When I write some stuff I tend to go through the rabbit hole of departures, meandering theories, etc. I know for a fact these deviations have no purpose for the topic I am writing but I cannot help it, it just… happens. Yesterday I started going through the documents released by the EU for the program of administration of external borders (and more specifically, the issue of the treatment of migrants within the EU). I don’t know what kind of mental leaps I took that I ended up reading about Calvinist theology (Calvinism was the official religion of The Netherlands for a few centuries until all Protestant Churches formed an alliance to become the official Protestant Church in the Netherlands, again, all of this is an oversimplified version of events that transpired for decades).
I’ve been specifically reading about the Calvinist doctrine of the “non-elect” (i.e. this piece of, to put it in very simplistic terms, Calvinist doctrine that states that people have been chosen by god to be saved beforehand, which renders the issue of human will to be pointless). This Calvinist doctrine was used to justify slavery and the slave trade on the basis that Blacks (and all Africans) were not elected by god for salvation and, as such, they didn’t have to be granted “humanity” (again, I insist, this is a rather simplistic reduction of the entire argument). It was also the doctrine used by Afrikaners to set up apartheid in South Africa.
I wonder how much of this doctrine survives in modern theology as it is clear that Calvinism still holds the principle of the “non elect” to be central to their belief system. And of course, the implications of said beliefs in our contemporary, current society and the racist ideas that seem to flourish these days. Especially considering that the SGP IS a political party, with several seats in Parliament and a sizable power in some regions of The Netherlands and their politics are based on Calvinism.
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