Something has been bothering me for a very long time. I have been a member of various churches for more than 45 years, and each congregation would have considered itself theologically conservative. Some have been Pentecostal, others have been conservative Methodist, Mennonite, Churches of God and non-denominational. Three times, I have found myself worshipping in congregations with pastors who had not earned more than a high school diploma. Four times, I have had pastors who were fully qualified academically for their roles, which is to say they had completed seminary programs in relevant disciplines. In a fifth church, the pastor had a seminary degree, but only in sacred music. The remainder had employed senior pastors who had earned bachelor’s degrees from Bible colleges.
The Master of Divinity is considered by most American denominations to be appropriate preparation for leading a church. Other qualifications are needed, but it is at least a baseline. When I accepted my first paid ministerial position, I had earned only an M.A. in World Missions, but I anticipated a career in global missions, and this seemed more than adequate for the staff pastor positions I held. For a few years, I worked primarily in Children’s Ministry, where most of my colleagues held bachelor’s degrees in education.
Poorly Qualified Ministers Facing Complex Realities
Though I believed myself to be tolerant, guarding against condescension, it was sometimes embarrassing when supervising clergy showed little theological understanding regarding important issues. One of the pastors I served under admitted he was using sermon outlines for a preaching series that had been lifted directly from a popular Prosperity Gospel preacher. Another stated that he wanted to speak out on social injustices, but would never name the issue he was supposedly addressing, dancing around it for fear of alienating some in the audience. How I wished these men had attended seminaries, where they would have learned not only to wrestle with complex theological issues but also how to resolve and address them.
People who wouldn’t dream of using a lawyer who hadn’t earned a J.D. seemed content to receive spiritual guidance from someone who had never been exposed to proper hermeneutical principles. I observed several pastors misconstrue textual conclusions based upon faulty assumptions. Sometimes an entire morning’s sermon hinged upon the conclusions of a single commentator whose reference work had been hastily consulted. I once discovered that my chief spiritual leader had never learned to execute even a rudimentary inductive study.
Contempt Towards Theological Education
Recently, I have observed troubling attitudes toward academic study of the Scriptures, more than I have in decades. One co-worker, who was a department head at the Christian mission where I worked, openly groused about how a seminary education simply ruins a candidate’s passion for the Gospel. At the time, I was working on my seminary-based Ph.D. I corrected him, stating that my passion for Christ had increased with each academic program I had embarked upon, and assured him I knew several hundred others who would provide similar insights. He neither apologized nor showed any interest in my experiences, but simply muttered something unintelligible and left the room. This is what I told him before he retreated: If you choose a seminary that is not committed to the divinity of Christ or the sanctity of Scriptures, I can understand how a weak pastoral candidate might indeed lose his passion. “But that’s on him.” I continued. “It’s up to the candidate to fully research the seminary and to affirm its reputation before enrolling. Why would you waste tuition money and four-plus years of your life if you hadn’t first clarified what their institutional values are? You can’t simply choose the closest seminary to attend, as they are by no means created equally.” Further, I explained, I had attended two conservative seminaries and had been completely satisfied with not only the quality of education but also with the theology and ethics of the one I was currently attending.
An Emerging Opposition to Expertise
This reflection was not just prompted by one encounter with a colleague at work, though. I believe I have observed a national shift in our confidence in institutions. During the COVID pandemic, it became apparent that at least a third of the citizenry had stopped believing in experts and were now eager to denigrate people who had spent decades working in their areas of expertise. Not only was basic factual data being challenged by a community of superstitious and conspiracy-driven agents, but these had also begun to endorse “cures” to a complex disease that were untethered to any objective reality. Just prior to 2020, I began hearing scornful voices from a certain societal class mocking the very notion of “fact-checking.” If data didn’t confirm their current biases, they boldly stated, it was “fake news”, and it could be assumed that all the fact-checkers were merely agents of a nefarious global conspiracy trying to twist reality for political purposes.
How MAGA Embraced and Exploited Biblical Ignorance
I can’t pinpoint the moment when the attack on higher education, and particularly on seminary education, began. As a young man, I was taught to beware of liberals in the church and of the seminaries in which they were cultivated. At the same time, I was taught that authentic biblical scholarship was needed to properly understand the words and works of Jesus. At least by 2016, though, I had begun to detect a definite shift among people who had passionately defended the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. Friends who had boasted on their conservative moral and spiritual values in the past began investing their enthusiasm into denigrating immigrants and defending a vitriolic libertine man promoting an authoritarian agenda. These rationalizations required both serious contortions of the Scriptures and the abandonment of traditional conservative leadership. Church leaders corralled into the hyper-nationalist MAGA movement were not among the best and brightest America had to offer. Some of the sycophant clergy who became transformed into cheerleaders for Trump’s hostile takeover of the American Way of Life were well known, while others were more obscure. It quickly became apparent that the coalition of spiritual advisors who had Donald Trump’s ear was, as an aggregate, a theologically ignorant faction, unable to parse complex biblical concepts in their historical and grammatical contexts.
