Christian Enclaves, Freedom of Education and the Quality of Time: Contested Secularity in the Netherlands

The Netherlands are highly secular –only one third of the population being a church member; euthanasia and same sex marriage are broadly supported – against recurrent religious opposition. In some areas though, one finds an almost reversed religious-secular setup: In the Dutch ‘Bible Belt’ orthodox reformed groups strongly influence the organization of public life. Here it is not about accommodating religious minorities – rather, given the majority relations, Christian legal traditions and the structural pluralism of Dutch secular order, these places constitute religious counter publics.

At the same time - due to e.g. population mobility – these places are changing, thereby becoming contact zones(Pratt, 1991) of religious and secular lifestyles. Central sources of conflict are Sunday rest and religious schools. The secular-religious divide becomes more complex with regards to non-western migrant populations and their (socio-economic) integration.

These secular-religious conflicts help discussing two central questions regarding the public sphere in religiously diverse countries: 1) what are (competing) notions of the public and how are they related to religious-secular history and 2) in what way can the state allow for multiple publics without failing to maintain social cohesion.

I discuss the conflict around Sunday openings and religious schools with regards to a changing Dutch secular model. Further I sketch how local contexts become arenas for conflict over secularity, and how these conflicts differ according to context. Based on my empirical findings I discuss the relation of secular models with religious/secular majority relations as well as the functioning of contact zones in stipulating secular identity formation.

References:

Pratt, M. L. (1999). Arts of the contact zone. Ways of reading, 5.