"As Christian Grad Schools Face Challenges, an Astrology School Gets a Boost"

It’s a tough time for Christian higher education. As noted in Weblog yesterday, Dallas Theological Seminary is being castigated in the media for allowing an alleged sex offender to return to the school in the 1980s—and not telling churches about it when they considered hiring him. On the other side of the country, Princeton Theological Seminary is being ridiculed for the drug arrest of two of its students. “I guess it’s their own form of incense,” joked Lt. Dennis McManimon of the marijuana the pair was smoking. “I can’t recall we ever arrested a seminary student for drugs,” he said. “We’ve made arrests at the school, but not for smoking [pot] on the seminary steps.” Smoking on the seminary steps! What were they, high or something?

Meanwhile, Trinity International University has completely fired Winston Frost from any post at Trinity Law School. Frost had been dean of the school, but is accused of plagiarizing the Encyclopedia Britannica for an article in the school’s law review. He was fired from his post as dean a week ago, and now it looks like he’s losing his teaching position as well, pending a vote by the faculty Senate and the university’s Board of Regents. Frost still denies any plagiarism (The school is “using their own self-styled definition of plagiarism, … not a legal definition,” says his lawyer, who says Frost only made “footnoting errors”), but his Trinity Law Review article wasn’t an isolated case. An article for the Conference on Faith and History‘s Fides et Historia (one of Weblog’s favorite scholarly journals) apparently also contains entire sections lifted from the encyclopedia.

If these stories about Christian higher education get you down, you can always consider attending Phoenix’s Astrological Institute. The Associated Press reports that the school, which offers a degree in astrology and psychology and such courses as a “master class on the asteroid goddesses” and “how to write an astrological column,” actually won accreditation from the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology, a federally recognized body. Now the school will seek approval from the Education Department so its students can get federal grants and loans.

Did satellite photos find Noah’s ark? Explorers, adventurists, and other ark-eologists have been drawn to Turkey’s Mount Ararat for decades in search of Noah’s ark. Most notable of these was Apollo 15 moonwalker James Irwin, whose High Flight Foundation continues searching for the boat’s ruins. But since 1991, fighting between the Turkish military and Kurdish rebels has closed the mountain to such expeditions. When you can’t climb, the searchers reasoned, fly. Special satellite photos were taken of the summit, and a seven-person team of independent scientists did in fact find some kind of “anomaly.” Some, however, felt it was a natural rock formation. Now another satellite is being launched to get even more detailed photos. Space.com has impressive images of the shots taken so far.

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