant old hippie, The Galloping Beaver)
fun with Charles and no staffers get expelled
(Dr?) Charles McVety/Dr. Brian Rushfeldt – what’s a few degrees between friends (with thanks to Red Tory 2.0, Canuck Attitude)
How Charles McVety moves money (thanks to Shuffl)
Blogs Canada got the information on McVety’s political cybersquatting into the spotlight, MP Garth Turner pointed out the political aspirations of the Canadian religious right.
gallery: Canada Family Action Coalition, Calgary: Canada Christian College, Toronto, California State Christian University, Los Angeles; Victory College International, Calgary. Not available: Evangelical Order of Pastoral Counsellors, Burlington; Rhema Bible School, Oklahoma; St. Petersburg, Russia; Wagner Leadership Institute, Red Deer.
Canadian traditional media which has used or is using Dr for: Charles McVety, Brian Rushfeldt, George Madden, Stephen Hambly, George and Hazel Hill, etc. Globe and Mail, CBC, Toronto Star, Canada Free Press, Canada.com
“Many tender-minded Christians fear to sin against love by daring to inquire into anything that comes wearing the cloak of Christianity and breathing the name of Jesus. They dare not examine the credentials of the latest prophet to hit their town lest they be guilty of rejecting something which may be of God.
They timidly remember how the Pharisees refused to accept Christ when He came, and they do not want to be caught in the same snare, so they either reserve judgment or shut their eyes and accept everything without question. This is supposed to indicate a high degree of spirituality. But in sober fact it indicates no such thing. It may indeed be evidence of the absence of the Holy Spirit.
Gullibility is not synonymous with spirituality. Faith is not a mental habit leading its possessor to open his mouth and swallow everything that has about it the color of the supernatural.
Faith keeps its heart open to whatever is of God, and rejects everything that is not of God, however wonderful it may be. A. W. Tozer
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Despicable! I don’t think there’s any place for false credentials in the church. If there’s one thing we expect from church leaders it’s honesty.
How do you feel, though, about having no credentials? For the most part we are to judge by the fruit. The apostles and Church fathers didn’t go to seminary per se… neither did Christ. I’m a very big supporter of those who, through discipline, faithfulness, and self-directed education, are able to transform God’s kingdom.
I think there is a big difference between fake credentials and no credentials.
We are to look at fruit – what do we see here?
Some with valid undergrad degrees they worked hard for who now chose to add to their resumes because they want to and can.
These leaders are willfully in the Canadian public arena.
I agree the Body has people with no credentials who are called to leadership, we are gifted for different tasks. In a case like that, isn’t it our responsibility to provide an education if the person is going to take a leadership position?
We are willing to bring worthy students to Canada just for that reason, why do we look away at those who advance themselves with fakery?
Paul, Moses, many were well-educated. We are all part of building the kingdom of God, diploma mills and fake honouraries held by leadership have to do vanity, lack of transparency and dishonesty and harms us all.
Perfect response – we’re all responsible to make sure those with a calling are educated, and though that doesn’t necessitate having the piece of paper, certainly lying about having it is destructive and exceedingly unGodly. As you said it harms us all.
Thanks for this post brother.
Very sad, seems perhaps lying on resumes/diploma mills are not just something plaguing Fortune 500 companies.
Hit close to home few years ago, CEO of Bausch and Lomb had lied 30 years ago about an entry level position.
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I would like to think that people have the appropiate credentials of what they are representing. But it is even worse (in my thinking) of those who have appropiate credentials who deny biblical truths. I would rather sit under an individual who say, went to Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Ok (which is non-accredited) who believes the Bible. Than a Harvard Divinity School graduate who plays fast and loose with the biblical text. Also if you would study which school has put out anointed leaders in the Christian church the last 35 years, you might be surprised. Rhema has training centers all over the world, leading people to Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. They are not arguing the existence of God, their graduates demonstrate it by bringing hope, help, and healing. Living Faith is a part and parcel of their practice.
How many Harvard Divinity Schools in all over the world? How many UBC School of Theology are in all over the world? Etc….How many of the Harvard Divinity School or UBC School of Theology etc… graduates are bringing souls in the kingdom of God? And how many are they bringing hope, help and healing to the hearted world? The bible said For our gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. Please don’t brag only mental knowledge there is more than that. World needs Jesus. Also you mention Moses and Paul, Brother; Moses is not brought out Israel from slavery by his education, but by the power of God. And Paul didn’t meet Jesus by His education. Paul said that, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Please demonstrate your education in Love not criticizing others who is working hard to the kingdom of God.
