De Bijbelgordel ("The Bible Belt" in Dutch) is the name given (after the Bible Belt in the USA) to a strip of land in the Netherlands, which is specifically inhabited by conservative Protestants. The Bijbelgordel streches from Zeeland, through the Betuwe and Veluwe, to the northern parts of the province Overijssel. However, some communities with strong conservative Protestant leanings are situated outside the belt. For example, Urk, considered by many as the most traditional settlement in the country, and some municipalities of Friesland have characteristics typical of the Bijbelgordel. The approximate extent of the Bible Belt, indicated in red A Bible Belt is an area in which Evangelical Protestantism is a pervasive or dominant part of the culture. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... Capital Middelburg Queens Commissioner drs. ... Satellite image of the upper part of the Rhine-Meuse delta showing the Betuwe region (5). ... A forest on the Veluwe The Veluwe is a forest-rich ridge of hills in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. ... Flag of Overijssel Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. ... Urk is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. ... Capital Leeuwarden Queens Commissioner drs. ...

When Flanders and Brabant were reconquered by the Spanish army during the Eighty Years' War, the Protestant inhabitants were given the options of either conversion to Catholicism or leaving. People of strong Calvinist denomination chose to leave in order to emigrate to the north of the border, in the period of 1609 - 1621. These people later became staunch supporters of the pietist 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, they left the mainstream Dutch Reformed Church and founded their own "orthodox" congregations, the most notable of which are the Christian Reformed Church and the "ultra-orthodox" Reformed Congregations ("Gereformeerde Gemeenten"), known colloquially as zwarte-kousenkerken ("black stockings churches"). Flanders (Flemish, Fleming) (Dutch: Vlaanderen (Vlaams, Vlaming)) has two main designations: a geographical region in the north of Belgium, corresponding to the Flemish Region, a consituent part of the federal Belgian state. ... Historically, Brabant has been the name of several administrative entities in the Low Countries with quite different geographical extent: as Carolingian shire (pagus Bracbatensis), located between the rivers Scheldt and Dijle (between 9th-11th century); as landgraviat: the part of the shire between the rivers Dender and Dijle (from 1085... The Eighty Years War, or Dutch Revolt, was the war of secession between the Netherlands and the Spanish king, that lasted from 1568 to 1648. ... This article considers Catholicism in the broadest ecclesiastical sense. ... Calvinism is a system of Christian theology and an approach to Christian life and thought, articulated by Theodore Beza, a Protestant Reformer in the 16th century, and subsequently by successors, associates, followers and admirers of Beza and his interpretation of Scripture. ... // Events April 4 – King of Spain signs an edit of expulsion of all moriscos from Spain April 9 – Spain recognizes Dutch independence May 23 - Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia. ... Events February 9 - Gregory XV is elected pope. ... 1832 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... Portrait of Abraham Kuyper by Jan Veth Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was born in the town of Maassluis and was a Dutch Calvinist theologian, scholar, and statesman. ... The Dutch Reformed village church of St. ... The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA or CRC) is a Protestant Christian denomination which follows Reformed Calvinist theology. ...

The Bijbelgordel differs in many aspects from the traditionally Catholic provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg to the south (where regular church attendance is at about 3 - 9 %) and the other parts of the Netherlands, which are traditionally mainstream Protestant and increasingly secular. North Brabant (Dutch: Noord-Brabant) is a province of the Netherlands, located in the south of the country, bordered by Belgium in the south, the Meuse River (Maas) in the north, Limburg in the east and Zeeland in the west. ... Capital Maastricht Queens Commissioner L.J.P.M. (Leon) Frissen Religion (1999) Protestant 3% Catholic 80% Area  â€¢ Land  â€¢ Water   2. ... This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ...

The Church plays a central role in the life of Bijbelgordel communities and they typically oppose the liberal and "tolerant" ways of Dutch life, such as euthanasia, same-sex marriages, etc. In Bijbelgordel communities, strong religious tone in public life is accompanied by conservative outlook, preference for large families (with relatively higher fertility rates), and emphasis on traditional values. Another typical aspect of Bijbelgordel that drew the attention of Dutch public in recent years (when concerns of a measles epidemic emerged) is the suspicion of parents towards state-run vaccination programmes. [1] [2] A euthanasia machine. ... Same-sex marriage is marriage between two people who are of the same characteristic sex. ... The (total) fertility rate of a population is the average number of child births per woman. ... Vaccination is the process of administering live, albeit weakened, microbes to patients, with the intent of conferring immunity against a targeted form of a related disease agent. ...

The Bijbelgordel is the powerbase of small Christian Democratic and constitutional theocratic parties, especially the two klein Christelijk ("small Christian") parties; SGP and ChristenUnie. Christian Democracy is a political ideology, born at the end of the 19th century, largely as a result of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII, in which the Vatican recognized workers misery and agreed that something should be done about it, in reaction to the rise of... Constitutional theocracy is a form of government in which within the context of a modern democracy a particular religion is granted a central role in the legal and political system. ... The Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP, literally Politically Reformed Party) is a Dutch constitutional theocratic political party following the conservative Christian principles, in the tradition of the Dutch Reformed Church. ... The ChristenUnie (Christians Union) is a relatively young political party in the Netherlands. ...

See also

• Reformed Churches in the Netherlands
• Pillarisation