Religious Scholar gives his assessment of the meaning of Confederate iconography at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond

http://openfriendshipinaclosedsociety.blogspot.com/2015/08/signs-of-crimes-and-forgiving-victim.html


The above is the link. The reassessment of church's connections to the Confederacy is happening.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church is the church I wrote back in 2014. They first decided to disinvite the United Daughters of the Confederacy, then they decided to assess their Confederate imagery in the Church.


The correspondence and news articles can be read at this link.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/richmond-2014-2015.html

This is the draft press release which goes out this coming weekend to media, social justice groups, etc. I will be printing it out in the morning and editing

Which Church is Hosting the

Sons of Confederate Veterans in 2016?

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is having their 2016 national convention in Richardson, TX on July 13-17, 2016 http://www.scv2016.org/. Unlike past practice, but as in 2014 the SCV is going into stealth mode and is not announcing at which church their memorial service will be.

A campaign is underway to convince churches in the Dallas, Texas area not to host or lend their facilities to the SCV. A reasonable person would see that it is a racist and extremist organization by any reasonable standard which is documented at http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html. The campaign to get churches not to host neo-Confederate groups is documented at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/churches-of-the-confederacy.html and the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/412080045663443/.

However certain denominations have past records of hosting neo-Confederate groups.

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS: They hosted the 2014 SCV national convention. It is documented online here. http://www.timesexaminer.com/historical/1914-2014-national-reunion-of-sons-of-confederate-veterans. A letter was written to the president of the Southern Baptists and copied to all 60 plus board members. http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/southern-baptist-convention.html. There was no reply.  A letter was recently sent to the head of the Southern Baptists in Texas and all the board members and hopefully there will some response. Correspondence online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/richardson-texas-2016.html.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: Historically they have frequently hosted SCV events.  (See enclosed Bar Graph.) In 2014 the former Bishop of Dallas was written but there was no reply. A letter was recently sent to Bishop Ferrell and hopefully there will be a reply. Correspondence online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/richardson-texas-2016.html.

EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Historically they have frequently hosted SCV events (See enclosed Bar Graph). In 2014 the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas was written and the reply was that he didn’t know of any church hosting the SCV, but he didn’t say that a church wouldn’t. Bill Murchison, contributor to Southern Partisan and former board member of the Texas League of the South is influential in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. A follow up letter has been sent to Bishop Summer and hopefully there will be a more definitive reply. Correspondence online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/richardson-texas-2016.html.

UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: They haven’t hosted too many SCV events, but many of their churches host SCV monthly meetings (See enclosed Excel sheet). The UMC has hosted national events for the United Daughters of the Confederacy repeatedly despite correspondence asking them not to. http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/united-methodist-church.html.

The North Texas Conference Bishop McKee was written to in 2014, recently a follow up letter has been sent and hopefully there will be a reply.  Correspondence online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/richardson-texas-2016.html. 

PRESBYTERIAN USA:  They are in the top four of hosting national neo-Confederate convention events. (See enclosed Bar Graph.) The 1^st Presbyterian Church in Texarkana, AR, lent their facilities to the Children of the Confederacy national convention in 2015. Presbyterian Voices for Justice has raise the issue (See http://www.pv4j.org/network-news/new-network-news-june-2015.pdf) but it remains to be seen if the Presbyterian USA church will give up the Confederacy. Correspondence in 2014 went unanswered. Hopefully they will respond to a recent letter sent in 2016.   Correspondence online at http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/richardson-texas-2016.html.

OTHER DENOMINATIONS: From the Bar Graphs you can see that other denominations have also hosted neo-Confederate events. Additionally certain Christian Reconstructionist groups and reactionary Presbyterian denominations have had an affinity for the Confederacy.

The article, "The US Civil War as A Theological War: Confederate Christian Nationalism and the League of the South," in the Canadian Review of American Studies, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 253-284, describes these conservative denominations. (Available online at: http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ConfederateChristianNationalism.pdf).

