religion??

[Rick van Opbergen]

OK, it could as well be it has shifted, but I do not think the roots are in the Catholic-Protestant struggle as well. The same thing can be said of the Netherlands by the way - my father (who's Catholic) was not allowed to marry or even date a Protestant girl. That phenomenon seems to have stemmed from the fact that some centuries ago, some (Protestant) provinces managed to escape from the (Catholic) Spanish rule. When after some time other Dutch provinces joined them, which were however mostly Catholic, the Catholic Dutch were long accused of being more loyal to the Pope (and the Spaniards) than to the new (Protestant) rulership. Those accusations have existed far into the 20th century, and that would also be the reason why Catholics in the Netherlands were always among the poorest groups, with only limited power, and for long, even limited freedom to practice their faith.

 

[Reverend Blair]

That's the problem. Religion has always been inextricably linked to politics to some extent. That link all to often leads to religious bigotry and even persecution. Canada has done a pretty good of keep ing religion out of politics for the last while, but that didn't keep the pope from trying to lean on Jean Chretien over abortion and same sex marriage.

To his credit Chretien ignored Pope Jean Paul and did what was right in a democracy.

 

[Rick van Opbergen]

True. When in the 1960's one of the most prominent bishops, bishop Bekkers, said he had no problems with women using anti-conception, the Pope was furious - but as stubbern as we Dutch are, even when its the Pope being angry at us, Bekkers ignored the Pope's criticism. Even in the '80s, there was also a very strong Catholic movement back here which called up for reforms within the Catholic Church, like female priests, or the ability for priests to marry.