To: Calvin University Board of Trustees, President Greg Elzinga, Provost Noah Toly
Calvin University
Grand Rapids, Michigan
From: Timothy R. Van Deelen, Ph.D.
Dear trustees and leaders of Calvin University:
I write you to defend academic freedom at my Alma Mater, Calvin University (Class of 1988).
In July 2024, I assumed Chair duties for the most storied academic department in my field of wildlife ecology, the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin Madison, one of our nation’s top public research universities. Though I am proud of my position, my intent is not to brag, but to give you background for two points: 1) I am professionally and personally invested in excellence in academics and 2) I was uniquely advantaged by my education at Calvin.
After arriving to begin my master’s degree at the University of Montana in 1988, I asked my advisor (who was also chair of the department) why he recommended me, a biology major from a small college in Michigan when there were so many potential applicants from other big universities with actual majors in wildlife ecology who would have had much more specific disciplinary training than I had in the field.
He told me that he could find dozens of students who could “change a tire” but he wanted a student who could think. In other words, he could find dozens of students with more advanced technical training, but he was aware of Calvin’s reputation (he was a University of Michigan grad) and understood the value of a rigorous liberal arts education.
That reputation in the wider academic world is now at risk at the very moment when Calvin is buttressing its programs and presence as it steps up from college to university. Do not fail to miss the urgency here.
To guard, foster, and advance Calvin’s academic excellence you simply must allow your excellent and accomplished faculty to follow their consciences on the matter of human sexuality, which has come under threat by the recent and controversial decision of the Christian Reformed Church Synod 2024 that an anti-homosexual stance must be confessional. Failure to do this will damage badly your ability to retain and recruit top faculty in their fields, hurt student recruitment at a time when small institutions are competing for a diminishing number of potential students, and will degrade the presence of academic freedom, the very intellectual lifeblood of the university.
I know from my own decades of experience with students that following the CRC Synod’s emerging direction for more restrictive campus policy will also isolate and hurt vulnerable students on your campus. No amount of preaching piously from the administrative on-high to “love the sinner but hate the sin” on the matter of homosexuality will change that. Calvin, a university I love, should strive to be a welcoming space where LGBTQ+ students and the people who love them, feel safe and vested, are affirmed as loved by God, and nurtured to become contributors to God’s coming kingdom that this world desperately needs.
Elevating the view of homosexuality promulgated by this summer’s Synod to confessional status is not a consensus view of human sexuality among most leaders of the CRC or especially, I suspect, your faculty. Indeed, your gravamina process almost certainly underestimates the number of your affirming faculty who may be reluctant to file given questions about process and how gravamina could affect their employment. This would be especially true of pre-tenure faculty. Synod 2024’s decision was the outcome of political maneuvering as evidenced by the ongoing controversy in the CRC and among its churches. This realization alone is evidence that the matter is only settled in a narrow bureaucratic sense and hence, that one’s convictions on this matter should not be a litmus test for Calvin’s professors nor their teaching.
I suspect that even your faculty of unsettled commitment on the matter are committed to open and on-going conversation and academic freedom for their colleagues. And again, shutting off scholarship and discussion on this point and requiring compliance of new hires will damage your ability to recruit top faculty, not only those who are affirming, but also those who rightfully value free inquiry.
I was a student during the years of controversy over Howard Van Til’s book, The Fourth Day and I remember the thoughtful and faithful discussions I had with my professors and how I benefitted from them. I remain grateful for the education I received at Calvin and for how it uniquely contributed to my success and satisfaction in my own work. Back then, Calvin resisted calls to restrict what its faculty could think or say on a controversial matter that was largely only controversial outside of academia. You should resist now. I have friends and colleagues on Calvin’s faculty, people whom I value for their thoughtfulness and rigorous Christian scholarship. They deserve your trust.
Do not force them into a Hobson’s choice between their conscience and their calling.
Timothy R. Van Deelen Ph.D.
Waunakee, Wisconsin
Disclaimer: This letter is the opinion of Tim Van Deelen alone and should not be understood as the official position of the Reformed Journal or any of its contributors.
