I'm pretty sure that's there to exempt things like seminaries.

>Subd. 4.Statement required; religious nature. Any degree awarded upon completion of a religiously exempt program shall include descriptive language to make the religious nature of the award clear.

Good clarification, pdubs. It seems a university like St. John's might not be exempt, but its School of Theology might be.

If true, it's still strange to me that school with a non-free graduate degree in liturgical studies would be exempt, but an online school offering free courses in science, business, history, etc. would not be exempt.

Liturgical studies by a religious organization are specifically protected under the the 1st Amendment[1][2]. Schooling has been a state domain for a very long time (look at Texas and California's influence on textbooks). The regulating of schools does not violate the US or MN constitution.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_(Bill_of_Rights)

[2] consumer protection law and religious organization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantwell_v._Connecticut

I agree it's strange and I'm not sure how the letter of the law is being applied to Coursera, but it seems like this wouldn't even let a qualifying religious program give a B.A. or B.S. in Theology, more you'd be able to get a "certificate of congrats you can be a minister for our church". Also protects VBS and confirmation class type courses.

That would be the basic "state cannot regulate a religious seminary" clause. It would be a 1st amendment case that the state would lose. I find that good not worse.

This could get interesting! "You are hereby granted a Coursera certificate of mastery under the Church of Knowledge. This is religious."

That's how the university system originally got started, right? :-)

> It gets worse: some schools are exempt from this law

Actually that's a good thing.