Nothing Synod can reasonably do will likely satisfy many conservatives. EVEN if Synod passes the HSR complete with the “It’s always been confessional” statement there will not be a progressive which hunt through clergy and laity to exile anyone with affirming tendencies. It won’t happen. It’s not in the CRC way. Anything short of that I fear will not satisfy some conservatives and I suspect that for some they can’t even articulate a demand that could be reasonably met by the denomination in terms of where it’s at.

I expect Synod to pass the HSR as such and try to do some nuancing on “confessional” and/or “heresy”. It will hold to our basic position since 1973.

So, to those who lean progressive, how much REALLY do you want Synod to pursue “unity”? Do we do so by counting? Do we count noses and decide which “unity” we desire? My guess is that there are MORE conservatives in danger of being lost than progressives so such “Unity” would mean a hard turn to the right. That turn I don’t think the USS CRCNA can in any reasonable degree make.

Synod will ALSO try to do SOMETHING with GRE and Neland. It will be too little too late for the conservatives. EVEN if Synod issued an ultimatum to GRE to cease and desist it would be BY next year meaning that some conservatives won’t want to wait. See First Ripon CA.

What I hear is that any action taking against the progressives somehow violates “unity” and that the choice of “unity” is “the local option”. It’s a stretch to imagine a very libertarian political move to be “unity” when what you’re really asking for is “diversity” of vision and application in the hopes of NOT losing what is actually a smaller loss than a larger one.

Remember the PVK rule of church “unity”. Churches split right and leak left.

So, what “unity” are we talking about? Unity of perspective? We’re not close to that.

The only way to pursue that is to segregate ON perspective. That’s a VERY big split and realistically a dissolution.

If “unity” means “keeping the family together” that isn’t going to happen. People are going to “leave”. More will leave to the right than the left and they will leave AS churches. GRE and Neland won’t leave voluntarily.

What really are progressives asking for when they say “unity”? I’m not sure. It sounds like “keep participating in this institution, keep reading our books, keep ministry shares going, keep reading our stories about gay suffering at the hands of the tyrannical traditionalism until you are united with us in our evolved and evolving position.”

Conservatives has no such agenda for progressives. They’ve given up trying to change minds and heart and are looking to stop the “contamination” and have a more “pure” grouping of like-minded people so they can continue to teach their children and churches their position. They are looking to be united in their position. No evolved and evolving. Why? Look up “conservative” in the dictionary.

Conservatives are basically saying “we’re no longer going to be subject to your attempts to change our mind on the matter and we’re certainly NOT going to pay for your institutions that are facilitating the mind-changing”.

So whoever wants to promote “unity” is really going to have to tell us what they are talking about. pvk