Interesting. Ben is so shy and awkward in front of the camera I wonder how that will translate in front of a congregation! Or maybe he just wants the credibility for when they go out on the road “preaching”.
He is so young - 20!
I suppose his options also include construction and used car salesman.
With seminary schooling he will have street cred for a future GoFundMe campaign and foreign travel. Oops I mean foreign missionary work.
Too funny - and so true!
I really wonder what kind of “seminary” he will attend. The ones I am familiar with are at least 4 years and include learning Hebrew and Greek to read the Bible in its original language. And there is a lot of education on so much more than just preaching, in addition to supervised intern years and so forth.
I’m thinking his experience will be a couple of months of bible-reading and memorizing acceptable behavior and then out you go. Sort of like the “midwife” training the girls receive. Just a cursory skim of the real education needed.
From Ben on 9/24/2014;
[Quote]
Right now, I’m doing my property maintenance for Jessa’s dad,” said Ben, who also takes online college courses. “My goal is to get involved in ministry, maybe as a missionary or more of a pastoral role on the front lines doing speaking engagements.”
I’m trying to remember - was Ben’s dad clergy of any type???
Yeah, “property maintenance” - JimBob says, Ben does. So his pay is reliant on the JB to “feed” the paycheck.
There’s an article out there that describes the Duggar real estate ventures, how they buy and flip properties or fix and rent. Jessa describes how all the kids get involved, tiling, painting, working on plumbing, yard maintenance, etc. That’s how I imagine Ben is involved.
I should add that, where I live (New England,) this sort of family venture is common. Sure, you get paid what Dad decides. Sometimes it’s generous profit sharing, other times it’s a pain.
“a pastoral role on the front lines doing speaking engagements”
I don’t even think the Pope would consider “Speaking engagements” to be equivalent to “pastoral role”, or maybe I am thinking of a more traditional pastoral role.
I have to say that watching an interview of the young men at the Philadelphia Seminary the Pope visited, I was struck that this is a very intellectual pursuit - with books and all (I knew this already, but in light of Ben’s statement…). I am guessing Ben’s vision of Seminary is very different.
I wouldn’t buy a flipped house where a squadron of children were involved in the fix up. But then again, unless the work was sloppy maybe it’s indistinguishable from experienced professionals.
Many seminaries offer graduate degree programs other than an M.Div. that are fewer years (usually two years), but most of the ones I’m aware of (mainline Protestant, Catholic, Jewish) require a 4-year college degree before they’ll even let you apply. And yes, studying Hebrew and Greek is a requirement for most mainline Christian seminaries if you want to get an M.Div.
I doubt very seriously this is the kind of intellectual seminary experience Ben is seeking out.
CPM = Counterfeit Professional Midwife:
http://www.inquisitr.com/2451680/jill-duggar-midwife-certificate-called-a-counterfeit-by-doctor/
Great article, and glad to see a ‘real’ health care professional call Jill out on it.
“Dr. Amy” Tutuer let her medical license lapse more than a decade ago. She is not a physician any longer and spends most of her time trying to scare women about one issue or another.
I’d like Jill to get out of the cocoon too, but letting another spider start spinning isn’t going to do it!
A doctor who has let her medical license lapse is still a doctor. I’m a big fan of midwives and home births for low risk pregnancies, but I’m no fan of people calling themselves midwives when they can’t safely attend births and can’t recognize when it’s time to transport the laboring woman to the hospital.
You know, what may be sort of sad is that for these Duggar children - being the “midwife” (though not certified) or go to “seminary” (though not be the education filled path most legit clergy take) may be their only salvation to reach out to a career somewhat close to what typical people do.
“Daddy Duggar won’t allow me to go away to college - but I AM allowed to do this down-home program and so that’s my ticket to something meaningful”.
??? Maybe???
Their world is very narrow.
Jessa has been doing lots of Instagramming of her and Jill’s world - Jill reading to her baby, Jill playing with her baby, etc. I think she is the social media guru in the family and is setting the stage for their shows. I HATE that I’m seeing things like “19 Kids and Counting will be back with special shows about Jill and Jessa” - DON’T call it 19 Kids and Counting - makes you TLC look like more of a fool and is a turn off!
I don’t care if she’s been sued for medical malpractice. She’s been to a real medical school - she can opine all she wants about what qualifies something as medical education or not.
I, too, know several people who have had home births, but with real physicians and real midwives… people who got their degrees and certifications the intellectual way and not through an online, distance-learning program. It’s not for me, but I can respect they sought out qualified health care professionals to tend to their births.
I suspect that only a vanishingly small percentage of graduates of mainstream Christian seminaries can actually read the bible in its original languages.
Most mainline Christian seminaries require their M.Div students to take enough Greek and Hebrew that they can carefully exegete a text. Whether people learn Aramaic or not, I don’t know. Of course, the further away from seminary people get after graduating, the less they are required to study Greek and Hebrew, but they still use it in their exegesis as they prepare their sermons each week.