Theological equality of souls was reconciled with racial developmental hierarchy.

Evidence

For the mainstream Dutch Reformed Church, souls may be equal in principle before God. But equal souls could occupy different rungs on the scale of development, different levels of intellectual prowess and cultural advancement. This entailed an equality not to mix or interact but one of socializing in groups apart, with one’s own, one’s equals; and development along separate tracks while inhabiting separate tracts. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1508

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the Christian egalitarianism-plus-hierarchy tension familiar from slavery debates in the US and the ‘On Sacrifice’ article’s sacred kingship. — connects to: Apartheid’s ideology rested on God-ordained separate-but-equal racial development — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1507; The Christian-nation quest has always served a racial hierarchy — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 546; Segregationist theology divorced the cross from any demand for racial justice — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 123