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The following is from The African Queen by C. S. Forester
Her very father and mother, hard devout Christians that they were, who had never spared the rod in the upbringing of the children deferred to him then, and heard his words with respect.
Does the bold phrase mean 'even though they were hard devout Christians themselves' or ' because they were hard devout Christians themselves'?
The short answer is: it means "because they were hard devout Christians".
This kind of appositive construction gives an explanation for the actions or behaviour of the phrase or noun in apposition, for example:
Jonathan, the hard worker he is, kicked it up a notch and offered to fix the truck for a much cheaper rate than a mechanic
Which could be rewritten as:
Jonathan, being the hard worker he is, kicked it up a notch and offered to fix the truck for a much cheaper rate than a mechanic
or even:
Because Jonathan is such a hard worker, he kicked it up a notch and offered to fix the truck for a much cheaper rate than a mechanic
It would seem that your example is missing a comma. Consider rewriting it as:
Her very father and mother, hard devout Christians that they were, who had never spared the rod in the upbringing of the children, deferred to him then, and heard his words with respect.
The construction used here
[descriptor] that they were
is usually used in a parenthetical way such as this. It is typically meant as an explanation of the previous or next clause. So yes, in this case it should be interpreted as
because they were hard devout Christians themselves.
Compare:
Miss Crabapple, harpy that she was, descended upon the children's birthday party and absconded with the piñata.
It is a little more emphatic than "because". The clause in question presents a fact that goes to the essence of the noun-phrase so described.
