AMSTERDAM - The first and only time I showered naked with a female stranger was in this city of social experiments.

It was the early '70s. It was a youth hostel. There was me, another guy and two attractive young women in a large shower room. Nobody flirted. Nobody got excited. But the shower experience set my image of the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Netherlands forever: liberal, egalitarian, tolerant, matter-of-fact.

I haven't heard whether co-ed showering still goes on in Dutch hostels, but as almost everyone knows the Netherlands has evolved into a country with remarkably open-minded approaches to sex, drugs, prostitution and euthanasia. Less well-known is its novel approach to religion.

The Netherlands' 16 million people -- who pack themselves behind an elaborate network of dikes in a country the size of Vancouver Island -- tend to find innovative solutions to problems. They've brought this knack to the tensions caused by religion.

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