By Jim Brown and Karen Battles
May 6, 2003

(AgapePress) - An ordained United Methodist minister is out with a new book that claims Jesus Christ was a homosexual.

The book by Chicago Theological Seminary professor Theodore Jennings is called The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament. In it, Jennings argues that Christ had a homosexual relationship with John -- who the Bible refers to as "the disciple Jesus loved" -- and says the Bible affirms homosexual relationships and celebrates the erotic.

Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute says Jennings is another in a long line of "gay theologians" who are rewriting the Bible. He stresses that they are “driving a wedge right through the Bible, asking the question: 'Has God really said?' -- and of course, we know ... that question came out of Genesis from Satan himself.”

Bob Knight

Knight asserts that liberal "gay theology" is dangerous because “some people actually take this stuff seriously, and they begin to question [the Bible].” He believes “pastors need to know that the homosexual movement presents the greatest challenge to scriptural authority.”

Knight says the professor’s book is "fantasy" and extrapolates Jennings' obsessions on our Lord and Savior. He adds that he wishes a publisher would not even consider the book worthy of publishing, and that Pilgrim Press ought to be ashamed of itself for publishing it.

According to Knight, the problem has developed over the years as seminaries have been taken over by liberals who have no regard for truth.

"For a guy like this to have the credentials he does says a lot about where the Methodist Church has gone,” Knight says.

“It's time for Bible-believing Methodists to set down some standards and ensure that people who are speaking in the name of the Methodist Church really do understand the authority of scripture -- and can convey it accurately."

Someone's Got to Do It
Interestingly, there is a movement by some members of United Methodist churches in Mississippi to renew and restore evangelical tenets within their denomination.

Jeff Switzer, pastor of the Sandtown United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi, launched Mississippi Fellowship of United Methodist Evangelicals. The new fellowship has a two-fold purpose -- to contend for the historical, classical Christian faith and to proclaim the apostolic faith. [See Related Article]

Switzer believes the denomination is headed in directions that would be very disturbing to John Wesley, founder of Methodism. He sees the church abandoning traditional Scriptural principles in order to look more like other world religions.

In response, Switzer says the fellowship must express opposition to bureaucratic Methodist leaders who prefer tolerance over Biblical truth and universalism over conversion.

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