CRCNA Church Attended by Kristin Du Mez Announces Full Support for LGBTQ Inclusion+ ‘Break-up’ with Denomination
The CRCNA (Christian Reformed Church in North America) is a historically conservative denomination in the process of being eaten alive by famished and bad-faith progressives, and they are barely fighting back. Like a wildebeest that quietly lets lions tear chunks out of its hindquarters with half-hearted resistance, so too has the CRCNA been being attacked and put upon by LGBTQ-loving liberals, slowly being drained of the lifeblood of Christ.
We saw this defeatism most evidently in 2022, when their flagship school, Calvin University, made a devil’s deal with gay-affirming staff and professors. The school’s board of trustees voted to allow pro-LGBTQ faulty members to dissent from having to uphold the denomination’s view of sexuality and purity, and instead hold to their sodomy-loving convictions while still retaining their teaching jobs.
Rather than clean house and force every last lib out of there, the cancer was invited to remain and metastasize, and it’s only a matter of time before stage 4 is at the door.
This abdication of duty came months after the denomination took a step in the right direction and voted during their annual synod to elevate their opposition to homosexuality into becoming part of their confession, their very declaration of faith, with the motion passing 131-45.
This sounded great on the surface and gave reason to hope, but what good are legs and speed if you aren’t going to kick and run? The fact that a third of the people voted against the entrenchment against homosexuality, along with the compromise at Calvin, would suggest that while some may want a conservative resurgence, the wildebeest is too sick and defeated to escape, even though it may have the occasional burst of inspiration and will to live.
While the CRCNA is walking the same path the ELCA, PCUSA, and the UMC did decades ago, there is a remnant seeking to root out some of the worst perpetrators, which brings us to Church Of The Servant in Grand Rapids, MI.
This is a CRCNA church led by impastor Rev. Len Vander Zee and attended by gay-affirming professor and Jesus and John Wayne author Kristin Kobes Du Mez.
During last week’s sermon, Vander Zee shared that the church was in the process of “breaking up” with the denomination over the church’s insistence that they want to be gay-affirming NOW and not twenty years from now, all the while complaining that the denomination is forcing their hand and trying to get them to affirm biblical notions against homosexuality, which they definitely do not want to do. He explains:
The CRC denomination to which we belong, which we support, has recently been racked by disagreement regarding human sexuality and same-sex marriage. Three successive synods have been marked with strife over this issue. And it comes down to this: can we accept same-sex married Christians as full members of the church standing around the table of the Lord?
Our experience here, as well as in other congregations, has led us to say yes, yes, definitely yes. The CRC says “no.” And now (Church of the Servant) and other churches have been dealt an ultimatum. Either sign on to the denominational position or leave.
We can’t sign on.Not just because we disagree with an idea, but because we have come to know LGBTQ siblings as devoted followers of Jesus Christ and dedicated to his church. Part of the tragedy of this breakup for us is that we don’t see it as unavoidable. There certainly are issues over which the church must diligently and boldly reject, even in our own time, issues like the idolatry of Christian nationalism, but we know that Christians are living together with differences over this issue, and they have for years, and they are right here.
Likening his church’s breakup with the CRCNA to Paul’s breakup with Barnabas, he continues:
And here’s the real painful thing for me, and I think for our congregation as well. As a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, I’ve been placed under limited suspension because I’ve advocated fpr the full inclusion of LGBTQ Christians. And that’s also true of many of our elders and deacons as well. And we’ve been told not just to agree with the point of view, but to repent.
Yes, that’s exactly the word. To repent of our belief in the conclusion of LGBTQ people, which is now regarded as sinful, a false teaching, and dangerous to the church.
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