Reformed and Always to be Reformed

This spring semester I finally got around to taking the Calvin seminar, a man I had previously credited with sucking the joy out of the church that I grew up in. I won't go into too much detail, but my distaste for Calvin didn't so much come from reading Calvin himself, but rather with his indirect association with the Westminster Confession of Faith (my least favorite Reformed Confession), which was oppressively held over me as if it contained all the secrets to faith and life (it doesn't). But as I've been able to distinguish Calvin from Calvinism, I've found him to be much more engaging than I ever thought possible. But man, some Calvinists and Reformed folk just kill all the fun. It really is amazing what happens to a successful dissenting tradition when it becomes the dominant tradition. The liberative spirit behind the theology is quickly lost and all that is preserved is its written form which becomes the new oppressive dogma. What was once life-giving and freeing has been turned into something that strangles and constrains. To me this is proof that any particular experience or understanding of God's grace in a certain time and circumstance is always in danger of being mistaked for being the whole of God's grace and thereby becoming tantamount to idolatry. I think Calvin would agree