As some denominations stop hosting neo-Confederate groups others may step in to take their place. Remember it might be your church, ask and find out.

CORRESPONDANCE DOCUMENTED ONLINE:

As other religious leaders, denominations, churches and anti-racist groups are written to the correspondence will be online at: http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/richardson-texas-2016.html. Additionally documentation can be sent via Cloud Services to those interested.

CONTACT:

Ed Sebesta can be contacted by email at edwardsebesta@gmail.com. His curriculum vitae is enclosed. He was recently awarded the Spirit of Freedom medal by the African American Civil War Museum and is published by university presses, peer-reviewed academic journals, and Black Commentator. http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/curriculum-vitae.html. 

Front page article in "Richmond Free Press" about Churches hosting the United Daughters of the Confederacy, St. Paul's Episcopal Church had dis-invited the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Historic Richmond Foundation doesn't seem to care that it is enabling neo-Confederates. UPDATE

The link to the article in the Richmond Free Press is:

http://issuu.com/richmondfreepress/docs/rfp_110614/1?e=13821893/10042171

UPDATE: Another link to the article which people might find easier to use.
http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2014/nov/07/confederates-hold-service-downtown-church/?page=1

You will need to click on it to enlarge it, and there is a square button to really enlarge it.

The article is on pages 1A and 4A at the bottom of the page. The issue is Vol. 23 No. 45, Nov. 6-8, 2014.

The Historic Richmond Foundation is defending their decision to rent to the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).  Mary Jane Hogue's rationalizations show an organization which doesn't care about racism.

The UDC refused to respond to inquiries from the Richmond Free Press.

What was very interesting was this section of the article:

St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Downtown had hosted the UDC memorial service eight times since 1994 and agreed to host it again this year. But the church later rescinded the invitation, according to the church's rector, the Rev. Wallace Adams-Riley, after the UDC failed to agree to a meeting with congregation members to discuss the group's views and how they impact other people. 

"I've been here six years and questions grew among some of the people at St. Paul's wondering if hosting that was consistent with who we are at St. Paul's," Rev. Adams-Riley said. "We were wrestling with  that."  

He said UDC officially initially agreed to meet congregants, but then pulled out of the meeting. He said he then informed them they'd have to hold the memorial service elsewhere.

The Episcopal Church has chosen to reject the Confederacy and they are the first denomination to do so. It sets a good example for other churches and denominations.

This news story also shows that this issue will reach the public. Other churches will have to consider that their record will be before the public. I think that alone will bring an end to the practice.

Finally it shows that simple persistence can do a lot.

Episcopalians not hosting the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond, VA

It turns out that the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is having its memorial service at Monumental Church which is run by the Historic Richmond Foundation.

http://www.historicrichmond.com/preservation-monumental.php

Evidently they found nothing wrong with enabling a neo-Confederate group.

It does show that the Episcopalians, though not responding to my letters, have decided not to host the UDC this year.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church had hosted the UDC six times since 2000 and every year the UDC had their convention in Richmond 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012.

www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm.

So it is somewhat odd that they didn't host this year. I think my letter writing campaign has had an effect.

One scenario I had for the campaign was that the denominations wouldn't reject the Confederacy outright, and would avoid responding to me as much as possible, but instead quietly not accept reservations.

In Charleston, SC the denomination that hosted the SCV was a church with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).  There hasn't been a SBC church hosting the SCV since 1990, and only once for the UDC in 2001. I hadn't even written them thinking they wouldn't do it.

All four of the denominations I did right, including both factions of the Episcopalians, did not host the SCV.

What is interesting is that the neo-Confederates have been castigating the SBC for their apology over slavery since 1993. The SBC aided their own enemies.

So it seems that I will need to write other denominations even if they have only hosted once since 1990.

It maybe that with no public declaration from any denominations I will achieve my goal in terms of getting mainstream denominations not to host neo-Confederate groups.

