As a person who is critical of religion and suspicious of preacher’s motivations, I decided to take the proverbial mile long walk in their shoes. I could not make it 1/10th of that mile. It started and ended with enrollment into Bible College.
While investigating the biography of Dr. Jeff Owens, the now infamous preacher who wants to have “hunt a homo week” and listening to hours of his sermons, I realized that this “Dr.” was easily confused about the simplest things and seemingly extremely unintelligent. What better place to try and enroll than the college, and I use the word “college” very loosely, that Owens was the Vice-President of, Hyles-Anderson College.
Could I abide by the student code of conduct and dress code? Even with very liberal guidelines, my past suggests that I might have difficulties with this. We will start with the dress code. “Many think our dress code is too strict. Skirts above the knees are not allowed. Men must wear neckties to class and must have short haircuts. Young ladies may not wear shorts or slacks.” No chance of cutting my “Jesus” wig, strike one.
What about dating? “Young ladies are not allowed to go off campus unchaperoned. Young men and
young ladies may not date alone in cars. Absolutely no hand holding or other intimacies are allowed between the genders. There are date nights with bus transportation and adequate chaperones provided by the college. Student insubordination is absolutely forbidden.” This sounds a bit chauvinistic to me, or worse, more like a women’s prison. It would not surprise me if “masturbation detectors” are installed in the dorm rooms. Their guidelines on dating also dictate who I can date. For example, divorced men can only date divorced or widowed female classmates. This must be because the “sins of the flesh” have already been discovered by unleashing the "evil dragon", more commonly known as sex.
So what could I do to pass time while not in class or studying? “No student is allowed to attend Hollywood movies, play cards, or participate in other questionable amusements. We do not fellowship with liberals, but instead take a strict separatist stand from the world and apostasy.” In other words, no contact with anyone who might accidently clue you in that is not 1889 or that your mind is being held hostage, and not even against your will! If the activities mentioned above are banned, I am certain that 99.9% of my activities would fall in the questionable amusements category. Strike two.
On to “higher learning”, the curriculum would truly be the reason to attend. What kind of studies do they offer? The first thing I noticed is that most of the courses offered are not at all what you would find in an accredited learning institution. In addition, the options for men are far superior to that of women who would attend. Women can only earn degrees in subservience more or less and are required to take sewing and home economics courses.
On the details of the courses alone, it became evident that in order for me to be admitted, I would have to rapidly lose about 50 points of I.Q.
Here is possibly the scariest, most brainless class offered and the course details; BI 213 Bible and Science: A definition of science, its applications and limitations; a study showing that true science points to and is in harmony with the Bible; a development of the idea that secular humanism requires more faith than literal Bible belief. Really? What true science is that and why is it that almost 72% of actual scientists are atheists with an additional 21% of actual scientists that are agnostic?
Of the overwhelmingly dozens of misogynistic “classes”, some even required for women to take in order to graduate, a few that truly shocked me were: Clothing Design and Construction (I, II, and III), Home Decorating, Sewing Children’s Clothes, Sewing Household Items, Canning and Freezing, Crock Pot Cooking, and countless numbers of classes for raising children. These were things taught to my grandmother as a child raised on a farm in the 20's and 30's, and certainly not college credit worthy.
It is beyond my comprehension that any learning institution teaches in a way that equates women to being a man's servant. Wake up! It is 2010 and hundreds of women volunteer each year to have their clocks turned back to 1935. Strike three! I was out.
It is my contention that taking your children, especially a daughter, to a fundamentalist church is borderline abuse. You are most certainly depriving them of mental growth which could result in the world missing out on a brilliant mind or someone who might have otherwise developed a cure for cancer.
Bertrand Russell once said, “I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.”
