A good laugh can be a tonic. Jokes can be tension breakers. Sometimes people laugh when they don‘t know what else to do. Sometimes they laugh when they are embarrassed. Sometimes a laugh is a cover-up. Sometimes people laugh when they wish to belittle others.

Have Worldly Amusements Become a Joke?

Recently at a public meeting two denominational leaders made light with a laugh of some things that deserve serious attention. One speaker, as an introductory joke, said that although we are celebrating a number of anniversaries these days, some of them aren’t of much consequence; he went on to name a few and then commented that one anniversary is very important. Then he proceeded to inform us that 1978 is Ole 50th anniversary of the “Report on Worldly Amusements.” The crowd roared. But not all died. Serious faces showed that some considered this no joking matter. Another speaker at the same meeting observed that he was sure his audience didn‘t expect that he would ask them to push their banquet tables back and join in a Tango. The crowd laughed again; but not all did. This too was no joking matter and seemed to be in poor taste.

An Important Matter

Our forebears in the Christian Reformed Church were serious men and women who tried to defend the faith once delivered to the saints. They constantly went to the Scriptures to learn how their God would have them live. Their fifty-year old Report on Worldly Amusements deserves renewed attention rather than a joking dismissal especially in our time. These earnest Christian people saw the dangers and urged Christians to walk circumspectly. They studied God‘s Word. 

We can profit by listening to what they said. Here is a pertinent quotation from the Report on Worldly Amusements. “All these principles can be subsumed under the following general concepts: the Honor of God, the Welfare of Man, Christian Separation from the World, and Christian Liberty. These touch on a fourfold relationship of the Christian: to God, to Himself, to the World and to the Law.”

A Needed Warning

The teachings of the Word of God called loudly and clearly to the believer warning against falling into the ways of the world. Moses warned ancient Israel against the ways of their heathen neighbors. Paul was as emphatic in the New Testament as was Moses in the Old in his warning against worldly entanglements. The constant call was for the life of separation from the world, meaningful separation. The call for a separated, set–apart life style needs sounding in the church today. It needs sounding now more than ever before. Would to God that our leaders were sounding that call instead of succumbing to the persuasion of those who mute the warning of the Word. Let the warning, “THUS SAITH THE LORD,” “BE YE SEPARATE,” “COME YE APART,” “BE NOT UNEQUALLY YOKED” be heard again.

What Shall Wo Do About It?

Dear reader, if you haven‘t heard the call to separation from the world from the pulpit of your church, demand it. I say demand it loudly and clearly. Demand that this call, so loudly voiced by our forebearers, be sounded loudly and clearly once more. Demand that the warnings against dancing reappear, even in the pages of The Banner. Demand that the representative of your classis give an explanation of the actions of the Board of Trustees of Calvin College and Seminary. Some say, “we will dance no matter what you say.” These people must be firmly dealt with.

Do you know that Ole Board of Trustees has chosen to ignore the voices of the people of the denomination as they have been speaking. The Board received some 300 communications on the dancing issue, 10% of which favored dancing at Calvin. That means 90% were not in favor. The Board would not listen to these voices. Not even the voices coming from 8 of the Classis of the Denomination are getting a hearing. We need still louder and more voices. We must speak for the good of the Church, for the good of our homes, for the good of our schools, yes, for our very lives. The antithesis must be preserved.

In the old Report on Worldly Amusements one quotation about dancing deserves repeating. It is taken from The Presbyterian: “(dancing) it dissipates the mind, sears the conscience, deadens the sensibilities, often destroys health, certainly tends toward the lowering of morals, is utterly incompatible with true holiness and separation from the world, burns up any right religious convictions, incites the lowest animal passions, and sends its giddy, godless devotees whirling down the broad avenue of lust, lewdness, divorce, broken hearts, and wrecked homes.”

If ever there was a time for godly men and women to rise up within the Christian Reformed Church it is now. Speak loudly and clearly. Speak to the members of the Board of Trustees, to the Delegates to Synod. Demand that the things done be reversed.

Clarence Werkema is pastor of the Walker Christian Reformed Church and a member of the Reformed Fellowship Board.