Darkness In The West
Global South doesn’t have a corner on spiritual darkness. Backwards as it is in some ways, bound as it is by a religion presided over by millions of gods, it may not be exhibit A of what it means to be dominated by the Dark King.
There are actually many places around this globe we all call home that might vie for that distinction. And, in my book, Amsterdam deserves consideration.
We three couples, the Walkers, the Wetzigs, and we Van Campens, took a canal tour of this city today. This place must rival Venice, Italy for waterways that crisscross the metropolis. Boats, boats, and more boats.
And bicycles, bicycles, and more bicycles. 900,000 bicycles ridden in and into the city every day. There’s actually not enough space to store and park the two-wheelers.
But it isn’t the preponderance of water, boats, or bicycles that makes this a very spiritually dark place.
In the Jordaan district, an area of the city that was built in the early 1600s to house very poor people, and that today has become the artsy part of town, we encountered a huge Protestant church building – Westerkerk, where Rembrandt is buried. That’s the only designation I could discover. Not Lutheran, Methodist, or Baptist. And not even Dutch Reformed. Just Protestant. The young woman behind the desk in one entry to the edifice told me, To me they’re pretty much all the same.
On the north side of this largest Protestant church building in Holland, built in the 1600s, several large tents had been put up in an open area along the canal. It seemed that they were even on the church property. A couple of large and graphic phalluses adorned two of these, along with lewd titles. One of the tents was called a church, and the flier attached to the wall advertized a variety of sexually perverse events scheduled for the week – much like the message board of a “real” church.
The flags flying over the bridge across the canal said it all, “Gay Pride – We are proud.”
I was nearly sick to my stomach. It was as if that subculture was giving God an obscene gesture. The tents stood in mockery of both the church building, the spire of which pointed heavenward, and the God about whom that building silently spoke.
This was just one evidence of the spiritual decadence of the land of my forbears. Another is the Red Light District, of which the citizens here are so proud that it is advertised as a “must see” attraction. One man, after reading my last blog, wrote a comment that the Holland I am now in is not the land of my ancestors. He is correct. This place, I believe, rivals ancient Sodom and Gomorrah for perversion and decadence.
Global South was, at times, oppressive. But this place is its equal, if not superior. Believe me when I say it’s just as spiritually dark in the West as it is in Global South.
