| February 5, 1999 |
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Calvin College Chimes
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Mumblings Even the church needs to repent It seems that the next hotly debated topic on the Christian Reformed Church’s Synod’s agenda will be homosexuality and the church’s appropriate response. With the emotional debate over women in office somewhat behind us, it appears as if we should gear up for the next round. The climax of the debate will most likely be in year 2001 when the Committee to Give Direction about and for Pastoral Care for Homosexual Members gives its final report. In the meantime, Synod will give a preliminary report this summer at Synod. The contents of this report may come as a shock to many people within the CRC community. After much dialogue with homosexual CRC members and pastors of congregations, the committee has decided to recommend that the church repent. The need for this repentance, according to the committee and many other CRC members, is a result of the church not keeping the promises that it made in the 1973 report about homosexuality. They state that the experience many members have had with the church “is not at all in line with the grace written into the pastoral promises of 1973.” Specifically, the committee has called every CRC to pray a prayer of confession and repentance. They believe that the church much confess that it has fallen short of their own promises. Subsequently, they must ask for forgiveness. My response: Amen.It’s about time that somebody (or some committee) points out to the CRC as a whole what they should have already realized themselves. The results of the committee point out that many gay members have experienced pain, loneliness, and isolation in their CRC churches. They also point out that the church has not done much to alleviate this pain. 65.3% of the CRC pastors admit that their specific church has not effectively carried out the pastoral guidelines presented in 1973. The guidelines presented in 1973 were relatively simple. In short, they state that homosexuals should be embraced by the church, that homosexuals should receive patient understanding, compassion, support and encouragement, and that pastors should work to inform themselves about homosexuality and to dispel the prejudices against homosexuals found within their congregations. The fact that the CRC has failed (one could say miserably) to do this is one good reason for repentance to take place. I cannot think of any reason why the church would not listen to the recommendations of this committee. This recommendation does not challenge the CRC’s official stance on the morality of homosexual acts. It merely points out that even if one thinks that homosexual acts are wrong, there is no reason to exclude homosexuals from the church community. The church as a body is called to be humble. This humility should mean, according to the committee and to people such as myself, that the church should be willing to admit when it has done wrong and in doing so pained members. Repenting would not heal these wounds completely, but it would probably make the wounds less painful. After repenting, the church could begin to focus on actually fulfilling the promises that it made a generation ago. A willingness to repent on the part of the church may serve to heal wounds not only of homosexuals, but of women and racial minorities as well. Personally, I pray that the church will listen to the recommendations offered by this committee. The Chimes opinions page will further explore this issue next week. |