Dr. Frank Damazio
Posted on March 14th, 2008 by catalyst into the Biblical Parody categoryUh, so according to the New York City Church website, in April, Dr. Frank Damazio will be a guest speaker.
As you can imagine, this gives me pause. I'm not so surprised at the speaking in New York, but at the "doctor" in front of Frank's name.
I didn't know you could get a Doctorate in tithing.
I'm actually genuinely curious to know where he got his degree.
In any event, I suspect he is a doctor like Dr. Phil is a doctor. And Dr. Laura is a doctor. Basically, really good at telling you how to live your life, but not so good at helping you in an actual medical emergency.
Update: A reader informed me that Frank got his Doctorate from Oral Roberts University. As ORU is pretty much ground zero for the Prosperity Doctrine, this kind of makes sense.
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March 14th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Here we go
-joe
March 14th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I didn’t know ORU had a Ph D program in minipulation and mind control?
March 14th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hey,
Has anyone read the book The Shack?
Prez
March 14th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Doctor? hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha……
I thought that they are so anti of higher degree, if they are into higher education why would they let go Larry Taylor and Ken Ross?
Indy
March 14th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Getting a doctoral degree from a religious “university” is pretty much the same as getting a degree from clown school.
I don’t see what’s wrong with using the title one has worked hard to earn. I personally go by the title of “Master of all Greatness”, as I think it is a bit more prestigious then “Doctor”. However, I do allow my closest friends and family to shorten my title to just “Master”. I want to keep it real, you know?
lol.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Curious if David M has any comments on this…
March 15th, 2008 at 3:48 am
I wouldn’t assume that just because the former President of the University believed a certain way, that this means the faculty/regents/students necessarily believe the same way.
Remember, said prez was sent looking for gainful employment elsewhere by said faculty/regents.
-joe
March 15th, 2008 at 5:46 am
What is a Recovering Charasmatic? Is that someone the catchers dropped and gotted a knot on the back of his head? Is ‘charasmatic’ a cross between a ‘charismatic’ and ‘asthmatic’? Is it someone who get’s winded from speaking in tongues? Such a curious name ‘Charasmatic’ …
‘Scrupe
March 15th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Indy,
The reason they let Ken and Larry go was because they had, and were furthering actual degrees. This shows a very bright light on a… how do I put it…un-earned degree. Frank has never had a class in Koine Greek or Hebrew. The languages the New and Old Testament are recorded in. Yet he is now a “doctor” in theology. How did that happen? Well for starters I know he received his Masters from ORU by talking to Oral Roberts personally and turning in his book that Dave M helped him wright (Making of a Leader). That’s what Frank has said anyway.
Hey, I think this blog should officially challenge Franks Doctoral degree. How did he earn it? I think this is a legitimate question if he’s going to allow people to call him “Doctor”.
March 15th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Actually, and for the record, his degree, mentioned here, is the D.Min., i.e., Doctor of Ministry, wherein quite a few life/ministry/personal experience credits are allowed, even military service.
FWIW, the D.Min. is the lowest level of “earned” doctorate, usually awarded for 32 hours after the M.Div., again, taking into consideration “experience” credits.
His degree, the M.Div. (Master of Divinity), is usually awarded after either a 45-hour M.A. + 27 hours, or 12 hours past the 60-hour M.A., for a total of 72 hours, of which up to ½ can be “experience” credits.
In case anyone’s interested, and though it varies from school to school, here’s the run-down:
B.A. = H.S. diploma/equiv. + 128 hours.
M.A. = B.A. + 45-60 hours depending on the particular Masters field.
M.Div. = 45-hour M.A. + 27 hours, 60-hour M.A. + 12 hours, for a total of 72 hours, of which again, up to ½ can be “experience” credits.
Th.M. (Master of Theology) = usually either a 45-hour M.A. + 51 hours, a 60-hour M.A. + 36 hours, or an M.Div. + 24 hours, for 96 hours total.
The terminal degree in theology, the grandaddy, is the Th.D. — Doctor of Theology, obviously — and is usually awarded after either a 45-hour M.A. + 75 hours, the 60-hour M.A. + 60 hours, the 72-hour M.Div + 48 hours, or a 96-hour Th.M. + 36 hours, for a total of 120-132 hours, depending on which path one takes.
The D.D. (Doctor of Divinity), recently awarded to one of the MFI SPs, along with the L.L.D., L.H.D., D.Litt., etc., are all honorary degrees bestowed for life’s work, with no previous degrees required.
OK, boring lesson over.
-joe
March 16th, 2008 at 8:57 am
My bachelors was 195 hours.. … 128 would just be getting your feet wet.