My heart sings.
So well said. I share your concerns. Calvin stands tall in the historic Christian and academic worlds. May its legacy of rigorous scholarship continue.
Thank you for your witness and call to a more excellent way. This Hope grad applauds your willingness to face this challenge and name it.
Thank you for saying what so many Calvin alumni believe. I pray that their will be listening ears, open hearts, and thoughtful minds.
Thank You!
Thank you, Tim, for this letter. I pray that Calvin, my ‘college’, too, will always be able to be open to how the Spirit leads us in loving all of our brothers and sisters, no matter their sexuality or anything else. I always appreciate your posts – they open my eyes to loving God’s creation more.
Thank you for this intelligent, bold, and beautiful statement.
Thanks for the salient case you make here. The matter of Calvin’s relationship to the CRC has been discussed among faculty for years. If I was in charge today, I would be researching how other faith-based universities separated from the churches that created and owned them.
And I would gladly join you in that research….
Absolutely, yes!
Thanks Tom, for clearly laying out a strong case for academic freedom. As an alum and retired faculty member (served 42 years) and a member of an affirming CRC, I too fear for Calvin’s future if they cave to recent synodical decisions. Prayers for Calvin’s BOT and Cabinet as they navigate these murky waters.
Tim! Not Tom (sorry Tom!)
Nancy,
Your comment reminds me of the one semester course that I took with you somewhere around 1990 I do not recall what it was, but please know that every time I’ve seen your name since then, my mind is filled with nothing but deep respect. Thank you for your many years incredible teaching & shaping of young lives. Well done.
Thanks Randy, for your kind words! It means a lot to me.
Thank you Tim. Calvin is at an inflection point. Whatever way they go will be controversial and risk-filled. So Calvin, why don’t you set aside all the risk calculating and just seek to discern the right thing to do? Don’t we believe God is big enough to protect and bless Calvin for doing the right thing?
Amen
Thank you, Tim, for this grace-filled letter calling Calvin to trust God and step into the future as an inclusive place for faculty and students, continuing to teach how to think deeply and act justly.
Thank you for your passionate letter. I completely agree with you.
I had a similar experience after graduating from Calvin. While teaching in Wisconsin, I enrolled in Masters degree program at the University of Wisconsin. I was sent a long list for literature of which, they said, I should be familiar. During my fourth summer in the program, I had to take a comprehensive test in English literature. After the test, I was called in the office of some program official. He asked where I had done my under-graduate work. I told him that I had studied at small college in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “You were exceptionally well-prepared for graduate school,” he told him.
Sadly, I suspect the Calvin I love will have to become independent of the CRC or risk going down with a sinking ship.
Yes – A ship that will surely sink. There’s no maybe here.
Thank you, Tim, for a thoughtfully written essay. I am reminded of Mark Hiskes’ Reformed Journal Blog of June 3, entitled: “A Word to Gatekeepers.” I have also enjoyed your past essays regarding nature.
Harold Gazan
Thanks for this, Tim. I think it is time for the Calvin administration to take a stand for the Core Virtues that were affirmed in the “Statement of Purpose” affirmed by the Calvin faculty 25 years ago. Of particular salience now are the virtues of Honesty and Courage.
“Intellectual honesty . . . means not dismissing data, evidence, or argument in order to hang on to our favorite theories, not covering our eyes and stopping our ears in order to remain in our mental, moral, social, or religious comfort zones.”
“Intellectual courage signifies the willingness to take risks, to take on the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they lead. It means relinquishing one’s position when that position has been shown no longer to be tenable, as well as holding on to one’s well-grounded convictions in the face of ridicule and hostility.”
Show us that you really meant that, Calvin!
Thank you, well said.
Thank you. I was heartbroken by the actions of both the CRC and RCA. Let us keep the doors to our churches and institutions open, so all may experience His wisdom and grace. Let us lead by pursuing knowledge and love.