Hyles-Anderson states on its Wikipedia page that, “Hyles–Anderson College does not maintain a doctoral program. However, it usually issues one or more honorary doctorates every year at the main graduation ceremony in May. The recipients are usually pastors or other ministry workers who have distinguished themselves in the ministry and do not necessarily need to hold an earned degree from the college.” Next time you meet a preacher who is titled "Dr.", feel no shame in asking for more details. This “expertise” is something with about as much clout as a degree written on toilet paper from a truck stop bathroom!
For a deeper look into rules and classes of this less than magnificent establishment click here.
Comments
The Abrahamic religions are tearing themselves apart because they have no true spiritual power.
Their masters are all dead.
So they become cults of the dead, as they attempt to keep their dead masters alive through the printed word.
It cannot be done.
And now the rot is everywhere. Especially the bible belt.
I can smell it all the way from my home here in a coastal rainforest of the Pacific NW.
x
Oh, and as a side note, this is also the college where the preacher's pedophile son went that I wrote about in my last post. Sounds like a charming school.
Jason, I am sorry you could not get past Mr. Owens' interpretation of the Bible. Especially since his allows you to keep yours. God allows all of us a great deal of room to be wrong, and those who are in a relationship with Him will be corrected and set right. Maybe even Mr. Owens, maybe even you.
True Christianity is based on the powerful freedom that Christ brings as you get to know Him. That relationship brings life to every fiber of your being and sustains you through each ebb and flow of life. External rules have no power to change the human heart.
You folks don't seem to understand.
It is "belief" that is corruptable, just as your's have become, even without your awareness of it being so.
A true spiritual path does away with belief and replaces it with direct perception.
Many are called. Ya'll tend to be the problem.
x
Ray: What Owens said was horrible. His son raping a 13 yr from the church was even worse. His words alone are nothing more than uneducated dribble and fear mongering. I have listened to hours of his sermons and he does not even tell the truth at times. He tells urban legends as if they were truths to create fear. This was not about Owens, this was about an establishment that teaches people like this. It is SHAMEFUL and harmful to children's development.
Mumsy: What has any religion contributed to mankind at any time? No one can answer more than about two things. Yet you love cars, phones, and computers. Not things created by religion. It is really OK to look at actual facts and free your mind. Religion is filled with hatred, shame, and things for which there is absolutely no evidence. Where is the freedom in that?
Xexon is right. This belief is corrupted and it only perverts itself more and more, depending on the need for a differing interpretation. I will try and lighten the stench for you up there one article at a time xexon!
Thank you, brother.
While I'm not an atheist myself, I do see the problems where people are asked to have faith in something without any kind of verification.
It's not like Jesus us around to oversee quality control, you know?
I said that a true path teaches you direct perception. My own backgound is that of a yogi. Without the religious overtones of Hinduism. (I was raised as a southern baptist in Alabama)
Because I have worked on the self, and widened those apertures that people like Jesus spoke of, I see "God". It's NOT a being on a throne as religions are fond of saying. It's more like a vast,luminous sea of consciousness, with this world existing as a bubble within it.
Here, we are God. We create the world around us.
And being the children that we are, we've made a mess of things.
It has always been so and it will remain so. Doesn't mean we can't keep our own little corner of it tidy.
x
Be sure to take a hard look at the cost of these "colleges" and how they're legally set up. You'll find that they're not exactly non-profit and that a monstrous amount of income goes to the leaders. These little unaccredited schools mostly exist to fleece their "students."
Erik,
There is no doubt in my mind that these are just massive profit centers. I hope in our lifetime we will see the churches taxed. I recently ran a poll among atheists and asked the question, "If you were forced to choose a religion, which one would you choose and why?" Out of the hundreds of responses only 2 chose a christian sect. Of the 2, one gave his why and that was to get filthy rich! lol
To MarciM: Yes, I am "Tin Man". I deleted your comments as they were off topic and too personal. Go up to my picture and click on bio. My email address is there.
I would not generalize all Christian Colleges to be that strict. And the reason the schools are so strict is because there are many people who aren't sure of who they are and what they want to do and the boundaries protect them from making bigger mistakes while they figure out what career they want to do in the future.
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