Louisiana Baptist University and Seminary

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Louisiana Baptist University and Seminary (LBU) (formerly "Baptist Christian University") is an unaccredited school located in Shreveport, Louisiana.[1] The school advocates conservative Christian anti-abortion, creationist, homophobic, transphobic and Biblical literalism viewpoints. Unlike some unaccredited seminaries Louisiana Baptist has an actual campus with teaching staff. Incoherent creationist Carl Baugh claims to hold a Doctor of Philosophy degree from LBU.[2]

Academics[edit]

Louisiana Baptist University offers undergraduate and graduate degrees that are theological in nature. They also take secular subjects like Communications, Music, Education, Counseling and slap the word Christian in front of them. The purpose seems to be teaching secular subjects using separation of church and state. The school is divided into the following departments: Seminary,[3] Biblical Studies,[4] "Christian Education for School Teachers",[5] "Christian Communications",[6] "Christian Counseling" [7] and Prison Ministry.[8]

LBU faculty have both accredited and unaccredited degrees.[9] Most of the unaccredited degrees come from Louisiana Baptist University itself. Due to this, the quality of LBU degrees are fairly dubious and have limited value [10]

Accreditation[edit]

Louisiana Baptist University is accredited by ASIC (Accrediting Service for International Colleges) [11] ASIC accreditation doesn't actually mean anything. ASIC is known to accredit bogus schools. [12] They are a member of the "Association of Christian Schools International" (ACSI), which provides teaching credentials for Christian school teachers.[13]

In 1998, the school announced that it was going to offer a Business Administration degree program. After an investigation, the Louisiana Board of Regents voted unanimously to deny an operating license for LBU and ordered the school to cease all advertising for all undergraduate and graduate business programs.[14] However, in 1999 the same Board of Regents reversed this decision and permitted LBU to operate under an updated religious institution exemption act.[15]

Coursework quality[edit]

The quality of the coursework is questionable. A doctoral dissertation for a PhD in Bible and Theology reveals the questionable quality of the school's course work. The dissertation titled THE BIBLICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF JABAL AL LAWZ does not rely on peer reviewed resources at all but rather it cites holy books, popular works and generic secondary sources such as the World Encyclopedia. One source for archaeology is from a person called Dr. Fritz. This Dr. Fritz person is a dentist with no background in archaeology.[10]

External links[edit]

References[edit]