Nazarene Theological Seminary Gets Pushback for Platforming Pro-LGBTQ Faculty, Speakers
Pastor challenges president to fire LGBTQ-approving staff or step down
Nazarene pastors are calling out the theologically conservative denomination’s only seminary for what they see as a trend of platforming LGBTQ-approving faculty, staff and speakers.
Photo by Nazarene Theological Seminary via Google Maps
Elijah Friedeman, lead pastor of Foundry Church in Flowood, Mississippi, said that while the Church of the Nazarene holds a strict “biblical stance on human sexuality,” Nazarene Theological Seminary is allowing openly LGBTQ-approving individuals to train the next generation of pastors.
“As an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene, I’m deeply concerned that my denomination is quickly going the same way as the [United Methodist Church] on human sexuality,” Freideman said. “But I believe there’s still time to turn things around.”
One frequent guest at the Kansas City campus has been Thomas Jay Oord, who co-edited “Why the Church of the Nazarene should be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming.” Oord was recently brought up on charges of doctrinal error and conduct unbecoming of a minister for advocating for same-sex behavior. Steve McCormick, who contributed to Oord’s book, continues to be listed on the seminary website as Emeritus Greathouse Chair for Wesleyan-Holiness Theology.
Another LGBTQ advocate, Michael Christensen, serves as NTS’s Doctor of Ministry Track Professor of Spiritual Formation and Discipleship, despite openly embracing same-sex relationships for years.
“As one who has advocated for full inclusion of gay and lesbian sisters and brothers in the life of church since I was in college over 40 years ago,” Christensen posted on Facebook in 2019, “I am have (sic) grown impatient with the long process to get this right.”
NTS President Jeren Rowell declined to discuss “specific personnel matters” with MinistryWatch, but insisted NTS is “committed to follow policies established by the Board of Trustees” and is “aligned with the Church of the Nazarene’s doctrine, polity, and practice, including matters of human sexuality.”
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In an essay on NTS’s website, Rowell argued against approving same-sex marriage, but called for Christian unity between both sides of the issue, defended people self-identifying as LGBTQ Christians, and warned that “‘inquisition-style’ attacks on faculty and some in the ordination process are not in the spirit of holiness.”
But Friedeman insists NTS must remove any faculty member that is pro-LGBTQ. “I think that Jeren Rowell and all leaders of Nazarene institutions should wholeheartedly support the denomination’s biblical stance on human sexuality. If they don’t want to take the tough actions necessary to support it, they should step down from their positions,” he said.
Others share Friedeman’s concerns.
“How can our flagship seminary allow our future ministers to be instructed by professors, some of which are unabashedly pro-homosexual?” wrote Jared Henry, lead pastor of Mackey Church of the Nazarene in Mackey, Indiana, in a 2020 blog post. “Their theological and biblical ability must be questioned on all fronts if they have come to the conclusion that people who are living actively in homosexual lifestyles are approved and encouraged by God (including their ordination).”
Friedeman may also find support from a 2023 ruling by the denomination’s Board of General Superintendents that the church’s Statement on Human Sexuality and Marriage is among “essential statements of the doctrine.”
However, Friedeman said enforcing those doctrines can be difficult due to the denomination’s decentralized structure. One thing churches might do is withhold funding, but because the $1.1 million NTS receives annually comes out of the World Evangelism Fund, that would also mean withholding money needed for world missions and infrastructure. To not support that fund is, according to Friedeman, “tantamount to declaring war on the denomination.”
Nevertheless, NTS did bend to pressure in 2020 when multiple church leaders successfully petitioned for the firing of openly gay faculty member Isaac Petty Pierjok. Afterward, Pierjok claimed Rowell made his decision under duress.
Now, Friedeman hopes that same pressure can be applied to transform the entire school into a more staunch defender of biblical sexuality.
With more than 2.7 million members globally and about 600,000 in the U.S. and Canada, the Church of the Nazarene is the largest Wesleyan-Holiness denomination in the world. It is known for its theological conservatism in contrast to the more liberal United Methodist branch of the Wesleyan family. Notable members have included James Dobson, Thomas Kinkade, Bill Gaither and Crystal Lewis.
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