Lecturer of Methodist College Fired for Tweet Lamenting “homosexuality’s ‘invasion of the church'”

A Methodist Bible college in the U.K. fired a Christian theologian and threatened to report him as a terrorist because of his tweets in opposition to homosexuality, his attorneys claimed.

The institution in Calver, Derbyshire, which positions itself as a global center for evangelism and missiology, dismissed the father of five for misconduct last week, deeming his tweet had brought the institution “into disrepute.”

The lecturer’s tweet read: “Homosexuality is invading the Church. Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this b/c they’re busy apologizing for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true. This is a ‘Gospel issue,’ by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Savior.”

Edwards’ tweet went viral and prompted blowback, to which Edwards responded: “That *is* the conservative view. The acceptance of homosexuality as ‘not sinful’ *is* an invasion upon the Church, doctrinally. This is not controversial. The acceptance is controversial. Most of the global Church would agree. It is not homophobic to declare homosexuality sinful.”

In a follow-up tweet, he wrote: “The acceptance of homosexuality as ‘not sinful’ is an invasion upon the Church, doctrinally. This is not controversial. The acceptance is controversial. Most of the global Church would agree. It is not homophobic to declare homosexuality sinful.”

 It seems that holding the view that homosexuality is sinful is only welcome if it remains ‘unexpressed,'” he added.

Cliff College, which was founded in 1883, had asked Edwards to take the tweet down, claiming it violated the college’s staff social media policy. However, he refused, arguing that doing so would compromise his conscience and admit to intentional provocation when the tweet expressed his deeply held beliefs.

Edwards was suspended from the school pending an investigation and the college revealed during a disciplinary hearing on March 8 that it was considering referring him to Prevent, which polices allegations of terrorism in the U.K.

The Methodist Church welcomed the introduction of same-sex marriage last year.

In the U.S., people employed by secular companies have lost their jobs after publicly sharing their views on Twitter that run afoul of LGBT ideology. 

Edwards was reportedly asked during the hearing what he would do if he were asked to pray with a student about their same-sex attraction, which he believes was an attempt to trap him into affirming “conversion therapy,” which the U.K. Parliament has debated criminalizing.

“The reaction to my tweet and the unjust treatment I have experienced by Cliff College and the Methodist Church in Britain completely illustrates the problem my tweet addressed,” Edwards said.

Edwards was reportedly asked during the hearing what he would do if he were asked to pray with a student about their same-sex attraction, which he believes was an attempt to trap him into affirming “conversion therapy,” which the U.K. Parliament has debated criminalizing.

“The reaction to my tweet and the unjust treatment I have experienced by Cliff College and the Methodist Church in Britain completely illustrates the problem my tweet addressed,” Edwards said

With the aid of the Christian Legal Centre, Edwards is weighing his legal options against Cliff College for potential discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. He claims that the disciplinary procedure lacked “requisite fairness” and that the investigation was prejudiced and filled with an “astonishing” imbalance and misrepresentation.