Why are Dutch Americans much more conservative than the Dutch? (2015, Mennonites)
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Dutch Americans are overwhelmingly staunch Protestants, conservative, and Republican voters. The Dutch are among the most liberal and irreligious people in the world.
I'm interested in any replies, because, now that I come to think of it, the Dutch Americans I know (those who actually emigrated from the Netherlands and their first-generation children, not Americans with distant Dutch ancestry) are all staunch Protestant conservatives. I don't know how they vote.
I’m not Dutch (obviously, lol). But I’ve lived in Albany, NY and was married in a Dutch Reformed Church. So I’m going to take a stab at it
Self-selection. In other words, those who were more conservative were the ones who emigrated, most likely in order to live according to their values. Similar to other conservative groups who emigrated, such as the Puritans, Amish, Mennonites, etc.
The linked article gave some similar reasons (no paywall for me). It seems the emigres still retained some values similar to those still living in NDL, though, such as a similar work ethic.
Interesting read. Wasn’t familiar with the Dutch in Michigan.
Dutch Americans are overwhelmingly staunch Protestants, conservative, and Republican voters. The Dutch are among the most liberal and irreligious people in the world.
I would think it is hard to identify Dutch Americans nowadays because they have mixed with other populations over the centuries.
I am of Dutch descent. Grew up in The Reformed Church. Very conservative, Calvinistic. Lots of concentration on sin, death and hell. My hometown was primarily people of Dutch descent, although I believe they are less than 15% now. We had windmills on our front lawns and in front of the municipal hall, too.
I still have cousins who adhere to that way of thinking, and some of them are outright racist, as was our grandfather. For whatever reason, our distant Hollander relatives moved forward in their thinking faster than did the American immigrants.
Being a lifelong New Jersey girl, the northern part of which was primarily settled by the Dutch (as was what is now New York City and much of southern New York State), I've studied quite a bit of the history of the Dutch in the area. They were not always monolithic in their thinking. In the years before the Civil War, the congregation of a well-known church still in existence in Bergen County was so split over the issue of slavery and the upholding of the Fugitive Slave Law that the minister couldn't stand it and just quit.
I visited Amsterdam in 2015 and took an "alternative Amsterdam" walking tour. It was fascinating to see and hear about the differences in the way they view poverty and the underclass as opposed to the way it is often treated in America. Over there, if you put down someone who is on public assistance or in social housing, you're a jerk.
I am of Dutch descent. Grew up in The Reformed Church. Very conservative, Calvinistic. Lots of concentration on sin, death and hell. My hometown was primarily people of Dutch descent, although I believe they are less than 15% now. We had windmills on our front lawns and in front of the municipal hall, too.
I still have cousins who adhere to that way of thinking, and some of them are outright racist, as was our grandfather. For whatever reason, our distant Hollander relatives moved forward in their thinking faster than did the American immigrants.
Being a lifelong New Jersey girl, the northern part of which was primarily settled by the Dutch (as was what is now New York City and much of southern New York State), I've studied quite a bit of the history of the Dutch in the area. They were not always monolithic in their thinking. In the years before the Civil War, the congregation of a well-known church still in existence in Bergen County was so split over the issue of slavery and the upholding of the Fugitive Slave Law that the minister couldn't stand it and just quit.
I visited Amsterdam in 2015 and took an "alternative Amsterdam" walking tour. It was fascinating to see and hear about the differences in the way they view poverty and the underclass as opposed to the way it is often treated in America. Over there, if you put down someone who is on public assistance or in social housing, you're a jerk.
I guess the one we married in was liberal enough to allow non-parishioners to use their church (a lovely 17th century stone building, btw). Liberal, or entrepreneurial? Maybe both, given the stereotypical entrepreneurial trait assigned to the Dutch, here and in NL.
Are you saying the Dutch Reform Church promotes racist thinking? I guess you make a case for judging each person on their own merits rather than by association, either with some of your cousins or grandfather.
I wonder how the current political, social, and economic climate in Europe and the EU affects the liberalness of today’s NL.
I guess the one we married in was liberal enough to allow non-parishioners to use their church (a lovely 17th century stone building, btw). Liberal, or entrepreneurial? Maybe both, given the stereotypical entrepreneurial trait assigned to the Dutch, here and in NL.
Are you saying the Dutch Reform Church promotes racist thinking? I guess you make a case for judging each person on their own merits rather than by association, either with some of your cousins or grandfather.
I wonder how the current political, social, and economic climate in Europe and the EU affects the liberalness of today’s NL.
Hey, I got married in a lovely 17th-century stone church also, and we were also not members of the church. (I got divorced in a boring-looking county courthouse.)
I don't know if the church itself promoted racist thinking, so no, I'm not saying that. It may have been the Dutch culture. I remember older people saying when I was a child that black people were destined by God to be slaves because God cursed Noah's son Ham that his descendants would be slaves. It was assumed that Africans must therefore be the descendants of Ham. This was common thinking, at least at one time in the not-so-distant past.
But yes, judging each person on their own merits is my personal song and dance and has been for some years. No pun intended, the church I knew was very black-and-white in its thinking. There was Good and Evil and not much gray area in between. As late as 25 years ago, a childhood friend of mine committed suicide, and the next Sunday someone at church approached his parents to extend his sympathy--and remind them that their son "went straight to hell". Of course, that is an individual speaking, but the environment had to be such that he felt it was appropriate to make such a statement.
I do understand that one of the more famous Reformed Churches, Marble Collegiate in New York City, is quite open-minded and liberal. Nice to know. I have not been part of the RCA for forty years, so things may have changed elsewhere as well.
I kinda sorta dated a Dutch-American girl. Didn't work for this exact reason. Too conservative for me and I've noticed this with people here from The Netherlands as well as Dutch-Americans. Same with people from some other countries. Many Central Americans that move here also seem to be conservative. As someone else mentioned, perhaps it's the conservatives among these populations that tend to move to the US. Much like most Americans that move to say Germany or France tend to be more liberal.
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