Online Christian Colleges ranked BYU the No. 3 conservative Christian college in the nation.
According to its website, the organization was created to “help students make well-informed decisions when choosing an internet-based Christian degree program.”
The list of 30 Christian schools was generated and ranked on criteria including affiliation with a church, the institutions’ views on biblical legitimacy and whether classes on Christianity are required for graduation.
The only schools to rank higher than BYU on the list were Brigham Young University–Idaho and Grove City College.
The inclusion of two LDS schools on a list of top Christian colleges could be considered controversial because at least two other Christian schools also named in the rankings have officially referred to Mormons as a cult.
A Washington Post article published March 17, 2000 reported then-president of Bob Jones University, Bob Jones III “reposted statements on the fundamentalist school’s web site calling Catholicism and Mormonism cults.”
As recently as the fall of 2015, Oral Roberts University, another school named on the list, had a graduate course listing entitled “Contemporary Religious Cults.” The syllabus for the class, which is available online, lists Mormonism as one of the cults to be covered.
“Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unequivocally affirm themselves to be Christians,” the LDS Church’s official website states.
The full list of rankings can be viewed here.
