Life and Tradition
The Church plays a central role in the life of Bijbelgordel communities and they typically oppose the liberal practices of Dutch society, such as euthanasia, gay rights, abortion etc. In Bijbelgordel communities, strong religious tone in public life is accompanied by conservative outlook, preference for large families (the region has relatively high fertility rates), and an emphasis on traditional values. An aspect of Bijbelgordel society that has drawn the attention of the Dutch general public in recent years (when concerns of a measles epidemic emerged) is the suspicion of parents towards state-run vaccination programmes.
The Bijbelgordel provides a base of support for Christian Democratic parties, especially the two (small) Christian parties; SGP and ChristenUnie.
Read more about this topic: Bible Belt (Netherlands)
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or tradition:
“If you were to destroy the belief in immortality in mankind, not only love but every living force on which the continuation of all life in the world depended, would dry up at once.”
—Feodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881)
“Almost always tradition is nothing but a record and a machine-made imitation of the habits that our ancestors created. The average conservative is a slave to the most incidental and trivial part of his forefathers’ glory—to the archaic formula which happened to express their genius or the eighteenth-century contrivance by which for a time it was served.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)