So let’s assume peak CRC was around the early 70s. We had Report 44,
the start of WICO, and even the 73 homosexuality report was considered
“enlightened” at the time.
Richard lists lots of RJ articles, bringing the receipts to what Dawn
and others have essentially been pushing here. The CRC heyday was when
the postWW2 energy was ascending and they managed to blend the best of
the old world with the new world. Calvin College had it’s legendary
Philosophy department. All the big names were cutting their teeth on
real theological meat before they went to Harvard, Yale, Notre Dame
and Fuller. We were doing REAL theology and that coalition would rule
the roost until the late 2010s and then big bad Abide came in and
ruined it all.
they had 50 years of owning Synod and Calvin. They lost some of their
mojo in the transition at CTS after WICO. When i was at CTS in the
late 80s there was certainly a new wave of more evangelical and
conservative CTS profs coming in to replace Bandstra, Stek and
Holwerda. Klooster was always conservative. Neal Plantinga would stay
in house and even become CTS Prez.
It’s not like this group of golden white men didn’t rule the roost.
You can even throw a bunch of women’s names in there if you want to.
What they didn’t do is secure a future for their vision in the CRC. Why?
My guess is that the successive generation kept climbing the hierarchy
on a bigger stage.
This has a lot to do with Christian Smith’s commplaint about Notre Dame.
https://firstthings.com/why-im-done-with-notre-dame/
It’s the same complaint that Mark Galli made on his way out the door
of both editorship of CT AND evangelicalism
“For the longest time, a thrill went through the office when
Christianity Today or evangelicalism in general was mentioned in a
positive vein by The New York Times or The Atlantic or other such
leading, mainstream publications. The feeling in the air was, ‘We made
it. We’re respected.’ This irritated me, because I naturally believed
that CT’s outlook was superior (since it was grounded in the truth of
the gospel and not secularism), so I often commented that we had
things backward: The New York Times ought to be thrilled when it gets
a positive mention in Christianity Today.”
While some stayed with the CRC like Dawn. Had the good sense to marry
a CRC minister, most others flew the coop. They didn’t bother with
Calvin but went to a state school or ivy league if they could get in.
There were bigger and brighter ladders to climb than CRC ones.
That hole in the demographic of the church are the children of the CRC
aristocracy who got to the top of the CRC and thought PCUSA or
Episcopalian was where the real hierarchy led.
Actually many learned that church itself was sort of a waste of time
when politics was really where the action was.
The CRC was a nostalgia product and selectively a lower tier
employment strategy when the post-war boom overinflated PhDs so your
advanced humanities degree wasn’t getting you onto a preferred tenure
track at a prestigious school.
The boomers themselves who had stayed CRC migrated back to GR for
retirment from the diaspora. Cheaper homes, onze institutions, old
Calvin friends. Very attractive prospects, but their kids have gone on
to settle in Babylon.
Richard’s link list smells of leeks and onions by the Nile.
The leadership vision of a new diverse CRC population attracted by our
Reformed theology got carjacked by the YRR movement. They CAME for our
heritage, at least the one where the books were already in the public
domain.
The leftovers who were still CRC elites but not National elites said
“no no, wrong heritage. Not Berkhoff!” But it was too late.
The plan had worked too well. Go back and listen to the speeches on
the floor of Synod 2022 where young diverse non-dutch men said “I CAME
for the theology and the HSR speaks my language…”
Rita cries for her children but the brightest and the best of that
generation aren’t coming back to a CRC even if they go to any church
at all. https://youtu.be/-ewEgqtzRm8?si=K4PKPRA1I2CHJVgh
That generation cries “we’ll leave the light on for your” but the
truth is they are staying in better hotels in their minds than the CRC
Motel 6.
The ones who have inherited the old home are the ones who love it and
want to make it their own. Can you blame them? Apparently so.
pvk
Leadingchurch.com 