Human Sexuality Archives

“I can’t be a coward at the pulpit.” These words, coming from Gerlyn Henry’s supervisor on the heels of the January 6th insurrection in 2021, changed Henry’s perspective on ministry. At the time, Henry was working as an assistant priest at a church in the Anglican Diocese of Toronto. New to preaching and unable to…

Beard: A Memoir of a MarriageKelly Foster LundquistEerdmans, 2025 Kelly Foster Lundquist’s memoir chronicles her ill-fated marriage to someone she deeply loved but barely knew. It’s also a social commentary on what it means to navigate being male and female in the eyes of God in the world one inhabits as a child – in…

I was raised in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Canada. Its rich Reformed tradition fed my curiosity, encouraged debate and dialogue and allowed room for questions and doubt. I found it liberating, healing, inclusive and inviting, full of hope for those seeking meaning and purpose. But it no longer feels that way to me.…

“My child has just come out as transgender. What do I do?” These days, it seems that no matter how you respond, someone will judge you harshly. These questions take on special urgency as the average age of coming out as trans is steadily dropping, and there are increasingly effective treatment options for transforming bodies.…

Kyla Gillespie’s just-released memoir, TransFormed, tells the story of growing up in Nanaimo, B.C. as a girl who never felt at home in her body. Her story includes playing professional women’s hockey in the early 2000s, alcohol addiction, same-sex attraction and relationship breakdowns. Starting in 2011, Gillespie officially changed her name to Brycen and began…

I grew up in a small town about a hundred kilometres from Vancouver. Surrounded by hobby farms and forests, I spent much of my childhood swimming in lakes, building forts and riding my bike. Gay people were barely spoken of in my family, and were rarely, if ever, encountered. It’s hard to overemphasize how culturally…

Growing up, I was somewhat sheltered from more extreme forms of purity culture. I dated, I showed my shoulders in public and, with extreme gratitude, I can say I never even knew about the bizarre world of purity balls. The extremes of American evangelical purity culture didn’t creep north of the border much, and even…

Ron Greidanus was born with the twin gifts of being prodigiously talented and being gay. But being born in the late 1960s, the fifth child of six to a hard-working, modestly-educated farm family in the Dutch immigrant community in Huron County, Ontario, it would take a long time before he could accept both of those…

“You cannot be neutral about this!”  That was what a senior denominational leader in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) told me last Spring, during a dispute over an editorial. I was the editor in chief of the CRC’s magazine, The Banner, until July 2025 when I resigned in protest. In that disputed editorial, I wrote…

This October, representatives from more than 300 denominations, all members of the World Council of Churches (WCC), will gather in Egypt to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. The creed this council produced in 325 AD begins, “We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things…

The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) held its annual general assembly in Canada last month, the first time Synod has met north of the 49th parallel since 2012. In his opening address to the delegates and guests gathered at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario, the CRCNA’s General Secretary Zachary King said that 34…

Of all the beautifully chaotic energies that exist in the world, the opening night of a new play is one of my favourites. To stand in front of a live audience is always a risky endeavour. Gay On God’s Campus: The Students & Stories Behind the Headlines, created by Trinity Western University (TWU) alumni and…

Spring is nomination season, that time of year when church councils thank retiring members and count empty seats to see how many new officebearers are needed. This spring, however, it might be harder than usual to find members ready to take on a leadership role at church – at least if Christian Courier’s survey results…

When the motion for Edmonton’s Fellowship Church’s disaffiliation from the Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA) was approved at the March 8 Classis Alberta North meeting, members of Fellowship met the news with murmurs, joined hands, smiles and tears. The motion didn’t take long: a unanimous vote, a farewell letter, a blessing and a…

Will & HarperDirected by Josh GreenbaumNetflix, 2024 The light-hearted documentary Will & Harper follows a road trip Will Farrell and Harper Steele take after Harper plays high stakes in the test of their friendship. Their journey is sparked by an email that drops into Will’s inbox. Harper, 61, writes that she “is old now and will…

Leap of FaithDirected by Nicholas MaPicturehouse, 2024. Leap of Faith is a feature-length documentary directed by Nicholas Ma and Morgan Neville, the duo behind the acclaimed 2018 documentary about Mister Rogers, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Upon its release in October 2024, churches in the U.S. hosted screenings of the film, using it as a…

When members of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Canada showed up in digital droves to say they are concerned about the future of their denomination (see pages 1,2 and 4), they also told us why. Survey participants had the option to provide context for two questions (4 and 5), and close to 500 of…

“This would give me hope for the Canadian CRC.” That comment was one of hundreds sent in to Christian Courier as part of our recent survey, specifically regarding two key questions gauging interest in a distinct Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Canada. Though at first glance the numbers seem to be overwhelmingly in support of…

On her wedding day, Yolanda knew she wasn’t in love, but she wasn’t too worried. There was still time for that. Plus, she was in love with the idea of being married, and so was her groom. It was a quick decision and a short engagement. John (not his real name) proposed eight weeks after…

Perhaps it was inevitable, and a long time coming. To many Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) supporters, perhaps it does not come as a great surprise. On February 18, ICS President Dr. Ron Kuipers and Chair of the ICS Board of Trustees Daniel Beerens wrote a letter to the Synod Secretariat of the Christian Reformed…

