How Jonah Falke gave a glimpse into the world of the reformed Christians
Elze Bouwman
What if we had a conversation with a group of people who have completely different values? What unites us with those we have the least in common with? This is what Jonah Falke tries to inspect when it comes to religion. Him: a leftist atheist who lives in the Randstad, Them: conservative Christians who live in small towns. In his non-fiction book De Biblebelt: Een Waarachtige Zoektocht naar Geloof, Hoop en Liefde in Nederland (The Bible Belt: A True full search to Love, Hope and Faith in the Netherlands1), Falke does a deep dive into the world of the Bible Belt. It has this term because there is a region where conservative Christianity is very much present, this spans diagonally across the Netherlands similar to a seat belt. Even though this region in the Netherlands spans from Zeeland to Friesland, there is still a lot of stigmatizations about the culture there. Yet, the Bible Belt can offer much more than meets the eye. The culture, the traditions, the politics, the education and the church are just a few things mostly overlooked in the region.
The book begins with Falke stating that he is totally new to the world of the Bible Belt due to the fact that he grew up as an atheist. Besides this, he also grew up and lives in Amsterdam, where he has had few encounters with people from the Bible Belt. The 32-year-old writer is mostly known for his news articles in Vrij Nederland, a leftist newspaper. His journalistic background adds to his writing in the book; it gives it a structural approach, and the interviews are conducted in a way that is typical for journalism. This way of writing gives the book an evident structure which results in a clear oversight for the reader. The Dutch news show ”Eva Jinek Boekpanel” discusses Falke’s unique voice, and how he is a part of a new generation of writers. In his news articles he tends to highlight groups of people that are overlooked in Dutch society. This is evident in this book, since Bible belters are stigmatized a lot. Plus, his previous books discuss similar themes such as Van Armoede (Of Poverty) (2022) that talks about the homelessness in the Netherlands and De Geschiedenis van Mijn Sok (The History of My Sock) (2023), which is about the darker side of Falke’s family history. He also has an upcoming novel called Marokko: Het Beloofde Land (Marocco: The Promised Land) (2026) which discusses Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands.
For his novel De Biblebelt, he decides to embark on a journey. This journey starts by interviewing people from the religious group. His efforts do not stop there; he lives with the family of a pastor for a week, and for a day he joins the SGP team (a conservative Christian political party). Falke put a lot of effort into trying to understand this other world, to answer the question of what it is like to live a secluded, conservative life that has God and the church at its centre. In the conversations—from a famous far-right pastor to a girl who is attending a strict religious school— he does a deep dive into the faith. He asks questions about their core values and about why they believe in reformed Christianity. Nonetheless, he keeps the conversation on the surface: Falke does not ask a lot of questions about subjects such as abortion, queerness, or even less controversial topics such as the traditions. Big parts of Christianity for example, are Christmas or Ascension Day, and perhaps going into these traditions or into the controversial topics would have added more depth to the story.
On the topic of controversial topics, in the book, the conversation of polarisation between political groups is at the forefront, resulting in a focus on the party SGP. This focal point on politics is not made clear in the advertisement or in the premise of the book. This has the effect that the reader will expect something different from what they receive, it is a bit deceiving. The polarisation discussed in the book is that between the atheists who are often liberal and the conservative Christians. This polarisation is very much present in today’s society explains Miller (a specialist in international relations): ‘
‘The polarisation of society based on worldview differences between believers and non-believers is becoming increasingly evident, particularly in matters concerning morality, education, family values, and the role of religion in the public sphere.’’
This can be seen in Dutch politics in 2025, Christian political groups such as SGP or CDA (Christian Democracy Appeal) are very distanced from liberal political groups for instance GroenLinks (GreenLeft) or Partij van de Dieren (Party of the Animals). In Falke’s text this can be seen, he delves into the world of the SGP party, and he discusses how his view of them has changed since visiting them, showing how polarisation can cause an us versus them view. In his book you have at the left: the progressive city folk, and at the right: the secluded conservative Bible Belters. Of the latter, a lot of stereotypes are present due to the polarisation. Some existing stereotypes of the Bible Belters are that they are prudish, never watch television, never indulge themselves, that they are always trying to convince people of their faith and are secluded from the rest of the world. Falke addresses these stereotypes and directly asks these people questions to find out what of it is true.
A recurring subject in these interviews is the question of what made people believe in a god and what started their conversion to Christianity. This approach of exploring what made people believe in God in the first place is helpful for a reader that might have little knowledge about Christianity. This can help the reader understand the reason behind their faith and their way of life. However, there is a weak spot in these interviews. There are few references to psalms or citations from religious texts, even though this would help with understanding which texts brought Christians to the religion. Although sometimes there is an exception where a biblical text is mentioned, even so, the context or the meaning behind it is not explained. An example of this would be:
“Falke put a lot of effort into trying to understand this world, to answer the question of what it is like to live a secluded, conservative life that has God and the church at it’s centre. In the conversations—from a famous far-right pastor to a girl who is attending a strict religious school— he does a deep dive into the faith. ”
‘‘The exact words that brought him to repentance were in the letter from Paulus to the Romans […] Perhaps a conversion does not go hand in hand with clear language, then the elusive faith occurs in an encrypted message directed to the heart, not to the ratio.’’
