fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Seeking A Low Countries Ben Op

A single mom in the Netherlands needs traditional Christian friends

A church among the tulips — can you help this Dutch woman find a Ben Op community? (Hilda Weges Photography/Shutterstock)
This is a good example of why we really need a Benedict Option website. A reader from the Netherlands e-mailed me desperately seeking Ben Op Christian community. She wanted to know if I had any sympathetic readers in the Netherlands or Belgium. I told her I wasn’t sure how many, but one way to find out is to post a note. She wrote the following to me, for you all:

I am a mother of one going through an unwanted divorce. I am looking for the proverbial village in which raise my child. I am in a new town and working (almost) full time so I need to build this village from scratch and I would love some help.

In my ideal village, going to church (any denomination) would be normal and not strange. Christmas would be about Jesus and not only about the presents. So a traditional family life would be the norm and broken families like mine the exception. We could pray together for each other and share some good time. We would help each other strengthen our faith and share strategies on how to transmit our faith to our children.

Our children would be friends and we would have the peace of mind that they don’t own a smartphone or, if they do, parental controls are fully switched on. We are attentive parents who dare to swim upstream and make bold choices for our children and not passively follow the herd. We would know that we can count on each other and we won’t be fair weather friends only, but a real community.

I am a practicing Catholic with a fairly traditional worldview, however I am not specifically seeking for a Catholic community. I live in Zeeland (the Netherlands), so I am looking for a Ben-op style group in this province (some parts of Noord Brabant/Zuid Holland might be possible as well). Belgium (Oost-Vlaanderen) is also a possibility.

If anyone who doesn’t live nearby has some suggestions for me, I am happy to hear. Thank you for your attention. I wish you a blessed Christmas.

If any of you Dutch and Belgian readers want to reach out to her, send me a note that I can forward to her. I’m at rod — at — amconmag — dot — com. I get lots of email, so if you can put “DUTCH BEN OP” or something like it in the subject line, I’d appreciate it.

I’ll check in with those who are working on getting a Ben Op site going to see where they are.

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now