Why were the Boers so religious?

Especially compared to other Dutch colonists, such as those who settled in the East Indies.

They were isolated, basically cut off from the outside world, surrounded by foes. They had few books besides the Bible. It lent to a siege mentality that is quite well supported by the Old Testament.
 
We should also note that the Dutch community in western Michigan is also quite religious and the Reformed church there is very conservative, although not as strongly now as 2 generations ago. The Reformed church was historically very Calvinistic and I would suspect that most of the Dutch colonists came from the conservative rural areas of the Netherlands, not from the historically cosmopolitan and tolerant commercial cities such as Amsterdam. Also note that the Dutch colonists in South Africa date from the 17th and 18th centuries and the Michigan immigrants from the 19h century, both were products of a still deeply religious tradition and not influenced by the secular Netherlands of today.
 
Speaking as a child who grew up in the deeply religious dutch immigrant community in Ontario Canada, the Boer were very religious partially because of the huguenot influx (as well as other religious germanic people who joined them) and partially because they were a product of the northern calvinist persecution complex. The Dutch who settled the cape were a generation or two removed from the dutch war for independence, where the northern dutch freed themselves from catholic persecution. Jan Compagnie or the dutch east india company was a deeply religious organization devoted to profit and religion. That mentality though less strict still exists to a certain extent today amongst the immigrant dutch conservatives in Canada, the United States and Australia (I grew up with it and while I try to make a distinction between those members of my community raised in the city and those raised in the country, the basic persecution complex and fears exist still). Essentially the boers were a deeply religious society (and still are I should point out, my community still hosts the occaisional delegation from our sister churches in south africa) because they were the children of religious warfare that they won. They maintained the siege mentality of the Dutch that fought the spanish for the right to worship as protestants, coupled with the persecution mentality of the french protestants which amplified the inherent dutch one that I mentioned. They simply transferred the amorphous fear of outsiders who persecute to the blacks of south africa and to anyone who tried to stop them from achieving their simple desire of having a homeland where they could farm and raise families in peace.
 
Now I'm wondering what other prominent colonial communities of religious exiles are there besides Boers, Mormons, and New Englanders.
 
Now I'm wondering what other prominent colonial communities of religious exiles are there besides Boers, Mormons, and New Englanders.

The Boers weren't truly religious exiles, were they? The Huguenot members of the group had been refugees from France, but they could have stayed in the Netherlands, I presume (like the other 50-60,000 Huguenots that did so).
 
Last edited:
I feel like the Boers' Calvinist promised land narrative is just like the U.S.'s roots. South Africa really wasn't a bad idea to create the anti-America of Draka, culture-wise. Geography-wise is a whole different story.

But the Draka are like a mishmash of reactionary exiles, they totally swamped the local Boers. So it wasn't even capitalizing the intense beliefs of the Boers. Stirling fail.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
That mentality though less strict still exists to a certain extent today amongst the immigrant dutch conservatives in Canada, the United States

Are you aware of any particular sister churches in New Jersey? In our neighborhood in New Jersey we had a Dutch immigrant family with 5 kids and they were very religious and had a church some distance away. The boy who was in my grade in that family was a neighborhood bully, got kicked out of the high school and can be found on mugshots.com, living in Florida between arrests.
 
Are you aware of any particular sister churches in New Jersey? In our neighborhood in New Jersey we had a Dutch immigrant family with 5 kids and they were very religious and had a church some distance away. The boy who was in my grade in that family was a neighborhood bully, got kicked out of the high school and can be found on mugshots.com, living in Florida between arrests.
No our sister churches are in Colorado and Washington state. There are a lot of free reformed churches scattered everywhere and that denomination is even worse then the one I grew up in.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
No our sister churches are in Colorado and Washington state. There are a lot of free reformed churches scattered everywhere and that denomination is even worse then the one I grew up in.

Thanks for responding. This kid was the literal opposite of the positive stereotypes American people have of Dutch people.
 
Top