I grew up in one of the small, outlying churches. There was a running gag about kneeling and praying to Grand Rapids 5 times a day.
The thing is this: That "circulatory system" only ever accounted for about 15% of what would be the CRC equivalent of the Managerial Elite. Which is why all the wheels fell off the bus so quickly. MOST people didn't send their kids to Calvin - it was way too expensive.
While the CRC "elites" thought that everybody really DID "burn their wooden shoes" when The Banner told them to back in the 80's, those same small churches continued to actually teach genuine catechism classes on Wednesday nights. (I know. I went to them. With textbooks that had been printed in the 50's.)
The major reason that CRC didn't fragment as the RCA did was that the CRC Synod has more power to allow the Right to stand against the minority elites. Where, in the RCA, the Right was left with the option of utilizing that excellent set of organizational skills to create the ARC.
Listening to your convo with Paul and Dr. Libolt right now. I was at LC when Dr. Libolt was interim principal and taught bible history in 2019: he introduced me to Paul's channel.
Can you explain for a newcomer how changes in the urban churches in the 1960s and 1970s led to liberalization? Calvin professor Mark Mulder has written about how the Chicago CRC congregations suburbanized. But the leading progressive CRC congregations in GRE didn't suburbanize (Neland Ave, Sherman St., Eastern Ave, etc.). Instead they stayed in the city and are nearly all white congregations located in majority Black neighborhoods but very close to the gentrification frontier.
This is an East Grand Rapids phenomenon. Even the suburbs/rest of west Michigan are weary of the detached left leaning institution they have control over
this is really helpful Thanks for putting this together. I'm going to share it with our elders.
You nailed it. Thanks for taking the time to write it out in an organized, coherent way rather than relying on my dissheveled ramblings. :) pvk
Thanks, Paul!
Heh. Yes.
I grew up in one of the small, outlying churches. There was a running gag about kneeling and praying to Grand Rapids 5 times a day.
The thing is this: That "circulatory system" only ever accounted for about 15% of what would be the CRC equivalent of the Managerial Elite. Which is why all the wheels fell off the bus so quickly. MOST people didn't send their kids to Calvin - it was way too expensive.
While the CRC "elites" thought that everybody really DID "burn their wooden shoes" when The Banner told them to back in the 80's, those same small churches continued to actually teach genuine catechism classes on Wednesday nights. (I know. I went to them. With textbooks that had been printed in the 50's.)
The major reason that CRC didn't fragment as the RCA did was that the CRC Synod has more power to allow the Right to stand against the minority elites. Where, in the RCA, the Right was left with the option of utilizing that excellent set of organizational skills to create the ARC.
Just for some extra data, I graduated from LC in 2022 and wrote an article for class that year analyzing the denominational background of the student population: https://richardwilson.substack.com/p/more-and-more-students-are-coming
Listening to your convo with Paul and Dr. Libolt right now. I was at LC when Dr. Libolt was interim principal and taught bible history in 2019: he introduced me to Paul's channel.
Can you explain for a newcomer how changes in the urban churches in the 1960s and 1970s led to liberalization? Calvin professor Mark Mulder has written about how the Chicago CRC congregations suburbanized. But the leading progressive CRC congregations in GRE didn't suburbanize (Neland Ave, Sherman St., Eastern Ave, etc.). Instead they stayed in the city and are nearly all white congregations located in majority Black neighborhoods but very close to the gentrification frontier.
Solid Article!
This is an East Grand Rapids phenomenon. Even the suburbs/rest of west Michigan are weary of the detached left leaning institution they have control over
Growing up in East Palmyra NY we always knew GR as Mecca or GR-usalem. Thanks for the informative post.
We called it the “Holy Land”