I freely admit to possessing a strong bias in my examination of the motives of those Christian leaders promoting the Christian Nationalist movement that has come to be known as MAGA. I am an unapologetic Never-Trumper. I never wasted my intellect wondering if Donald Trump would be an appropriate leader for our country. His story was well-known. I had been observing his hedonism and rampant immorality for several decades, beginning when he initiated divorce proceedings against his first wife while carrying on an open affair with the woman who would replace her. I had been studying scripture for over thirty-five years by the time Trump made his fabled descent down the golden escalator. As a layman as well as a seminarian, I knew what constituted “works of the flesh,” and I recognized how Christ’s priority of loving one’s neighbor is the most unambiguous mark of a Christ-follower. I needed no further study to understand that a campaign of vitriol against “others” was antithetical to the book I had been studying for most of my life. It puzzled me to no end that people whom I’d trusted seemed to be either developing indifference to Biblical revelation or willing to set aside truths that had previously been clear to them for the sake of political expediency.
Assessing Educational Qualifications
Before continuing, I will also offer my biased view that receiving an Honorary Degree does not hold much currency in this discussion. Universities may award doctorates for any number of reasons, but this is not the same as honoring the scholarship of those who have invested years of study in order to truly master their subject. The awarding of an Honorary Doctorate– often to people who haven’t even earned a Master’s Degree– may add prestige to the recipient, but it is not necessarily reflective of the intellect and insight of the recipient. Often, these awards demonstrate that the Honorary Doctor has been influential in advancing the University’s agenda, reflecting strong administrative or promotional skills rather than academic excellence.
When I took a quick inventory of the best-known pastors who were rallying behind Trump, a lightbulb moment occurred. To systematically and comprehensively assess all these people here would be impossible. All I wish to do is survey the pastors best known for promoting MAGA values, seeking to discover what is on the public record regarding their educational backgrounds. My focus here is upon clergy. Ralph Reed, James Dobson, and Jerry Falwell, Jr., for example, all have fine educational backgrounds, but not in ministerial or theological fields. Reed’s two advanced degrees in history may serve him well as leader of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Dobson was a physician, and Falwell Jr. is a lawyer, but neither prepared for nor pursued pastoral careers. Similarly, Trump-aligned Eric Metaxes positions himself as a Christian commentator and author, and is a Yale graduate. His solitary earned degree, however, is a B.A. in English Literature. This may have been beneficial in jump-starting his career as an author, but it didn’t prepare him to educate others regarding a Biblical approach to Christian Nationalism, or to help the American church in understanding why they are required to reject fascism and contempt towards modern Samaritans if they wish to be useful to the Kingdom of God.
MAGA Ministers Holding Bachelor’s Degrees
Knowing of Billy Graham’s lifelong work promoting higher education for conservative Christians, I expected to discover that his son Franklin had attended an established seminary but did poorly there, or had rejected their scholarship. My assumptions didn’t prove to be correct. He earned an Associate’s Degree from Montreat-Anderson College and a B.A. from Appalachian State University. That’s it; Nothing to prepare him theologically or practically for his ministerial roles, particularly in light of the understanding that he assumed leadership of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which was one of the largest ministerial organizations in the U.S. at the time. Trump protégé’ Jentezen Franklin reportedly pastors a 25,000-member megachurch in Georgia. Like Graham, he holds no degree higher than a Bachelor’s. His B.A., from Atlantic Christian University (now Barton College), is in tenor saxophone.
MAGA Ministers Holding High School Diplomas
Vineyard megachurch pastor and Trump supporter Greg Laurie is well-known for his crusades and for his central role in the biography and movie The Jesus Revolution. Regardless of his accomplishments, he never attended college at all. Similarly, Paula White is probably the best-known MAGA-aligned spiritual advisor to the president. She also has no educational credentials beyond a high school diploma, having dropped out of National Bible College after an unknown period of weeks or months.
MAGA Ministers Holding Advanced Degrees
A few of Trump’s spiritual advisors did somewhat better. Greg Locke received a Bachelor’s degree in Biblical studies from Ambassador Baptist College, which may have provided a good foundation for pastoral ministry. He was awarded a Master’s Degree in Revival History from The Theological School of New England, but that history degree is unlikely to constitute the best course of study for leading citizens to a mature understanding of a Christian worldview. John Hagee, one of the Trumpiest apologists among evangelicals, has also earned a Master’s Degree—but it is in the area of Educational Administration, from the University of North Texas.
