The Broederbond grounded apartheid in a theology of divine calling

Evidence

The Broederbond came to be identified with the messianic spirit of Afrikaner national fulfillment, its inevitable destiny, its calling. In the words of one well-placed commentator, General Secretary I. M. Lombard (and quoted by Dan O’Meara), “The Afrikaner Broederbond is born from a deep conviction that the Afrikaner nation has been planted [in South Africa] by God’s hand and is destined to remain here as a nation with its own character and its own mission.” Afrikaner rule was at once calling and destiny, endowed by nature and yet to be brought about, to be realized. Afrikaners are chosen by God, set to rule though his irresistible grace and guiding wisdom. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1536 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The Church – in particular the Dutch Reformed Church (Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk) – played a defining role in apartheid’s articulation, elaboration, and rationalization in the century’s first half. The skeletal sociolegal structure of the state that would become apartheid, as I have suggested, was already stitched in place by the British and various administrations from 1910 to 1948: restrictive and increasingly eroded Native reserves set apart, Pass Laws, job color bars, segregated schools and delimited educational opportunities for those not white, divided recreational facilities and racially restrictive public accommodations, discrete voters rolls and differentiated political representation. That said, however, apartheid – as a term and as an idea, as a structure and as a set of practices, as an ideal and aspiration, as dream and nightmare, in short, as political theology – was projected as coherent conception from the Church, from God’s projected word, down. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1506 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Academic intellectuals guided the theological framework that formalized apartheid — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1542; Post-apartheid reconciliation inverted the theological frame of apartheid rule — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1573; Apartheid’s ‘separate development’ was framed as God-ordained equal access to unequal resources (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Apartheid ideology framed Afrikaner rule as divine calling and destiny #corroborates (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1536
• Apartheid’s legal structure predates its theological rationale, which the Church supplied #complicates (0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1506