What does what you say have to do with diploma mills?
jesus called to save sinner, to repent, and change hower lives
he gave all believer the title king and preist to the glory of god.
degree are no good the bible tells they will be thought of god
and not schools or man if we need a degree to pearch the gospel
then will somebody check if jesus or is apostles have then. degree
and biblical schools are made of men an not god or jesus christ.
Coming from within academe, I can see where an unaccredited college could still do a good job in teaching folks in religious areas. I could take six graduate theology classes at Asbury Seminary in metro Lexington and be street-legal to teach theology at any college in the country, since you only need 18 graduate hours in the field in question and a master’s degree (I already have an MBA and a doctorate in Finance, so I don’t need a M.Div or M.Th). It is a thought I have played with, and may do that in the near future once things start to settle down at Sullivan.
Would I be a better teacher of the Bible than a veteran pastor with just a bachelor’s degree from a church college? Probably not. I might have a few extra tricks of the trade as a teacher, but the veteran pastor will likely have more pastoral experience than I.
Many of the people you rail against are in the charismatic camp; outside of the AoG, there aren’t too many accredited advanced-degree offering schools of a charismatic nature. Part of the reason is that it’s hard to find a charismatic with an accredited advanced degree, since they’ll have to get it from a non-charismatic college.
I’m with you on the honorary degree front, but you can have a solid college experience at an unaccredited school; just know that you’re not going to be able to use that credential in a secular universe.
I was going to ask what good a degree is if you can’t use it anywhere except in an independent church, but this seems to be a well established and accepted practise. People who see a secular education or an education at an accredited college or seminary as outside their camp wouldn’t care as long as they are accepted and possibly paid by their tribe.
Doesn’t change the proliferation of diploma mills though.
Are the schools you mentioned diploma mills or unaccredited? There is a big difference between a diploma mill and being unaccredited.
“I would rather sit under an individual who say, went to Rhema Bible Training Center in Tulsa, Ok (which is non-accredited) who believes the Bible. Than a Harvard Divinity School graduate who plays fast and loose with the biblical text.”Will on Feb 5th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I agree completely with this statement. Let’s see what they are doing not what they say they are doing.
Canada Christian College is accredited, Victory isn’t.
Others I’ve posted on run the same gamet from diploma mills to unacredited.
As for unaccredited, depends on what you want the education for, if you want to use a degree, why spend money for a degree which is not recognized? As for a diploma mill why buy or be given a degree which has no worth?
Victory Churhes International have churches and bible schools in over forty nations. They are nearing one thousand in churches which to me is a lot of “fruit”, as you shall judge them by their fruit. Your only “fruit” is dividing the body of Christ. Too bad! Oh, by the way Canada Christian College made an affiliation with Victory Bible College over ten years ago…..hmmm…….now what have you got to say Judge Bene??
Reply 2 Bene D
‘We are willing to bring worthy students to Canada just for that reason, why do we look away from those who advance themselves with fakery?’
Encouraging and mentoring worthy students is a good preventative step to nurture those who have a service to provide.
Producing fruit can have three stages (New Scofield Ref):
Some fruit
Fruit
Producing fruit in others
Reply 13 the truth mill
Bene mentioned
Charles McVety is the President of Canada Christian College
Education: California State Christian unaccredited extension of a Korean Univ.. affiliated with VBC
I noticed the wordings:
-unaccredited
-extension
-affiliated
So the definitions of the links
By the way, ‘the truth mill’
I find Bene D’s research to be quite good
We are all find new things as we go along and then do some research and find some more
To the truth mill,
Are you saying that Bigger is Better? Growth in numbers of Victory churches around the globe “proves” that this church chain is bearing good fruit? If numbers was the determining factor in whether a church was bearing fruit or not, then by that logic, it is safe to say that the Catholic church has been cranking out godly fruit for centuries, with Islam not far behind in the fruit-bearing race (in both cases with the end justifying the means). Your logic bub.
You should have learned in Sunday School 101 that lots of fruit doesn’t necessarily mean it’s “good” fruit. Especially when it comes to Victory churches. But then maybe Victory churches don’t really want to teach that to you.
Check your lawn. Notice that weeds grow a lot faster than grass. If not kept in check, the weeds will overtake the lawn in no time and completely choke it out. Eventually, if there is none to tend to it, no one will ever know that the lawn even existed. “Judge” Bene is simply doing what every good discerning gardener is doing – pulling out the weeds from the root.
