During the period of pillarisation, the Catholics and Protestants had lived in a form of cold war.

In 1996, RPF party leader Leen van Dijke came under public criticism when the magazine Nieuwe Revu had suggested that in an interview he had declared: "Why would stealing, for example committing social welfare fraud, be less of a sin than going against the seventh commandment?

When turmoil broke out, Van Dijke explained that he had meant to convey a universally accepted vision within Christianity that trespassing one of God's commandments makes a man guilty before God, and that all breaches herein are equal.

But the general public, and especially the Dutch gay movement, criticised the statement as printed in Nieuwe Revu heavily, considering it discrimination.

The party magazine was called RPF signal and the scientific foundation Marnix van St. Aldegonde Stichting.

The electorate was concentrated in Zeeland, the Veluwe, parts of Overijssel, forming what is known as the Bible Belt.