BJ, you make some valid points. Please let the ole timer respond.1. Typically, one's doctrinal moorings are formed in undergrad and seminary (graduate level) degree programs. 2. Until only recently (the last 10 years) have legitimately accredited Pentecostal DMin programs been available. As you state, prior to that, Pentecostals seeking higher education had no other choice than to attend a non-Pentecostal institution.3. Any DMin dissertation (at Pentecostal/non-Pentecostal schools alike) must follow specific guidelines to be approved. This is part of the academic process. At all but a very few schools, academic freedom takes precedent over doctrinal issues. For example, I know a gentleman right now who is in the DMin program at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. He has completed all course work and writing his dissertation on the concept of tarrying for the Holy Ghost. I know a feller who just last year earned his DMin from Liberty, his dissertation was on a specific component of Pentecostalism. My point is this, you might find a fundamentalist school that would give you problems over a Pentecostal subject for a dissertation, but for the most part, in most legitimately accredited schools, the Pentecostal minister/student could still write his/her dissertation on the subject of some aspect of Pentecostalism.4. One studies to show one's self approved to God; however, God also requires that one give one's best to the process. If one absolutely could not get a specific research proposal approved, then move to another school. In most cases there is no reason one cannot be true to God and to one's doctoral committee.5. I would disagree with you that the reason some guys opted for a doctorate from a 2-bit, slipshod, unaccredited, doctorate is not that they were unable to write on the subject of their choice, but because they did not want to discipline themselves to complete a legitimate doctorate.
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