An extra-Oord-inary verdict

Name a notable Church of the Nazarene theologian.

 Think about it awhile if you like.

 Ray Dunning and Mildred Wynkoop come to mind. They’re among my faves, too.

 Any others?

 Especially, any who are alive?

 How about Thomas Jay Oord?

 Nice try. See, he just got drummed out of the church. Like, totally. He’s not even Nazarene anymore. He’s former Nazarene now.

 Why? Because he championed the inclusion of LGBTQ+ folks. What’s worse, he actually tried to get the church to change its position on their inclusion.

 Heresy and worse, a Nazarene court ruled the other day.

 A church court not only stripped Oord of his preaching credentials. It actually expelled him from membership in the denomination.

 Excommunicated him. De-fellowshipped him. All but pronounced a holy curse on him.

 Members of his local church in Nampa, Idaho, have no intention of enforcing this action. Lord knows what the denominational bigwigs will do to them.

 Oord was found guilty of “conduct unbecoming a minister” because he taught “doctrines out of harmony with the doctrinal statement of the Church of the Nazarene.”

 You see, the Church of the Nazarene officially holds that “the practice of same-sex sexual intimacy is contrary to God’s will.”

 One piece of evidence the court cited was a book Oord wrote with his daughter Alexa, Why the Church of the Nazarene Should Be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming.

 Oord is sad about the verdict but not surprised (though he hadn’t expected the unprecedented expulsion from the church). “I had hoped the Church of the Nazarene could be a place for me and those like me who fully affirm queer people and support their allies.”

Forget about it.

Understand that Oord was not found guilty of denying any doctrine about salvation, or the Father, Son or Holy Spirit.

Nope. Nothing like that. He was found guilty of opposing church doctrine about sex.

Sex counts more than anything else these days in some churches.

Among Southern Baptists, for example. Or Global Methodists.

But no more among United Methodists, thank God.

We United Methodists have our problems, for sure. But we don’t worship sex.

Tell me these other folks don’t. Cause they sure act like they do.

I have read several of Oord’s books. He is a process theologian. I read most process theology with interest but not much agreement. I find Oord a challenging as well as interesting read, and I think he’s right, or close to right, much of the time.

Happily, I don’t belong to a church where you have to be “right” about sex all the time.