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WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS AND WHAT THE BIBLE DOES
Usually the question is what the Bible says. In my denomination, for example, we have carried on a long and often acrimonious debate about what the Bible says about women and a shorter but no less acrimonious debate about sexuality. The standard procedure in my denomination for these kinds of questions is to appoint a…
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FORGETTING AND REMEMBERING: THOUGHTS AT THANKSGIVING
How should we remember the past? In this Thanksgiving season in the US, that question has considerable force. What is our relationship to what has shaped and formed us as a country? What is the story that we will tell this Thanksgiving Day to our children and to ourselves? In my own case, the story might…
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ARE WE MAKING PROGRESS?
Are we making progress? Are we making progress? I don’t have in mind technology here, although progress in technology makes an interesting test case for the assumptions we make about progress generally. Nor do I have in mind scientific knowledge. Even there the case is more complicated than one might think. But what of moral…
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THE PERVERSITY OF PERFECTION
The Nicodemus Problem The church has a Nicodemus problem. Perhaps you remember the fraught dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3:1-21. Nicodemus, introduced in the story as a Pharisee and one of the “rulers of the Jews,” politely approaches Jesus as a miracle worker, presumably leading up to some theological question or challenge, but…
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THINKING THE FAITH: “WITHOUT RESERVATION”
“Without reservation” The church order of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in a supplement to Article 5 includes some instructions about what one should consider when signing the Covenant for Officebearers. The Covenant, for those of you who are not familiar with the CRC, is a document that office holders in the denomination are required…
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GETTING UNSTUCK: A WAY FORWARD
For the past month, we—you, my readers and I—have gotten distracted by another synod, this 2023 version of the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), which doubled down on its opposition to most if not all expressions of LGBTQ+ sexuality. It’s important to keep in mind that the synod is not the church. And…
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DENOMINATIONAL SOUL: A SECOND TAKE ON SYNOD 2023
Let’s step back from the dumpster fire that ended Synod 2023 of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) and take another look at the synod and what it might tell us about the shape of the denomination—its strengths and perils. And, perhaps, what it may tell us more generally about the shape of the church—the conservative,…