A course at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina is raising some eyebrows as it links theology and queerness. The course, entitled “From Baptismal Font to Queer Theology,” requests that its students posit questions like “Is queer driven by identity politics, an umbrella term for sexual identity, gender identity, antinormativity politics, social locations, or is queer descriptive of something entirely different?” The course also asks its students to consider “whether or not theology can be queered?”

The school states that its mission is “to engage in spiritually disciplined and academically rigorous education in service and witness to the Triune God in the midst of the church, the academy, and the world.” It describes its vision as “that is neither narrow nor homogeneous, but one that is deeply rooted in critical engagement with Scripture and honors a range of theological traditions in conversation with a plurality of historical, geographic, and social settings.” The university has been under fire before for linking queerness and theology. In 2022, the school conducted a mission service with the campus’s pride student organization. A video of the event showed participants praising the “great queer one” and referring to God as “drag queen, and transman, and gender fluid.”

Another course the university offers is entitled “Queering the Old Testament.” The course “explores ways to interpret the Old Testament that acknowledge the diversity of gender expressions.” The university was founded in 1926 at what the university called “an inauspicious time.” “National attention had been riveted on the fundamentalist wing of Southern Christianity during the recent Scopes trial over the teaching of evolution in the public schools of Tennessee. A survey of Methodist clergy in the South revealed that 53 per cent had a high school education or less, 11 per cent had a college education, and only 4 per cent had training both in college and a theological seminary,” the university noted.

Many universities that began with religious foundations have come under scrutiny for what conservatives call “woke” ideology.” Several Catholic universities like Loyola University in Chicago have come under fire for offering student health plans that cover abortions. Biola University in California was criticized by Christian commentators Alisa Childers and Krista Bontrager (AKA Theology Mom) for some of its policies, including its statement on gender and sexuality which states, “Students desiring to live in Biola-owned housing will be placed based on their sex at birth. However, as issues connected to sexuality and gender are complex and layered, we will walk with students on an individual basis who identify as transgender or experience dissonance with their biological sex and gender in order to provide helpful support, to arrive at decisions around facilities use, and to offer appropriate accountability.” The university has since tried to back pedal from the blowback. While Duke has not responded to inquiries on the course, social media pushed back. “Queer theology is heresy and apostasy and everyone should know this signals where we are on the prophetic timetable,” wrote one user.