The disruption of Mass in Den Bosch has not gone unnoticed in parliament. Of course, PvdA chair Lilianne Ploumen and local representatives of the same parties called for these disruptions (so inciting an unconstitutional act), but other parties remained very quiet. But now the Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, the SGP, spoke up in defense. Remarkable, since the SGP is hardcore Protestant and traditionally quite anti-Catholic. But now they intend to ask questions in a general Christian context. After all, who’s to say that it’ll end with disrupting Mass? Protestant services run the same risk.
On the party’s website are the questions that MP Kees van der Staaij has sent to the Justice and Home secretaries. He specifically focusses on the protests as criminal acts according to Article 146 of the criminal code, which states:
Below are MP van der Staaij’s questions to the secretaries:
1 Did you take notice of reports that protesters disturbed a church service in ‘s Hertogenbosch and intend to protest more often like this?
2 How do you judge such forms of protest? Is the government willing to distance itself forcefully from utterances sich as demonstrative hand clapping and loud protests that disturb church services?
3 Does the Public Prosecutor, also in light of article 146 of the criminal code, intend to take steps against these church service disruptions? If not, why not?
4 To what extend can calling for protests at or during church services with the risk of actual disruptions of church services be tackled according to criminal law?
5 What options do justice and police, or mayors have to undertake anything against threatening disruptions of church services? What will the government undertake to prevent a repeat of such disruptions?
6 Are you willing to answer these questions as soon as possible?
Good questions, although I am skeptical about the answer to them. I sadly doubt that this is a priority for any other party.
In Caelo et in Terra 
The funny thing with these reformed churches is that they are MUCH closer to Catholic theology than they give themselves credit for. For me it’s not surprising to see them act like this. In the same vein, the reaction of GreenLeft MP Femke Halsema doesn’t surprise me either. She says that SGP only reacts when “church things are affected, but remains silent when it concerns the emancipation of gay people.”
Funny, how people like her think you’re only emancipated as a gay person when you are actively engaged in the gay scene and are rooting for perversities. The whole idea of Christian homosexuals being perfectly happy with the state of affairs in the Dutch orthodox churches and endorsing those ‘unemenacipated’ views seems pretty alien to them.
To me that’s very telling. They are not after emancipating anyone at all. It’s only about them and their egos and ideas. An egotrip. And nobody seems to notice. That’s what scares me. Not the Christian story, but the left liberal voice, who is so intolerant that they only accept other opinions after they sucessfully passed their leftist and liberal filter. If it passes, it’s an opinion you’re allowed to have. If it fails, they will persecute you, even behind your front door.
They won’t allow the Church to tell them what to do and think (and the Church isn’t even trying to do that in reality, but that’s another story), but at the same time they think it’s perfectly fine to tell the Church how to think and what to do. Dutch hypocrisy never fails to amaze me. Really.