07.11.06
Posted in faith, culture at 1:18 pm by Brandon
Jen and I were in Amsterdam about a month ago. Now, before your mind gets to racing about all the debauchery in which we were enaged, let me assure you–we didn’t do anything more immoral than usual.
We were in a small group a number of years ago at a relatively local mega-church. At one, rather memorable, meeting a couple who travelled through Amsterdam on their way to a mission trip to India quipped, “Yeah, we got off the plane in Amsterdam–you could just smell the sin.”
I was justly confused, then, when just a month ago my schnoz was incredibly active desperately in search of the “smell of sin” and I just couldn’t detect it. Admittedly, I was probably absent the day they taught the “good Christians” what, exactly, sin smelled like. I imagine it smells a little like a Kerusso T-shirt–fresh from the sweatshop, but I can’t be sure.
What we found, instead, was a city of wonderful people. Probably some of the kindest people in Europe that we ran into. To be fair, the wholesale lack of a language barrier probably helped. Still, I was on the hunt for sin in Amsterdam–surely I’d missed some orgies and the like.
Everytime we encountered a new person, I expected to see some sign of Satan–you know, maybe in a moment of indiscretion they’d slip out their forked tongues, or reveal that they actually had two sets of eyelids or gills or something. Imagine my shock when on a worshipful Sunday morning canal boat tour we cuised past a church that was–gasp–just getting out of service. Imagine that, a church, filled not only with grandmotherly types, but young families. Quietly sipping their coffee (an after church ritual) and chatting–pausing only momentarily to kindly wave to friends passing by on their Sunday morning boatride through the canals.
Sure, a prostitute in the red light district asked Jen and I if we’d like to “do it”, but when we politely replied, “maybe next time” she just sort of let us go on our way.
In west Michigan (and in Christianity, too, I think,) we like to think of Amsterdammers and their ilk as the embodiment of Beelzebub. We speculate that any Christian who supports liberal Marijuana laws can’t really have Jesus living in their heart. No people who make a space for, and–again, gasp–protect and care for their prostitutes could have Jesus living side by side with them.
This is not all to say that all Amsterdammers go to heaven and all Americans go to hell. Far from it. There, like here, there is a pressing need for the love of God to touch people. We all have a need to be transformed.
Transformation.
That’s the tricky bit. Here in America we tend to surmise that transformation moves us in the direction of wealth–what with streets paved with gold and all. Yet, I’m not so sure wealth is the direction of God’s transformation. The Dutch seem, knowingly or not, to be on to something with regard to being transformed by God’s grace. They get that working 60 hours a week in search of something approaching upward mobility, may just be moving us backward. They get that just sitting on the front porch eating dinner with friends and sharing a bottle of wine isn’t such a bad thing.
In short, the Dutch understood the meaning of rest. That rest isn’t so much something to be done passively–so that we can store up our energy to head back into the grind. They understood that rest is something to be done actively…riding your rowboat down the canals, sharing a dinner with friends, and generally stopping to smell the roses.
So, I guess I went to Amsterdam in search of the smell of sin. What I found, however, wasn’t sin–at least not in any more abundance than I find here. I found the smell of delight, the smell of patience, indeed, I found out what the roses smell like. And that, my friends, is not a smell I’m likely to forget.
Permalink
Trackback URL »
http://www.badchristian.com/2006/07/11/redeeming-amsterdam/trackback/
Posted in faith, culture at 1:18 pm by Brandon
Jen and I were in Amsterdam about a month ago. Now, before your mind gets to racing about all the debauchery in which we were enaged, let me assure you–we didn’t do anything more immoral than usual.
We were in a small group a number of years ago at a relatively local mega-church. At one, rather memorable, meeting a couple who travelled through Amsterdam on their way to a mission trip to India quipped, “Yeah, we got off the plane in Amsterdam–you could just smell the sin.”
I was justly confused, then, when just a month ago my schnoz was incredibly active desperately in search of the “smell of sin” and I just couldn’t detect it. Admittedly, I was probably absent the day they taught the “good Christians” what, exactly, sin smelled like. I imagine it smells a little like a Kerusso T-shirt–fresh from the sweatshop, but I can’t be sure.
What we found, instead, was a city of wonderful people. Probably some of the kindest people in Europe that we ran into. To be fair, the wholesale lack of a language barrier probably helped. Still, I was on the hunt for sin in Amsterdam–surely I’d missed some orgies and the like.
Everytime we encountered a new person, I expected to see some sign of Satan–you know, maybe in a moment of indiscretion they’d slip out their forked tongues, or reveal that they actually had two sets of eyelids or gills or something. Imagine my shock when on a worshipful Sunday morning canal boat tour we cuised past a church that was–gasp–just getting out of service. Imagine that, a church, filled not only with grandmotherly types, but young families. Quietly sipping their coffee (an after church ritual) and chatting–pausing only momentarily to kindly wave to friends passing by on their Sunday morning boatride through the canals.
