Chuck's got some 'splaining to do

Most people outside of Canada have probably never heard of Dr. Charles McVety, but he is a central figure in Canada's culture wars. He is the current president of Canada Christian College and president of the Canada Family Action Coalition and is perhaps best known for campaigning to repeal the law legalizing same-sex marriage in Canada and being a significant mover behind Bill C-10, which will give the Heritage Department the ability to deny government tax credits to Canadian produced films that don't meet its moral standards. According to the George Stroumboulopoulos of CBC newsmagazine "The Hour", Charles McVety is "one of the most powerful leaders of the Christian Right in this country". He has the ear of many MPs and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

On Canada Christian College's Faculty information website Dr. Chuck lists his degrees: B.A., M.A. (Canada Christian College), D.Min. (California State Christian University), D.P.C. (Hon.), D.Litt. (St. Petersburg State University).

Other bloggers are beginning to raise questions regarding his qualifications but this hasn't hit the mainstream media yet. One problem here is that the California State Christian University seems to little more than a website that is "Under Construction". There is a contact page that lists the address as 17145 Devonshire St. Northridge, CA 91325 but the map on that page shows that the campus is in Irvine, California, which is a location at least 150 kilometres away from Northridge. My call to the contact phone number, which is in Northridge's 818 area code, not Irvine's 949 area code, was answered with a "Hello" and when I asked whether this was California State Christian University the man on the phone said "yes". When I asked how many students attended and how many faculty were on staff, he said no one was around to help me. They are not listed on the US Department of Education's list of accredited universities nor does it show up on the Association of Theological Schools Commission on Accrediting list. A google search of the address comes up with: Soul Christian Assembly Church Inc. with pastor Dr. Samuel Kim as the contact. (They also have a tax lien of $14,000... Isn't the internet scary?)

A Google maps street view of the address comes up with this. It looks like a house church to me (click on image to open):

So did "Doctor" Charles McVety receive his D.Min from a recognized educational institution with faculty, students and classrooms? It appears not. Interestingly, several other Canadians list this school in their academic profile including "Dr." Trent Walker who is a psychotherapist and "Dr." Helen Norris director of a group called Radiant Life Ministries, which does some counselling. Yikes! It's a bit scary that graduates from this University are doing psychotherapy and counselling. In fact, so many Canadians seem to claim this University as their home they have a site - California State Christian University Canada - also unfinished with no contact information.

"Dr." Charles McVety's questions don't end there. What about the honorary D.Litt degree from Saint-Petersburg State University? At first it was thought this must be a state school in Saint Petersburg Florida, but the only branch of the state university system is University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg. But in looking at his Wikipedia entry McVety's honorary degree came from St Petersburg State University in St. Petersburg, Russia. That's pretty impressive. Saint Petersburg State University (formerly Leningrad State University) is one of Russia's top schools. The admission process is extremely competitive and it produces the cream of the crop. It claims former Russian President Vladimir Putin and current President Dimitry Medvedev as its alum as well as several Nobel Laureates. It seems odd that a prestigious secular university would award an Honorary Doctorate in Letters to a Canadian fundamentalist evangelist (unknown outside of Canada) who has published one book called "Victory Guaranteed: a book on principles of Christian ministry", which isn't even available on Amazon.ca. Also, giving an honorary Doctorate in Letters is an American tradition. Few schools outside the U.S. convey such a degree.

So there are lots of unanswered questions. The biggest one is why the mainstream media, who has given this guy such a platform, haven't done this kind of digging and asked him these questions. Another is why Canada Christian College is accredited by the Province of Ontario to grant degrees when most of its faculty seem to received their degrees from Canada Christian College itself or other questionable schools. McVety's wife claims to have an Honorary degree from Canadian Semimary [sic], which I can't find under her spelling or the correct one.

And lastly but not least, this isn't just a problem in Canada, the Southern Baptist Convention's new President Johnny Hunt's credentials have also been questioned. Fake degrees and diploma mills are nothing new, but when you set yourself up as the moral police, you need to keep your nose clean.

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UPDATE: Yayacanada points out that St-Petersburg State University does have a School of Religion and Philosophy attached to it.

However, the school claims to be "Russian Orthodox in origin" and aims... to organize a comprehensive program for the study of the present-day state of Russian Orthodoxy, particularly as it affects and is affected by the intellectual and spiritual quests of the modern world.

It is very unlikely a Russian Orthodox oriented School would give an honorary degree to a fundamentalist Protestant when the Orthodox consider all non-Orthodox heretics and hold low-church fundamentalist Protestants in particular contempt. There is a decades old rivalry between the Russian Orthodox and fundamentalist Protestants. The Russian Orthodox consider all ethnic Russians theirs and have campaigned against fundamentalist Protestants as they have plucked Orthodox believers away from the One True Church. It would be like Bob Jones University giving a degree to a Catholic bishop or a Muslim scholar. Yayacanada also raised the possibility that Chuck may have received his honorary degree from St. Petersburg Christian University rather than the state university as stated. That possibility is far more likely.

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UPDATE: One commenter, Chet, points us to California State Christian University's newly launched and nicely polished website:

http://www.cscu.edu/

Even in trying to link the new site to this article and test it, I am finding that it works one moment and gives me a 404 error the next.

As of 6/20, it lacks any contact information: no address or phone number, no course info, no alumni page, etc, but it does have an online application. And this is supposed to be from a University that was established in 1972???

One picture is interesting. I suppose it is one of their commencement ceremonies (?) I used to live in southern California and the location doesn't quite look right for Northridge or Irvine. Those mountains in the background are a little too close for Northridge and a little too high and rocky/snowy for Irvine. It could be in another San Fernando Valley location though. That's a pretty big graduating class for that little house in Northridge. Where did they all fit????



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UPDATE: A search of California State Christian University's parent school, Tae Han Theological Seminary and College, comes up with 3 entries of those mentioning the school, but no link to the school itself.

Now you could argue that the school's name would be in Korean and not show up on a Google search in English, but most Asian websites carry their native name and an English one and this school seems to have a lot of graduates working in North America. Internet penetration in South Korea is even higher than it is in North America so not having a website seems odd.

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UPDATE: McVety's credentials problem is now cited in: Ethnics Daily: Hunt's Biography Updated, Canadian Religious Leader Comes Under Criticism for Diploma Mill which is an arm of a U.S. Baptist publishing house.

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UPDATE: California State Christian University is adding more features to their new website. I noticed this new button. Is this a character from "The Office"?