Letters to the Roman Catholic bishop and the Episcopal bishop in South Carolina asking them not to allow their churches to be used by the Sons of Confederate Veterans for their activities. UPDATE:

I wrote to the Roman Catholic bishop and the Episcopal bishop in Charleston, South Carolina asking that they not allow the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) to use their facilities. The letters were mailed on 9/20/2013. I have not heard back.

My next step is to write the Roman Catholic Archbishop in Atlanta, Georgia, and if that fails to write Pope Francis in Rome. Similarly I am going to write the national head of the Episcopal church. Though given that the Episcopal church in America is breaking into two denominations I may be writing two individuals to make sure that I am writing the correct individual who is the next higher up for the Episcopal bishop.

One person has commented that the Episcopal churches that do host the neo-Confederate organizations are often the churches splitting off into a new conservative Episcopal denomination.

The two letters follow:

ROMAN CATHOLIC

Rev. Robert E. Guglielmone

Bishop of Charleston Diocese

119 Broad St.  Box 818

Charleston, SC 29402

Dear Rev. Guglielmone:

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is planning on holding their 2014 convention in Charleston, SC and they will be looking for church facilities to hold their convention service.

Enclosed is a table of churches which the SCV conventions have used in the 21^st century.

Please find enclosed documentation about the SCV. Their official literature compares Abraham Lincoln to Hitler, and praises and promotes books that defend slavery and books that laud the Ku Klux Klan. Please find enclosed a dossier on the SCV with detailed footnotes of all quotes and assertions. This dossier is also available online at http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html .

Additionally, I enclose a paper on Confederate Christian nationalism which is also online at

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ConfederateChristianNationalism.pdf. It was published by the Canadian Review of American Studies at the University of Toronto. Even though the article is about the neo-Confederate League of the South, the religious ideas promoted by the SCV Chaplains Corps (http://www.scv.org/about/chaplainsChronicle.php) are largely the same or similar.

When a church allows the SCV to use their facilities it gives them credibility that a prominent religious organizations would find the SCV to be an organization to which it would be acceptable to lend their facilities. Additionally they gain some of the prestige of the religious organization and the prestige of an architecturally prominent church building for their religious services and hence organization.

I ask that your church not give support to the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization by allowing them to use your facilities for their activities.

                                                                                                Sincerely Yours,

                                                                                                Edward H. Sebesta 

EPISCOPAL 

UPDATE: I have been informed by Holly Behre, director of communications of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, that Bishop Lawrence is a bishop in his own breakaway diocese at the time of this blog posting update 12/15/2013.  Right Reverend Charles G. von Rosenberg is the Episcopal bishop of Eastern South Carolina.

Rev. Mark Joseph Lawrence

Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina

P.O. Box 20127

Charleston, SC 29413

Dear Rev. Lawrence:

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is planning on holding their 2014 convention in Charleston, SC and they will be looking for church facilities to hold their convention service. Enclosed is a table of churches which the SCV conventions have used in the 21^st century.

Please find enclosed documentation about the SCV. Their official literature compares Abraham Lincoln to Hitler, and praises and promotes books that defend slavery and books that laud the Ku Klux Klan. Please find enclosed a dossier on the SCV with detailed footnotes of all quotes and assertions. This dossier is also available online at http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html .

Additionally, I enclose a paper on Confederate Christian nationalism which is also online at

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ConfederateChristianNationalism.pdf. It was published by the Canadian Review of American Studies at the University of Toronto. Even though the article is about the neo-Confederate League of the South, the religious ideas promoted by the SCV Chaplains Corps (http://www.scv.org/about/chaplainsChronicle.php) are largely the same or similar.

When a church allows the SCV to use their facilities it gives them credibility that a prominent religious organizations would find the SCV to be an organization to which it would be acceptable to lend their facilities. Additionally they gain some of the prestige of the religious organization and the prestige of an architecturally prominent church building for their religious services and hence organization.

I ask that your church not give support to the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization by allowing them to use your facilities for their activities.

                                                                                                Sincerely Yours,

                                                                                                Edward H. Sebesta

Note: The entire campaign on the effort to get churches to not enable neo-Confederate groups is online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm.