Twenty-one jurisdictions in the USA, such as Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington and Louisiana, allow exemption from educational accreditation for certain religious schools. According to an article in the Oregon Daily Emrald "egrees from religious exempt schools were used primarily to attain church-related employment", and "employers often did not regard degrees from unaccredited religious exempt colleges on the same level as degrees from accredited institutions". In Virginia an "exempt school must clearly state in its catalogs and promotional materials that it is exempt from the requirements of state regulations and oversight". In Florida, a religious exempt-school has to include "a religious modifier or the name of a religious patriarch, saint, person, or symbol of the church" in the name of the institution, and the institution has to only offer "educational programs that prepare students for religious vocations as ministers, professionals, or laypersons in the categories of ministry, counseling, theology, education, administration, music, fine arts, media communications, or social work" and "each degree title must include a religious modifier that immediately precedes, or is included within, any of the following degrees: Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy, and Doctor of Education". The Employer's Guide of South Carolina makes a difference between religious-exempt degrees and degree mills, but occasionally diploma mills have been said to operate as religious universities to avoid laws against diploma mills. Religious exempt degrees are often used in a religious, and not a secular, context. In certain US states - North Dakota, Nevada, Texas, Washington, Maine and New Jersey - it is illegal to include religious-exempt degrees on resumes, letterheads, business cards, advertisements and announcements, while this is legal in other states. In the state of Indiana it is an "incurable deceptive act" for someone to "claim, either orally or in writing, to possess a doctorate degree or use a title, a word, letters, an insignia, or an abbreviation associated with a doctorate degree, unless the individual" has been awarded a doctorate degree from an institution which is accredited by a professional accrediting agency which is recognized, or "a religious seminary, institute, college, or university whose certificates, diplomas, or degrees clearly identify the religious character of the educational program". Accordingly, religious-exempt titles are valid to use in Indiana. Religious modifiers to a Ph.D. could be in Religion or in Metaphysics. Other religious degrees are, for example, Master of Apologetics, Master of Theological Studies, Bachelor of Religion, Doctor of Theology, Doctor of Ministry, Doctor of Biblical Studies, Doctor of Christian Counseling, Doctor of Christian Philosophy, and Doctor of Metaphysical Theology. In September 2005 there were in the state of Washington "48 schools currently offering programs that are religious in nature" and "exempt from authorization under the Degree-granting Institutions Act". Some religious-exempt-schools offer distant, and even online, education, and others offer lengthy degree programs and classes on campus. Rick Walston states in Walston's Guide to Christian Distance Learning that "some very good, legitimate, and well-recognized schools are not accredited."
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