Sure, a prostitute in the red light district asked Jen and I if we’d like to “do it”, but when we politely replied, “maybe next time” she just sort of let us go on our way.
In west Michigan (and in Christianity, too, I think,) we like to think of Amsterdammers and their ilk as the embodiment of Beelzebub. We speculate that any Christian who supports liberal Marijuana laws can’t really have Jesus living in their heart. No people who make a space for, and–again, gasp–protect and care for their prostitutes could have Jesus living side by side with them.
This is not all to say that all Amsterdammers go to heaven and all Americans go to hell. Far from it. There, like here, there is a pressing need for the love of God to touch people. We all have a need to be transformed.
Transformation.
That’s the tricky bit. Here in America we tend to surmise that transformation moves us in the direction of wealth–what with streets paved with gold and all. Yet, I’m not so sure wealth is the direction of God’s transformation. The Dutch seem, knowingly or not, to be on to something with regard to being transformed by God’s grace. They get that working 60 hours a week in search of something approaching upward mobility, may just be moving us backward. They get that just sitting on the front porch eating dinner with friends and sharing a bottle of wine isn’t such a bad thing.
In short, the Dutch understood the meaning of rest. That rest isn’t so much something to be done passively–so that we can store up our energy to head back into the grind. They understood that rest is something to be done actively…riding your rowboat down the canals, sharing a dinner with friends, and generally stopping to smell the roses.
So, I guess I went to Amsterdam in search of the smell of sin. What I found, however, wasn’t sin–at least not in any more abundance than I find here. I found the smell of delight, the smell of patience, indeed, I found out what the roses smell like. And that, my friends, is not a smell I’m likely to forget.
Permalink
Trackback URL »
http://www.badchristian.com/2006/07/11/redeeming-amsterdam/trackback/
Travis said,
July 11, 2006 at 1:39 pm
I heard the same thing about “smelling the sin” about New Orleans. I went there last summer, about a month before the Hurricane, and if New Orleans smells like sin, then sin smells like the deep-fried homemade pork-rind booth at the flea market in my hometown.
Allison said,
July 11, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Beautiful post. You’ve captured much of what I think is our culture’s problem — and also it’s future downfall. We can only increase the hours we work for so long before the foundations of society (family, social interaction) can’t support our must-have-more habit.
Travis, I was thinking exactly the same thing abotu New Orleans. I grew up about an hour north of there, and people *always* refered to it that way.
Joe said,
July 11, 2006 at 1:59 pm
I found Amsterdam to be one of the cleanest and friendliest places I’ve ever visited (save for Geneva, because they’re so stinking rich they can clean the streets by hand).
I saw people talking cordially with what appeared to me, to be the usual rifraff bums in the parks that you’d come across in the subways of Paris, bumming for change. These fellows were incredibly polite and said hello to me and my friends, though we were foreign strangers.
The people in the coffeeshops and bars were all very nice, as well.
The people of Geneva were also nice. Though they don’t legalize marijuana, they do tolerate it, and people usually sit out on the lawn at 1am drinking wine, smoking hash, and listening to live jazz music.
Same for the parks in Brussels. All very splendid. The parents with their kids didn’t seem to fear the hash-smoking youths two park benches away(the youths I was hanging with).
And when I said goodbye to the people I had just met in Brussels, only 2 hours before, they hugged me, and kissed my cheek. Very very nice.
chuck said,
July 11, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Brandon,
If you don’t knock it off I’m gonna be left with no one to point my finger at!
How’s a good pharisee to survive without the ability to thank our God that atleast we’re not like “those” people…
Thanks bro…
Steve said,
July 11, 2006 at 3:50 pm
As much as I support this general observation that places like Amsterdam are very friendly, I wonder if we miss that they also have been very resistent to immigration and often use the same rhetoric that we decry certain members of our nation from using in regards to border crossing, especially to the south.
In other words, does this feeling represent a genuine difference in culture or a greater ability to mask and divide one’s discrimination from one’s behavior.
For example, if Jen and Brandon had been a young, observant Jewish or Muslim couple, would they have felt the same “welcome”?
I don’t mean to cause trouble, but I have been writing and reading a lot about issues of the division between “foreigner” and “citizen” and the relationship of these terms to the idea of “hospitality”. Many of the recent discussions of these terms have come from continental thinkers who observe a distinctly different Europe than the one that all my friends rave about after their travels that is “so nice” and everyone seems so friendly.
Joe said,
July 11, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Good point, Steve, but I think you missed Brandon’s intent.
