Has the effective conformist practice of the CRC for the last 20-30 years gotten us into the position we now find ourselves in where churches and pastors have, perhaps until recently, thought they could hold widely divergent views and still be OK?
I think that is correct. One of the things that I appreciate about Harry Boer was that he questioned the morality of the conformist approach. As Jesus said, "Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything else is from the Evil One." My hypothesis is that sometime in the 80s or 90s some people who were conformists felt the pinch of Harry's criticism. And so they jerry-rigged a way to use confessional-difficulty gravamina in order to get around it. Allow that practice to continue for about 10 years and everyone starts thinking that "This is the way things have always been."
Another aspect of this is simply being okay with our identity. Those conservative conformists who want to bend on baptism, etc., end up in an essentially non denominational, broadly evangelical church. We have to be okay saying “this is who we are and that’s okay.. You may be a better fit at another church.”
Has the effective conformist practice of the CRC for the last 20-30 years gotten us into the position we now find ourselves in where churches and pastors have, perhaps until recently, thought they could hold widely divergent views and still be OK?
I think that is correct. One of the things that I appreciate about Harry Boer was that he questioned the morality of the conformist approach. As Jesus said, "Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything else is from the Evil One." My hypothesis is that sometime in the 80s or 90s some people who were conformists felt the pinch of Harry's criticism. And so they jerry-rigged a way to use confessional-difficulty gravamina in order to get around it. Allow that practice to continue for about 10 years and everyone starts thinking that "This is the way things have always been."
Another aspect of this is simply being okay with our identity. Those conservative conformists who want to bend on baptism, etc., end up in an essentially non denominational, broadly evangelical church. We have to be okay saying “this is who we are and that’s okay.. You may be a better fit at another church.”