Another Outrage from Calvin College

[yeutter]

Calvin has taken yet another step in the wrong direction.
www.calvin.edu/chimes/2015/12/04/fi...re-testimony-of-faith-love-and-time-at-calvin

 

[puritanpilgrim]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Calvin College’s official view on homosexuality is the same as the official position of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). The position found on the CRC website is as follows:

“Homosexuality is a condition of disordered sexuality that reflects the brokenness of our sinful world. Persons of same-sex attraction should not be denied community acceptance solely because of their sexual orientation and should be wholeheartedly received by the church and given loving support and encouragement. Christian homosexuals, like all Christians, are called to discipleship, holy obedience, and the use of their gifts in the cause of the kingdom. Opportunities to serve within the offices and the life of the congregation should be afforded to them as to heterosexual Christians.

Homosexualism (that is, explicit homosexual practice), however, is incompatible with obedience to the will of God as revealed in Scripture. The church affirms that it must exercise the same compassion for homosexuals in their sins as it exercises for all other sinners. The church should do everything in its power to help persons with homosexual orientation and give them support toward healing and wholeness. A synodical report titled Pastoral Care for Homosexual Members is available at www.crcna.org/SynodResources.”

18*For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19*For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20*For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21*For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22*Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23*and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24*Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25*because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26*For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27*and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28*And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29*They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30*slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31*foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32*Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.


The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ro 1:18–32). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

 

[johnny]

I found it hard to read that article.

 

[jwithnell]

Pray for those who are maintaining orthodoxy at Calvin. I can't imagine they'll last too much longer with that statement of "faith."

 

[Leslie]

No surprise. Back in '86, an emeritus Calvin prof explicitly told me (with approval) that Calvin had abandoned sola scriptura. This is the logical outcome.

 

[DMcFadden]

A few problems:

* The brand of rationalism popular with many evangelicals (evidently including those at Calvin) sees human reason as receiving a privileged status nearly autonomous from the constraints of Scripture and confessional boundaries.

* The intellectual and cultural river in which Calvin swims is SO dominated by a need to endorse all things gay as the civil rights cause de jour that opposing it is almost like defending the KKK or using the "n" word in public.

* As a university catering to . . . yep . . . millennials, especially intellectual millennials, it would be very unusual to see anything other than the article. Do a sample of opinion at pretty much any evangelical college and you will see strong support, albeit not necessarily a majority, for the pro-gay position. The issue has been "lost" among that generation, thanks to sophisticated media propaganda and the public schools. Someone once said that if you want to change public opinion of an issue, make jokes about it. The prevalence of funny and sympathetic gay characters on television sitcoms has been a brilliant stroke of persuasion theory in practice. I have NEVER seen such a radical and dramatic turnabout in public opinion in such a short time!

* Finally, the intellectual culture of places like Calvin puts a HIGH value on the "right" of journalists to "speak truth to power" even if it contradicts the public doctrinal positions of the institution. By printing the "official" position of the denomination in the article, they probably give themselves enough "cover" to indemnify them from any disciplinary backlash.

While the CRC is not "officially" one of the "seven sisters" of the mainline, things like this reinforce the truth that they are at least very noisy foster children in the mainline family.

[SIGH]

 

[arapahoepark]

...intellectual millennials...

Isn't that an oxymoron?