{"id":138,"date":"2014-07-06T05:08:52","date_gmt":"2014-07-06T09:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/?p=138"},"modified":"2016-02-04T00:43:56","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T05:43:56","slug":"diplomamill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/diplomamill\/","title":{"rendered":"Is your Seminary degree and ordination real? Is this a diploma mill?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"religious<\/a>A candidate for ordination and a religious doctorate degree asked recently:<\/p>\n

“I’d like to ask you about the Doctor of Divinity and PhD in Spiritual Philosophy. \u00a0Does the diploma read Esoteric or Interfaith Theological Seminary and what would keep someone from looking it up online and seeing that only a paper was required?”<\/p>\n

Somewhere online there are two\u00a0negative\u00a0comments about our seminary dated\u00a02007 and 2009. They are actually\u00a0forum or blog\u00a0discussions, asking if\u00a0the seminary\u00a0is a “diploma mill”. Some guy without a seminary degree\u00a0gives\u00a0his opinion — that we are walking a “fine line” but stops short of calling us a diploma mill, then suggests people\u00a0attend “real” seminaries\u00a0if they want\u00a0a Doctor of Theology, Divinity,\u00a0PhD in Metaphysics, Religion, etc.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0traditional “mainstream”\u00a0brick and mortar seminaries have been losing students by the droves, and the\u00a0people they graduate simply cannot find jobs. It’s no wonder\u00a0spiritual workers\u00a0want to come to alternative\u00a0online seminaries like ours. Even worse, each\u00a0traditional seminary is denomination-specific (unlike ours) and\u00a0teaches only a narrow\u00a0set of\u00a0religious subjects tailored to their specific\u00a0belief system. \u00a0Worse yet(!), besides taking\u00a04 or 5\u00a0years to grant you their degree,\u00a0they are\u00a0extremely expensive — student-loan debt is astronomical for clergy.<\/p>\n

Our seminary is not only affordable with one-time donation fees for ordination or degree, but we are also completely flexible\u00a0allowing the candidate to decide what and when they will study. And yes, we give credit for current work in the field! The most successful clergy are those that do not attend brick and mortar seminaries, but simply start preaching \/ teaching \/ guiding from wherever they are — even if it’s a house church or rented space in a shopping center. People flock to them because they sense the sincerity and the genuineness of the spiritual “food”. Traditional churches and synagogues are being sold off in the thousands due to chronic empty pew syndrome. Drastic decline in membership has been epidemic for the past two decades while\u00a0alternative\u00a0non-denominational self-started\u00a0places of worship with alternative clergy and spiritual teachers are thriving.<\/p>\n

There is a misconception that\u00a0our seminary\u00a0“only” requires a thesis paper before we grant a degree.<\/p>\n

\"Become<\/a>A religious degree means you become a Doctor of the Church.\u00a0 The word Doctor\u00a0comes from the Greek word meaning \u201cTeacher.” The original doctors were spiritual teachers, not physical healers. Those are physicians. Something I notice in your spiritual history is in addition to receiving the \u201cCall\u201d to become ordained, you have also received the Call to TEACH, the Call to become a Doctor of Divinity.\u00a0 There is presently a tremendous need for clergy and Doctors of the Faith.\u00a0\u00a0 And considering your current spiritual teaching \/ counseling \/ guiding \/ coaching you sound definitely called to be one, and qualified<\/em> to be one.<\/p>\n

After so many years of screening applicants, we have developed an uncanny knack of recognizing the right candidates, and drawing only sincere applicants to us. Like attracts like. For over 25 years the Seminary has never (knock on wood) accidentally granted a degree to an unscrupulous person. We\u2019ve had a few close calls over the years, but Providence always seems to intervene and indicate to us this is not someone truly \u201cCalled\u201d for ordination or a religious doctorate degree. The candidates to whom the Seminary\u00a0grants degrees\u00a0are usually people already working in the field of spirituality \/ religion and deserve the credentials they have technically earned through their personal study and work. We ordain many people as minister, rabbi, pastor, reverend, spiritual life coach, etc., but only rarely grant religious doctorate degrees \u2013 maybe a dozen per year.<\/p>\n

