by Rev. Leonard Vander Zee
Statements Against Heterosexual Marriages Only
Statement
Lamenting Synod’s “dishonorable” power move of stacking the committee with only those who agree with the 1973 synodical report.
At the Synod of 2016 Vander Zee was the interim editor of the Banner. He acknowledged the traditional position of 1973 and the new ways of looking at this matter. He perceived a group of concerned members were alarmed this was getting out of hand. That might have been a new opportunity, a fresh approach to evaluate this topic. But it turned out to be a power move on the part of that synod. He was stunned and angry. The committees covering the matter of the ordination of women, the inspiration of Scripture, marriage and divorce, those committees all contained members from both sides of those issues. This committee was deliberately stacked to produce the position it did. He says synod 2016 was dishonorable.
Other views were dismissed, in the wrong way at times.
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Response
Are there guidelines for selecting members of committees? Has there ever been a committee that consisted of people holding to the same position? Perhaps it should be proposed that all committees need to have representation from both sides of a matter?
Knowing five years ago that the committee had to all agree with the 1973 report, it would have been a good time to immediately begin producing the videos such as All One Body now has. And it would have been good to present arguments from Scripture supporting the practice of same-sex marriage.
Yet, if this website is accurate, Brownson’s book, a key study advocating same-sex marriage, contains 15 critical errors. Grand Rapids East’s overture in 2016 did not so much make exegetical claims for why the church should accept same-sex marriages, rather, it claimed multiple times that there are good theologians who believe same-sex marriages are good, almost implying that if there are good people holding to a given position, then that position should be an option to hold in the church. When has the church ever taken that position relative to a theological matter as important as the definition of marriage? The young people who produced Overture 20 in 2021 (2022) noted regretfully that they didn’t have the time to delve deeply into some of the passages. With the cancellation of synod 2021 due to COVID they had another year to further pursue such work. Will they present additional material?
If having all the members of the committee agree with the statement of 1973 is such a travesty, then it seems like the additional publications of the last 50 years would shed some light on this topic such that it would be possible to find an error or deficiency in the report that committee produced. Yet, the above studies have failed to bring such errors to light. Is there an argument that the last 50 years have produced that the report does not handle properly? These things should tell us something.
The purpose of this website is to present arguments from both sides. Anyone presenting one biblical argument that successfully supports same-sex marriage will have a voice here. Such an argument will be posted. And, if it is irrefutable, it will be elevated to the peak of the pyramid of arguments so that it is prominent and the most visible. The matter of who served on the committee is a matter of history. Let’s focus now on what teachings are true to Scripture.