Tiim,
Thanks for this outstanding post. As a retired professor (36 years in the History Dept) I agree with all you wrote and with the comments above. I won’t repeat that here.
But I have a simple question that I’d like someone, if not you, to clarify: can Calvin not just walk away from the CRC and dissolve the relationship with the church? As you and others say, we can’t run a quality liberal arts college under the constraints that the (I think wrong-headed) Synod insists on.
Thank you Professor Wells! History 102 in my first year at Calvin remains memorable. Your teaching stands as an example of intellectual inquiry within the context of faith, unrestricted by these kinds of authoritarian (and I agree, wrong-headed) restraints.
I believe the answer is that it’s not so easy to walk away, as Calvin as an institution is “owned” by the CRC. While the denom pays very little support to the university these days, the assets of the university do belong to the CRCNA. A tangled web woven too long ago to easily untangle.
As to your question, Prof. Wells, if I’m correct the college is technically owned by the denomination. Such an action would have to come from synodical initiative. From what I am aware, a large number of moderates, as well as some conservatives, are neutral about an independent Calvin. The case would have to be made that this severing is mutually beneficial, and not made in terms that just appeal to those in academia. One ground, for instance, might be that Calvin is not a “denominational college” in the sense that it was in years past. When I attended, it was made up of 80% CRC students. The current proportion has flipped, with 80% of students coming from outside the denomination. I am sure that other substantial grounds might be found.
Thank you, Tim! This needed to be written. I would like to see it distributed widely among Calvin alumni and the denomination. As a Calvin alumnus and professor emeritus, I would be the first to sign this appeal to Calvin’s Board and administration.
I too am eager to sign. For the goodness of onward.
Thanks Tim for writing this letter. It is vitally important for many to realize the importance of Calvin and its place in the world.
I am not a Calvin graduate, but I did teach at the college at one time.
I have wondered about Ron Wells’ question as well. I hope and trust that wise folks are imagining possible ways forward. I have been out of the CRC for 30 years but that formational identity still runs deep in me. Tim, your voice is so important – thank you for this blog!
Thanks Tim! I agree with your well written letter and the comments. Calvin graduate, Class of ’63.
And I agree with my Dad, Duard Warsen. I have appreciated my Calvin education, but now, having joined the ranks of higher education faculty (GVSU), find myself embarrassed to have it on my CV. Professors at the time, in the late 80’s and early 90’s were much more compassionate than this recent synodical dictum. I still appreciate them, but the optics of “Calvin University” are troubling at best.
Thanks for the thoughtful letter
I have a similar experience — a wonderful, engaged, lively, open, confident education at Calvin. Calvin trained me to think. Opened the world. Embracing the sovereignty of God as the core principle of Calvinism, it looked to learn from all the world regardless of the world’s stances or positions or worldviews. Now I am chair of the English Department at Washington University in St. Louis, able to speak confidently about faith in a secular and pluralistic setting. I owe a great deal of that to Calvin. I want Calvin to flourish, but it can only flourish under a capacious Reformed worldview open to engagement with the world in ways that will not restrict faculty on this matter.
Clearly the conservative right, in its pietistic fervor, utterly failed to consider the destructive concentric circles radiating out from their decisions. Where do I sign the petition? And one for the church too!
Class of 1980 alumna here. I lived in the Washington DC area for some years after graduating and learned that the Physics PhD program at the University of Maryland loved Calvin grads for the same reason. I was interested in your Howard Van Til example in this light: bitter controversy in the Calvin community (making that incredible man’s life so difficult) and deep appreciation of the program’s strengths within a liberal arts education outside it.
I don’t have much hope, but I’m so glad you wrote this. Thank you
I have no hope, yet I, too, am glad Mr Van Deelen wrote this.
“Hopeless may be how you feel just before leaving an unhealthy relationship. Hopelessness may allow you to sink deeply into feeling rather than distracting yourself with busy work. Hopeless may be how you feel about trying to be perfect, so you stop that and just start living. Hopelessness may help you stop trying to control everything. Hopeless may be a doorway to change as you trust the space left once you give up hope that this particular thing you want will get better. Maybe hopelessness happens just before a revolution.” (Jessica Del Pozo, Ph.D)
Amen, amen, amen!
