Klaas Hendrikse

Life and career

Hendrikse grew up in a non-religious family in the Alblasserwaard; his father was a veterinary surgeon. He went to school in Gorinchem and studied in Nyenrode (1968-1971) and Michigan State University (1971-1972). Between 1972 and 1983 he worked for Xerox. After becoming interested in religion, he studied theology at the Utrecht University between 1977 and 1983, before becoming a preacher.

He achieved national fame as the atheist pastor after he stated in a number of newspapers, including Trouw and Volkskrant, that he did not believe in God's literal existence but as something that "happens." Klaas Hendrikse has described God as "a word for experience, or human experience" and said that Jesus may have never existed. His comments caused outrage both within the Protestant Church and outside. Hendrikse later said that he did not consider himself to be an atheist, but tries to stay close to atheism in his choice of words and away from the "jargon of the church."

The Church considered at first taking disciplinary action against Hendrikse, but dropped the case in 2009. The authorities stated that such a case would merely result in "a protracted discussion about the meanings of words that in the end will produce little clarity." Hendrikse has said that he would "rather remain as a louse in the fur of the PKN" than leave and form his own religious community.

Hendrikse's religious point of views are not considered very extreme in a large part of the Netherlands. In the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), 42% of its members describe themselves as non-theists. Furthermore, in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) and several other smaller denominations of the Netherlands, 1 in 6 clergy are either agnostic or atheist.

Trivia

Hendrikse features in the novel Artush and Zaur, by Ali Akbar, in which he performs a wedding ceremony for the homosexual protagonists.

Books