Sons of Confederate Veterans Chaplain-in-Chief Cecil A. Fayard, Jr. on "wicked America" and his hysteria over Gays and Lesbians and evolution and the fact that America doesn't follow his religious views.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) has an position called the Chaplain-in-Chief. The Chaplain-in-Chief writes a regular column called "Chaplain's Comments," for the SCV official publication Confederate Veteran (CV).

In many ways it is the most entertaining section in the CV. The writings in this section explode any idea that the SCV is merely a historical remembrance organization or historical society and show decisively that it is a right wing political and religious organization.

In the Sept./Oct. 2009 CV magazine Chaplain-in-Chief Cecil A. Fayard, Jr. has a column, "America Is In Trouble: Part I." It is a fire-and-brimstone type of speech. For example he writes, "In 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving to God. Which God? Jehovah God?" I am not sure exactly what he means by this. Is Jehovah God different than the Trinity? Or is it because he doesn't want his readers to think that Washington issued a Day of Thanksgiving to Zeus or Thoth or Vishnu or Cthulhu.

In it Fayard claims that America is headed in the wrong direction and has been for a long time "and now we are reaping what we have sown." So he lists out numbered points on what he thinks is going wrong with America.

The first thing is "hostility to the Bible." He quotes several people in American history who stressed the importance of the Bible, but he doesn't actually list any examples of actual hostility to the Bible. It seems that the issue perhaps is indifference to the Bible from the quotations. If you don't view the Bible the same way and understand it the same way as Fayard, he then sees you as hostile to it.

The next thing that he sees leading America to ruin is the belief in evolution. He writes:

2. The lie of evolution has been sown. "When the Christian people of this country understand the ravages agnosticism cause by the substitution of the unsupported guesses for the Word of God, they will compel the atheists and agnostics to build their own schools instead for the spread of unbelief," (William Jennings Bryan).

I suppose the fossil record and radioisotope dating counts for nothing making these "unsupported guesses."

Fayard asserts that belief in evolution has led the nation to ungodliness and "Our great Southern leaders of the 1800s were men who believed in creation, not evolution." This is a common neo-Confederate argument against a position, rather than argue the merits of an idea, they will argue that it is un-southern. If Jefferson Davis didn't believe in a scientific theory is that evidence in itself that the theory is untrue?

The third thing is America has become immoral, "We have sown immorality," he writes and "We live in a very loose society, a wicked nation morally. All types of unspeakable and deplorable acts are being committed by deviant men and women."

He complains, "One school curriculum in America teaches acceptance of homosexuality in the first grade and mutual masturbation in junior high." Fayard doesn't comment on what "great Southern leaders of the 1800s" thought about these two topics.

He claims suicide has increased "200 times" since 30 years ago which is ridiculous and gives no authority for this wild claim. He also claims that violent crime has increased 500 percent in the last 30 years which shows he is just making wild claims. One of the biggest points of discussion in the field of criminology and sociology nowadays is the question as to what has caused crime to decrease so much over the last few decades. However, if you are going to wail that America is falling apart a few facts aren't going to get in your way.

The fourth complaint is about abortion.

The fifth complaint is that "We have sown ignorance concerning the true history of our nation and our Nation's God," and that the SCV is responsible "to teach the true history of our beloved Southland," which for the SCV would be teaching a history defending the Confederacy.

He continued his essay in the next issue of the CV in he claimed that America is headed to socialism. His solution to the disastrous end that he sees America headed toward is prayer and belief in his particular religious views. He says:

We continue in our day to pray for deliverance -- deliverance from unconsitutional government, from Socialism, from ungodliness and corruption in High Places. 

Fayard certainly has a right to have his beliefs. The point is that the SCV is a religious and political organization with an agenda, which incorporates history as a supporting element, and isn't merely a historical society with a purpose restricted to history and historical remembrance.