Did the left really filibuster at Synod 2023?

Committee 7 floor debate by the numbers.

I don’t want to bury the lede, so:

No, the left did not filibuster at Synod 2023.

In today’s post, along with follow-up posts tomorrow and probably Monday, too, I’ll work through the data.

Frustration on the right

Here’s John Klompien, pastor of Calvary CRC in Orange City, Iowa, speaking with Jason Ruis on the Messy Reformation podcast:

“The amount of—what do they call it when you’re a politician and you’re reading the phone book and not dealing with the matter at hand—the amount of filibustering—a person from my congregation said ‘it seemed like it was a weaponizing of the clock.’ We can take long enough to where we’re not going to have to deal with the practical implications of the decision… Some conversations just got way too long. We should have been able to have the votes and go forward.”

Jason Ruis, pastor of Faith Community CRC in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, in a conversation with Ryan Braam in a different episode of the same podcast:

“When I left Synod, I was definitely using terms like ‘filibustering…’ I get really wound up when I feel like political play was going on at the end.”

Lance Cleaver, not a member of the CRC, but reflecting on Synod 2023 from the outside:

“The small minority was dominating the floor time, particularly as the week wore on, and the supermajority were mainly silent other than to call the question and a few short response speeches…. DeVries had not moved the body forward in a timely fashion and put Synod23 in peril of not completing the business it was assembled to do. That is when the F word “filibuster” jumped into my mind.”

Tyler Wagenmaker, pastor of Beaverdam CRC, in the Abide Project Thursday Synod update video:

“Some of the very same voices kept getting up time after time. It was almost like they were filibustering. And I know they weren’t, but it felt like that.”

Lloyd Hemstreet, pastor of Coopersville CRC, in a discussion with Moises Pacheco:

“One thing that we saw multiple times from the affirming camp… they wouldn't take no for an answer, and I know some in your corner have talked about—was this intentional, trying to filibuster? I don't know if it was that or they were just going to say, ‘I’m here, I’m going to speak my peace.’”

By the numbers: floor discussion on Committee 7A & 7B recommendations

The details of Committee 7’s recommendations are found in Acts of Synod, p. 1004–1012. Basically, this affirmed and clarified the previous year’s Synod’s rulings on the HSR, definitions of unchastity, confessional status, and related matters.

Synod began discussing these recommendations Wednesday morning and finished partway through the Wednesday evening session. In between, there were meals, coffee breaks, worship, prayer before votes, and a presentation by Wiebe Boer. During the debate itself, in addition to speeches from the floor, there was also time spent reading the majority report, minority report, and recommendations; answering questions from the floor; and reviewing friendly amendments. The delegates spent considerable time voting, too, which in a couple of cases involved some technical difficulties.

Number of speakers

On Wednesday, there were 94 speakers:

• 67 speakers on the left (71%), though the left comprised roughly 25% of the body.

• 27 speakers on the right (29%), though the right comprised roughly 75% of the body.

Time given to speeches

Also over the course of the day, the total time spent giving speeches for or against the motions lasted 2:47:12:

• Speakers on the left spoke for 2:00:32

• Speakers on the right spoke for 0:45:40

The average speech length was almost equal:

• Speeches from the left lasted 0:01:48 on average

• Speeches from the right lasted 0:01:44 on average, including

One quick aside: it’s a bit surprising that, even though roughly ten hours elapsed between the beginning of Committee 7’s presentation and the conclusion of the vote on the final recommendation, only a little more than a quarter of that time was spent discussing the recommendations from the floor.

Calling the question

The question was called six times (I think), in all cases by those on the right:

1. By Darren, from Classis Holland, after roughly 12 minutes of debate

2. By Blake from Classis Illiana, after roughly 6 minutes of debate (this generated a gentle reprimand from Paul DeVries)

3. By Kurt from Classis Iakota, after roughly 16 minutes of debate and with 25 speakers left in the queue

4. By Dave, from Classis Thornapple, after roughly 23 minutes of debate and with 12 speakers left in the queue.

5. By Dave, from Classis Thornapple, after roughly 23 minutes of debate

6. By Dave, from Classis Thornapple, after roughly 8 minutes of debate.

On average, the right called the question after about 15 minutes of debate, which was largely dominated by the left.

Two things should stand out:

1. In every case, it was the right who called the question.

2. On Wednesday, Dave Bosscher called the question 50% of the time.

This prompted the following post on Twitter:

I can’t read Bosscher’s mind, but I sense he correctly discerned the will of the body, at least during the Wednesday debate (I haven’t looked at Thursday yet) given that the debate had already lasted well into the evening, and Synod had still not begun working through the recommendations from Committee 8.

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At the beginning of this post, I claimed that the left did not filibuster at Synod 2023. The data above certainly doesn’t seem to support this claim. Tomorrow I plan to do some analysis on the discussion of Committee 8’s recommendations on Neland and gravamina. After that, I’ll tease out why, despite the numbers, I don’t think the right’s accusations are entirely fair.

Thanks for reading,

Kent