The Church and Society
After the Liberation, a number of church-related political and cultural institutions were founded. The daily newspaper Nederlands Dagblad originated within the Reformed Churches (Liberated) and, although it now serves a wider Christian and Reformed audience, still has strong ties to the denomination.
A political party, the Gereformeerd Politiek Verbond (GPV) was organised as well. Traditionally, this party was always a small conservative party with roughly 2 out of 150 seats in the Netherlands House of Commons (Dutch Tweede Kamer) of parliament. In the 1980s and 1990s, the party became more progressive. This party often collaborated with the RPF and the SGP, two similar political parties of comparable size, organised by other orthodox Reformed denominations. In 2001, the GPV and RPF merged to form the ChristenUnie. In the 2006 elections this party gained 6 seats in parliament as well as a pivotal role in the resulting coalition government. Former GPV politician Eimert van Middelkoop became Minister of Defence.
The Liberated Churches also maintain a number of primary and secondary schools. These private schools enjoy special protection by Royal Decree, which means these schools cannot be forced to accept pupils from backgrounds that are incompatible with their Reformed views. Partly as a result of this Royal Decree, they can only employ staff who are members of the Reformed Churches (Liberated), although they will enroll pupils from families willing to comply with the Reformed doctrines.
Read more about this topic: Reformed Churches In The Netherlands (Liberated)
Famous quotes containing the words church and/or society:
“Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness into vision. Men cannot do the work of the world by this light alone. They cannot govern society by episodes, incidents, and eruptions. It is only when they work by a steady light of their own, that the press, when it is turned upon them, reveals a situation intelligible enough for a popular decision.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)