LGBTQ Group Condemns Point Loma Nazarene University for Theology Dean’s Dismissal

Point Loma Nazarene University
Mark Maddix and Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Point Loma photo courtesy of USA Today

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Oord added, “Not only do I disagree with the university’s view on Queer matters, but Mark’s punishment doesn’t fit his “crime.” It’s wrong, wrong, wrong!”

Cazares quoted from Oord on Maddix’s termination in her statement as saying, “The irony is that administrators of a Christian university have fired one of their best professors for standing up for love. Aren’t Christians supposed to love like Jesus? University administrators seem to be sending a message. But that message is not the message of love. It’s a message of fear, revenge, and bullying, hoping to silence those who love queer people.”

Oord told RNS that he is personally invested in seeing changes in the Church of the Nazarene and in their universities and in the coming weeks will have a new book out exploring “why the Church of the Nazarene should be fully LGBTQ-affirming.”

Cazares, who came out as lesbian in 2018 while a student at PLNU, said it’s “really concerning” to see the way the school is “clamping down on this.” Cazares said PLNU is generally known “as the more liberal” of the Nazarene colleges “so it’s really frightening.”

“It feels like they’re going backward,” she said.

Former students have come out in Maddix’s defense.

On Facebook, Jessica Ann Hiatt said she was “deeply grieved” by Maddix’s dismissal. Hiatt, in her post, said Maddix was her professor at Northwest Nazarene.

“As the Church of the Nazarene, and other Christian churches and denominations close ranks against the LGBTQIA+ and those who stand with them in love, the church moves farther and farther away from the example Jesus gave,” Hiatt said, adding that she no longer identified as a Christian.

Marshela Salgado-Solorio, who graduated from PLNU and is now an associate Disciples of Christ minister in San Diego at University Christian Church, said Maddix’s firing illustrates why she left the Church of the Nazarene.

“If there is anything that Mark is guilty of in this situation, it’s loving as God loves—radically and inclusively, and it goes against the principles of top leaders at PLNU,” she said in a Facebook statement.

This article originally appeared here.

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Alejandra Molina
Molina most recently served as Journalist in Residence at the University of Southern California (USC) and as Equitable Cities Fellow at Next City. She has worked at The Press-Enterprise, La Prensa and OC Excelsior, and The Orange County Register. In 2018, she was named one of the 15 most influential Latina journalists by Latino Journalists of California. She has also received fellowships from the Center for Health Journalism at USC and the Institute for Justice and Journalism. Alejandra is a native Spanish speaker. She received her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of La Verne.

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