Wrote to Most Rev. Schori Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and Pope Francis about their churches hosting neo-Confederate groups.

I have been updating the Churches of the Confederacy web pages which you can access at www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm.

I added two pages.

www.templeofdemocracy.com/Episcopalian.htm where I have the letter to Most Rev. Schori Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America. I copied this letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the General Executive Council of the Episcopal Church which has something over 40 members and a couple other executive officers.

www.templeofdemocracy.com/RomanCatholic.htm where I have the letter to Pope Francis.

Other pages were updated.

I just sent them out in the last couple weeks so it is too early to expect to hear back.

It turns out that the Episcopal Church has had this big project about learning about its past involvement with slavery in the United States and a great many groups dealing with the issue of the historical past, race, and the Episcopal Church. Many statements about race are made. Yet despite all that the Episcopal Church is the leading church hosting neo-Confederate national convention services.

I don't think the general membership or most Episcopalians involved with the issues of racism in the Episcopal church are aware that their denomination is the leading denomination hosting neo-Confederate events.

I am going to write the United Methodist Church next.

Afterwards I am going to be writing all the religious groups that profess to be concerned about the issue of race in the three denominations.

Churches which host Children of the Confederacy national convention services added to Churches of the Confederacy web page

I have a table of churches which have hosted the Children of the Confederacy (CofC) which is an organization of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).

It has been added to the main page tracking the campaign regarding churches enabling neo-Confederate groups.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm

The reporting on the national conventions of the Children of the Confederacy is a little uneven and so for some years it isn't known whether they had a church service and if so where.

The three denominations stand out: Episcopal Church, Presbyterian USA, and the United Methodist Church.

This upcoming year the Children of the Confederacy will be using the First Presbyterian Church of Texarkana, Texas.

http://www.firstprestexarkana.org/

Writing and researching. Children of the Confederacy

Spent much of the day finding out which churches hosting the Children of the Confederacy. Entered into EXCEL. Have some more work to do before it goes online. However, again the Episcopalians come out as a leading hosting denomination of neo-Confederates.

Wrote four more religious leaders, two in Dallas and two in Richmond. There are still some churches to write. By the end of March though I should be done writing churches. I am going to switch to writing religious social justice organizations, religious publications, civil rights groups, newspapers, etc.

I am not finding any churches or religious groups that want to defend the Confederacy or their association with neo-Confederate groups. It seems their strategy is to avoid discussing the matter and hope that it doesn't come before the public.

By end of next week I plan on having www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm updated with the new letters and information.

Dallas Episcopal Bishop Stanton assures me that no congregation in his Diocese will host the Sons of Confederate Veterans

I got an email today from Dallas Episcopal Bishop Stanton assuring me that no congregation in his Diocese will host the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

Hopefully we can get a response from other Episcopalian bishops in Richmond and South Carolina.

Richardson, Texas and Richmond, Virginia pages online.

The web pages for Richardson, Texas 2016 and Richmond, Virginia 2014, 2015 are now online.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/Richmond20142015.htm

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/RichardsonTexas2016.htm

Writing, writing, Episcopal Bishops

I will be mailing certified letters to the bishops of the Episcopal Diocese of Richmond and the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014. The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is planning on their national reunion in Richmond in 2015 and in Richmond, TX, a suburb of Dallas, in 2016.

The letters are fairly similar to the letter in this blog posting of the letters to St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA. The Dallas letters don't discuss the UDC.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2014/02/letter-to-rectors-vestry-and-ministers.html

The Dallas letters don't discuss the UDC.

With the series of letters I am writing the Episcopal Church, they are going to become aware that their workings with neo-Confederate groups are acquiring visibility. They may or may not say something about the issue, but I don't think the Episcopal Church wants to be publicly identified with the Confederacy or have any controversy regarding either the Confederacy itself or neo-Confederate groups. The SCV will just find that churches aren't available from the Episcopal Church though various reasons might be given.