It is indeed heart-warming to see so many people and Calvin grads rallying in support of Tim’s blog today. I’m sure there are thousands that agree. I too hope there is a viable path forward for Calvin and the CRC as we all try to imagine what the future may hold. Only God knows.
Totally agree! Class of ’63
Each of us signed below so appreciate your clear and stellar letter!
We too are sincerely concerned for Calvin University, its professors, students, and for any possible hires, and students going forward.
Thank you so very much!
We are all alumni of Calvin. We hugely appreciated our professors and our open discussions on so many topics!
Tim, I too totally agree with you.
You can add our names to the letter:
Rodney and Jennifer Haveman
Class of 98
I agree. Well said. Add my name, Ethan Haveman
Tim,
I’ll add my gratitude to the chorus of voices here. What a powerful and timely piece of writing. Cindy and I (’79) would gladly sign on to such a letter.
Mark
As would Ginny & I, class of ’78 and ’77.
Calvin U needs independence from the denom, under whose current tenor it would otherwise become Hillsdale-West.
You beat me to the comment 🙂 Unfortunately this is the goal.
Thank you for your letter which spells out perfectly the challenge now facing our alma mater – Class of 64 in my case. Calvin needs to remain an affirming space for all students and retain a faculty that is not constrained by this regressive decision by Synod! Fran Hackney
Thank you, Tim! May it be so!!
Almost all of the commenter are remembering Calvin (University) from 40 to 60 years ago. It is not the same Calvin today.
My son, Ethan Haveman, graduated this spring. I think Calvin has changed in many ways. Some good, in many ways not so great, but whenever possible, we should avoid “catastrophizing” (I’m not saying you’re doing that, but we can sometimes slip into that way of thinking).
There is hope for our institutions and there is so much good going on in them. The future can be bright and amazing and change for the better. We can be part of that with letters like this.
I wondered about this, Lena. Two of our kids started at Calvin but transferred after their first year. Third kid didn’t even look at Calvin.
Thanks Tim,
It is important to note that the vote to affirm the principle of academic freedom at Calvin was made during the time when the BOT was made up of a representative of each classis within the denomination. There was great disagreement on the issue but in the end, we listened to all points of view before reaching an affirmative vote. I challenge the present BOT to reiterate this basic principle: faculty need the freedom to pursue questions within their area of scholarship wherever that may lead. The University and the CRC denomination can then continue to carry on its historical legacy of preparing students for their place within the wider world.
Thank you for speaking with such clarity, conviction, honesty, and prophetic urgency.
Even now as we consider the fate of Calvin we must remember that its board is comprised of CRC members who now must agree with the recent synodical decisions or be replaced- any action by the board to separate must come immediately before Calvin’s board is dominated by the Abides. They have organized themselves to take over all boards and have already gained those toe holds as evidenced by recent appointments made by synod. This makes the recent synod decisions insidious- a slow fade -we may as well rename ourselves the satellite campus of a certain Iowa university?
Thank you so much, Tim, for these timely and profound reflections. Academic freedom is, indeed, the very lifeblood of any respectable university, and that is especially true for Christian colleges and universities. I have two modest suggestions for you: 1) take a serious glimpse at William Ringenberg’s “The Christian College and the Meaning of Academic Freedom”; and 2) Calvin University is currently seeking its next President……..think about it……..very seriously. Blessings!
Such a great reference, thank you Tony.
Keys entrusted to the church were always meant to open doors. They were never meant to shut out anyone. The doctrine that supports excommunication is a doctrine that had its best before date and has done incredible harm for centuries.
Thank you for expressing what is on many minds and hearts. Well said.
Add my voice to the chorus of those who believe that the CRCNA and its synods are no longer the best stewards of Calvin University. I believe an independent Calvin is the only way for it to pursue its mission with integrity as an academic institution. Although complex, I urge those who hold influence and authority to explore how independence can be explored with the denomination’s best interests at heart.