A handful of visitors to the Seminary\u2019s website per year do indeed criticize our educational\u00a0method because we don\u2019t demand they sit through four+ years of denomination-specific classes at a brick and mortar school. We put candidates through an application process, require written work, thorough description of what religious work the candidate is currently doing in the field of spirituality, a detailed description of their goals as clergy and how they will use their ordination and\/or degree. The spiritual history compilation and the writing of a doctorate level thesis (or masters level thesis, or Bachelors research paper) are large written works required from each and every candidate before ordination or a degree can be conferred. We have hundreds of lessons online, that all applicants are invited to study if the particular lesson appeals to them. Most of our lessons are optional (only required if you want a transcript) because as mentioned above, most people who study here are already spiritual leaders, teachers or spiritual \/ pastoral counselors.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, we only grant degrees to active clergy. If a person is not an ordained minister or other clergy when they come to us, the Seminary\u2019s parent church will ordain them for free as a requirement for the religious degree.\u00a0Communities are in great need of clergy and religious teachers who give\u00a0people guidance that truly resonates with their life.\u00a0People crave\u00a0spiritual teachings and religious \u201csystems\u201d that make sense in today\u2019s world, not something that only makes sense thousands of years ago — although it\u2019s especially awesome when a teaching applies to BOTH ancient man and current humanity!<\/p>\n

\"PhD<\/a>As the seminary repeatedly reminds everyone in our online lessons, we humans are 3-part beings, Mind-Body-Spirit. For too long people have ignored or suppressed their spiritual third. Many (most?) are asleep to their spiritual side, but for those actively seeking spiritual “food” aka teachings, for those wanting to \u201cawaken\u201d, we want teachers (like you) to be out there ready to point the way, gently guide, suggest, lead, inspire \u2013 and above all READY TO SERVE. Serving the religious and spiritual needs of a community is a very high Calling indeed. It\u2019s a calling with a capital \u201cC\u201d, as the saying goes. That much has not changed over thousands of years.<\/p>\n

In the past there have been restrictions on who gets to answer that Call, and who gets to be \u201ccertified\u201d and \u201clabelled\u201d as clergy, as religious doctors aka teachers. For instance, women have not been able to answer that Call until quite recently. And there are\u00a0restrictions put on even the men — \u201crequirements\u201d and \u201crules\u201d for who can do spiritual teaching, preaching, advising, life coaching. You have to be approved by committee and “authorities”.<\/p>\n

Our Seminary and the Esoteric Interfaith Church, Inc. that founded it, believe only the Divine can choose who gets ordained, who gets degreed as a Doctor (\u201cTeacher\u201d) of the Faith. There should be no restrictions on who is allowed to answer the Call, as long as they espouse a positive spirituality, no matter if they are male or female, seminary trained or self-trained. When the Call comes to a person it is a very intimate, powerful, personal event. Who has the right to demean or disparage\u00a0a person answering that Call to ordination, spiritual healing\u00a0or teaching?<\/p>\n

Of course clergy should be put through an application process where all who want clergy credentials are screened to make sure they are not pretending to have been Called, not intending to use their clergy status to harm others while claiming to want to help them. \u00a0We screen all our applicants\u00a0via the application process, the compilation of the spiritual history, etc. and require them to make a pledge to use their ordination status only for the service of humanity. Each candidate must make that pledge or their application is not approved.<\/p>\n

One major goal of the Esoteric Interfaith Theological Seminary and its parent the Esoteric Interfaith Church, Inc. is to end up with graduates spread across the country, in every state, in every county and city,\u00a0 We actually have dozens of alumni now in many countries all around the world, including places you might not expect such as China, the Middle East, Nigeria, Indonesia (struggling population there as Islam continues to take over all aspects of life).<\/p>\n

Our alumni give\u00a0the people they serve\u00a0an alternative to the restrictive, exclusive \u201cclub\u201d, tired-old forms of religion. Today\u2019s spiritual seeker wants a new kind of clergy, someone who can give them spiritual gems they can put to use immediately in their life. If you weren\u2019t one of those “different kind of clergy”, it is my firm belief you would not be reading this.<\/p>\n

\"spiritual<\/a><\/p>\n

You can read more about some of these legal\u00a0issues on our FAQ page here:\u00a0 http:\/\/northernway.org\/faq.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Get Ordained:\u00a0to\u00a0see\u00a0the three-step process\u00a0how to become an ordained minister, visit this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

See\u00a0our religious degree programs here<\/a>, and for the PhD specifically go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A candidate for ordination and a religious doctorate degree asked recently: “I’d like to ask you about the Doctor of Divinity and PhD in Spiritual Philosophy. \u00a0Does the diploma read Esoteric or Interfaith Theological Seminary and what would keep someone from looking it up online and seeing that only a paper was required?” Somewhere online […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,9],"tags":[44,47,13,11,15],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-questions","category-religious-doctorate-degrees","tag-become-an-ordained-minister","tag-diploma-mill","tag-doctor-of-divinity","tag-phd-metaphysics","tag-seminary-degrees"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/ordainedminister\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}