As always if you go to www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm you can find the documentation on the campaign or links to other pages with documentation on the issue. Sometimes there will be a lag between a blog posting and updating the web page.

I will be writing the Roman Catholic bishops next. I am going to write the major denominations which host neo-Confederate groups first for all the upcoming national conventions for the UDC and SCV. First the Episcopal Church, then the Roman Catholic Church, then the United Methodist Church and finally the Presbyterian Church.

After writing the national leadership of the Episcopal Church and the conservative Anglican group, I will be writing the Archbishop of Canterbury. At some point I will be writing Pope Francis if action is not forthcoming from the Roman Catholic in America.

Again these churches might not have anything they want to say on the issue, but I don't think they want to be involved with controversy.

This is just the beginning. There are the interfaith groups in each city. There are social justice groups in these denominations. There are African American organizations within the denominations. There are social justice groups in these cities outside the denominations. Gradually awareness of the issue will get out there.

I will be writing national leaders of each denomination or the next level up.

At some point one denomination may take a stand. If any denomination takes a stand it will focus attention on the others.

Even then there are additional actions after this. I am curious what African Methodists will think of the United Methodist Church in America hosting neo-Confederates. What will the Episcopal Churches in Africa think about the fact that the Episcopal Church in America hosts almost half of the neo-Confederate national convention services. It very well might not be of great immediate or practical importance to them, but I can't but feel that it will mean something when they reflect on it in a quite moment between the day's busy affairs. Some African nations have historic sites about the slave trade. What would they think about American churches that host neo-Confederate churches?

I really can't and won't write Africa until I have exhausted writing letters to the leadership of the denominations in America and they do nothing.

Beyond this I will be writing scholars on the issue of race and religion both in the United States and elsewhere.

Basically as denominations realize that the letters will never stop and that through one way or another this issue will get before the public, they will have to consider what will their record on the issue will have been.

Letter to the Rectors, Vestry, and Ministers of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia

The following is the letter which I am sending by certified mail to the rectors, vestry, and ministers of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, tomorrow on Monday. The letter is address to Rev. Adams-Riley and copied to the others listed at the end. I wish the leadership to be entirely informed about this issue.

At this blog posting I have the email I sent last weekend.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2014/02/email-to-staff-of-st-pauls-episcopal.html#.UveWjfldWSo

I don't think they will want to be know as America's leading church for hosting neo-Confederate groups.

I will be sending a copy to the Episcopal bishops also, along with a letter addressed to them.

                                                                       February 10, 2014

                                                                       Edward H. Sebesta

                                                                       esebesta@tx.rr.com

Rev. D. Wallace Adams-Riley - Rector

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

815 E. Grace St.

Richmond, VA 23219

Dear Rev. Adams-Riley:

I am an investigative researcher of the neo-Confederate movement. I am published internationally in peer reviewed academic journals and by university presses as well as in Black Commentator. I enclose a copy of my online resume which is also available at www.templeofdemocracy.com/resume.htm.

I am writing you to request that your church stop hosting the neo-Confederate groups the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

The 2014 UDC national convention is scheduled to be in Richmond, Virginia. From the year 2000 St. Paul’s Episcopal Church has hosted the UDC national convention services every other year, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012. Please see the Excel table enclosed. From 1990 to 2013 St. Paul’s Episcopal Church hosted the UDC national convention services 9 times, out of the 12 times an Episcopal Church has hosted the UDC from 1990. If you look at the enclosed bar graph of denominations hosting the UDC from 1990 to 2013 you can see that St. Paul’s Episcopal Church has by itself made the Episcopal Church the most frequent UDC convention hosting denomination, more than all the other denominations combined.

The 2015 SCV national convention is scheduled to be in Richmond, Virginia. Though St. Paul’s Episcopal Church has only last hosted the SCV in 1996, Episcopal churches in general are tied with Roman Catholic churches for hosting SCV national conventions since 1990. I enclose an Excel table of the churches that hosted from 1990 to 2013 and a bar graph of hosting by denominations.

