http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3627-2564
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ABSTRACT
When civil marriage in the Netherlands was opened up to same-sex couples in 2001, the Dutch government allowed civil marriage registrars with conscientious objections to opt out. This exemption became controversial in 2007, when it was reemphasized by a new government coalition that comprised two faith-based parties. Through critical discourse analysis this article discusses the construction of religion and homosexuality in public discourses on the weigerambtenaar (lit. ‘refusing civil servant’) between 2007 and 2014. It looks at the effects of the weigerambtenaar as a term, a character and a social problem, and shows how particular oppositions between homosexuals and Christians were created of reinforced. Moreover, it argues that, although the issue was framed in terms of certain secular rights, some contributions also pointed to the importance of (quasi)religious rites in the civil wedding ceremony. Therefore, it also shows how marriage was conceptualized in terms of religion and (homo)sexuality.
Acknowledgements
Earlier drafts of this paper have been presented in a pre-arranged session sponsored by the Gay Men and Religion Group and the Law, Religion, and Culture Group at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion on November 24, 2014 in San Diego, CA, USA; and at the PhD Spring Conference of the Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion, Soesterberg, NL, April 18, 2016. I would like to thank Heather White and Marvin Ellison for their responses at the AAR as well as Anne-Marie Korte, Ruard Ganzevoort, Maaike de Haardt, Mariecke van den Berg and David Bos for their more detailed feedback on earlier drafts. This work is part of the research project “Contested Privates: The Oppositional Pairing of Religion and Homosexuality in Contemporary Public Discourse in the Netherlands” (Amsterdam Center for the Study of Lived Religion & Utrecht Chair of Religion and Gender). A shorter, less elaborate version in Dutch has been published in a non-refereed journal: “Een smet op de mooiste dag van je leven: de controverse van ‘de weigerambtenaar’”, Religie & Samenleving 11, no. 2 (2016): 101–21.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Note on contributor
Marco Derks is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University. He is a theologian and scholar of religion, sexuality and gender. He has published articles in, for example, Biblical Interpretation and Theology & Sexuality, and he is co-chair of the Gay Men and Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion. Academia: https://uu.academia.edu/MarcoDerks. LinkedIn: http://nl.linkedin.com/in/marcoderks. Website: http://marcoderks.wordpress.com.
ORCID
Marco Derks http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3627-2564
Notes
1. Art. 1:30 Burgerlijk Wetboek (Civil Code). Translation taken from http://www.dutchcivillaw.com/civilcodebook01.htm (accessed February 17, 2017). This website translates geslacht as “gender (sex)”, but it should be “sex”.
2. “‘Weigerambtenaar’ Onze Taal-woord van 2011,” Onze Taal, November 25, 2011, https://onzetaal.nl/weblog/onze-taal-woord-van-2011.
3. Peters, Een doodgewoon kabinet, 113–17. ‘While the world was flabbergasted, the Netherlands had become bored with this feat.’ (Hekma, “Gay Paradise,” 51–52; as quoted by David Bos in his article in this issue).
4. Wilco Boom, “‘Partners in crime’: huwelijk voor homo's door initiatief paarse Kamerleden,” Algemeen Dagblad, September 2, 2000; cf. Dittrich, Een blauwe stoel, 57–58.
5. “Vijftien jaar huwelijk is feest van gelijkheid,” COC Nederland, April 1, 2016. http://www.coc.nl/algemeen/vijftien-jaar-huwelijk-is-feest-van-gelijkheid.
