Human Sexuality Archives

“Bekett was such an incredible human,” Kristel Forcier tells me. She’s sharing her memories of Bekett Noble, the 34-year-old Redeemer University student who died by suicide November 23, 2022. At the memorial, Redeemer President Dr. David Zietsma described Bekett as “kind, likeable, funny and direct. This is a tragic loss for our community.” Bekett Noble…

I have purposely not written a column expressing my opinion on the 2022 Christian Reformed Synod’s Human Sexuality Report, and specifically not about the report’s recommendations concerning same sex relations. My reason is that, from the outset, I judged the entire process to be disingenuous. Handcuffing the committee members with a mandate that forced it…

I cried out.“I no longer belong.”You heard my painful cry.You walked by on the other side.Afraid to be contaminated?Concerned about what others might say?Confident in your holiness.You threw out those you judged unholy.Now I sit with them in the ashes. I had belonged.All my life I belonged.I belonged to the church, the schools. The community was…

During the Christian Reformed Church’s Synod, I was surprised when an overture asking that clergy “curtail pornography use” didn’t pass – especially because “curtail” already sounds toothless in this context. Surely “halt all pornography use immediately” would be better? So I called the Director of Safe Church Ministry, Amanda Benckhuysen, for an explanation. The overture…

“This church had a profound and positive impact on me for decades,” a former Meeting House member reflected. “I’m trying to figure out what to do with the revelations about what was going on behind the scenes. Flashes of Bruxy’s teaching will come back to me at various times and I’ll remember how positively it…

I recently resumed pastoral ministry in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) after 10 years with the Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC). During those years, the matter of human sexuality dominated the denominational agenda. The engagement was serious, intense and divisive, with each side endlessly quoting their chosen Bible texts. When I attended my first Classis…

One night, in the midst of the CRC’s Synod, I awoke with a word in my head. Vivisection. I’m not entirely sure what to make of this early morning revelation. Some folks dream lucidly, others sweat through nightmares. Me? Apparently I receive ten-dollar words. It might be just the peculiarity of my own gray matter…

From grief to relief; from shock to anxiety; from weariness to embarrassment and many points in between. For this editorial, I asked members of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), “Now that the Human Sexuality Report has passed, with a good majority, how does it feel?” While the theological and biblical reflection has been intense, this…

Four (and a Half) Dialogues onHomosexuality and the BibleDonald ZeylWipe & Stock, 2022. Since Synod 2016 the Christian Reformed Church has been studying, discussing and agonizing over same-sex relationships. That year, Synod created a committee which produced what is now called the Human Sexuality Report (HSR). Among other issues, the HSR recommended that homosexual activity…

“My core beliefs haven’t changed,” Michael Coren says. But “I can’t imagine who I was spiritually eight years ago.” The landscape of personal faith can change over time. Scandal, abuse, disillusionment and burnout are just a few of the deconstruction triggers prompting Christians to re-examine what we believe and why. It’s a process that usually…

This article isn’t ultimately about conversations inside the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) right now, but that’s where we’ll start. Weighing in on the recent decision of the Synod of the CRC to elevate the condemnation of “homosexual sex” to confessional status, Rod Dreher focused on the consequences for Calvin University in a recent article for…

When CRC Synod delegate Dominic Palacios said “I believe our theology around this issue has caused there to be blood on our hands, and there will continue to be blood on our hands because of it,” he lost the right to speak again for ‘violating the rules of decorum.’ CC reached out to both the…

“There are two deeply divergent interpretations of Scripture in this denomination,” Paul VanderKlay said on June 14, addressing 188 delegates of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC). To most CRC members, the degree of that difference is painfully clear, and it was only accentuated at this year’s annual meeting. Synod 2022 made three key decisions concerning…

As pundits and pew quarterbacks are struggling to find descriptions for what transpired at the Christian Reformed Church’s Synod 2022, I’m at a bit of a loss. Most descriptions are two-sided, fitting our bifurcated partisan day and age. When it comes to human sexuality, almost everyone seems to be either affirming or confessional. But I…

After a few years away from the denomination, our family decided to “return to the fold” of the Christian Reforemd Church (CRC) in Fall of 2021, and began attending Inglewood CRC here in Edmonton. Once we joined, we were sent a list of all sorts of important and useful documents, from a directory to doctrinal…

On May 6, the Hesed Project CRC published an open letter by Dr. Mary Stewart VanLeeuwen that gives new information about her role as promotor fidei, or “Devil’s Advocate,” on the Synodical Committee to Articulate a Foundation-laying Biblical Theology of Human Sexuality for the Christian Reformed Church of North American (CRCNA). The committee’s report (commonly…

I was lucky Conroy was in his office, or in total exasperation I would have spilled it all to the secretary – that’s how angry I was. “He’s not coming back in,” I told the principal. “I’ve had it with the kid. He’s a jerk, and he’s pushed me over the line. He’s out of…

The summer I was fifteen I worked for a farmer, who I’ll call ‘Jed’. Jed had a dairy herd, a lot of land and a lot of machinery. He also had a favorite tool in the pocket of his jeans, his Peterson Vice Grip. Also known as a locking plier, Jed’s vice grip could cut…

In February 14’s issue I wrote about how some politicians define “freedom” as the ability personally to do what you want (like disobeying masks and vaccine mandates) while also being able to restrict what other people do (like teaching about race in school). Since that column appeared, many new rights-restrictive bills have appeared in US…

