A theology lecturer is to sue over allegations that a Methodist theological college threatened him with a counterterrorism referral after he criticised the church’s stance on homosexuality.

Aaron Edwards has claimed that he was sacked from his position at Cliff College in Derbyshire after commenting on Twitter/X that senior church officials were obsessed with “apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true”.

The 37-year-old father of five has also alleged that college officials threatened to refer him to the government’s Prevent scheme, which is designed to crack down on radicalisation.

At the centre of the legal row is a post on Twitter/X from February in which Edwards commented: “Homosexuality is invading the Church. Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this [because] they’re busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true.”

The lecturer went on to say: “This *is* a ‘Gospel issue’, by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour.”