Spiritual capital

Rod Dreher on the societal sickness that has followed spiritual abandonment in Holland:


Like dissolute descendants of old money, the Dutch have been living for two generations now on the moral and spiritual capital built from centuries of religious faith and practice, however imperfect. The accounts are nearly depleted. “The Dutch believe that if it’s possible, then you mustn’t forbid it, you must tolerate it,” says Focus on the Family’s Hondsmerk. “We’ve had that for a generation now. That works as long as people have a natural self-control, but that is fast fading.”

“What we are witnessing now is the very first generation who grew up without a religious background,” says Kinneging. “What has happened until now is that most people without a religious background have become consumerists, materialists, and hedonists. They are still law-abiding citizens. We’ll have to see what the next generation will become.”

As the difference between Woodstock I and Woodstock II suggests, probably nothing good.