The Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) is dropping advice on the role of religion in the public domain. The plug has been pulled partly from political correctness, according to WRR staff member P. de Goede.
De Goede said yesterday in Nederlands Dagblad newspaper that the topic has been dropped from the agenda partly due to lack of time. “But the fact that the theme is extremely sensitive also played a role.” He “regrets” that the recommendations will no longer be made.
In December 2006, the WRR presented its report “Religion in the public domain.” It was the intention that an official recommendation to the cabinet on the role of religion would follow, but this project has now been dropped.
The WRR is still preparing a “supplementary publication” on the role of religion in the public domain, WRR communications advisor M. van Leijenhorst said yesterday in a reaction. But she was unable to say when this will be and in what form.
According to Van Leijenhorst, the reason for scrapping the project was “overwhelmingly of a practical nature”. It was mainly dropped, she explained, because the then WRR chairman W. van de Donk was leading the project but has since become governor of Noord-Brabant.