The bar graphs and Excel tables mentioned above are also online at www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm.

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. It is all well and good that I have written on extremist Confederate Christian nationalist for the Canadian Review of American Studies (http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ConfederateChristianNationalism.pdf), but I have realized that the enabling of a racist historical consciousness in the general public and racist neo-Confederate groups by mainstream churches is as detrimental to America as these fringe churches. The Christianity advocated by the SCV is largely similar, you can review their Chaplain’s Chronicle online at http://www.scv.org/about/chaplainsChronicle.php.

 The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an extremist and racist group of 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.) It took eight days for this campaign to succeed. I regret to say that so far the temples of Mammon were much more willing to give up neo-Confederacy than the churches of Christ.

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.

I ask that St. Paul’s Episcopal Church not enable the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 2014 or in any other year by allowing them the use of their facilities.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy has a lengthy history of supporting white supremacy going back to the early 20^th century shortly after they had finished organizing. You can see many primary documents regarding their racism at www.confederatepastpresent.org and use the search term “daughters.”

However, their racism is not confined to the past. This is an organization that currently runs a Red Shirt Shrine to glorify a violent white supremacist group in 19^th century South Carolina and of which they are proud of as documented in the June/July 2001 UDC Magazine article, pages 23, 24, and the cover of their magazine. In an article in the Dec. 2012 UDC Magazine, pages 11-14, is an appalling racist article in which the infamous post-Civil War Black Codes of the former Confederate states are defended, African American men are represented have been potential rapists, the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution is argued to be misguided, freed African Americans are asserted to have been incompetent to be citizens. The article asserts, “Newly liberated Negroes were not prepared for their freedom…” These are but two contemporary examples of the UDC’s racism. Documentation enclosed.

Allowing the UDC the use of a prominent historical and architectural church such as St. Paul’s Episcopal Church enables the UDC by lending the UDC the use of the building the prestige of the building as well as the prestige of the Episcopal Church.

Finally the SCV and the UDC exist to glorify the Confederacy a government created to perpetuate slavery and white supremacy.

The British academic, Michael Billig in his landmark book, “Banal Nationalism,” discusses the fact that the discussion of nationalism usually revolves around extremists to the exclusion of seeing the banal nationalism in everyday life. Billig contrasts the focus of the usual analyst of nationalism to the analyst of banal nationalism as follows:

The analyst of banal nationalism does not have the theoretical luxury of exposing the nationalism of others. The analyst cannot place exotic nationalists under the microscope as specimens, in order to stain the tissues of repressed sexuality, or turn the magnifying lens on to the unreasonable stereotypes, which ooze from the mouth of the specimen. In presenting the psychology of a Le Pen or Zhirinovsky, ‘we’ might experience a shiver of fear as ‘we’ contemplate ‘them’, the nationalists, with their violent emotions and ‘their’ crude stereotyping of the Other. And ‘we’ will recognize ‘ourselves’ among the objects of this stereotyping. Alongside the ‘foreigners’ and the ‘racial inferiors’, there ‘we’ will be – the ‘liberal degenerates’, with ‘our’ international broadmindedness. ‘We’ will be reassured to have confirmed ‘ourselves’ as the Other of ‘our’ Other.

By extending the concept of nationalism, the analyst is not safely removed from the scope of investigation. We might imagine that we possess a cosmopolitan broadness of spirit. But, if nationalism is a wider ideology, whose familiar commonplaces catch us unawares, then this is too reassuring. We will not remain unaffected. If the thesis is correct, then nationalism has seeped into the corners of our consciousness; it is present in the very words which we might try to use for analysis. It is naïve to think that a text of exposure can escape from the times and place of its formulation. It can attempt, instead, to do something more modest: it can draw attention to the powers of an ideology which is so familiar that it hardly seems noticeable. [ Billig, Michael, Banal Nationalism, Sage Publications, London, 1995.]

