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:
“In church your grandsire cut his throat;
To do the job too long he tarried:
He should have had my hearty vote
To cut his throat before he married.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“In great cities men are brought together by the desire of gain. They are not in a state of co-operation, but of isolation, as to the making of fortunes; and for all the rest they are careless of neighbours. Christianity teaches us to love our neighbour as ourself; modern society acknowledges no neighbour.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)