Thomas Oord, a local theologian, Nazarene minister and former Northwest Nazarene University professor, goes on trial this week within the Church of the Nazarene over his views and support for the LGBTQ+ community.
If he is found guilty, he could lose his credentials as an ordained elder as well as his membership in the church and would be forbidden from preaching or teaching at any Nazarene institution or church.
“I’m charged with teaching doctrines contrary to the Church of the Nazarene’s statement on human sexuality, which is a long way of saying that I’m queer-affirming, and the denomination is not,” Oord told me in a phone interview. “And I’m charged with conduct unbecoming of a minister because of the work that I’ve been doing to try to get the denomination to change its views on queer issues.”
Oord is no stranger to controversy. You might remember when Oord made headlines in 2014 when he was asked to resign from NNU, where he had been a professor since 2002. At issue was his teachings about the nature of evil and whether God was all-powerful.
Oord, of Nampa, ended up getting laid off, ostensibly through a workforce reduction. He worked for the private Christian university’s online arm for three years as part of a severance agreement. He then became a full-time speaker before landing a job teaching and directing the doctoral programs for Northwind Theological Seminary, an online seminary based in Florida.
Even after the controversy at NNU, there were no repercussions within the church, and Oord, who holds a doctorate in theology, retained his credentials as a Nazarene minister and was connected to a church in Nampa.
But then in the winter of 2021, two members of the church complained about Oord and his position that the church needed to change its stance on LGBTQ+ issues.
The process has played out slowly, but it’s finally coming to a head Thursday, when Oord goes to trial in Boise. He’ll face his “accusers,” and each side will call witnesses. A board of church officials from all over the Western U.S. will decide his fate.
The whole situation reminds me of the series of stories I wrote about the division within the United Methodist Church over LGBTQ+ issues.
A significant number of Methodist churches in the United States believed in same-sex unions and ordaining LGBTQ+ clergy, but church doctrine held otherwise. Because Methodist churches in the U.S. continued to go against church doctrine, about 25% of United Methodist congregations left the church, some to form the Global Methodist Church and some to go independent or join other churches.
Two Idaho churches — including one in Eagle — left the United Methodist Church because they didn’t support same-sex marriages or ordaining gay clergy.
Oord uses the same arguments I heard from Methodist ministers about the overemphasis on the so-called “clobber” passages in the Bible that purportedly condemn homosexuality (“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”)
Such passages are used to justify discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, but Oord thinks they should be put into historical context and whether they still hold up (there are also passages in the Bible condemning long hair, he notes).
Oord said he followed the Methodist Church situation closely and was cheered that church leaders chose to stick with pro-LGBTQ+ policies.
The Methodist Church and the Nazarene Church are similar, both from a Wesleyan origin.
So why not just leave the Nazarene Church and go to a more progressive church that aligns with your views?
“Yeah, that’s a really important question,” said Oord, a lifelong member of the Nazarene Church. “It’s one that I’ve definitely asked myself a lot in the last 30 years.”
He said he’d rather stay in the church and try to change it for the benefit of others.
“If I leave the church, there’s still going to be kids that grow up in the Church of the Nazarene who are queer, and those kids are going to have to have the harm that people today face,” said Oord, who taught at NNU for 16 years and said he came across many students who struggled with their sexuality because of their religion. “So I want to see the church change for the future of the church.”
He also said there is a significant percentage of Nazarenes who believe in gay rights and he wants to use his voice to make it easier to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community.
Oord points out the Church of the Nazarene ranks as one of the lowest in terms of retention of members, with young people leaving the church. That demographic consistently has a greater acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.
“So many of our best and our brightest are jumping ship over this issue, and I feel badly about that,” he said. “And I think just the number of allies in the denomination has grown significantly.”
Finally, supporting the LGBTQ+ community is just the right thing, he said.
I asked Oord if he feels that he’s on the right side of history on the issue.
“I do have that sense,” he said. “But more important to me is I think I’m on the right side of love. And if history doesn’t end up playing out the way I think it will play out, I’m still going to feel good about the fact that I’m doing what I think is the loving thing to do.”
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