I extend Billig’s concept to a concept of banal white nationalism. My paper on it is online at www.templeofdemocracy.com/breaking.htm. The presentation of racist groups in sensational media reports are of largely marginal individuals who we will socially never run into, who have belligerent attitudes and behaviors, use racial slurs, have poor middle class decorum, and who perhaps wear funny clothes. Like Billig’s extremists, they reassure us that we aren’t racist since we are not like them. However, if we realize that racist attitudes and practice need not be confined to belligerent individuals shouting racial slurs or confined to physical assaults, we should not be so self-assured ourselves and have to examine a much wider range of practices and consider if we are involved. Suddenly it can be people that we know and who socially circulate in the circles we circulate or it can be us circulating in those circles.

The UDC as a well mannered genteel group is largely not perceived as racist despite their ongoing practice as mentioned earlier in this letter.

There is a great opportunity for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church to take a leadership role among American churches and set an example by stopping the hosting of neo-Confederate groups.

Again, I ask you not to host either the SCV or UDC. Additionally, I am asking for your help in my campaign against mainstream enabling of neo-Confederate groups by setting an example by not hosting either the SCV or UDC.

Regards,


Edward H. Sebesta

CC: Senior Warden & Vestry member Mark Gordon, Junior Warden & Vestry member Steve Micas, Vestry Advocate Spiritual Formation Board Christie Montgomery, Vestry Advocate Faith In Action/Outreach Board Bruce Cruser, Vestry Advocate Worship Board Brian Levy, Vestry Advocate Faith In Action/Outreach Board Michaelle Justice, Vestry Advocate Parish Life Board Dick Carlton, other Vestry members: Kia J. Bentley, Tom Smith, Barbara Davis, Chip Jones, Missy Benson, Sid Jones, Jennine Sherrill, and Cindy Wofford, Associate Rector Rev. Kate Jenkins, Downtown Missioner Rev. Melanie Mullen, Minister of Christian Formation Rev. Claudia Merritt.

Email to staff of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia

I sent the following email to the staff of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. I got two replies, but not a commitment to stop hosting neo-Confederate groups.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) has had their conventions at the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia every even year since the year 2000 and they have announced that the 2014 convention is going to be in Richmond. The Sons of Confederate Veteans (SCV) is scheduled to have a convention in Richmond, Virginia in 2015.

So when I am writing churches and faith groups I am mentioning both events. The following was the email I sent to all the staff which had emails on their webpage.

Emailed 2/1/2014

Dear St. Paul’s Episcopal Church:

If you go to www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm you will see that St. Paul’s church hosts neo-Confederate national conventions more than any other church in the United States. Look at the tables on the page for the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Also looking at the bar graphs the Episcopal church hosts almost half of the national neo-Confederate convention services.

In 2014 the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is scheduled to have their national convention in Richmond, Virginia and in 2015 the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is scheduled to have their national convention in Richmond, VA.

I am an investigative researcher into the neo-Confederate movement. I have been published internationally in peer reviewed academic journals, by university presses, and in “Black Commentator.”  You can see my resume online at www.templeofdemocracy.com/resume.htm.

The racism and extremism of the SCV is well documented in this “Black Commentator” article. http://www.blackcommentator.com/526/526_confederacy_sebesta_guest_share.html. I am currently writing an article about the UDC, but I can send you documentation.  In 2013 they had an article in their magazine about Reconstruction which is startling in terms of its racism.

Neo-Confederate groups usually seek out a historical and architecturally impressive church. When a church allows a neo-Confederate group to use their church they lend the prestige of their denomination and the architectural prestige of their church building to the neo-Confederate group.

I ask you to not allow the UDC or the SCV to use your facilities or church building for their upcoming national conventions.  

Please share this email with Rev. Adams-Riley.

Regards,

Edward H. Sebesta

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/

Churches that host the Sons of Confederate Veteran meetings table updated.

I have updated the table of the churches that host Sons of Confederate Veteran (SCV) meetings and have put it in this web page.

www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm

If there is a church that hosts a SCV meeting and it isn't on the list email me with the URL that documents it.

