Should Calvin University Divorce its Denomination?

Calvin University should sever ties with the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) now that the denomination has reaffirmed its historic stance on marriage and sexuality, insists Calvin professor James K. A. Smith.

In an abrasive editorial for the Calvin University newspaper Chimes, Smith claims that CRC Synod 2022 “moved the goal posts” with its “narrowly dogmatic decision” that homosexual sex is a violation of the Seventh Commandment (alongside adultery, premarital sex, extra-marital sex, polyamory and pornography).

Smith hails the university’s “Reformed Christian” vision for its future and declares “the time has come for our BOT and administration to recognize that this ambitious ‘Reformed Christian’ vision is hampered and hobbled by remaining a ‘Christian Reformed’ denominational entity.”

The Calvin professor asks, “Why would a university with aspirations to global leadership bind itself to a shrinking church body that provides infinitesimal financial support and fewer and fewer incoming students?”

After all, “Divorces happen all the time,” Smith notes.

The published author and academic’s editorial has struck a nerve, already generating multiple responses. The agitation primarily arises from Smith’s disingenuous articulation of what has transpired within the CRC.

A thinly veiled contempt is on display in how Smith misrepresents recent synods. When synod adopted the Human Sexuality Report in 2022, Smith says, “…this means sex was deemed ‘a salvation issue.’”

No. Synod 2022 did not use that language and Synod 2024 specifically rejected a proposal to make such a statement.

Has the CRC really been taken over by foreign thought, as Smith repeats? He writes, “I mourn what the CRC has become” on account of “The clergy of the denomination” who “are increasingly trained at conservative and evangelical seminaries and bring those sensibilities to the CRC.”

In reality, nothing Synod 2022 decided was new. A Synod 1973 report declared all homosexual sex to be sinful. Synod 2011 deemed the 1973 report sufficient and refused to start over with a new report. Synod 2013 commissioned a new report but specified that the new report only expanded on the 1973 position. When the new report stretched the tether too far and said CRC ministers could perform same-sex civil ceremonies, Synod 2016 made the unprecedented move to only recommend the minority report, which stated that CRC ministers may not perform any same-sex ceremonies.

At a crossroads on marriage and sexuality, Synod 2016 commissioned the Human Sexuality Report. When Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan declared that the 1973 report was merely “pastoral advice” and ordained a deacon in a same-sex marriage, Synod 2022 instructed Neland Avenue to cease and desist. When Neland Avenue refused to comply with synod’s directives and other congregations joined in open rebellion, Synod 2023 repeated its instructions to Neland Avenue and to any other congregation in violation. When still more congregations openly defied synod, Synod 2024 placed all ministers, elders and deacons from publicly defiant churches on “limited suspension” whereby they could not be delegates to broader assemblies or serve on CRC agency boards. The only change in the CRC is a small minority of congregations who succumbed to the presumptions of the sexual revolution and decided to push the envelope.

CRC minister Darrin Compagner said it best to Christianity Today: “They thought they were taking the lead and the denomination would come around … they were shocked when it didn’t.”

Smith himself has changed, with a noticeable shift in viewpoint across several years. His 2009 book, Desiring the Kingdom, envisioned a rich connection between church and university to shape not just minds but the desires of students.

In 2012, Smith authored a blog post chastising the CRC baby boomer elite for trying to “eviscerate our confessional Reformed particularity” while younger generations were looking for something more robust. He wrote at that time, “Some of us Gen Xers and rising millennials are not interested in your ‘updated’ faith: we’re looking for the thick, rich particularity of historic Reformed faith, understood as an expression of catholic Christianity.”

The Smith of today now refers to the ultra-progressive United Church of Christ as among “other Reformed denominations.”

Calvin University has long been the darling of the CRC progressives. Geographically situated amidst CRC congregations that constitute Classis Grand Rapids East, arguably the most revisionist classis in the denomination, Calvin University has long been on the leftward edge of the CRC. Much of its faculty and staff populate congregations such as Neland Avenue.

When the CRC released its Human Sexuality Report in 2020, approximately one-third of Calvin University faculty and staff wrote an official letter to then-President Michael LeRoy against the report, arguing that “The report and its potential adoption by Synod could undermine the academic freedom of faculty and our standing as a reputable academic institution in the Reformed tradition.”

Moreover, the report “would cause harm to our Reformed community by severely impairing staff and faculty’s ability to care for our LGBTQ students in the way that our conscience dictates and the scholarship supports.”

Now that synod has adopted the Human Sexuality Report and is standing its ground against open defiance, revisionist Calvin professors want the university to divorce the CRC. This is the familiar path of many universities. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, Rutgers, Duke and many others began as ecclesiastical institutions but have become thoroughly secular.

The church needs academic institutions, but academic institutions also need the church. The academic world is unforgiving to the claims of Christian faith. It’s not a coincidence that the coldest feelings among higher education faculty were towards Evangelical Christians. The pressures in academia to become like Harvard and Princeton are great. Calvin University is proud of its academic standing and has great incentive to maintain its reputation. Calvin needs the church to stay grounded in the historic Christian faith against the pressures of academia.

Ultimately, the CRC had the courage to desire God’s kingdom and stand against the world’s desires. Calvin University needs the CRC to stay grounded in what God has said over and against what the world desires.

The Rev. Aaron Vriesman is pastor of North Blendon Christian Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Mich.