Judge them by what they produce, not how much.
@The truth mill
I’ve met my share of bible school graduates – many fine folks to be sure, but I’m not sure I agree with where your post is headed.
My understanding of “fruit” is: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” The Roman Catholic Church adds to this list generosity, modesty, and chastity.
Do you have any evidence to support (your implied) notion that “Victory Churhes International” (your spelling) produce people who are in a higher plane of spiritual, moral, or intellectual superiority than anyone else? Surely for having 1,000 churches, there must be some good statistical information around to make us believe just how worthwhile it is to go to a Victory Church Bible School, otherwise why would there be so many?
(A former Victory Church attendee)
Howie
George Hill took his songleading course by correspondence, and sings like it.
They have a lot of churches, but none of them have grown to be all that large.
Staff turnover and division seem to be among their fruit.
Hey, I’ve spent more time in George and Hazel’s house than any of you!
Seems to me not many have spent time in the Lords house! You see fruit to him is when you loose that desire to produce your own and allow him to be the ……………..BE ALL AND END ALL OF THAT WHICH HE PLANTS AND HARVESTS AND THE ENEMY WHO STEALS THE HARVEST AND STACKS HIS BARN WITH OUR HOPE AND THEN ALLOWS IT TO ROT IS DEFEATED. It seems to me that many allow hope to rot and we end up with mere scraps from under the table of the religious or political maneuverings of those that enjoy to see a power ‘of’ in control, not a power for within the lack of it. During the 70′s there was a ‘trend’ for and of peoples and places from whom you could acquire ‘fake’ accredations for many professions, know doubt a few dregs have been left for the yet unscrpulous to feed from!
I went to a Victory church plant. It was honestly the worst experience of my life. George Hill was pretty much worshipped. The church itself was very small and remained that way. All of the leadership meeting were about new gimmicks we could use to get more people to come. They didn’t care about the people in the church, they didn’t care about the people they wanted to come to church. Their ONLY mission was weekly attendance. A lot of people suffered a lot of abuse because of this. The remedy given to everyone who was struggling with some pretty serious issues was this, “become more committed to the church”. I can see that I’m not the only one who sees Victory’s fruit as division. So many people left broken and lost. It’s a very sad thing.
Victory Churches International kind of reminds me of a pyramid scheme in that the ‘product’ and the ‘customer’ are beside the point, and the main thing that matters is the number of ‘marketing cells’. It’s all about quantity, and quality just doesn’t even enter the picture. If only the people knew how they were being used. Kind of puts Jesus’ words in an expanded light for me when he ousted those who had turned his Father’s house into a marketplace. I didn’t know some were marketplaces right to the core. In an organization where the end already justifies the means, where truth is thrown to the ground, and deception is deep, it wouldn’t be surprising if fake credentials were part of the picture.
Therese, you nailed it exactly :
“Victory Churches International kind of reminds me of a pyramid scheme in that the ‘product’ and the ‘customer’ are beside the point, and the main thing that matters is the number of ‘marketing cells’. It’s all about quantity, and quality just doesn’t even enter the picture. If only the people knew how they were being used.”
They taught us their methods once we were part of it for long enough. There is in fact a program that all elders take that teaches you how to manipulate people into becoming members. Thinking back, it’s just plain scary. They used those methods on me, and then taught me to use them on others.
I remember how friendly everyone was when we first started. They’d ask us out to dinner, take us out for coffee, give us big smiles and greetings when we came into the church. All of the sudden the friendliness ended, and now we were expected to have responsibility. Research shows that if somebody in a church has no responsibility in a church, they are more likely to leave. Once we became elders, we were taught to be super friendly with people, big smiles, take them out for coffee etc. for the first three months. After that, we were no longer to treat them like new people, but to try and give them responsibility and no longer treat them special.
So, if you feel like being treated like royalty, go to a Victory church and pretend you are looking for a new church home. Just make sure you stop before the three months is up.
Just when I thought I’d seen everything…glad you got out before their little tentacles started to take over your brain, Victory Quitter!
I’ve never before heard of Victory Churches
So, as I fairly often do, I typed Google, “Victory Churches”
Here is the websight for Victory Churches
http://www.victoryint.org/
Here is the Wikipedia websight for Victory Churches
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Churches_International
The wikipedia mentions, ‘This article is an orphan with few or no links’