Post-Post-Christian Europe?

I knew a girl in college who always called me David Netherlands.

Holland—the country whose name I bear, has for some time now been the poster child for European decadence, liberalism and post-Christian-ness—what with all the legal prostitution and hashish dens. And the conventional wisdom has long been that, once a culture goes "post-Christian" (to use C.S. Lewis' term) there is no way back. I've certainly been tempted to believe that.

So, imagine my delight to come across this article on the Weekly Standard web site.

It describes an astonishingly strong "movement" (we would call it a revival) of corporate prayer in Holland. Here's the opening paragraph:

When the "corporate prayer" movement first started in 1996, few people in Holland took any notice. Why should they have done so? After all, Holland's manifest destiny was to become a fully secularized country, in which prayer was considered at best an irrational but harmless pastime. That was then. Cue forward to 2006, when prayer in the workplace is fast becoming a universally accepted phenomenon. More than 100 companies participate. Government ministries, universities, multinational companies like Philips, KLM, and ABN AMRO--all allow groups of employees to organize regular prayer meetings at their premises. Trade unions have even started lobbying the government for recognition of workers' right to prayer in the workplace.

As you may know, Holland|Simpson has been involved for some time with ministries working to bring about a spiritual renaissance in spiritually-dark Europe.

How gratifying it is then to see this flicker of light.

Found? The Body of the Apostle Paul

Archeologists working beneath an ancient basilica in Rome may have found the body of the Apostle Paul. They have uncovered a crypt bearing this inscription:
"Paulo Apostolo Mart" - Latin for "Paul Apostle Martyr".

If this is the case, it is an extraordinarily important find. Here is the full story.

Attn: Michael J. Fox—Your Order of Stem Cells is Ready

In the last election, Mr. Fox used his celebrity to help defeat several opponents of embryonic stem cell research. These candidates did NOT oppose stem cell research in general, mind you. Just the embryo-destroying variety. (A distinction most of the press was unwilling or unable to make. "Candidate X opposes stem cell research..." we heard over and over.)

Well now that Mr. Fox's friends have won, we get a little peak at our Brave-New-World future via the Ukraine:

From the BBC—
"Healthy new-born babies may have been killed in Ukraine to feed a flourishing international trade in stem cells, evidence obtained by the BBC suggests.

Disturbing video footage of post-mortem examinations on dismembered tiny bodies raises serious questions about what happened to them.

Ukraine has become the self-styled stem cell capital of the world.

There is a trade in stem cells from aborted foetuses, amid unproven claims they can help fight many diseases.

But now there are claims that stem cells are also being harvested from live babies."

Hat tip: K-Lo

Ahh, Those Cultured, Intelligent British

So Gwyneth Paltrow has told a Portuguese reporter that "the British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans." She also shared: "I love the English lifestyle, it's not as capitalistic as America. People don't talk about work and money, they talk about interesting things at dinner."

Now if I weren't a dull-witted and barbaric American, I might try to refute Mrs. Coldplay by pointing out that the term "football hooligans" was not coined to describe Dallas Cowboys fans.

See here, here and here.

Sure, I wish American comedy could be classy and subtle like British humor...

And speaking of class, it must be British journalism that is fueling that sophisticated dinner conversation Gwyneth finds so stimulating.

We surrender. Unable to provide dinner companions like this View image and this View image, we have no choice but to insist that Gwyneth stay in Great Britain for the rest of her life. Since the vast majority of us over here aren't absurdly wealthy and still have to work, we may not be able to resist talking about money and our work lives at dinner. And we don't want that on our consciences.

Furthermore, I don't think we should insult Mrs. Coldplay by spending our grubby dollars on her movies and projects, which would increase the risk of those projects turning a profit, which is an ugly capitalist outcome.