Bible Belt (Netherlands)
Encyclopedia
The Bible Belt is the name given (patterned after the Bible Belt
Bible Belt
Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the southeastern and south-central United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average.The...

 of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

) to a strip of land in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, which is inhabited chiefly by conservative Protestants. The Bijbelgordel stretches from Zeeland
Zeeland
Zeeland , also called Zealand in English, is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about...

, through the West-Betuwe
Betuwe
The Betuwe is an area in the Netherlands in the province of Gelderland...

 and Veluwe
Veluwe
The Veluwe is a forest-rich ridge of hills in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. The Veluwe features many different landscapes including woodland, heath, some small lakes and Europe's largest sand drifts....

, to the northern parts of the province Overijssel
Overijssel
Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...

.
However, some communities with strong conservative Protestant leanings are situated outside the belt. For example, Urk
Urk
Urk is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands.Urk is first mentioned in historical records dating to the 10th century, when it was still an island in the Almere, a lake that would become part of the Zuiderzee in the 13th century after a series of incursions...

, considered by many as one of the most traditional communities in the country, and some municipalities of Friesland
Friesland
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

 have characteristics typical of the Bijbelgordel. Other places in this area are Yerseke
Yerseke
Yerseke is a village situated on the southern shore of the Oosterschelde estuary in the Dutch province of Zeeland. A separate municipality until 1970, it today forms part of the municipality of Reimerswaal. As of 2010 Yerseke had a recorded population of 6,570 inhabitants divided over 2590...

, Tholen
Tholen
Tholen is a municipality in the southwest of the Netherlands. The municipality of Tholen has lent its name from the town of Tholen, which is the largest population center in the municipality....

, Ouddorp, Opheusden
Opheusden
Opheusden is a town in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Neder-Betuwe, and lies about 5 km south of Wageningen....

, Kesteren, Barneveld
Barneveld
Barneveld is a town and a municipality in the province of Gelderland in the center of the Netherlands. It is known for its poultry industry and large protestant community. The population of the municipality was 52.629 in June 2010, the town having a population of 29.756.-Transport:Barneveld is...

, Nunspeet
Nunspeet
Nunspeet is a municipality and town in the central Netherlands. It has been an agricultural site since prehistoric times. It contains a number of villages, like Oosteinde, Westeinde, Hulshorst, Elspeet, Vierhouten and Hoophuizen. Nunspeet has a vivid historical foundation, called Nuwenspete...

, Elspeet and Staphorst
Staphorst
Staphorst is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands.-History:The villages of Staphorst and its southern neighbour Rouveen came into existence as in the 13th century monks started to bring the bogs and swamps into culture. All the farms were built along the long road through the bog...

. The three biggest cities regarded to be part of the Bible Belt are Ede
Ede, Netherlands
' is a municipality and a town in the center of the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland.- Population centres :Community :* Bennekom: 14.749* De Klomp: 508* Deelen: 50* Ede : 67.812* Ederveen: 3.167* Harskamp: 3.464...

, Veenendaal and Kampen. Currently, the traditional Dutch churches have around 650,000 members in about 360 churches.

History

When Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 and North Brabant
North Brabant
North Brabant , sometimes called Brabant, is a province of the Netherlands, located in the south of the country, bordered by Belgium in the south, the Meuse River in the north, Limburg in the east and Zeeland in the west.- History :...

 were reconquered by the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 army during the Eighty Years’ War, their Protestant inhabitants were required to either convert to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

 or leave. Many emigrated north of the border, particularly during the Twelve Years’ Truce of 1609 – 1621. Many of them later became staunch supporters of the pietist
Pietism
Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late 17th century to the mid-18th century and later. It proved to be very influential throughout Protestantism and Anabaptism, inspiring not only Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement, but also Alexander Mack to...

 movement known as the nadere reformatie (further reformation).
Following the 1832 schism, known as the Afscheiding (“Secession”) and the 1886 schism, Doleantie (“Sorrow”) led by Abraham Kuyper
Abraham Kuyper
Abraham Kuijper generally known as Abraham Kuyper, was a Dutch politician, journalist, statesman and theologian...

, they left the mainstream Dutch Reformed Church
Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...

 and founded their own, more conservative congregations, the most notable of which are the Christian Reformed Churches
Christian Reformed Churches
The Christian Reformed Churches are a Protestant church in the Netherlands with about 75,000 members.The original name of the church was Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands . The church was formed in 1869 by the merger of two churches, both separated from the Dutch Reformed Church in 1834...

 and the Reformed Congregations (“Gereformeerde Gemeenten”), known colloquially as zwarte-kousenkerken (“black stockings churches”).

The Bijbelgordel differs in many aspects (amongst them a regular Sunday church attendance - often twice on a Sunday) from the traditionally Catholic provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg
Limburg (Netherlands)
Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...

 to the south (where Sunday church attendance averages between a mere 2% to 3% of the population) and northern parts of the Netherlands, which are traditionally mainline Protestant
Protestant Church in the Netherlands
The Protestant Church in the Netherlands is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the Netherlands. With 2,000 congregations and a membership of some 1.8 million , it is the second largest church in the Netherlands after the Roman Catholic Church.It was founded 1 May 2004 as a merger of...

 (dominated by the Protestant Church in the Netherlands) and increasingly secular, with similarly low church attendance figures.

Life and tradition

The Church plays a central role in the life of Bijbelgordel communities and they typically oppose the liberal ways of Dutch life, such as euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....

, gay rights, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

 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
Measles
Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...

 epidemic emerged) is the suspicion of parents towards state-run vaccination
Vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...

 programmes.

The Bijbelgordel provides a base of support for Christian Democratic
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...

 parties, especially the two (small) Christian parties; SGP and ChristenUnie.

External links

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