In this quote, Falke does not even begin to explain this letter, leaving the reader wondering how the letter added to the conversion of this Christian. He shrugs it off as something that has to do with the heart and not with the ratio. This makes it seem that Falke fails to fully understand how meaningful biblical texts are to Christians, and that there can be a logical reasoning behind believing in God. Not completely explaining or contextualising the biblical texts is a downside because it refrains Falke from seeing the foundation and inspiration to many parts of the religion, limiting his perspective.
Falke accomplishes to write about his interactions with the Bible Belters without sarcasm or a cynical tone. While cynicism towards the Bible Belt is almost expected, and it is this notion that is concerning, as states the newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, which asks the question of: ‘
‘Do reformed Christians feel so misunderstood and threatened that they are so happy with a book in which they are discussed with some empathy?’’
It is not often that conservative Christians are depicted in a positive way. This is a societal issue caused by political polarisation. Stigmatization of Christians and the Bible Belt has an effect on literature, it can cause a warped image of the reality of Christians. This shows how important the text by Falke is, he is contributing to the discourse around polarisation. His conversations with the reformed Christians lead to situations that show that they are just like the rest of society, for instance, frying their own frieten in their little shed in the backyard. Something else that left Falke astonished was that they loved to watch the Dutch version of The Great British Bake Off, while an existing stereotype is that they are forbidden to watch any television at all. Thus, these little insights in their daily life in the book can contribute to the social discourse by destigmatizing the religious region.
It is not only the destigmatization that makes this book stand out, but also the connection that Falke has with those he interviews. This can be seen when Falke lived with a family in Zeeland for a whole week, which leads to some funny, light-hearted scenes such as the description of how the youngest daughter Fiene becomes restless after dinner during their prayer. And can again be seen through the mess in the living room caused by the children’s toys. These scenes show how much atheists can have in common with the Bible Belters. It is with this family that Falke has a realization: “I could feel at home here, among these people.’’ Here Falke sees that Christians, too, are aware that humans, are imperfect or even sinful. The podcast of CVandaag discusses a conversation that is in the book, that takes place between pastor Kort and Falke. In this part of the book the writer realises that they have a lot in common. Their life philosophies overlap, and they both think that nothing is certain in life. They agree that life is not easy, and that a lot of suffering happens. The only thing that they don’t agree on is the salvation of this suffering; for Kort salvation means God, for Falke it is more existentialist than that.
This sudden similarity between him and pastor Kort surprises Falke, he had not predicted such a conversation before writing the text. This shows that Falke was not fully open minded when starting this project. In an interview he states:
“I had expected them to be much colder, more distant. Something that is also important: nobody tried to convert me. They do not try to convince you of their religion, like Jehovah’s witnesses do.’’
A comparison between Jehovah’s witnesses and the reformed Christians is a bad look on the writer, it exposes his own stereotypes towards the Bible Belters. While it is positive that he is honest about his own stereotypes, this does make a lot of sense upon reflection of the book. He expected the Bible Belters to be stiff, to be reluctant to enjoy the little things in life. For instance, in one interaction he is surprised when he is offered at cookie with his tea, because he didn’t expect them to indulge themselves with a simple thing such as a cookie. This shows how Falke was expecting stereotyped behaviour from the Bible Belters. Luckily his own biases fade away later on in the book when he has discoveries of similarities such as the part with pastor Kort. However, there are still way too many references in the book to the Bible Belters as if they are the Amish or Jehovah’s witnesses. This is harmful because it could add to further stigmatization of the Bible Belt. The newspaper Volkskrant suggests that he should have done more research, which would have been a good approach to avoid some of the misconceptions he had at the start. Alternatively, he could have prefaced by saying that his own biases could affect the text.
All in all, the book is a good introduction for those curious to learn more about a group of people that —although well known—are often not seen for who they truly are in the media. With his book, Falke begins a discussion about what atheists can have in common with Bible Belters. He shows that whether leftist or rightist, atheist or a reformed Christian, we do share similar values and experiences. Falke manages to give fun insights into the daily life of the churches, families and schools of this region in the Netherlands. While the book certainly has it flaws, it also exposes the stereotypes and biases towards the Bible Belt. Falke summarizes the book perfectly:
“Nonetheless, he keeps the conversation on the surface: Falke does not ask a lot of questions about subjects such as abortion, queerness, or even less controversial topics such as the traditions. “
“After hours of talking I am suddenly alone. As a hitchhiker left behind on the roadside, without knowing where I am exactly, the perfect description of my position in this story. A passerby to whom, a lot of people are remarkably often very honest to.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elze Bouwman is a MA Literature Today student at Utrecht University and part of the editorial team at RevUU. Her BA in Literary Studies sparked an interest in the publishing industry. She has a specific interest in children’s and young adult literature, but besides this she enjoys reading detectives and psychological thrillers.
- All translations by the author of this essay. ↩︎
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