Noordhollands Dagblad – Tuesday September 5, 2006

By Theo Krabbe

Churches increasingly empty, but people still believe.

Leiden: The churches increasingly continue to empty, but faith is not disappearing from the Netherlands. That is the conclusion of a study on religious life conducted by the Social and Cultural Plan Bureau.

According to the SCP, in 2004, unchurched people accounted for 64 percent of the total population. Seventeen percent of that is Roman Catholic, six percent is Dutch Reformed, and four percent is Reformed. The Bureau predicts that in 2020 that unchurched people will account for 72 percent of the population.  Only the number of members from the Evangelical Brothers Church, Evangelical churches, the Pentecostal churches and other church associations – the evangelical Christians – is predicted to increase from five percent in 2004 to eight percent in 2010. The number of Muslims is predicted to rise from six percent in 2000 to eight percent in 2020.

The churches may be emptying, but that does not mean that faith is diminishing. The function of religion in Western society has made a radical change. “Religion has acquired the function of a stand-by knob”, according to a religion sociologist from Leiden,  Ter Borg. “People today have a belief of their own choice. They have an open mind about the possibilities to believe anything. In times of crisis, sickness or death, the faith is there. In that sense, churches are being viewed like hospitals. It is good that they are there, but you hope you don’t need them too often.”

The SCP finds this to be true. Churches remain relevant as deliverers of rituals in transition moments.” People continue to place their value in church rituals such as marriage and funerals, and people have a tendency to have their children baptized. A hypothesis can be made that churches might retain these functions.