Maybe the “dr.” degree is off a matchbook cover?
Dr. Phil and Dr. Laura have PhD…. not even comparable to one off a matchbook or online. They studied and worked hard for their doctorates.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Wow. I’ve never seen or even heard of that — although I do know that some areas of the medical field can require more than the standard 128 hours. Still though, 195 seems way high, unless of course this is because your credit hours were quarterly.
The general numbers I listed above were based on a bi-semester academic year.
-joe
March 16th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Does anyone know what SPFD did specifically for HIS graduate and doctoral degrees???
March 16th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Joe, I think 60+ hours of that bachelor’s degree was in remedial math …
March 17th, 2008 at 7:36 am
umm.. that would be in chemistry, physics, and biology
quarter hours vs. semester hours
March 17th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I think somehow there’s pressure within MFI pastors that they need to add some kind of title in front of their names (such as Dr. WS, Dr. KW, now voila!
Dr.FD) hahaha…
this is so funny, I feel like I’m watching “comedy” movie.
Did you guys notice that most CBC-ers they have the same hair dos,
clothing style, same kind of jeans, etc.
I guess some people having mid-life crisis or identity crisis…
March 17th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Volume discounts?
March 18th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
What’s the point of going to school all of those years to get a doctorate when all you really need is friends in right places? Isn’t that the MFI motto; “Why work for something when you can get someone/something else to do your work for you?”
March 19th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Recovering Charasmatic said: Curious if David M has any comments on this…
RC, thank you for asking; yes, I do, but in all seriousness, I am not free to share my comments at this time. I know that such a response may seem strange, but, please trust me, there is something of real substance behind it
RC, by the way, charasmatic is spelled charismatic… : )
sola fide said: Frank has never had a class in Koine Greek or Hebrew. The languages the New and Old Testament are recorded in. Yet he is now a “doctor” in theology. How did that happen?
sola fide, as joebib pointed out, the D.Min. degree is more of a practical degree than an academic one; to my knowledge, it does not have a language requirement like other doctoral degrees would…
sola fide said: Well for starters I know he received his Masters from ORU by talking to Oral Roberts personally and turning in his book that Dave M helped him wright (Making of a Leader). That’s what Frank has said anyway.
sola, my guess is that you must have been or are close to the inner circle to have this kind of information; thank you for sharing this tidbit because it makes me feel good about the book I ghost wrote for him; i wonder if I could submit my upcoming book against the mandatory tithe to ORU for my master’s thesis? hmmm…..
March 19th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Sola, can you give further details/cite specific references on him “saying” this?
I realize people are desirous of having degrees for different reasons, but if what you say is true, my feeling is that that Masters wouldn’t be worth its weight in feathers.
Not to mention the fact that it wouldn’t reflect the amount of research, effort and coursework one would expect for receiving a real Masters degree, nor yet less as would be looked upon — much less accepted for credit — by any other reputable university.
Not to boast, but by way of comparison, allow me to say my Masters was considerably more involved, time-consuming, and difficult than the writing of just one book. It took me over 3 years of extensive research and coursework, not to mention reading, analyzing and drafting in-depth reports on literally dozens of topics and books, during which I had to produce many hundreds of pages of scholarly, originally-written material, easily equaling several separate Master’s theses, and the majority of which would have been suitable for publishing into a number of separate books.
Neither was it a cakewalk to have to defend everything I produced by a cadre of somewhat merciless Th.D.’s, who were ever intent — or so it seemed — on not only proving that I did not know what I was talking about, but also to determine if the work was plagiarized. I can tell you, to have someone describe as “weakly argued,” or to slam as “absurd,” work which you have labored several weeks to produce, it can be quite disheartening.
At any rate, if he did, in fact, “receive” his “degree” in the manner you describe, I am sorry for the depth to which ORU had evidently sunk — hopefully, just at that time — to toss out degrees with such abandon and ease.
-joe
March 19th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Joe, when I first read Sola’s words that you addressed above, I took them to mean that ORU accepted The Making of a Leader book as this pastor’s master’s thesis -not as a substitute for course work, which, esp. in USA, in contrast to my understanding of the more mentor style degrees from Oxford and Cambridge, would include both.
Sola, I’m very interested in more details to Joe’s question as well.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Joe said: I am sorry for the depth to which ORU had evidently sunk.
Joe, If it was just Oral Roberts himself who granted the M. Div. on that basis that would be one thing, but from what I think I’ve learned about ORU, the faculty itself would never grant a degree on that basis alone…Maybe this is just one more reason why the ORU faculty ousted Oral’s son, Richard Roberts, from the presidency of the university; I don’t know but maybe there’s more to the story than just misuse of funds…