"Dutch-hater"
Posted on 09/20/2004 1:05:12 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
...In sharp contrast, the American Revolution, Kuyper told his American audience at Princeton University in 1898, was signally different; its liberty was not grounded in atheistic rebellion against God but in an appropriate, Calvinist-inspired rejection of tyranny. Liberty was a political good, hard-won by Dutch Calvinists in their struggle against Spain as well as by Americans from Great Britain. This liberty and the political experiment that ordered it was a beacon for the future of world history. Providentially-led world history had, in Kuyper’s view, a clear and certain telos and its world-stream, for the most part fed by the religious springs of Calvinism, was to follow a clearly marked channel...
...These observations of Kuyper are not singular; similar comments and lists of liberties can be found in Tocqueville and Acton. Where Kuyper does stand out, at least in terms of both the degree and intensity of his passion, is in his insistence that American liberty is the fruit of Calvinism, even particularly Dutch Calvinism. "As a political name," he contends, "Calvinism indicates that political movement which has guaranteed the liberty of nations in constitutional statesmanship; first in Holland, then in England, and since the close of the last century in the United States." Kuyper appeals to "authorities" who "acknowledge that Calvinism has liberated Switzerland, the Netherlands, and England, and in the Pilgrim Fathers has provided the impulse to the prosperity of the United States"....in Kuyper’s judgment, "the sun of freedom over America first rose over the low countries of the Old Netherlands," he notes with appreciation that the nineteenth-century descendants of early Dutch American immigrants who travel to Europe include the Netherlands on their itinerary. This reverse pilgrimage, he says, has as its high point a visit to the Delft harbor, departure point of...the Mayflower...
(Excerpt) Read more at acton.org ...
The author concludes his section on Kuyper with this timely anecdote...
We now conclude briefly on a more lighthearted note that nonetheless illustrates the last point: the press reception of Kuyper’s Grand Rapids address on October 26, 1898. Both Grand Rapids newspapers–the Republican-leaning Herald as well as the Grand Rapids Democrat–carried news reports of the visit and lecture on October 27. The former included in its headline Kuyper’s advice "not to vote the Democrat ticket" with the report of an interview in which Kuyper is reported to have said that "he is a democrat himself, but that he is one in the Holland sense of the word, not in the sense that it is popularly considered in America." The latter failed to acknowledge this nuance and simply announced in its headline, "He is a Democrat," adding that the "distinguished Liberal Holland leader" was thus "not bigoted or narrow." This proved too much for its rival and led to The Herald throwing down this political gauntlet in its headline: "Is not a Democrat…Misrepresentations…Hollanders are Indignant…Insult." The skirmish came to a close when The Democrat published a letter from Kuyper reiterating the difference between being a "Holland democrat" and an "American Democrat," along with a weak apology from the paper’s editor that included the claim that if Kuyper "could study American politics for six months he would be the hottest kind of Democrat." Kuyper’s own polemical/journalistic heart must have felt at home and a grand Grand Rapids tradition was inaugurated: "A true Calvinist (if not God himself) is a Republican!" "No! A Democrat!" Plus ca change…The joys of a third way had not yet been discovered.
And the purpose of posting a 6.5 year old article about 106 year old presentation by a Dutch Calvinist extolling the virtues of Dutch Calvinism is?
If the Dutch had such influence over America at the time, why do we speak English?
"Dutch-hater"
I'm not a Dutch-hater. Don't care for the arrogant attitude of some of the ethnocentric Dutch and their elevated opinion of Dutch Calvinism. Certainly the Dutch are not alone in that regard, but even other varieties of Calvinists regard the Dutch in much the same way.
Well, at least all Dutchmen aren't Friese, who snobbishly look down on the ordinary Dutchmen.
I'm not a Dutch-hater
.....I know that - hes a Dutch character from Austin Powers
Never watched Austin Powers.
I would say that the evolution of the Christian religion and Liberty in Holland should give Protestants cause for concern about the whole project.
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