6. The First and Second Kok Cabinets are commonly nicknamed ‘Purple I and II,’ because purple is a mixture of blue and red, the colors of the two biggest parties (liberals resp. social democrats). The following example shows that ‘purple’ in this context has become synonymous with ‘secular.’ In Autumn 2013, the coalition of social democrats and conservative liberals reached a budget agreement with the liberal democrats and two small Christian parties to get a majority in the Senate. As this was an agreement between all three parties of the former ‘purple’ coalition and two conservative Christian parties, it was called “Purple with the Bible” in the media (e.g. Thijs Niemantsverdriet and Derk Stokmans, “‘Paars met de Bijbel’ is laatste reddingsboei,” NRC, October 10, 2013. http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/2013/10/10/paars-met-de-bijbel-is-laatste-reddingsboei-1304967). This phrase indicates that “purple” implies “secular,” especially since religion didn’t play any dominant role in this agreement.
7. For example, Maxwell, “Opening Civil Marriage”; Waaldijk, “Civil Developments”; Waaldijk, “Others May Follow”; cf. Cox, “To Have and to Hold.”
8. Except, for example, van der Burg, “Symbolic Crusade.”
9. In the years before the legalization of same-sex marriage in France, laïcité's authority had been challenged by religious opponents of same-sex marriage (McCaffrey, “Gay Marriage in France,” 265–66).
10. Cf. Cox, “To Have and to Hold.”
11. “All persons in the Netherlands shall be treated equally in equal circumstances. Discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief, political opinion, race or sex or on any other grounds whatsoever shall not be permitted.”
12. Van der Burg, “Symbolic Crusade,” 261–62.
13. Van der Burg, “Symbolic Crusade,” 268. For a similar argument with respect to France, see McCaffrey, “Gay Marriage in France,” 266–67.
14. Cf. Waaldijk, “Small Change,” 446–47.
15. Waaldijk, “Others May Follow,” 107.
16. Wet openstelling huwelijk: memorie van antwoord, Pub. L. No. 26 672, 2000–2001 officielebekendmakingen.nl 92a (2000), https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/kst-20002001-26672-92a.html. The Association of Dutch Municipalities expressed the same view (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Burgerzaken, Wet openstelling huwelijk, 30).
17. Ministerie van Algemene Zaken, “Coalitieakkoord tussen de Tweede Kamerfracties van CDA, PvdA en ChristenUnie,” February 7, 2007. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2007/02/07/coalitieakkoord-balkenende-iv. The Christian Union (ChristenUnie) is a merger of two moderately conservative Protestant parties that had never been in a government. It tends to be religiously rather conservative but socially moderately progressive.
18. The only new element was the obscure remark that, ‘if problems would rise in the municipal practice, initiatives will be taken to secure the legal certainty of MaRCOs.’
19. Lucas Gasthuis, “Taal: Weigerambtenaar,” Elsevier 63, no. 16 (2007).
20. In addition, on March 3, Albert Verlinde, a popular TV host – and a gossip queen to many – started a petition against the MaRCO (“Actie Albert Verlinde tegen weigerambtenaren,” COC Nederland, March 4, 2007, http://www.coc.nl/jouw-belangen/actie-albert-verlinde-tegen-weigerambtenaren).
21. “‘Gemeenten namen na 2001 nog weigerambtenaren aan,’” De Volkskrant, April 1, 2007, http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/-gemeenten-namen-na-2001-nog-weigerambtenaren-aan~a879556/; “Trouwambtenaren,” COC Nederland, 2007, http://www.coc.nl/dossier/trouwambtenaren.
22. For example, when the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederlands Hervormde Kerk), the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland) and the Lutheran Church merged into the Protestant Church of the Netherlands in 2004, a part of the right wing of the Dutch Reformed Church didn’t join, one of the reasons being the possibility same-sex couples would have in the new Protestant Church to have their marriages blessed (Bos, De aard, 20–1).
23. An additional and more general explanation could be the fact that, in the intervening years, the attacks of 9/11 and the assassinations two Dutch critics of Islam in 2002 (Pim Fortuyn) and 2004 (Theo van Gogh), among others, had negatively affected public perceptions not only of Islam but also of religion(s) in general.
