Church Members, Non-Church Member s aNd the Intimate Men/Women-Relationship

Abstract

AbstractHow did the ideas about the intimate men/women-relationship developed among church members and non-church members in the Netherlands since the mid-sixties? This question has been answered in this article on the ground of data of several surveys of the Sociaal Cultureel Planbureau. The investigation was placed in the theoretical framework of the privatization thesis in the sociology of religion. It is shown that during the last decades the discrepancy in the opinion among both groups has decreased strongly concerning birth control propaganda and consciously childless marriages, has decreased slightly concerning division of roles between men and women, and has increased concerning marriage, divorce, division of roles between men and women and sexuality. The attitude against the last mentioned matters seems to be in increasing extent a characteristic element of the identity of church members in the Netherlands.