You can find racism anywhere, really. I think Brandon was addressing the blind generalization and prejudgice of his Christian brothers and sisters.
Of course, maybe they just had to say “you can smell the sin” or whatever to emphasize their disinterest in marijuana outwardly, while perhaps desiring it inwardly?? Let ‘em know how holy you are, friends!
ok, so there’s my generalization and prejudgice out in the open =P
Maria said,
July 11, 2006 at 5:46 pm
beautiful - for once I’m proud to be Dutch!
Jason said,
July 12, 2006 at 1:11 am
did you ever, for once, consider that the reason why you didn’t “smell the sin” is that you couldn’t get beyond the sinful stench you bring wtih you? Any good Calvinist would know this….
;)
grace and peace, glad the trip was a safe and enjoyable one…
timmer k. said,
July 12, 2006 at 8:42 am
Excellent post, Brandon. Thank you so much for coming back to this blog. Your insights are always well-written and insightful. I was just in Amsterdam (on my way to Scotland)….the only smell that hit me hard in the airport was B.O. I wonder if your friend confused sin and B.O.
ninjanun said,
July 12, 2006 at 10:40 am
Well, cleanliness is next to godliness, so personal hygene can’t be far behind, right? It says so right there in the book of James.
Brandon said,
July 12, 2006 at 10:43 am
Spoken like a clean person, Nun.
Scott said,
July 12, 2006 at 10:59 am
In the immortal words of Austin Power’s dear old dad:
“There are two things in this world that I cannot stand:
Intolerance for other people’s culture and the Dutch.”
I know he’s a Brit but it’s spoken like a true American Pharisee.
wildwest said,
July 12, 2006 at 10:59 am
Sounds like a place I’d like to live. I wonder what they talk about in church? “Peace,” someone once said with disgust. “It’s all peace, peace. Y’know, peace, peace when there *is* no peace.” But I *like* peace. And quiet. And tolerance. And love. And beauty. And friendliness. All those “sinful” things. Oh, wait. The devil is an angel of light. (If I try real hard I might be able to learn to love violence and war and noise and intolerance and hate and ugliness and alienation and unfriendliness and greed and exploitation and WalMart so I can go to heaven when I die. Seems like an odd trade-off to me, though.)
btw, what *were* you doing on a canal boat tour when those other peaceful people were in church?
Brandon said,
July 12, 2006 at 11:03 am
You know, WW, I really did long to have been in Church (and yes, I mean “C”hurch) with those folks that Sunday morning. The canal boat ride was a bit of relaxing worship, but what they had going looked really good.
However, despite my heritage, church in Dutch is something I doubt I’d have been able to milk the full experience of…what with my not speaking it and all. Still, I wish we’d have joined those folks that morning.
mike said,
July 12, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Sin smells like Kim-chee buried for a month in one of Shaquille Oneal’s used playoff socks and then served with sour goat cheese at a table in the back slag heap of a Butte, Montana copper mine.
s@bd said,
July 12, 2006 at 1:47 pm
it’s possible sin smells verrry verrry verrrrrrrrrrrry yummy.
shelly said,
July 13, 2006 at 9:57 pm
If sin has an odour, I have no idea what it would be. (On the other hand, I’m probably one of the worst Christians on the planet, soooo…you figure that one out.
)
Anyhoo, I’m glad you had a wonderful time.
Bridgier said,
July 14, 2006 at 11:28 pm
Sin smells like…. Durian
I wonder what your freinds would have thought of Singapore.
Prostitution is illegal - but that’s not enforced, so it’s seedy and dirty, just the way the God intended it.
Exploitation of labor is illegal - but the government looks the other way.
Homosexuality? Illegal, so you know everybody’s straight here.
Drugs? A hanging offense. Carried out a dawn on Friday mornings.
In other words - a paradise for rich elites who look just like Jesus!
jeff m said,
July 17, 2006 at 1:31 am
Well-written Brandon. Though I’ve never been to Europe, everything I’ve read about Amsterdam has indicated to me that it’s a wonderful place. Your first-hand glimpse of that part of the world has given me more insight for living.
Kevin said,
July 17, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Last year after we got back from Venice someone made a similar dumbass comment to us, something about how the reason Venice is sinking is because of Europe’s immoral foundation. If I had to choose between Europe’s immorality and the immorality of the States, I’d pick the European brand any day of the week.
tracy said,
August 4, 2006 at 3:28 pm
me ? i’m a brit ! you think i don’t know? Thnakfully there are alot of guys like you who encourage me not to give up on America. Sadly , most Brits are left with a nasty taste in their mouths when the ignorance, blindess, fear and hypocrsiy of those voices which are louder than yours are heard.
keep up the blog bro!
Grace