Last month, we noted that right-wing pseudo-historian David Barton, in an effort to boost his credibility, had begun insisting that he had earned a Ph.D., despite having repeatedly admitted that he does not have a doctorate of any sort. Barton eventually responded by posting a snarky video accusing his critics of carelessly throwing around false claims about his academic credentials and insisting that he does, in fact, have an “earned doctorate.”

As evidence, Barton pointed to three framed degrees in the background, two of which were nothing more than honorary doctorates, while the third was conveniently obscured, making it difficult to determine where it came from or what it said. Nonetheless, Warren Throckmorton, one of Barton’s most consistent and effective critics, managed to deduce that the third degree came from Life Christian University (LCU), an unaccredited Christian institution in Florida.

When critics started raising questions about the validity of this “earned doctorate,” Barton removed his video and has since refused to comment on the issue. But LCU’s president, Douglas Wingate, has been far less reticent to discuss the university’s practice of handing out doctoral degrees to influential Christian leaders who have never taken a single class at LCU.

As Wingate explained in a statement obtained by Throckmorton, LCU examines the academic records and published works of such “distinguished” individuals and then concludes whether those works qualify for enough credit to earn a degree from the university.

In the case of Barton, Wingate says that LCU determined that his work in “Christian American History” was sufficient to earn him enough credits in Modern Church History to qualify for a doctorate … and that those who question Barton’s credentials or LCU’s policy are “spiritually ignorant” and, perhaps, even under “demon possession”: