Master's Baptist College

[Bazile]

.mastersbaptistcollege.com/index.htm

Has anyone heard of this school in Fargo, ND, USA? My aunt (who waffles between fundie-lite, fundie, and full out batshit crazy) announced this afternoon that her son would be going to school there next year. I'd never heard of the school,and had mostly assumed based on his less than great SOTDR and private science free Christian school that he wasn't really college material, I googled it. They have a tuition free school, $900 a year housing, and no dining plan so that students will have more choices. They handful of majors offer almost nothing but religion classes, and the music major is the only one that looks like it has anything else. In the four year programs women are require to take courses in homeschool mom, preacher's wife,and homekeeping. They actually have classes listed as being for men only since obviously women won't ever be in a position to need to teach men.

I don't have anything against Baptists or even evangelical Christians in general. I was raised in Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches with limited ties to the Southern Baptist Convention (meaning they kept their membership but refused to acknowledge the 1998 addendum or the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message which were put in place after the conservative take over) for historical and local reasons, and my husband I attend a Presbyterian Church in America church now since it's a good compromise for his half Presbyterian half independent Baptist self and my liberal (in the southern sense of the word) Baptist self compared to the hardline SBC churches in Alabama. But seriously, this school makes me want to burn my bra and yell "girl power," and then call up my brothers to drag our cousin out to a strip club, to get him completely sloshed, and at other form of defrauding entertainment they can come up with.

[DefraudedByPlaid]

Nope, never heard of it. Wow. Most of my extremely-conservative-college knowledge is all about Pensacola and Bob Jones.

I'm not a super-lefty, but I would gladly burn my bra with you for this! Okay, just in theory - in practice I actually do like to dress fairly modestly in public. But in sentiment, yes!!!

[mg78]

.mastersbaptistcollege.com/index.htm

In the four year programs women are require to take courses in homeschool mom, preacher's wife,and homekeeping. .

Are this the actual name of the courses? I do not know if I want to laugh or to cry.

[Fargood]

I've lived in Fargo for twenty years and even taught part time at a college here. I've never heard of this place. I'll check around for you, though.

Fargo's not really a hotbed of Baptist activity. It's mostly just a bunch of old Lutherans and Catholics arguing over who makes stronger coffee.

[ceg045]

The pastoral track has you taking 31 courses in your first year. More evidence that this whole fundie/QF mindset is about quantity over quality.

[Fargood]

I looked at the website and I know of this church. Long story, but I did actually take some photographs of their old building about 20 years ago when they first started out. The pastor tried to convert me during the shoot and when they paid me, they refused to write the check out in my name and would only make the check out directly to the college I was attending. Paternalistic much? I supposed they figured I might buy pot with their precious money. They figured right.

This church has really exploded in the last twenty years. They went from a simple Morton building in the burbs to a mega-church building right off the interstate with lots of exposure. I personally don't know anyone who goes there, but all my friends are normal, so . . . I guess that explains that.

[nelliebelle1197]

What do these "degrees" get you anyway? I guess at $900 a year, not much! :lol:

[gezykah]

I'm tempted to ask what good could a degree from this place do in the real world but I doubt this school or anybody who thinks going there is a good idea cares about that.

[lilwriter85]

What do these "degrees" get you anyway? I guess at $900 a year, not much! :lol:

I was thinking the same thing.

[clarinetpower]

I recognize one of the faculty. He was one of the kids in a family that I had contact with years ago. His 2 brothers went to college with me. Both were brass players, and good ones (their mother was a pianist and always accompanied them), but not allowed to play jazz or anything pop related whatsoever. They were from an IFB church, KJV, skirts only, guys only wore khakis that I remember (though I think the younger one may have occasionally worn denim, but not sure.) Very conservative, obvs., but they tended to not talk to people like me too much. One friended me on FB for a while, but I guess my Liberal showed, because he unfriended me.

I had a kid from their church as a private student for a while. She was the daughter of a widow, so the mom worked at a bank. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot from her. For example, they weren't allowed to eat at a resto that served booze, so basically truck stops, fast food and Perkin's was it. In their church, boys and girls were not allowed to swim in a swimming pool at the same time. She and her mom did cut their hair (chin length) though most in their church let it grow past their butts with long, untrimmed ends and they wore culottes but they were both quite heavy, so I imagine skirts would have been uncomfortable. She was obsessed with Disney movies and baseball. She was not a strong player, unlike the brass playing boys, but I know she continued on through high school age. Everyone, it seemed, in their church was schooled at the church, in sort of a hybrid church/homeschool thing.

Having grown up in Fargo (I left over 20 years ago), it is a predominantly Scandinavian area, so there are a lot of Lutheran churches, but it is also very conservative. I am not surprised they are growing, (though I am disappointed.) My own church there exploded after I left, and now it's huge with 2 campuses and 8 pastors (though it's still ELCA, so I don't know if that counts as a megachurch.)

[NurseNell]

The dorm building is as ugly as sin. But it looks like neat floor plans. 4 people to a unit, with a kitchen for every unit because meals are not part of the $900/year. :o I had to laugh at Fargo being a place of 4 seasons. There's winter about 7 months/year, followed by months of flooding, summer comes on a weekend if you're lucky, and a few weeks of fall.

