Seminary Accreditation

The Trouble with Seminary Accreditation (youtube.com)

Pastor Smyth provides an overview of accreditation through ATS, the Association of Theological Schools, which accredits most seminaries in the United States, including the WELS' Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. 

Why accreditation? It is required to receive government funding, state aid, federal student loans. It is also required if you wish to transfer credits between institutions, or if you would like your M.Div graduates to be able to go on to receive post-graduate degrees like a Ph.D.

If you visit the About ATS page, you will discover that diversity is their #1 core value (not the Bible, theology or even Christianity!)

A perusal of their Standards of Accreditation include the following

"1.5 The school acts with integrity by valuing, defining, and demonstrating diversity within the context of its mission, history, constituency, and theological commitments. The school has a publicly available stance on diversity that describes its understanding of and commitment to this membership-wide shared value, and the school uses that stance to enhance its diversity."

"4.3 The Master of Divinity degree is broadly and deeply attentive to the intellectual, human, spiritual, and vocational dimensions of student learning and formation in ways consistent with the school’s mission and theological commitments. The degree has clearly articulated learning outcomes that address each of the following four areas, though the school may use different terms for these areas: (a) religious heritage, including understanding of scripture, the theological traditions and history of the school’s faith community, and the broader heritage of other relevant religious traditions; (b) cultural context, including attention to cultural and social issues, to global awareness and engagement, and to the multifaith and multicultural nature of the societies in which students may serve; (c) personal and spiritual formation, including development in personal faith, professional ethics, emotional maturity, moral integrity, and spirituality; and (d) religious and public leadership, including cultivating capacities for leading in ecclesial or denominational and public contexts and reflecting on leadership practices."

8.8 The faculty role in teaching and learning includes faculty sharing their expertise with students, using effective pedagogies, being available to students, providing regular and prompt feedback to students, respecting and engaging the diversities that students bring to their educational experiences, and enhancing students’ capacities to serve in a religiously diverse, multicultural, and globally interconnected world. 

I'd be curious to see how WLS addressed these accreditation standards. Opting out of the accreditation system may cause our seminary to lose federal funding, and may limit the ability of our Pastors to get Ph.D's. But it may be a price we have to pay for orthodoxy in this woke world.

Additional information can be found on  twitter.