24. COC, “Vijftien jaar huwelijk is feest van gelijkheid” (see note 5).
25. COC, “Trouwambtenaren” (see note 21).
26. They presented the results of their investigation on April 1, 2007, at the earlier-mentioned presentation of their covenant with several political parties. A news item on this event spoke of ‘one out of eight municipalities’ that ‘employed’ MaRCOs (“‘Gemeenten namen na 2001 nog weigerambtenaren aan’,” De Volkskrant, April 1, 2007, http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/-gemeenten-namen-na-2001-nog-weigerambtenaren-aan~a879556/). I don’t know for sure how many MaRCOs COC had counted in early 2007, as they have updated their information since then. On January 20, 2016 they mentioned 87 MaRCOs (COC, “Trouwambtenaren”; see note 21), which seems to have been the number since at least on September 15, 2012, when a columnist for a regional newspaper wrote: ‘An average of 87 tokens of this threatened species still exist in municipal offices. In 2007, there were 104 all-in-all.’ (Paul Prikken, “Weigerambtenaar is fictie,” De Limburger, September 15, 2012) The columnist doesn’t tell where he got these numbers from, but it's very likely that he got them from COC, for on November 10, 2011 the national news broadcasting organization spoke of 104 by referring to COC (“Den Haag ontslaat weigerambtenaar,” NOS, November 10, 2011, http://nos.nl/artikel/312287-den-haag-ontslaat-weigerambtenaar.html) and that's the number of MaRCOs in 2007 according to Prikken.
27. Both the Association of Dutch Municipalities and the Dutch Association of Civil Affairs have informed me that they don’t have a national administration of marriage registrars. But to get an idea: in 2011, a columnist spoke of 487 marriage registrars in the municipality of Amsterdam only (Margreet Fogteloo, “Weigerambtenaar weigeren,” De Groene Amsterdammer 135, no. 22 [2011]). If that's correct and if the registrar/citizen-ratio in the Netherlands as a whole is the same as in Amsterdam, there were roughly 8,000-10,000 civil registrars in the country.
28. Hilgartner and Bosk, “Social Problems,” 58.
29. Gert-Jan Segers, “De meerderheid denkt altijd dat ze gelijk heeft,” Trouw, June 6, 2013, http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/5009/Archief/archief/article/detail/3453619/2013/06/06/De-meerderheid-denkt-altijd-dat-ze-gelijk-heeft.dhtml.
30. Rutger Bregman, “Oplossingen voor onzinproblemen, en dat ten koste van jouw keuzevrijheid,” NRC.next, November 17, 2011.
31. Quoted in Rob Musters, “Weigerambtenaar in Etten-Leur,” BN/DeStem, March 31, 2007.
32. Quoted in Erica Meijers, “Tolerantie 2013: iets eisen van de ander,” Trouw, June 14, 2013.
33. Hilgartner and Bosk, “Social Problems,” 61.
34. Rob Hoogland, “Woord,” De Telegraaf, November 28, 2011; cf. Gasthuis, “Taal” (see note 19).
35. “Weigerachtige ambtenaar incasseert,” Trouw, August 21, 2003, http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4324/Nieuws/article/detail/1770304/2003/08/21/Weigerachtige-ambtenaar-incasseert.dhtml.
36. Adri van Esch, “Dales in gesprek met weigeringsambtenaar Eringa,” Gay Krant 24, no. 499 (2004): 15.
37. On April 21, 2007, a columnist noted that the word weigerambtenaar had been used 27 times in newspapers and magazines since February 14 and had already 36,000 hits on Google (Gasthuis, “Taal”; see note 19). In 2011, another columnist (Hoogland, “Woord”; see note 34) asserted that it was a journalist of De Volkskrant who had coined the term in 2007 – he probably meant a news item on March 3 (“Gemeenteraden verplichten ambtenaren homo's te trouwen,” De Volkskrant, March 3, 2007) – but it had been used at least once before in 2001 by a reporter of a regional newspaper (Willem Bosma, “Leeuwarder aanpak van trouwrel kreukvrij,” Leeuwarder Courant, June 18, 2001).