I would like to suggest to Tim and the Reformed Journal (if appropriate), that this letter be distributed as widely as possible with the purpose of asking people to sign on if they feel the same.
While the board must act and sadly must sign on to the CRCNA’s new standard’s interpretation, there is no reason that academic freedom stands against or in conflict with the current position.
As people of faith, we seek the truth within the confines of the loving arms of the triune God, who comes to us in the Son and HS, and we do so in the freedom that Paul describes in Galatians 5:1. Our tradition is informed by Calvin who clearly argues that all truth is God’s truth so we seek the truth whether it can be found without fear. Imploring the board to stand with these basic Reformed traditions is vital, which shaped the decision of the board in the past.
In the end, this is about power, and it does no good to ignore that or to imagine that power is a dirty word or action. If people want to make changes that will benefit the whole community of Calvin and the Reformed tradition, you must mobilize your power, expand it, and use it for positive change. This letter might be a good first step, but it can’t be the last.
I’m a graduate so I’m willing to lend my voice and action to expand that power and use it, but I’m not CRCNA, so my voice is a bit limited in the larger denominational conversation.
Thank you, Tim!
Tim, thank you for voicing what many feel. I will sign “such a letter”. Marcia Bishop
Thank you for this piece! So many alums agree with you! Miriam DeYoung Hage, alum 1965
Tim, Thank you so much for writing this letter. I am now retired from my university teaching career at the University of Washington, although I still am engaged in research. I had the same experience as you recount, and others added to, of attending Calvin and finding that my education there provided me with a great foundation for graduate education in the sciences. I not only learned physics from my professors like Howard Van Till and Vern Ehlers, but I also learned ethics that have served me well in my career. My parents went to Calvin, my six brothers and sisters and spouses all went to Calvin, two of our children went to Calvin, and quite a number of nephews and nieces also went. Our family attended Calvin because of the almost unique combination of academic excellence and Christian commitment that Calvin offers. There is no doubt in my mind that this long history of excellence will reach an unhappy end if the faculty are forced to sign the new subscription in order to retain their positions. I too think it is time for Calvin to assert its independence from what will remain of the Christian Reformed Church.
Thank you, as a fellow alum (05) and current higher ed faculty I really valued the opportunity to take all ideas seriously and assume that Christian faith could withstand the inquiry. I try to contribute to a similar experience alongside my colleagues at Trinity. I’m worried about the future of Calvin as a place of inquiry, education and thought leadership. Reformed thought has had an outsized contribution to the Christian intellectual tradition, it would be a real shame to discard the values that made that possible.
I am quite certain that the “average” CRC member has no idea what has happened, what it all means, and what destructive ramifications will follow. But I strongly suspect that they will instinctively know that Synod pulled a fast one here. Affirming a 1973 decision and interpretation is one thing. Making it eternal by DECLARING that “unchastity” means what Synod says it means is evidence of blind-guidedness, the CRC’s Galileo/Copernicus moment. This judgment goes far beyond same-sex relationships and impacts a host of doctrinal interpretations. As to the signed form of subscription, a forced confession is no confession at all, and those who sign it in order to maintain their pensions , keep their credentials, or save their careers just might be excused for being wise like serpants.
Thank you, Tim, for saying this so wisely and bravely. May God continue to bless Calvin University with alumni like you.
Linda Bieze, Class of ’77
As an alumna of Hope College and longtime friend of Calvin University (except twice a year on basketball rivalry days), count me in. I wholeheartedly agree that Calvin’s faculty, staff and students should be their authentic selves and hold their unique opinions. Bouncing ideas with people who don’t think like you is the foundation of liberal arts education. It is an insult to the Calvin community to insinuate they lack the ability to learn, grow, and adapt like the rest of God’s Creatures.
My generation of LGBTQ+ Christians waited until adulthood to go public, but my children’s friends are coming out as queer and non-binary in middle and high school. It’s time to the church to accept that.