What is the hurry on the Human Sexuality Report? It took 300 years of conversation for the church to reach consensus on the Trinity. To this day, the church discusses whether God chooses you, or whether you choose God. It is such a central question, yet there is no human answer, the Bible holds both…

“Serve one another in love.” (Gal. 5:13) I am drawn to the gospel in part because it is filled with movement, action and activity of all sorts – all aimed at transformation. It promises the healing of wounds, the restoration of relationships and the birth of unquenchable hope in the face of despair. It offers…

It’s been three years since Synod last met in-person. Since Synod 2019, a tremendous amount of change to ministry has occurred while we as Christian Reformed Church (CRC) members and leaders all waited for the day when we could have Synod together again. Such change has left the CRCNA in a state that eerily echoes…

As we rattle and rush across the icy surface of Lake Simcoe, I look out the porthole window of the Bombardier R12, watching the snowy world blow by. It’s like being transported in a school bus, really – the same dull roar and smell of exhaust and uncomfortable seats – except with dual tracks and…

Pray Away, a documentary recently released on Netflix, opens with Jeffrey McCall, a large and gentle man who drives through the rain to a strip mall where he stands under the portico and offers to pray for passersby while wielding a poster board with the words “TRANS 2 CHRIST” emblazoned across it in sticker letters….

My wife sometimes compliments me as a husband. “I’m strictly average,” I remind her. I don’t want expectations to rise. Marriages today are emotionally overloaded. We want someone who will be a lover, spouse, soulmate and friend – someone who “completes us,” as Hollywood suggests. This is much more than the biblical “suitable partner.” High…

When it comes to matters of sexual ethics, no one can quickly iron out the deep differences in the church today. So why should Christian Courier publish an article on same-sex marriage from distant Uganda? Well, I figure if we are truly part of a catholic church, we ought to hear the voices of our…

Sytsma: As difficult as it is to discuss homosexuality today, I appreciate how Christians with different perspectives all emphasize the importance of listening. Most importantly we listen to those who experience same-sex attraction themselves. But I am sensing a new desire among North American churches to listen to Christians around the world. Emmanuel, please tell…

“I can’t get two people alone in a room together, let alone worry about what they’re going to be doing with each other.” This tongue-in-cheek remark kicked off an online conversation between five Christian Reformed (CRC) pastors from across the U.S. and Canada this summer, all feeling stuck between revisionist and traditional voices in the…

I was recently involved in discussions among evangelical church leaders as to whether our churches could continue to work together. The focus was same-sex marriage, which seemed to us a convenient peg on which to hang broader questions of sexuality. The jury has not yet returned a verdict. When I say these leaders were “evangelical,”…

The Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC) is changing its theology and practice to be inclusive of same-sex marriage and to permit lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) people to be ordained as ministers and ruling elders. These changes to church law were discussed and voted on during the June 6-9, 2021 General Assembly…

It was a hot August night in 1988 when the crucial vote passed. The reactions were intense – and wildly different. Sally Boyle, watching from the gallery, shed tears of relief and happiness. Graham Scott literally tore his shirt, overcome by a sense of deep spiritual darkness. The United Church of Canada, Canada’s largest Protestant…

Preston Sprinkle is a New Testament scholar, author and speaker, and in Embodied he combines story, science and scripture to explore the intersection of sexuality, gender and faith. With a comfortable cadence, Sprinkle explores the complex relationship between the theology and science of gender with a particular focus on transgender identities. Both the conservative and…

Before the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) annual June Synod for 2021 was cancelled in late February, there were at least 58 formal responses to the Human Sexuality Report (HSR) on classical agendas (not including 15 responses specific to Neland Ave CRC). Generally, 12 were for “fully adopting” the HSR, 15 asked for “more time,” and…

The report submitted by the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) synodical committee mandated to articulate a “Foundation-laying Biblical Theology of Human Sexuality” is generating robust and critical discussion. In context of this, particularly in relation to the LGBTQ community, I have heard two faults against the church. One, that the church consistently appears to be out…

CC: You describe yourselves as “two white, American, millennial, gay and bi Christian women.” Yet your first Car Chats video is about vegetarian tacos, your favourite Harry Potter characters, music, pet peeves, personal quirks. Why did you begin your channel like that?Joey: I really wanted to bring it down to the most basic human level….

Public discourse in North America is especially turbulent. I often want to call “time out.” The responses to Jim Joosse’s recent article on human rights pushed me to dive in with this call for our reflection. The topic of human sexuality is only the most recent “issue” in a long list of important questions. It…

The first Liberation began in Utrecht. It was August 1944, after the Synod of Reformed Churches in the Netherlands kicked Klaas Schilder out of the denomination. It was a disagreement over common grace. This decision triggered one of the largest Dutch church splits since the Reformation. Over the next two years, 80,000 people followed Schilder…

Perhaps it is not a surprise that the mere installation, at Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, of a deacon who is in a same-sex marriage has stirred a controversy in the CRC. However, as a lawyer and member of the CRC, it concerns me that my faith community routinely lags…

There are times when I wish Christ was in the room with me, in the flesh. Days I wish I could have him at my side in situations where I don’t know how to respond but I know he would; I wish I could whisper my own questions in his ear, hear his answer straight…

In the 21st century, our world is plagued with all kinds of fighting. Between unrest in the Middle East, international disagreement on action for climate change and racial injustice in countries all over the world, many young people are looking for a place where they can be safe – a place they can feel at…