Calvin’s Impropriety

By: American Decency Staff

In the past, we’ve gotten some negative feedback for our treatment of Calvin College (now University) in our writings. People are defensive of their Alma Maters and as Calvin is associated with the Christian Reformed Church, doubtless members of that denomination are also protective. So let us explain why it might seem that we rag on the newly minted “University.”

First of all, they’re in our backyard.  Calvin, as much, if not more than any other Christian college or university in the area, has outreach into our community, via their January series of lectures which they satellite out to rural communities or the conferences and the events to which they invite the public.

We’ve often found that outreach to be troubling. From the infamous Eboo Patel lecture they hosted which stressed interaction with Muslims and other faiths to the exclusion of evangelizing them, to the “teach-in” on the subject of refugees where one professor refused to meet and prayerfully discuss the subject one-on-one with ADA president, Bill Johnson, to the latest incident where one of their professors was involved in bringing a Down syndrome drag show to town (the professor resigned when the backlash began), we’ve noticed Calvin’s fingers in some decidedly anti-Christian behavior.

That latest incident drew our attention to Calvin’s position on homosexuality and same sex marriage: “As the college of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), Calvin holds to the position of the CRC on human sexuality, articulated in 1973 and 2002. That is to say, we believe that homosexual orientation is not a sin, and we strive to love our gay, lesbian, and bisexual students as ourselves, as God expects of us. We also affirm that physical sexual intimacy has its proper place in the context of heterosexual marriage.”

So, to reiterate Calvin’s position, homosexual orientation is not sinful, and homosexual intimacy is “improper” or improperly placed… or something. You will not find anything in their statement describing homosexual activity as a sin. In fact, the only time the word “sin” is used it to assure readers multiple times that they don’t believe that homosexual orientation is one, and once to affirm, rightly, that, “when we sin by misusing our sexuality, we can receive abundant forgiveness and grace through our Savior Jesus Christ.” The only thing left unsaid is what that misuse of sexuality might be.

If someone were feeling defensive of Calvin’s murk on the matter, they might ask, “why do they have to spell it out?”

Part of the answer is that when you don’t, you get the type of professors who want to dress up the mentally disabled as the opposite sex and have them dance provocatively for the entertainment of the masses.

But even more important is the fact that you can’t call people to repent and be saved without showing them what they need to repent of and why. Part of the gospel that Romans 1:16 tells us we’re told not to be ashamed of is the unanimous need for repentance of our individual sins, and if an individual’s sins are reclassified as “improper” that hardly spurs the individual towards the radical life change that the gospel requires.

But we would also take issue with Calvin and the CRC’s position on homosexual “orientation:” that it is “not a sin.”

Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 5 that sin begins in the heart when he calls the man who hates His brother a murderer, or the one who lusts after a woman an adulterer. To desire to sin is to commit the sin in your heart and – as with the sinful desires that each of us deal with- is something that needs to be repented of. 

Calvin University, the Christian Reformed Church they are associated with, is hardly the only Christian institution attempting to bend Scripture to the culture’s whims; they’re certainly not even the worst offender, but they are the ones in our back yard.

We, however, must also be wary of falling off the other side of the track. Calvin’s statement stresses rightly, that “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people – like all people – are created in God's image and, as valued members of the human family, should be treated with respect, grace, understanding and love.”

We believe that whole heartedly! It’s not that people who struggle with homosexual attraction are objectively “worse” than someone who struggles with any other sin. The problem is with our culture at large and Christian churches and institutions either implying or saying explicitly or just refusing to refute the idea that homosexuality is not a sin when God’s Word says otherwise.

The church at large must not water down the standard that God has for His creation. Calvin’s purpose statement says that their goal is to be “Christ’s agents of renewal in the world.” But when a Christian institution or individual attempts to rewrite the laws of God according to the world’s standards, they are no longer His agents, but the worlds!

May those worldly agents repent so that they can receive Christ’s abundant forgiveness and grace!

---

To support our efforts please click here or mail your gift to American Decency Association (ADA), PO Box 202, Fremont, MI 49412.  

American Decency Association is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

 

---