The Dutch government was historically protestant. Is the King of the Netherlands Catholic? No, he isn’t.
The Catholic Church only became the largest because of the implosion of the Mainline Protestant churches in the 20th Century.
Spare me your indignation.
You started with the following from post 27 in an attempt to show catholicism in a better light by claiming it has been non-cathlicism that is part of the problem in the Netherlands.
You’re right, the Reformed countries have done so much better. The Netherlands is a paragon of Christian virtue. Modernism is a blight that impacts every church.
To which I replied:
>> You do realize that catholicism is the largest religion in the Netherlands??
It amazes me the uninformed statements catholics make without checking before they post. <<
And then you replied in #36 the following:
The Dutch government was historically protestant. Is the King of the Netherlands Catholic? No, he isn’t.
The Catholic Church only became the largest because of the implosion of the Mainline Protestant churches in the 20th Century.
Spare me your indignation.
You do realize you just made the argument that catholicism is the religion that has been impacting the Netherlands the most in the 20th century....at least since the 1950s/60s which is roughly when their decline began.
2013 statistics indicate 23.7% identify as catholic while 10.2% identify as protestant.
Somehow the majority religion isn't getting the message across.
Spare me your indignation.
However, it is noted that there is a Bible Belt in the Netherlands>
The Bible Belt differs in many aspects (amongst them a regular Sunday church attendance – often twice on a Sunday) from the traditionally Catholic provinces of North Brabant and Limburg to the south (where Sunday church attendance averages between 2% to 3% [1] of the population) and northern parts of the Netherlands, which are traditionally mainline Protestant (dominated by the Protestant Church in the Netherlands[2]) and increasingly secular, with similarly low church attendance figures.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_religion_in_the_Netherlands
I do agree though that the influence of Christianity in Europe is waning to the detriment of that continent and Western society.
Well, I've learned more about religion in the Netherlands that I ever thought I would.