As a delegate to the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) Synod last June, I experienced first-hand many of the difficult implications of Synod 2024’s decisions currently consuming the agendas of local church councils and regional classes. I find that I cannot now, in good conscience, re-sign the Covenant for Officebearers, as Synod 2024 has instructed all…

Heidi De Jonge, a former Christian Reformed Church (CRC) minister and chaplain, still remembers the night when she realized she would have to leave the denomination in which she was born and raised. She and her husband Tim were brushing their teeth before bed, listening to the proceedings of Synod 2016. “We just looked at…

We’re in our corner in Grace Manor dining hall – the Young People from the past. We’re a bit worried about our friend Jan Piersma, the one with “Old-timers” disease. He came to our table this morning and his whole face had sunken in. He sat down beside Douwe, the horse breeder – Frisian horses,…

THE WIDENING OF GOD’S MERCY: SEXUALITY WITHIN THE BIBLICAL STORYChristopher B. Hays, Richard B. HaysYale University Press, 2024. The release of this book, by the father-and-son biblical scholar duo of Richard and Christopher Hays, was highly anticipated by many affirming folks in the church. For Richard Hays to write this book is especially significant. His…

Catholic church order will never be the same. After tens of thousands of listening sessions at the parish and diocesan levels on every continent, and two month-long gatherings of bishops and lay people in Rome in 2023 and 2024, the Roman Catholic Church says it is ready to be a synodal church – a church…

For decades, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) has described itself to itself as a denomination made up of three strands. Sometimes we use slightly different terms for each of these strands, and for at least half a century the CRC has described itself as a three-legged stool with a creed-emphasizing leg, a worldview (Kuyperian)-emphasizing leg,…

Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA) members from 116 congregations (representing 17 percent of the denomination and roughly 32,000 people) met in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a Convening of Concerned Congregations in August. Why were they concerned? It’s complicated. Nate DeJong-McCarron, the director of a group called Better Together, said the event was organized…

In early June, an unanticipated water-main rupture caused a Calgary-wide state of emergency. Later that same month, at the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) Synod 2024, another rupture occurred that everyone saw coming, but one that poses far-reaching challenges for the Canadian CRC. Synod 2024 decided to adopt a traditional, non-inclusive position on human sexuality and…

On one of the last days in June, we sneaked into church five minutes late. The Grade 12s looked resplendent in their dark blue gowns, cap tassels swinging jauntily with every movement. We waved at Emerson, a close family friend, and got ready to cheer our hearts out for his moment on stage. It was…

“I don’t want to see anyone leave,” one synodical delegate said of the motion to suspend dissenting churches and office-bearers, “but as Abraham was asked to offer up Isaac in obedience to faith, I see this as an act of obedience to faith.” Hearing this analogy reminded me of a college student who was struggling…

Two years ago, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) held that any and all same sex relations are a form of unchastity. As such, per Lord’s Day 41, God condemns those relations and we are each called to detest them. This year, we decided what we are going to do with those who disagree. Synod 2024’s…

In team sports, it’s common for the coach to call a time-out when the game has gotten off track. At the pitching mound or hockey bench, a time-out is a brief opportunity to get back to fundamentals. After the way that the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) Synod handled the Human Sexuality Report (HSR), I wonder…

Summertime is the season for boats, or at least boating analogies. Angela Reitsma Bick and I have a book (to be released this September) that features boats as a spiritual analogy for the deconstruction and reconstruction of faith. We write mostly about canoes that run aground or get capsized. That’s how it feels in the…

In what might have been one of the most dramatic meetings in Canadian Christian school history, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the Edmonton Society for Christian Education (ESCE) began at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 4, and didn’t end until nearly 2 a.m. the next morning. When the gym doors opened at 6 p.m.,…

I wrote most of this before Synod 2024 began. But I was certain we’d still be talking about it, for good or for ill. In 2022 and 2023, Synod discussed the Human Sexuality Report (HSR) and decided by a majority vote that the seventh commandment forbidding adultery, as explained in the Heidelberg Catechism, includes same-sex…

On June 14th, almost 200 pastors, elders and deacons from across Canada and the U.S. will gather in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) Synod. Jim Poelman, a retired pastor from Morpeth, Ontario, says he and his fellow delegates will need the wisdom of Solomon to keep the denomination together since “The…

At the end of January, Alberta’s government implemented a set of policies that require schools to communicate more with parents about sexual orientation and gender identity issues. Teachers in the province now need to give parents notice before covering any human sexuality topics. Students under the age of 15 also need parental permission if they…

It’s a contentious time in the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC). I believe the stand the denomination has taken with regard to human sexuality is a necessary one. But that doesn’t mean I’m indifferent to the grief many are experiencing as a result. In the interest of mutual understanding, I’d like to do…

1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted CultureDirected by Sharon “Rocky” RoggioAcowsay Film Company, 2022. A distinguishing mark of Reformed biblical interpretation is the acknowledgement of context. The Bible is a library of texts, each of which arises out of a particular context. The collected, canonical Scriptures as a whole also arose from a context. Our translations…

In mid-November, James Dekker interviewed Ryan Struyk, Grand Rapids native and life-long member of the Christian Reformed Church. Calvin University named Struyk its 2021 Young Alumni Award winner. Struyk is Senior Producer for CNN’s Sunday “State of the Union.” Ryan and the show’s team won a 2023 Emmy Award for their coverage of the first…