In June 2018, the RCA General Synod commended the “Great Lakes Catechism on Marriage and Sexuality” for consideration by the Commission on Theology (COT) and the wider RCA. In response, a diverse group of people from the LGBTQ community, parents, pastors, educators and others shared their thoughts with Room for All and the COT, offering alternative perspectives on a faithful ethic for living as sexual and gendered people of God. Room for All is grateful for the opportunity to share those responses in “Outsights” over the next several weeks.
Brief Thoughts About the Great Lakes Catechism
Rev. Lew Kain – New York
The “Great Lakes Catechism on Marriage & Sexuality” shows great effort and good intention, but is inconsistent when it calls into question “human writings” yet quotes the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism in support of its own statements.
Regarding marriage and child-bearing, if two gay people marry and practice fidelity, raising any children for whom they have responsibility, are they not faithful to God’s commands as much as any heterosexual couple? For that matter, where is support in this Catechism for people who adopt children, or those who become pregnant via in-vitro fertilization? Those folks are God’s children, too.
Finally, if we have to choose between God speaking and Scripture, which takes precedence? If we say they are the same, does that not muzzle the Lord of heaven and earth since the end of the 1st century AD/CE? What if God changes His mind?