WHEN THE BELLS TOLL “YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE”

 

I just finished a late summer weekend in The Netherlands. The church bells largely chime pop songs rather than religious music.  Think: “What a Wonderful World” and “You are My Sunshine.” We ran across one church in Amsterdam with a decent crowd (Roman Catholic and possibly majority non-native).  Most church buildings were closed tight as a drum or repurposed.

Families were out on bike rides or shopping or cheering marathon runners, enjoying mild weather on the last weekend of summer. They were certainly not at church. The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries in the world.

Because Christianity is now essentially a relic of their cultural history, they associate it with colonialism, support for monarchy and privileged classes, ancient museum-type buildings, complicity with Nazis and the like.  If they follow religion in the news at all these days, they probably associate it with far right/authoritarian politics or perhaps homophobia. Trying to untangle Jesus from all of the above is no easy feat.

Yet there is a social compact in the Netherlands that pays young parents who need to stay home a few months with newborns, that minimizes the income gap between richest and poorest, that has eliminated hunger and produced one of the happiest populations on earth (measured by standardized survey). They see more religious countries lacking in this sense of social solidarity.  It is easy for them to “connect the dots” rightly or wrongly, and to conclude religion is just more trouble than help.

We were safer on the street returning to our hotel at 11 pm in Amsterdam than we are at 11 am In Washington DC.   Almost no poverty plus almost no guns, and voila - almost no violent crime!

I people-watched on Sunday and wondered quietly where one would start in introducing the idea that Jesus could offer help and light - when he is so tarnished and coopted by oppressive systems and darkness.

Untangling Jesus from those who have claimed him as Mascot for centuries is not going to be easy. To a lesser degree, we face the same challenge in North America, as religiosity seems to be the single demographic variable most likely to make one a Trump voter/

Folks, we have a mess on our hands. I like to offer hopefulness  - but I haven’t figured this conundrum out. Numbers are now tanking in American churches, following the patterns in Europe from 70 years ago.

For the church: doubling down theologically certainly won’t do the trick to persuade many. A younger generation (probably a few generations distant from Christendom) will have to rediscover the revolutionary Jesus of the gospels. Then maybe, just maybe, we can see healing and a true spiritual awakening.