You may remember that earlier this year, Ecumenical News International carried a story about the prevalence of atheism among clergy Protestant Church in the Netherlands. (I posted on that story here.) Well, it appears that one of said clergy has become a publishing sensation in the land of the dikes, according to ENI:

A Dutch Protestant cleric who describes himself as an “atheist pastor”, saying he does not believe in God’s existence, has become a publishing success in the Netherlands.

The Rev. Klaas Hendrikse published a book at the beginning of November entitled “Believing in a God who does not exist: Manifesto of an atheist pastor”, which by the end of the month had gone into its third printing.

In his book, Hendrikse tells how his conviction that God does not exist has become stronger over time. He suggests, however, that it is still possible to speak of God, but in this case it refers to the quality of a relationship rather than the existence of a divine being.

“It is still possible to speak of God.” Only thing is, you’re referring to a marriage, or a friendship, or a business partnership, or the warm fuzzies that sitting on Santa’s lap gives you, or Grandma’s cookies, or how you feel about your high school math teacher.

“The non-existence of God is for me not an obstacle but a precondition to believing in God. I am an atheist believer,” he states in the book. “God is for me not a being, but a word for what can happen between people. Someone says to you, for example, ‘I will not abandon you’ and then makes those words come true. It would be perfectly alright to call that [relationship] God.”

Rev. Hendrikse’s friends no doubt call him “Humpty Dumpty” for his clever use of language.

The Volkskrant newspaper, a secular daily, compared what it called Hendrikse’s “bizarre outlook on life” to that of a vegetarian working as a butcher.

Or a Christian Scientist working as a doctor. Or a pacifist working as an artillery gunner in the army. Or a Communist working as a lobbyist for Bank of America. Or a Nazi working as a synagogue pastor. Or [fill in the blank]….

The best part is this:

The general secretary of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Bas Plaisier, has criticised Hendrikse for treating Christian belief as a “dogma that can be put out with the rubbish”. Still, the denomination is not planning at present legal or disciplinary steps against the pastor, Plaisier said.

“What we as a church, church board and synod can do now above all, is to give personal witness of our faith,” said Plaisier at the church’s general synod in November while reacting to the publication of the book. “We do not need to embark now on legal, organizational lines of action. That does not suit us and is also not very effective.”

In other words, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands is no longer a church. It’s an employment agency for gasbags.

(American mainline Protestants may now pile on….)

(Via MCJ.)