Dutch Reformed Church is About to Split Over Homosexuality


What used to be called the Dutch Reformed Church is now called simply the Reformed Church. It is big in Iowa. Non Iowans may have heard of the Tulip Festival in Pella, Iowa.

Because the person or two I know from the denomination is very religious and conservative and a prominent state politician is the same, I always assumed the entire denomination was uniformly conservative on all the hot button issues. It turns out I was wrong. 

A substantial minority of the denomination wants to accept gay members and gay pastors. They feel so strongly about this they are threatening to split and form a gay accepting branch of the Reformed Church. Incidentally, the Reformed Church is the oldest denomination in the U. S. 

Very shortly the Reformed Church will hold its annual convention called a synod. A leader claims that at the synod Reformed delegates from across the denomination come together to "discern the mind of Jesus." This strike me a funny. Is it always by majority vote they discern the mind of Jesus? A majority vote has nothing to do with the mind of an imaginary Jesus. It discerns the minds of the delegates who vote.

As all readers no doubt know, this is merely another denomination being split over the gay issue. I've not heard of a single denomination which grew larger than it was before the split by hammering away at the sin of being attracted to the same sex. The spotlight on anti gay Christianity has dimmed and will eventually go out. We can see this by the ages of conservative congregations. 

At the upcoming synod there will be a lot of praying. Both sides will say or imply they have heard from God and the other side is wrong. While all of this praying is going on young people in the Reformed Church are tip toeing out the door and not coming back. All the tulips in the world will not overcome a mistake conservatives make when they "discern" God hates gay people the same way they do.

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