Article:
"Over the past several years, Calvin faculty have had to learn a new language that includes words like synod and gravamina and status confessionis. This is because, in 2022, the synod of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC)—the governing body of the denomination—adopted a report on human sexuality which stipulates that “homosexual sex” violates the definition of “unchastity” in the Heidelberg Catechism, one of the confessional standards for the university. To use evangelical nomenclature, this means sex was deemed “a salvation issue” and hence one on which disagreement was disallowed. ...
If, like me, you signed on to the Reformed confessions over 20 years ago, you thought you were signing up for one thing, only to learn, in 2022, that Synod had moved the goal posts. So, since 2022, the university’s administration and Board of Trustees have been trying to navigate, on the one hand, how to preserve the university as a place of courageous curiosity and academic freedom while, on the other hand, how to retain the distinctly Reformed accent that has distinguished Calvin in the wider orbit of higher education.
I don’t want to debate the merits of Synod’s stance on human sexuality. (Actually, technically, as a faculty member I can’t publicly debate the merits of their decision.) Instead, I want to treat Synod’s HSR decision as a symptom that demands a more fundamental question: Should Calvin University remain a denominational university?"
Comment # 6 (working from top-down in Comments):
"There is a problem with this right from the start. Synod 2022 did not for the first time in history declare same-sex acts as being included in unchastity. Ursinus, one of the co-authors of the Heidelberg Catechism included homosexuality in that category in his commentary. This is a very basic consideration and renders this entire article suspect."
Reply to #6 (from a Dr. Jim Payton):
"Ursinus’ commentary was written almost 20 years after the Heidelberg Catechism. The Reformed churches who have adopted the Heidelberg Catechism as one of the “Forms of Unity” didn’t adopt the commentary, where Ursinus stated that: they adopted the Catechism, where it is not stated. — And if you want to focus on the commentary, then pick up on the three times Ursinus condemns “unchastity” within a married relationship … that didn’t even get a mention in the HSR that recent synods have built on."
Unbelievable stuff right there. They have traded wisdom for folly and speak twisted words of clever construction rather than words of balm for the broken and life eternal.
