IACPC Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling provides a medium of communication for practitioners, researchers, and theoreticians in pastoral and spiritual care, counseling, and education. All material submitted to IACPC must reflect the ethical standards of the pastoral associations that sponsor IACPC. 

Separation of Church and State
There is secular education and there is religious education. Secular schools seek secular education, and sacred schools receive sacred accreditation—each by their own peers. Religious institutions need no secular accreditation because they offer no secular degrees. Secular accreditation associations in turn are recognized by governmental agencies. They trace their authority back to the capitol of a country, like Washington, D.C.

 

Religious accrediting associations are recognized by the Church of Jesus Christ, which has no supreme central office on earth. Our authority is derived directly from Heaven. Civil and religious interests are different and have separate realms of jurisdiction. The State is not superior to the Church. The Church need not wait for approval from the secular world. Civil agencies should not be dictating standards of Christian education, any more than a police officer should be directing the worship of God. Theological Seminaries should not be accredited by accrediting associations that are "recognized" by an agency of the federal government, because it is contrary to the Biblical principle of "Separation of Church and State," indicated by Christ when He said, "…Render unto Caesar the things 
that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s…" (Mark 12:17).