Pastor Richard Turner
The following are background notes on Pastor Richard Turner. Further information can be found on the page for his Hyde Street Chapel.
Richard Turner says that he has a master’s degree in Theology awarded by an American institution, the Trinity Theological Seminary (http://www.trinitysem.edu), in Newburgh, Indiana. This institution offers correspondence courses. However, it turns out that the institution has no recognised accreditation (see below). In plain English this means that outside of religious circles, the degree is neither generally or widely accepted as a university degree. In general, it would not be acceptable to employers as a degree.
I use the term accreditation carefully. In the USA, schools and universities are usually accredited by recognised independent accrediting agencies which, in turn, are recognised by the Federal Department of Education and/or the Council on Higher Education Accreditation. The position is different from the UK where the status of the degree (i.e. whether or not it is recognised as a degree) is assured by the awarding university having a Royal Charter (basically a certificate of competence to run its own affairs, if you like. There isn’t really an equivalent in US Federal law.).
The Trinity Theological Seminary is recognised by an independent accrediting agency, The Colorado-based National Association of Private, Nontraditional Schools and Colleges (NAPNSC). The trouble is, NAPNSC is not recognised by anyone as an accrediting agency.
As the Trinity Theological Seminary is, thus, not accredited, it is impossible to ascertain the standing and status of its degrees. However, it speaks volumes that NAPNSC has repeatedly tried and failed to be recognised as an accrediting agency. I am also unable to find any reason why, over the best part of 30 years, Trinity did not get accreditation status from another, recognised, accrediting agency (although it is now, at last, attempting to do so).
In 1998 Trinity entered into an arrangement with Liverpool University in the UK. Trinity described a partnership with Liverpool as “endorsing” its degrees. Note that this does not mean Liverpool was awarding the degrees and external degrees. Nor does it mean that the degrees were jointly awarded by Trinity and Liverpool. Nor does it mean that Trinity’s degrees were accredited by Liverpool. Liverpool University isn’t in the business of the US accreditation system and there isn’t one in the UK.
However, it appears a very common practice amongst Trinity graduates to suggest that their degrees are accredited by or jointly awarded by Liverpool. It seems that what was actually happening was that Liverpool was selling educational services to Trinity including course material and some element of quality control.
However, the arrangements didn’t last. I don’t know what happened but Trinity switched to Canterbury Christ Church University. As good as this institution may be, it has nothing like the status of Liverpool, which is a Russell League (top 17) institution. CCCU is basically a recently upgraded college of higher education (it is what Americans would call a community college.) I doubt whether most people in the UK have ever heard of it.
Moreover, virtually all the people I have ever known who have masters or higher degrees have had to have a recognised first degree as an entrance requirement. Turner appears to have no such first degree. He initially trained at the London Theological Seminary, an institution that does not offer first degrees (either its own or external degrees). Indeed, the training only last for two years as distinct from the customary 3-4 years of a first degree in the UK, Europe and the USA. Apparently the institution accepts students with no qualifications at all. The Seminary describes itself as an evangelical protestant college. Women need not apply as they don’t want you.
The Seminary claims that its course is equivalent to an M.Div (presumably meaning Master of Divinity) in the USA. That is completely meaningless because theological qualifications in the USA are notorious for their low standards compared with main stream academic standards.
It takes six to seven years of full time study, or equivalent, in the UK to obtain a master’s degree – two years at A level, three years as an undergraduate and one to two years for the actual masters course. The London Theological Seminary offers a course that only requires two years of full time study.
Thus Turner’s qualifications are not quite what they would first seem to the average lay-person. They are basically nothing like up to the standards one would expect from the British university system.
This is very typical amongst fundamentalist preachers, especially in the United States. However, it is far from unknown in the UK. Ian Paisley, for example, has a bogus PhD from the unaccredited fundamentalist Bob Jones University. Diploma Mill qualifications amongst creationist fundamentalist “preachers” are pretty rampant in the USA. “Dr” Kent Hovind’s degree qualification certificates have the same academic status as toilet paper.
Trinity Theological Seminary’s qualifications are real qualifications, unlike those of Kent Hovind (or Carl Baugh) but they are, in the absence of accreditation, a questionable base for rubbishing any mainstream subject, let alone science.
