ABE VAN ENGEN [an insider ] WRITES A FAIRLY GOOD PIECE re "Advancing God’s Kingdom: Calvinism, Calvin College, and Betsy DeVos " Religion & Politics

"...But I suspect there is another reason predestination gets invoked. The doctrine of predestination, taken out of theological context, sounds awful. Even though it does not influence the religious lives of most in the CRC today, this one word can be used to quickly reduce a long religious tradition to a judgmental, irrational cult. Dismissing Calvinism through predestination is a nineteenth-century trope that marvelously hangs on despite the fact that present-day Calvinists almost never use the term...."

http://religionandpolitics.org/2017/01/30/advancing-gods-kingdom-calvinism-calvin-college-and-betsy-devos/