38. The success of the term weigerambtenaar becomes clear when we see media using the term weigerbakker in their headlines when reporting about an American baker who had refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple (e.g. “Weigerbakker moet toch bakken,” NOS, May 30, 2014, http://nos.nl/artikel/654849-weigerbakker-moet-toch-bakken.html) – apparently, these media expect their readers to immediately associate the word weiger with (religious) discrimination against gays and lesbians. At the same time, also the more neutral – or ‘politically correct’ – term of ‘marriage registrar with conscientious objections (gewetensbezwaarde ambtenaar)’ doesn’t speak of (same-sex) marriage or religion.
39. According to the results from a survey by the evangelical broadcasting organization EO among MaRCOs who are in the records of the Reformed labor union RMU, the average (Reformed!) MaRCO is a man, is older than 50, and has worked as an extraordinary marriage registrar in a relatively small municipality for more than 10 years (EO, De Vijfde Dag, December 1, 2011, http://www.npo.nl/de-vijfde-dag/01-12-2011/EO_101175515). The difference between ordinary and extraordinary marriage registrars will be discussed in section 4.
40. Koefnoen (AVRO), “Homohuwelijk,” March 10, 2007, http://www.npo.nl/koefnoen/10-03-2007/AVRO_1243964.
41. For example, some comments to Bert Brussen, “Ministerie: ‘Weigerambtenaar exclusief christelijk’,” GeenStijl. July 14, 2011, http://www.geenstijl.nl/mt/archieven/2011/07/ministerie_weigerambtenaar_exc.html.
42. Tom Mikkers, “Trouwambtenaar hoeft geen zielenherder te zijn,” Trouw, October 25, 2011.
43. Prikken, “Weigerambtenaar is fictie” (see note 26).
44. Uwe Arnhold, “De godsdienst toonde zijn lelijke kant,” De Volkskrant, December 29, 2011.
45. Elma Drayer, “Overheidsdienaar moet zijn gevoelens thuis laten,” Trouw, November 24, 2011, http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/6847/Elma-Drayer/article/detail/3047691/2011/11/24/Overheidsdienaar-moet-zijn-gevoelens-thuis-laten.dhtml.
46. Annelies van der Veer, “Niet geschikt voor de job,” Metro, April 22, 2014.
47. Axel Veldhuizen, “5 vragen aan G. de Kok: ‘Dit kabinet zorgt voor rechtsongelijkheid’,” Algemeen Dagblad, March 3, 2007.
48. Irene de Pous, “Taaie strijd om weigerambtenaar,” De Volkskrant, August 6, 2012. At the time of the interview referred to, Bergkamp had just stepped back as chair of COC Netherlands and had started campaigning for the next Parliamentary elections – in 2012, she would become an MP for the liberal democrats.
49. Pauw & Witteman (VARA), November 16, 2011, http://www.npo.nl/pauw-witteman/16-11-2011/VARA_101262117.
50. Ineke van Gent, Henk Krol, and Vera Bergkamp, “VVD, weiger de weigerambtenaar,” De Volkskrant, November 15, 2011.
51. René van Zwieten, “Weg met weigerambtenaar,” De Telegraaf, October 26, 2011.
52. Kees de Groot, “Gewetensbezwaarde was bij GroenLinks vroeger goed af,” Reformatorisch Dagblad, August 9, 2011.
53. De Pous, “Taaie strijd” (see note 48); cf. Ger van Beem, “Het is géén gezeur,” Het Parool, August 7, 2012.
54. Cf., for example, Scott, “Secularism,” 27.
55. Reuter, “Charting the Boundaries,” 3.
56. Anderson, Imagined Communities.
57. Sjoerd de Jong, “Waarom de weigerambtenaar mag weigeren,” NRC, September 5, 2012, http://www.nrc.nl/ombudsman/2012/09/05/waarom-de-weigerambtenaar-mag-weigeren.
