College professor provoked an argument with his controversial claims that Jesus Christ was a drag king with queer desires. Tat-siong Benny Liew, who is a professor teaching New Testament Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, expressed his unusual views in a chapter entitled “Queering Closets and Perverting Desires: Cross-Examining John’s Engendering and Transgendering Word across Different Worlds.” In his chapter, professor Liew analyses John’s Gospel and is suggesting that while “John is clear that Jesus is [Jewish]; what John is less clear about is whether Jesus is a biological male.” Alongside the statement that Jesus was genderfluid and had feminine characteristics, Liew also claims the Last Supper was a “literary striptease.”
Professor Liew comes up with more controversial statements in his other co-edited article “They Were All Together in One Place?: Toward Minority Biblical Criticism,” where he claims that Jesus had a gay lover and that he had homosexual desires about God while on the crucifix.
“What I am suggesting is that, when Jesus’ body is being penetrated, his thoughts are on his father,” the professor explains. “He is, in other words, imagining his passion experience as a (masochistic?) sexual relation with his own Father.”
These statements sparked a controversy when Holy Cross student, Elinor Reilly, wrote an article about Liew’s statements for the Fenwick review, an independent student journal. With his unusual teachings professor Liew angered many and provoked reactions among the College of the Holy Cross officials.
As Fox News report, Holy Cross spokesman John Hill told that Liew hasn't taught the controversial material in the classroom. “The decade-old work referenced in the Fenwick Review article was not intended for an undergraduate classroom, nor has it ever been assigned at Holy Cross. It was an intentionally provocative work, not a statement of belief, meant to foster discussion among a small group of Biblical scholars exploring marginalization. No one has made a complaint about the content of Professor Liew’s classes in his four years at Holy Cross.”
According to Fox News, College’s president stated: “I know Professor Liew to be a dedicated teacher and an engaged scholar. He is a man of faith, and he and his family are active members of a church community. Academic freedom is one of the hallmarks of a liberal arts education. Scholars in all disciplines are free to inquire, critique, comment, and push boundaries on widely accepted thought. However, I strongly disagree with the interpretation of John's Gospel, as described in the Fenwick Review, and I find it especially offensive in this most sacred of all weeks in the liturgical calendar.”
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