Swarthmore College offers a course in 'queering God'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The campus of Swarthmore College is photographed. (iStock)
One of the nation’s most prestigious liberal arts colleges is advancing a “queer theology” agenda with hopes of destabilizing traditional beliefs about what the Bible says about gender and sexuality.
Swarthmore College, founded by Quakers, is offering courses in “queering the Bible” and “queering God.” The courses were first reported by Campus Reform.
“Queering the Bible” is a one-credit class that surveys “queer and trans readings of biblical texts.”
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“By reading the Bible with the methods of queer and trans theoretical approaches, this class destabilizes long held assumptions about what the Bible – and religion – says about gender and sexuality,” the course description reads.
The school’s religion department is also teaching a class that questions the sexuality of the Almighty called, “Queering God: Feminist and Queer Theology.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“The God of the Bible and later Jewish and Christian literature is distinctively masculine, definitely male. Or is He?” the course description reads. “If we can point out places in traditional writings where God is nurturing, forgiving, and loving, does that mean that God is feminine, or female?”
Key themes of that particular class include exploring the “tensions between feminist and queer theology” and examines “feminist and queer writings about God.”
Critics blasted the college’s religion courses and suggested they were meant to undermine Christianity.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“This is about sanitizing and neutralizing the prohibitions on homosexual acts that Scripture unequivocally condemns,” one observer noted online.
The president of Truett-McConnell University, a conservative Christian school in Georgia, accused Swarthmore of prostituting the Bible.
“If there were a list entitled, “Best Snowflake Colleges in America,” I am quite certain that Swarthmore College would be near the top of the list,” Dr. Emir Caner told the Todd Starnes Radio Show. “Keep in mind, this is an institution of higher learning that has produced such ‘accomplished’ politicians as failed presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“While I am not surprised that lost people would so prostitute Scripture, perhaps there is a rainbow at the end of the storm when the student comes across John 3:16 and recognizes God’s unconditional love for them through Jesus Christ,” Caner said. “Perhaps such an open-minded student will recognize the conviction of the Holy Spirit over the noise of liberal indoctrination, bow their knee to the One True Living God and be transformed.”
Dr. Robert Jeffress, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas and a spiritual advisor to President Trump, warned about the spiritual dangers of twisting God’s word.
“In suggesting that God is ‘queer’ Swarthmore College is guilty of nothing short of modern day idolatry,” Jeffress told the Todd Starnes Radio Show.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“When you read the Bible you will discover that God reserved His harshest condemnation for individuals and nations that practiced idolatry – creating an imaginary god who conformed to a culture’s immorality,” Jeffress said.
Swarthmore College did not return my calls seeking comment. Nor did they respond to a question about whether they had read the Book of Revelation, Chapter 22, Verse 19.
I also inquired about whether the religion department will be offering courses on “Queering Mohammed” or “Queering the Koran.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Something tells me they won’t be respond to that query either.