Trump enthusiast Lance Wallnau holds an M.A. from Southwestern Theological Seminary and claims a Doctor of Ministry from Phoenix University of Theology. This information was difficult to verify, though, and I wondered why it was so obscure in his public profiles. My fellow educated ministers are usually eager to demonstrate their preparedness for ministry. Regardless, Wallnau reports that his D. Min. (A practical degree rather than a research-based one) is in “Marketplace” ministry—which would have better taught him how to manage and promote ministries than how to develop a biblical understanding of power and advocacy for those whom Jesus has called us to reach. Of all the major Magapologists, only Robert Jeffress seems to have appropriately prepared himself for his role as a minister to the masses– particularly as someone able to exegete and interpret scripture better than the average college graduate. Jeffress earned a Th.M. from Dallas Seminary and a D. Min. from Southwestern Baptist Seminary. I can’t fathom how he might have studied at those institutions only to later conclude that Donald Trump was somehow worthy of his sycophancy. Yet this can also serve as a noteworthy reminder of how each of us has blind spots.
Making a Case for Education
I welcome the inevitable criticism I will receive here for the manner in which I have critiqued others. Education has unfolded in a particular way in my life, and I have a surplus of strong opinions. A good deal of scorn for being an educated snob has been laid at my doorstep, and not everybody will agree with me that these cheerleaders for Trump’s brand of autocracy are ill-prepared for their roles. Some believe that having gained workplace training in ministry is enough, while others contend that “having the anointing” is the only relevant qualification. I believe that skipping the step of formal training in an era when so many good resources are available is lazy and insufficient, and my view is grounded in biblical tradition. Scripture is clear about the value of hard work and doing diligence. Conservative Christians frequently cite the ethic of being “like the Bereans”, searching the Scriptures to discover what God has said, and what was meant when he said it (Acts 17:11). We know that to whom much is given, much is required (Luke 14:28), and if one’s ministry and influence is going to be oversized, teachers and influencers had better be much more equipped than the average layman at interpreting Scripture and coming to theologically solid conclusions.
Heresy Damages the Body of Christ
The Prosperity Gospel and Christian Nationalism, to name two, are heresies arising from poor exegetical skills. Those who have devoted their lives to theological studies can easily see how the straw man arguments and Scripture-twisting used to propagate these erroneous teachings do not hold up to solid Biblical scholarship. In free societies, heresy is tolerated. Churches with integrity, though, will insist on clergy who are educated enough to identify errors such as these. My ongoing proposal is that if one is going to be placed in a position of influence, that individual should be wiser and more capable than most citizens. Teachers, as St. James stated, are to be held to higher standards because of their superior ability to influence vulnerable believers (James 3:1). A lethargic approach to theological matters can be fatal.
It may be that this commentator is simply a curmudgeon, weary of hearing theological pablum and uninformed comments from co-workers and from poorly discipled Christians on the internet. I believe that is an oversimplification of a complex reality, though. I preached the gospel on the streets for a number of years while holding no more than a high school diploma. I took single men into my apartment to evangelize them and reached out to co-workers during the years I was employed as a baker. Many people came to faith, and I’m certain I turned at least a few people away due to my own heresies. In the end, I believe more virtue was accomplished than evil. The three-year Bible school I eventually enrolled in provided an excellent foundation in hermeneutics and biblical interpretation. My theological misunderstandings were filtered out with exposure to good interpretive tools. I never accepted a paid ministry position until I had finished my first seminary course of study, although I applied for some, and I believe my Bible School education would have sustained me in those positions.
Chaotic Times Require Qualified Leaders
A simple Biblical education may be perfectly adequate for some pastors serving small congregations and for those engaged in ordinary ministerial roles. But a high school diploma, or a B.A. in saxophone, is insufficient. I am not suggesting that a Master of Divinity or higher should be required of every ministerial candidate in every congregation, because that would screen out many otherwise qualified believers who are equipped to serve. What I am suggesting is that those who serve in highly influential roles should know what they’re talking about. The overseer of the henhouse must know more than the predators who break in during the night.
I introduced numerous people to Christ before I received any formal biblical education. But it is equally significant that I was not called upon at that time to be a spiritual advisor to Ronald Reagan, my president. I would not have been qualified. My plea is for those entrusted with the spiritual care of influential people to become better educated, theologically and practically speaking. If you can’t tell the difference between evil conduct and godly behavior as revealed in Scripture, and you can’t recognize how Christian Nationalism has been adopted and judged to be a failure throughout church history, and you haven’t grasped how the church has been tasked with embracing the marginalized in our societies—you wish to repudiate them rather than to serve them– you haven’t studied well. You are too ignorant to lead. Go back and do what you have demanded from your physicians, your attorneys, your financial consultants, your plumbers and electricians. Learn your subject, and learn how to lead according to biblical guidelines. Most of all, learn to mirror not only the teachings, but also the character of our Lord and Savior.
Image: Pamela Reynoso
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