Letters to South Carolina Christian Action Council and to the Interfaith Partners of South Carolina about the Sons of Confederate Veterans

The a very similar version of the following letter was sent to the Interfaith Partners of South Carolina also.

I don't know if either group will bring up the issue of churches hosting neo-Confederate groups before the public. However, I do know that each letter alerts a lot of churches that hosting the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) will put them in the spotlight and they will be put in a position of making a lot of excuses which no one will believe about why they hosted a neo-Confederate organization. Both letters were sent by certified mail.

                                                                      February 1, 2014

                                                                      Edward H. Sebesta

                                                                      esebesta@tx.rr.com

Rev. Brenda L. Kneece – Executive Minister

South Carolina Christian Action Council

P.O. Drawer 3248

Columbia, SC 29230

Dear Rev. Kneece:

I am an investigative researcher regarding the neo-Confederate movement who is published in peer reviewed academic journals, by university presses and in Black Commentator. My resume is online at www.templeofdemocracy.com/resume.htm. I am writing this letter per our discussion earlier by email. I emailed you this letter so you can easily use the links.

One concern I have developed in investigating neo-Confederate groups is how they are enabled by mainstream organizations such as corporations, churches, government bodies and others. So I have decided to ask these groups to reconsider their relations with specific neo-Confederate groups. I am documenting my campaign online at www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an extremist and racist group which is extensively documented in a Black Commentator article which is available online at a free guest link at http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html.  (Link is also in my online resume.)

In the summer of 2013 I had a successful campaign getting corporations to stop supporting the SCV as reported in a Black Commentator article which is available online at a free guest link at http://www.blackcommentator2.com/527_cover_scv_donation_loss_sebesta_guest.html. (Link is also in my online resume.)

The SCV often selects a historic and architecturally impressive church to hold their national convention service. When a faith group allows the SCV to use their church there is an implied endorsement to the extent that the SCV is an acceptable group to be using their facilities which normalizes them despite their extremist and racist agenda. The use of a historic and architecturally impressive church lends the prestige of the church building to the SCV.

The SCV is planning on holding their national convention in Charleston in July 2014. They are currently looking for a church. I am hoping that no mainstream church will let them use their church.

I fully understand that the South Carolina Christian Action Council can’t direct or order any member church or group to do anything and I am not asking that you attempt to do so.

What I am asking is that the South Carolina Christian Action Council raise the issue with their member’s churches and groups to consider whether they should lend their facilities to the SCV for the SCV’s national convention and let them know about the Black Commentator article on the SCV. If they have questions they can contact me through the Black Commentator article contact form or the above email. Given I research extremist groups I have to be cautious.

I am not even asking for the Christian Action Council to take a position against hosting the SCV. I am confident that I have both the research and reasons to convince any faith group that aiding the SCV is not a good idea. I merely ask that the issue be raised with your members.

I see that the South Carolina Christian Action Council is willing to bring up many issues before the public, and that you specifically have an agenda against racism. So I am hoping that you will assist me in my campaign against the neo-Confederate movement by raising this one issue.

                                                                                   

                                                                        Sincerely Yours,

                                                                        Edward H. Sebesta

P.S. Temple of democracy comes from a 19^th century metaphor for the American Republic.

Co-editor of “Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction,” Univ. of Texas Press, 2008 (http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exhagneo.html), and “The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The ‘Great Truth’ About the ‘Lost Cause’” Univ. Press of Mississippi 2010. (http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1338).  Author of chapter about the Civil War and Reconstruction in the notorious Texas teaching standards in Politics and the History Curriculum: The Struggle over Standards in Texas and the Nation, published by Palgrave Macmillan.  http://www.keitherekson.com/books/politics-and-the-history-curriculum/