The courses are taught one course at a time, for one week, 20 hours/week. It's called a modular format. Anyone in education know if other colleges do this? I could see it working for some subjects but not others. It could work in nursing or medicine where you study one body system at a time. I can't see it with history or English, there's way too much reading involved.

[miffy]

Masterbaters College

[Fargood]

My own church there exploded after I left, and now it's huge with 2 campuses and 8 pastors (though it's still ELCA, so I don't know if that counts as a megachurch

I know what church of which you speak. My brother and sister in law attend there. They recently voted to support same sex marriage and pastors who are in same sex relationships. I don't consider it a mega church, because it's not high pressure and fairly liberal.

[JMarie]

How little do the professors make if tuition is $900 a year??

[NurseNell]

How little do the professors make if tuition is $900 a year??

I suspect most have regular jobs. The classes are all in the evening and on Saturdays. This is so students can also work at part time jobs. With the modular system a professor might only teach one week every month or so. They also have many visiting professors.

[Savoring Samsara]

Masterbaters College

The Church of the Holy Basement: Fargo Campus

[NotALoserLikeYou]

Well it looks like its only to prepare people to work in missions/churches so I guess it's serving it's purpose.

[fauxmenno]

Wow. Not even a .edu website. Totaaaally legit :roll:

[Bazile]

Are this the actual name of the courses? I do not know if I want to laugh or to cry.

mastersbaptistcollege.com/documents/church_ministries_courses-ed_minor.pdf

The courses are listed under third and fourth year, but yes basically the exact course titles. It's actually homemaking instead of keeping. You can't make this crap up, unfortunately.

I have no idea what you can do with one of their "degrees" other than work at a fundie/fundie-lite Baptist church, and I've personally never heard of an SBC pastor who didn't have a masters degree from an accredited seminary or school of divinity. My aunt and uncle run a mission organization that involves flying supplies and people into remote areas of Alaska, as well as preaching at at least one fairly remote church. My cousin's planning on doing the one year Bible certificate program, so other than work for his dad I can't see any marketable use. Though my step-dad (and this would be his sister's family) said that he didn't see anything wrong with his nephew taking his pretend high school diploma to a pretend college, but then again he also told his sister when she called him and my mom up to tell them that God told her that they should send their mission $50 that God had told him that she needed to send him $75 so if she'd put a check in the mail for $25 he'd call it even. He tends to think his sister is more funny than dangerous, and doesn't know why her antics bother the rest of us so much.

[DrPusey]

There are some very good liberal arts colleges that run on the block system - aka one course at a time. Off the top of my head, there's Colorado College, Cornell College in Iowa, and Tusculum College in Tennessee. So that calendar in and of itself is not squiffy, but the curriculum of this fly-by-night institution is something else entirely.

I never really understand why fundies are so eager to hand what little money they have off to an unaccredited college for a dubious education for their blessings.

[ceg045]

Not to mention that legitimate colleges that operate under the block system devote considerably more than a week to each subject they cover. I notice that at least one of tracks include "Greek & Hebrew I" and "Greek and Hebrew II." You can't seriously believe that you will reach intermediate proficiency in not one but two foreign languages (neither of which use a Latin alphabet) in 40 hours of coursework.

[Megan]

There are some very good liberal arts colleges that run on the block system - aka one course at a time. Off the top of my head, there's Colorado College, Cornell College in Iowa, and Tusculum College in Tennessee. So that calendar in and of itself is not squiffy, but the curriculum of this fly-by-night institution is something else entirely.

I never really understand why fundies are so eager to hand what little money they have off to an unaccredited college for a dubious education for their blessings.

Looking at one of those websites (I looked at Cornell College's, since I think I know someone who went there), it seems their blocks are longer - like a month-ish per course. That's a lot more spread out than this nonsense, and seems much more do-able. If Master's actually offered such courses like math and English (it doesn't look like it...) you'd never have time to learn anything - imagine trying to do geometry in a week!

I think one reason the dubious, unaccredited college thing is popping up so much is that there are so many colleges in the US, no one blinks at someone going to a place they've never heard of. I mean, I haven't heard of many liberal arts colleges, even some of the top ranking ones.

Also, paranoia about the government makes it so being accredited means nothing to them. The ebil guv'ment not "interfering" with the college is probably a plus for many of the fundies we snark on.

[already hungover]

I know what church of which you speak. My brother and sister in law attend there. They recently voted to support same sex marriage and pastors who are in same sex relationships. I don't consider it a mega church, because it's not high pressure and fairly liberal.

I'm a Fargo native, moved away in 2006. I think I know the church as well, and if it is the one I think it is, I'm glad to hear that they voted to support same sex marriage. I wouldn't have expected it - the people I know who go there are not super liberal.

(As an aside, a friend was confirmed at another fairly big Fargo church, and his confirmation leader told their class that the abortion clinic in town is heated with fetuses/abortion remnants. I swear to god. This made the rounds among our heathen friends in high school and we all found it quite hilarious.)