I have witnessed so much courage, tenacity, and faith in my LGBTQ+ friends. Despite being bullied in school, fired from jobs, shunned by families, and kicked out of churches for their identity, they are holding to their truth and to an all-loving God.
I’ve attended queer affirming and queer-led churches since the 90’s. Yet denominations are still splitting over this issue 40 years later. It’s as nonsensical to me as excluding people for their eye color or shoe size. I can’t fathom why “conservative Christians” are so cruel to their fellow humans and so blind to Jesus’s intentional ministry with people at society’s margins. According to the Gospels, Jesus liked the colorful folks with hard lives and curious minds.
When I go to a zoo or aquarium I marvel at the diversity and creativity of God’s creation. That same God made people diverse and creative, just for the joy of it. Personally, I’d rather be on prancing with the peacocks than the hiding with the ostriches. Let us go forth to live with LOVE.
Tim, thank you for your letter. I must disagree with your comments. It is revealing that you think subscribing to Scriptural truths among faculty will result in ignorance and limit freedom of thought. The history of Christian scholarship is against that idea. It has seen God’s holy Word as the foundation of eternal wisdom, and the springboard of redemptive creativity for every field of inquiry (A. Kuyper). I think we’ve forgotten that we are “rooted and established in love which surpasses knowledge.” It is not intellectual suicide to subscribe to what we believe to be true. It is however an offense to leaders and teachers who believe and engage students in thoughtful conversations to understand the divine wisdom of God is Jesus who reveals his loving ways in all things, even when it looks foolish to the ways of the world. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” It is only human arrogance to imagine we’ve progressed intellectually beyond the truths of the gospel. “We in our foolishness thought we were wise, he played the fool and opened our eyes.” Michael Card.
False premise. You implicitly assert that “subscribing to scriptural truths” requires faculty to accede to the Synod 2024 position on human sexuality. That’s disingenuous because anybody who is familiar with the controversy (or minimally, with nearly every comment on this blog apart from yours) knows that mature and thoughtful Christians, grounded in Reformed traditions believe that the affirming position is scripturally true as well. I would dispute the “history of Christian Scholarship is against the idea.”. Such grandiose claims are boilerplate arguments against every reforming impulse (semper reformanda?). You write like the anti-homosexual stance is a consensus: “Its not intellectual suicide to subscribe to what WE believe is true.” Its not. That’s the point. And enabling (as you say) “leaders and teachers who believe and engage students in thoughtful conversations to understand the divine wisdom of God is Jesus who reveals his loving ways in all things, even when it looks foolish to the ways of the world” is precisely why Calvin should let their faculty follow their consciences on this matter. Constraining their ability to do this will degrade recruitment and retention of faculty (where the University’s reputation sits) and will harm students.
Folks who take the bible literally are not informed by science nor reason. To put it in terms you may better grasp your views do leave space for “the holy spirit”. Your views are the dead letter, they are not “Reformed”.
BS Biology, admirer of Dr. John Beebe, Calvin
Thank you Tim for your thoughtful and well-written piece. I absolutely agree with your comments.
Tim, As a Calvin Alum (1964) I can only say “Amen” to your excellent letter. I left the denomination years ago and have been a member of RCA churches. Sadly I have been appalled as I watch the Human Sexuality Issue tear both of the denominations that I loved, the CRC and the RCA apart.
I’m strongly supportive of your appeal to the Board of Trustees of Calvin University. Like you I fear that this attack on academic freedom by the decisions of the last few General Synods of the CRC will destroy the diamond in the denomination’s crown, Calvin University. As a member of the 2nd Reformed Church of Zeeland, MI RCA. I am thankful that Hope College and Western Seminary, Calvin University’s sister institutions, are not owned by the RCA but are supported by the members of many RCA churches. I believe it is time that Calvin University and the CRC agree to turn the selection of the Board of Trustees to the University and to endow it with the ownership of the University’s property. It is time that Calvin University become an independent Reformed institution like Hope College currently is.