58. Esther van Osselen, “Roze aanval op paarse coalitie,” Algemeen Dagblad, February 16, 1995; cf. David Bos’ article in this issue. On the meaning of ‘purple’ see note 6.
59. Mario, “De fijne kant van discriminatie,” Verkeerde Krant no. 9 (1981): 3; cf. Mario, “Dienstweigeren gevoed door flikkerideeën,” Verkeerde Krant no. 7 (1981): 32; Ton Roosendaal, “Ik ben het gewoon niet eens met het systeem: interview met Johan Lor,” Verkeerde Krant no. 17 (1983): 29.
60. It was primarily the Gay Krant which had campaigned for it – COC Netherlands only started to support same-sex marriage in the second half of the 1990s (see David Bos’ article in this issue).
61. COC Netherlands and (some) other LGBT activists, however, avoided this term and spoke of ‘huwelijk tussen paren van gelijk geslacht’ (‘same-sex marriage’) and similar terms instead.
62. For example, Fogteloo, ‘Weigerambtenaar weigeren’ (see note 27); Annelies van der Veer, ‘Weigerambtenaar: uitstervende minderheid,’ Metro, December 6, 2011; A. Hobbel, “Religie beperkt,” Algemeen Dagblad, June 20, 2012; Annemarie Kas, “‘85 gewetensbezwaarden, en niet één meer erbij’: vier vragen over de weigerambtenaar,” NRC, June 11, 2013.
63. Wet openstelling huwelijk (see note 16).
64. Ministerie van Algemene Zaken, “Coalitieakkoord” (see note 17).
65. Interestingly, marriage registrars with a religious affiliation other than Christian are absent from – or at least unrecognizable as such in – public discourse (both as participants and as subject of debate).
66. EO, De Vijfde Dag (see note 39).
67. Hein Bosman, “Grondwet met voeten getreden,” Amersfoortse Courant, October 29, 2011.
68. Art. 1:67 Burgerlijk Wetboek.
69. Pfeiffer, Huwelijkstoespraken, 13.
70. Ibid., 54.
71. Nygren, Agape and Eros.
72. Gemeente Middelharnis, “Rechtpositieregeling buitengewoon ambtenaar burgerlijke stand gemeente Middelharnis,” Overheid.nl, January 22, 2008, http://decentrale.regelgeving.overheid.nl/cvdr/xhtmloutput/historie/Middelharnis/50719/50719_1.html; van Dorp and Oosthoek, Wat is daarop uw antwoord?, 10. I use these sources (a document from the municipality of Middelharnis resp. a book on marriage registrars) because Parliamentary documents before January 1, 1995 are not available on the Government's website overheid.nl.
73. For example, Jaap Cordia, “PvdA discrimineert gelovig bruidspaar,” Reformatorisch Dagblad, April 27, 2010; Bosman, “Grondwet” (see note 67); Sheila Kamerman, “Trouwen aan de gemeentebalie: ChristenUnie-leider Slob wil een burgerlijk huwelijk zonder ceremonie,” NRC.next, November 24, 2011.
74. EO, De Vijfde Dag (see note 35).
75. Jaap Cordia, “Burger niet verschillend begroeten,” Nederlands Dagblad, August 23, 2008; Cordia, “PvdA” (see note 73); Bosman, “Grondwet” (see note 67); N.N., “‘Ik gun ieder homopaar dag van hun leven’,” Leeuwarder Courant, August 8, 2011; Emilie van Outeren, “Huwelijk moet voor iederéén leuk zijn,” NRC.next, November 15, 2011.
76. Kamerman, “Trouwen aan de gemeentebalie” (see note 73).
77. Kees van der Staaij, “Weigerambtenaar is geen caissière,” Nederlands Dagblad, February 18, 2009.
78. Quoted in “Geen politieke animo voor voorstel huwelijk Slob,” Reformatorisch Dagblad, November 21, 2011, http://www.refdag.nl/nieuws/politiek/geen_politieke_animo_voor_voorstel_huwelijk_slob_1_604409.
