If You are a Real Calvinist, I Am a Condemnable Idolater!
June 16, 2006
Passed on via Amy Welborn, M(ichigan)live.com reports on a current Christian Reformed Church Synodical meeting that has been “attempting to tone down” their 1563 declaration in the Heidelberg Catechism that the Catholic Mass is “a condemnable idolatry.”
Apparently there is no real theological goal or motive at work; the Synod is not considering any practical implications (for itself) of moving toward some implied approval of the Mass. No, this Synod is really a Public Relations Bureau.
Two years ago, the CRC decided it wasn’t interested in maintaining that mean old slight against the Mass (and in essense a major motive of the Calvinist Reformation), but they couldn’t decide how to replace it. But replace it they must, in order to assuage the hurt feelings of western Michigan Catholics “who work with or marry CRC members.”
Of course this excuse is pure dog’s bollocks on its face. Are we to suppose the old HC comes up often over the water cooler? And a Catholic who marries a CRC member ought to be marrying a Catholic and former CRC member. But I suppose that kind of talk must really harsh the mellow of folks who want to be “accepted” in both churches, though probably not in the sense of “accepted as members” because that entails, on both sides, other uncomfortable affirmations, renunciations, etc. Much better to, “In classic CRC fashion,” reach “a complicated compromise.” The proposed compromise is to keep the offending passage but put it in brackets, “accompanied by a footnote explaining members are not required to recognize it.” Supposedly “The aim is to preserve the integrity of a historic text but also ‘function as a warning’ against any idolatrous teachings that deny Christ’s final sacrifice.” In other words, if you think the Mass entails idolatry and that kind of denial, that is fine. If you don’t think so, that is fine too. But most of all, the CRC doesn’t care what you think, or if you have an opinion on that matter at all. It will not be drawn into such petty disputes about unimportant items such as salvation, sacraments, liturgy, and whether we “Romanists” are/are not contemptible idolaters. This method of “getting to yes” has high promise for the CRC as it slowly follows the UCC and ELCA, drifting into a lukewarm stew of post-Christian gas that wants to be admired and respected by all and offensive to none except “fundamentalists.”
This is If You are a Real Calvinist, I Am a Condemnable Idolater! in The Japery, a part of The New Pantagruel. Previously: Friendly Fire in the House of the Lord | Next: On the Illusion of Thinking as Acting | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)
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