Sons of Confederate Veterans launch counter attack against the Southern Baptist Church: UPDATE, UPDATE 2

I have been writing the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention ever since I found out that the Ashley River Baptist church hosted the Sons of Confederate Veterans event at their 2014 national convention.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2014/11/wrote-president-of-southern-baptist.html#.V2bTnbgrKiM

I wrote the leader of the Southern Baptists in Dallas.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154772192254829&set=a.10152829468284829.1073741826.675344828&type=3&theater

At this page you can read the correspondence with Ronnie Floyd which I copied with the entire Executive Board of the denomination and with leaders of African American Baptist denominations.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/southern-baptist-convention.html

I also wrote the leadership of the Texas SBC. I don't have that online.

The general campaign against hosting neo-Confederate groups is online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/churches-of-the-confederacy.html.

I can't say definitely that I had an impact. I think that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is trying to move into a future in which Christianity is global and is not centered in the Western world. The SBC can't compel member churches to not host Confederate groups, but they can send a message that will discourage it. I think with my correspondence they had to reflect that sooner or later their hosting of neo-Confederate groups would become news in the United States and then globally. Elsewhere they are competing against other Christian denominations and with other religions. Imagine what their credibility would be in Asian, Africa, Latin America, and in urban minority communities in the Western world if it got out that they were hosting neo-Confederate groups and they had been written about it and they persisted anyways.

With this resolution they have plausible deniability. If some SBC church still hosts a neo-Confederate event, they can start arguing blah blah blah about their organizational structure. I think though that with their resolution any minister would have to realize that some parishioners might raise objections and that also it could lead to real conflict in their church. Regardless of their feelings they will decide that it is a conflict they don't need.

Additionally, either the SBC is hosting neo-Confederate events or they are not, as Christians say, "By ye fruits you will know them." Something like that anyways. I will certainly  make any hosting by any church known, and each time a SBC church hosts the neo-Confederates it will be bad publicity. So I think individual SBC churches are not going to want to have any involvements with neo-Confederate groups.

The great thing about this resolution is that it puts other denominations to shame. The United Methodist Church (UMC) with all their hosting of the United Daughters of the Confederacy despite being told what the UDC was about really appear to be total fakes about the issue of  racism. I am sure liberal UMC members will come up with excuses and rationalizations but if they do, they will just discredit themselves. Members of other denominations will ask their leadership how come the SBC is ahead of them on this issue. How lame does Bishop McKee's email reply to me seem now!

I am currently writing a book on the neo-Confederate movement orientated towards a popular audience. I am planning on then starting pod castings. Since I am tied up I haven't been able to push the church issue much lately, but I do plan on including in the book the issue in the chapter on enablers.

As I blogged earlier the resolution against displaying the Confederate flag is weak, but it does have a huge symbolic importance. http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2016/06/southern-baptists-full-of-stuff-and.html#.V2bTcLgrKiM

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) Commander-in-Chief Kelly Barrow has responded.

https://www.facebook.com/Sons-of-Confederate-Veterans-Official-149308815083112/

Barrow's response doesn't include an apology for the neo-Confederate attacks on the SBC made by neo-Confederates and their books they have promoted. I made sure the SBC knew how the neo-Confederates were bashing them. I made sure the SBC knew the attack on them by Walter Kennedy in the book "Myths of American Slavery."

Barrow's response is clueless. It doesn't address the issue of the SBC reaching out to a multiracial world. Neo-Confederate have delusions about the Confederacy such that might think it would be somehow acceptable to be a Confederate identified church and still be able to reach out to a multiracial world.

I am sure the SBC is cringing that Barrow is releasing this information to the public.

Untold numbers of these SBC churches, over the years, have cultivated great relationships with SCV camps by opening their facilities for regular meetings and special occasions, not to mention the cemeteries owned by SBC churches where the remains of legions of Confederate heroes lie -- these are sites for numerous memorial services.

I don't think the SBC wants it broadcast that their member churches are in collusion with neo-Confederate groups.

Members of other denomination are going to be asking their leadership why they don't have such a resolution against the Confederate flag and they will like to think that their resolution would surely be more anti-Confederate than the SBC's.  Parishioners will ask why are they hosting a neo-Confederate group.

The SCV does have a church that is scheduled to host one of their events in Dallas during their 2016 convention. The online website for the convention doesn't mention it, but they are scheduling to have an event at a local church. Hopefully that church will re-consider. The church that is hosting the SCV event has to consider that even if they are keeping it secret it might leak out later and then they have not only hosted the event by they have conspired to hold the event.

The neo-Confederates are trying to push the Confederate battle flag as a Christian symbol.

https://confederateshop.com/shop/confederate-flags-matter-the-christian-influence-on-the-flags/

This is the SBC resolution if you missed it:

http://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/resolution-7-on-sensitivity-and-unity-regarding-the-confederate-battle-flag

Information on the Sons of Confederate Veterans regarding race.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html

UPDATE:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1207020905977838&id=147175811962358


Barrow is calling for the members to "stand down" because they are going to work behind the scenes with SBC members in the denomination. I think this will be hard to do for many of their members.

I am not so sure Barrow can control the SCV membership. One thing it is going to be fairly apparent soon that working behind the scenes isn't going to happen. The SBC when they voted on this resolution surely knew there would be disgruntled members.

The SBC just can't afford to be associated with the Confederacy. They are in competition with other denominations and with African American denominations and other denominations and religions globally. If they are seen to cave into the SCV they will really really lose credibility with everyone except a fading remnant of angry men.


UPDATE2:

At the Southern Baptist Convention a John Killian spoke out against the resolution against the Confederate battle flag.

https://baptistnews.com/article/southern-baptists-renounce-confederate-flag/

Perhaps because he is involved with the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

http://aladivscv.com/April%202016%20Alabama%20Confederate.pdf