LOUISVILLE, Ky.—A Kentucky doctor nominated by President Bush to be U.S. surgeon general has resigned as a board member of Asbury Theological Seminary.

James Holsinger, who still awaits Senate confirmation for the surgeon general post, had been under fire from fellow trustees of the school because of a perceived conflict of interest.

The board had initiated formal procedures to remove Holsinger. In his resignation letter Nov. 12, Holsinger said fellow board members targeted him because of critical comments about the board he made to a private agency.

John McNairy of North Carolina was the board member who sought Holsinger’s removal. He said Holsinger also should be investigated for telling the investigators that board members often hadn’t read the board’s own policies. McNairy called that “a total misrepresentation and presumptuous.”

Holsinger’s nomination for surgeon general has been opposed by GLBT rights groups because he called homosexuality biologically unnatural as a member of the judicial council of the United Methodist Church.