79. Wouter van den Berg and Remco van Mulligen, “Weigerambtenaar heeft recht op tolerantie,” Trouw, August 11, 2011.
80. Witte, From Sacrament to Contract.
81. Witte, From Sacrament to Contract, 197.
82. Art. 1:63 Burgerlijk Wetboek (emphasis added).
83. Cf. Witte, From Sacrament to Contract, 26.
84. Bosman, “Grondwet” (see note 67); cf. Cordia, “PvdA” (see note 73); “CU: trouwen als administratieve handeling aan de gemeentebalie,” NRC. November 21, 2011, http://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/2011/11/21/cu-trouwen-als-administratieve-handeling-aan-de-gemeentebalie-12083571.
85. “Woede over weigerambtenaar,” De Twentsche Courant Tubantia, June 23, 2012. The author of this column is not given in database LexisNexis.
86. Marco Derks, “Weigerambtenaar: fatsoenlijk nadenken,” Nederlands Dagblad, August 17, 2011; cf. Derks, Vos, and Tromp 2014.
87. For example, Jan Dirk Snel, “Homohuwelijk en weigerambtenaren: over de fantasie van Marcel Duyvestijn en Thijs Kleinpaste,” Weblog Jan Dirk Snel, July 7, 2011, http://jandirksnel.web-log.nl/jandirksnel/2011/07/homohuwelijk-en-weigerambtenaren-over-de-fantasie-van-marcel-duyvestijn-en-thijs-kleinpaste.html; Derks, “Weigerambtenaar” (see note 86); Mikkers, “Trouwambtenaar” (see note 42); Ruard Ganzevoort, “De weigerambtenaar,” Centraal Weekblad, November 3, 2011, http://ruardganzevoort.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/de-weigerambtenaar; Gied ten Berge, “Geen ja-woord meer op het stadhuis,” Trouw, November 12, 2011, http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/5009/Archief/archief/article/detail/3030066/2011/11/12/Geen-ja-woord-meer-op-het-stadhuis.dhtml.
88. Gerard Beverdam, “Burgerlijk huwelijk aan de balie,” Nederlands Dagblad, November 19, 2011, http://www.nd.nl/artikelen/2011/november/19/-burgerlijk-huwelijk-aan-de-balie. Interestingly, two days later in another newspaper, a spokesperson of the Christian Union provided an explanation that actually ran contrary to Slob's proposal: “Imagine a couple from Urk [a town in the Bible Belt; cf. section 3] that prefers that marriage registrar they know from their parish. If that registrar has deep conscientious objections against conducting the marriage of a gay couple, then he will just stop doing his work. Then those other couples loose the possibility of getting married before that registrar.” (NRC; see note 84) The spokesperson implies that Slob wanted to protect both the MaRCO and the tradition of ‘ceremonial’ civil weddings, whereas Slob had now proposed to ‘de-ritualize’ civil weddings.
89. Cf. the explanation on experiental Calvinism in section 3.
90. Reformatorisch Dagblad, “Geen politieke animo” (see note 78).
91. NOS, “Slob wil huwelijk aan balie,” NOS, November 19, 2011, http://nos.nl/artikel/314724-slob-wil-huwelijk-aan-balie.html.
92. Van den Berg and van Mulligen, “Weigerambtenaar” (see note 79).
93. Reformatorisch Dagblad, “Geen politieke animo” (see note 78). He spoke of a verzakelijking (“formalization,” “reification”) of marriage.
94. Browning, Marriage and Modernization, 26.
95. Kamerman, “Trouwen aan de gemeentebalie” (see note 73).
96. Evert van Vlastuin, “Stoomwals homohuwelijk,” Reformatorisch Dagblad, August 24, 2013.
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