It’s hard to imagine now that a spoof of The Banner would cause threats of university expulsion, even excommunication, for its authors.

It wasn’t Gutenberg’s press, but for almost 90 years the printing press had an outsized effect on the location and size of the CRC’s denominational facilities.

While many readers were shocked, even appalled, at the 2025 mandate change, tussles over the balance between confessional boundaries and editorial freedom are not new.

The CRC took the reading of its publications as a serious spiritual matter.

It’s The Banner’s 160th birthday this year, but De Wachter was actually the Christian Reformed Church’s official publication for its first 50 years.