Comments on: Cheating and Seminary: An Open Letter to Students

By: Fred

Fred — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 00:24:39 +0000

I attended Trinity Evangelical Theological Seminary. Yes, I cheated while I was a student. Yes! I would do it again. Why? Because I found seminary to be a fairytale land of students, all trying to me more holy than the next one. The seminary was a joke. I cheated and I got out fast. I never looked back. I have had a very successful ministry. Many will say that what I did was wrong. Maybe it was, but I became very tired of the attitude of those around me. If I had it to do again, I would not even go to seminary- I would minister as Christ told us to do in the first place. I have spoken to many pastors who told me they cheated as well. It has become a main stay for those tired of dealing with poor quality seminaries. Even those seminaries like Trinity that claim to be the best.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 23:45:47 +0000

I was a blessed with a teaching fellow who included this in an email to the class after several complaints about low grades: “I hope your pursuit of Christian perfection is as great as your pursuit of perfect grades.” His point was our grade obsession rather than cheating, but it could be applied with even greater truth there.

By: Andrew Spencer

Andrew Spencer — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:59:15 +0000

Thanks everyone for your interest in the conversation.

I hope that my letter doesn’t cause people to miss my main point.

Nowhere did I draw the conclusion that all seminaries or our seminary in particular is a hotbed for cheating, nor was the point that every seminary student has or will cheat. The point is that the opportunity is there to cheat and some students at least who fall to the temptation of cheating. Allen is correct in stating that this is “the expression of sin finding it’s [sic] outlet.” And, no, we should not be surprised. Instead, seminary students should jealously guard their integrity.

As for actually deceiving professors, Dante doesn’t comment that he got all A’s on his seminary papers and, quite frankly, many liberal scholars who were formerly conservatives (Bart Ehrman comes to mind) have showed that academic excellence is not a measure of regeneracy. Given the right sources, one can rightly understand what Scripture and scholars say about a particular passage without believing it: being able to accurately represent an opposing viewpoint is a mark of good scholarship.

Hopefully, this conversation continues between students so that some who might have been tempted to cheat will be strengthened to resist temptation.

Spencer

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:17:44 +0000

I do not condoning cheating, nor am I about to suggest that cheating is because some one (or something) made them cheat. “Eve why did you eat the fruit?” Eve- “The snake made me!” However, does this perhaps show of a problem on both ends? The student sinning and the school (seminary) that has failed to understand that many students are forced to make a choice between doing the bare minimum required to pass while taking care of their flock and family, or neglecting their flock and family in order to maintain the workload seminary requires.

I am pro-seminary education. I believe I am a better Christ follower, husband, father, and pastor because of the tools I have learned at seminary. That said there is a hipocracy(sp) to some degree in seminary.One one hand they tell you that your main job is to minister to your family (and then church if you have one), yet on the other hand each prof. will load you down with such a work load that you will indeed fail. It might not be your class, it may be your kids. It might not be your class or your kids, but it’s your wife. Or it might be your church.

I don’t claim to have the answer, at least not a really good answer. But I do know this is and has been a problem in many seminary students lives. Anyone got any suggestions or am I just being a baby?

By: Allen Mickle

Allen Mickle — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:35:23 +0000

I wouldn’t say “gone” are the days of the penniless pastor. I don’t make $60,000 and am not in it for the money. I pastor a very small rural PA church. That’s not the only reason for cheating. It’s simply the expression of sin finding it’s outlet. Are we surprised?

By: RazorsKiss

RazorsKiss — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:26:13 +0000

What depresses me just as much is that either 1) an unbeliever can deceive seminary professors this systematically or 2) That the standard for seminary papers is so low as to be indistinguishable from that of a non-Christian moralizing. These are supposed to be seminary-level papers, from men learning to exegete Scripture, exposit it, and expound it for their flock.

God help us.

By: Dwayne Phillips

Dwayne Phillips — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:35:14 +0000

I also hope that seminaries will start to question their practices for entry that creates such as strong temptation towards cheating.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:51:26 +0000

While I believe this may happen among seminary students, ‘Dante’ is not someone that could be deemed a reliable source. He allegedly enables cheaters for a living. His boasting set off alarm bells in my head about his credibility. However, kudos to Andrew Spencer for delving into the issue. There are many wolves among the flock.

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:02:50 +0000

Sadly, “ministry” is not always pure. I only know a handful of people who went to seminary because they sincerely wanted to preach and teach. Most that I’ve talked to going to seminaries and Bible schools go because it is a good job. One fellow even said it was the family business: his grandpa was a pastor, his father was a pastor, he would be a pastor, because it pays well, and you can get paid to do “ministry”. The average salary of a pastor in the US was over 60,000. Not a bad job market. Gone are the days of penniless pastors. Why is there cheating? Follow the money.

http://www.churchjobs.net/
http://www.churchstaffing.com/
http://www.ministryemployment.com/

Recession + Job availability that requires seminary degrees + desperate people = cheating.

By: Don Gale

Don Gale — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:08:32 +0000

I appreciate this letter. I am for seminary and against cheating. But I did want to point out that our recently created system of leadership development has helped create this problem. If you are “called to the ministry”, you just go to seminary, and then accept a “call” from some unknown church who doesn’t know you. That system enables the kind of cheating outlined in this letter. If leadership development were more driven by the local church and existing leaders (through discipleship, candidate recognition by the body, supplemental seminary, etc), these problems would be kept in check because the seminarian would be deeply known. If our leadership development methods don’t change, this problem will only continue. I’m thankful for places like SEBTS and SBTS who are working towards a more biblical model of training.