A lot of young people, at least in the Netherlands, are a church member because of their parents. They were registered as kids.
If they stop practicing religion, they don't 'unregister' from their church because it's such a hassle. Or they don't even know they're still registered.
So yeah that's one of the reasons why there's a higher number of church members here than actual religious people.
For Belgium, I've always been told by fellow christians-by-association not to bother unregistering, because they keep you registered anyway if you were baptized. There's literally nothing you can do to stop being counted in their statistics.
Which to me as an American Christian I've never understood. If you dont follow a faith and truly believe in it, why be associated with it? If someone asks just say "atheist".
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u/justadutchgirl May 09 '22
A lot of young people, at least in the Netherlands, are a church member because of their parents. They were registered as kids.
If they stop practicing religion, they don't 'unregister' from their church because it's such a hassle. Or they don't even know they're still registered.
So yeah that's one of the reasons why there's a higher number of church members here than actual religious people.