Surprises never cease in the world, least of all the news that the Dutch are having second thoughts about their wide open society to the point that they have a conservative Christian party in the government and are starting to backtrack on much of the open sex and drugs that have made the Netherlands legendary.
In spite of being a centre for all this, gay marriage and more, the Netherlands has always had a more lively core of Christian belief that most anywhere else in Europe (I’ll admit that in spite of my dislike for Calvinist theology.) This has been borne out by personal experience, largely in the construction equipment business, an industry not known for its Godliness. One Dutch business associate complained a few years back that they were forced to take off “God is with us” off of the “Dutch logo” Euro coins. The motto had been on the guilder for many years. Another spent an evening regaling my wife and I with his stories of sending Bibles into the Communist countries, all the while with his cognac and cigar in the bar! This, of course, from the country that produced Brother Andrew (who I think left off the stogie.)
But it seems that, with the Muslim community growing and all the other changes in the wind, it was the British that really got the Dutch goat:
And de Wolf (a Labour Party member of the Amsterdam City Council) said he is fed up with the planeloads of British thrill-seekers who take cheap flights to Amsterdam each Friday evening for weekend binges of sex, drugs and alcohol in his city’s red-light district, where scantily clad prostitutes stand behind plate-glass windows beckoning to potential customers.
I’ve documented the wild ride the hordes of immigrants from the British Isles has given North America, from their uninspiring work ethic (To Do the Work) to their religious adventures (Taming the Rowdies, Cape Henry and the Triumph of “Plan C”.) And no review of the British is complete without talking about their behaviour at soccer matches outside the UK. The genius of the British (and the descendants of those they exported) is that they make sin look so utterly trashy and revolting that they force everyone (including even-tempered people like the Dutch) to do something, be it tightening of laws, revival of Christians in politics, or just plain revival. Perhaps this is the ultimate fulfilment of Paul’s statement:
Law was introduced in order that offences might be multiplied. But, where sins were multiplied, the loving-kindness of God was lavished the more, In order than, just as Sin had reigned in the realm of Death, so, too, might Loving-kindness reign through righteousness, and result in Immortal Life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Romans 5:20, 21, TCNT.)
Positive Infinity 