In April 2002, Troy Perry, the head of the homosexual Metropolitan Community Churches, sent out a letter praising the latest edition of the New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV.

He said:"For the past 33 years, Metropolitan Community Churches have challenged the Church to re-examine God's Word as it relates to homosexuality. Thanks to the boldness, faithfulness and ministry of MCCers like you, the role of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons in the Church has moved to the forefront of almost every Christian denomination. Together, we have forever changed the face of Christianity. "Now comes one of the most significant theological breakthrough in my 33 years of ministry with MCC."
I'm holding in my hands a copy of the New Oxford Annotated Bible, Third Edition. This ecumenical study Bible contains the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. This new edition was supervised by Oxford University with study and research notes edited by the world's outstanding biblical scholars.
This is the world's premier study Bible -- and in a major breakthrough for GLBT people of faith everywhere -- its footnotes and study materials incorporate many of MCC's biblical interpretations and views. In the new study Bible, the views and interpretations of the 'clobber passages' use the theology and interpretations we have developed within MCC!
Imagine the joy I felt when I recently opened a package from a scholar, educator and friend to find a copy of The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Third Edition -- along with a hand-written inscription that read, 'Thanks for your life and ministry which have helped to shape the scholarship of this edition. May God continue to bless you and UFMCC in your quest for truth.
All-in-all, the world renowned biblical scholars who prepared The New Oxford Annotated Bible have adopted a great deal of MCC's own scholarship and theology: THERE IS NO BIBLICAL CONDEMNATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY -- ONLY PROHIBITIONS AGAINST ITS MISUSE, JUST AS THERE IS NO BIBLICAL BLANKET CONDEMNATION OF HETEROSEXUALITY, ONLY PROHIBITIONS AGAINST MISUSE OF THAT GIFT" [ Emphasis theirs -Ed ] (A Message from Rev. Troy D. Perry Founder and Moderator, Metropolitan Community Churches, April 18, 2002).

I have the 2nd edition of the New Oxford Annotated Bible (1973) in my library, but I do not have the 3rd edition. Today I perused this edition at a local Christian bookstore to see if Perry was right. The 3rd edition New Oxford (published in 2001) has new editors and has been completely re-written. The 2nd edition was under the editorship of Bruce Metgzer and Herbert G. May, but these names are no longer associated with the work. The new general editor is Michael D. Coogan, and the associate editors are Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins, and many others are mentioned as authors of various portions of the notes.
The 3rd edition of the New Oxford has the same type of liberal notes as the 2nd edition, casting doubt upon the Scriptures, but the approach toward homosexuality in the Bible is different. We will use the following two passages as examples:
Genesis 19
In Genesis 19, the 2nd edition New Oxford note says: "The episode is told to show the unbridled lusts of Sodom. Know refers to sexual relations (v. 8), here homosexual."
The 3rd edition note says: "Though disapproval of male homosexual rape is assumed here, the primary point of this text is how this threat by the townspeople violates the value of hospitality."
Romans 1:26-27
In Romans 1:26-27, the 2nd edition New Oxford note says: God gave them up, because in turning from God they violated their true nature, becoming involved in terrible and destructive perversions; God has let the process of death work itself out."
The 3rd edition note says: "Although widely read today as a reference to homosexuality, the language of unnatural [emphasis in the original] intercourse was more often used in Paul's day to denote not the orientation of sexual desire, but its immoderate indulgence, which was believed to weaken the body (the due penalty)."
Thus we see that liberal theological scholarship is moving quickly toward the acceptance of homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle. The Metropolitan Community Churches claim that "there is no biblical condemnation of homosexuality -- only prohibitions against its misuse, just as there is no biblical blanket condemnation of heterosexuality, only prohibitions against misuse of that gift."