The other web page with just the table has been taken down.

UPDATE:

I have decided that since this table is likely to be updated frequently I have put the table back at this URL.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ChurchesHostingEvents.htm

Churches Hosting Neo-Confederate Events

These are specific churches where neo-Confederate events have occurred. Mostly it is regular Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) monthly meetings.

This web page has been deleted http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ChurchesHostingEvents.htm and the table has been moved to:

www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm


Many denominations are represented, but what is interesting is the preponderance of United Methodist Churches. However, this is through Googling and I might have some type of sampling bias.

UPDATE:

I moved the table back to the original URL:


http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ChurchesHostingEvents.htm

Letter to the Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg, Episcopal Bishop of Charleston asking that his churches not host the Sons of Confederate Veterans

The following letter will be sent by certified mail with the mentioned documentation to Right Rev. Charles G. vonRosenberg as well as emailed to the director of communication for the Episcopal Church of South Carolina who has previously contacted me to tell me that Bishop Lawrence is the head of a break away diocese. I will also email the Episcopalians in South Carolina with this letter.

It seems that Bishop Lawrence of the breakaway Episcopalians controls most if not all of the historic churches in Charleston. However, if Bishop vonRosenberg would speak up it would apply a great deal of pressure on Bishop Lawrence not to host the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

                                                                                                1/13/2014

                                                                                                esebesta@tx.rr.com

Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg

The Episcopal Church in South Carolina
P.O. Box 20485
Charleston, SC 29413

Dear Right Rev. vonRosenberg:

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 since 1990 to 2013 which is also online at www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm.

The SCV is an extremist and racist organization.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. A dossier about the SCV 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.

Unfortunately it seems that from 1990 to the present the Episcopal church is one of the major enablers of the SCV. I enclose a bar graph of denominations hosting SCV national convention church services from 1990 to 2013. Also enclosed is a table of individual churches that hosted the SCV. Additionally enclosed is a map of churches which hosted either the SCV national convention or the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) convention services from 1990 to 2013. I also have it online along with the bargraphs at www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm. You can see that the Episcopal Church has hosted almost as many neo-Confederate national conventions as all the other denominations combined.

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.

Holly Behre, director of communications for the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, has informed me that there is a division occurring in the church in South Carolina and in reading elsewhere I see that the Episcopal church property is being contested in the courts and that you may not have actual control over many of the churches the Episcopal church has in South Carolina. However, I ask that since you claim them as your property you can publically ask that they not be used to host neo-Confederate organization activities, in particular any activity of the 2014 SCV national convention.

                                                                                                Sincerely Yours,

                                                                                                Edward H. Sebesta 

St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral of Jackson, MS hosts neo-Confederate function. Update:

The St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral of Jackson, MS hosted the 59th annual Children of the Confederacy (CofC) convention memorial service. The Children of the Confederacy is a youth group run by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) to indoctrinate their children in their neo-Confederate beliefs. It is open to both men and women.

Their website is at:

http://standrewscathedral.org/

They express many fine sentiments on their web page, but evidently it doesn't preclude assisting neo-Confederate groups.

I haven't yet compiled all the churches that hosted the national convention memorial services of the CofC. It is one of the compilations that I am going to work on.

UPDATE:

I contacted them and they informed me that St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral isn't a breakaway church. So this isn't just an activity of breakaway Episcopal groups.

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. 

"Washington Post" columnist John Kelly asks, "Why are Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson honored at Washington National Cathedral?" Yes, indeed why are they?

The link to Kelly's column is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/why-are-robert-e-lee-and-stonewall-jackson-honored-at-washington-national-cathedral/2013/12/10/af3429f2-60e2-11e3-94ad-004fefa61ee6_story.html

The National Cathedral is an Episcopal church. The Episcopalian church hosts neo-Confederate organizations more than the next three denominations combined. It is not surprising that their most prominent church honors the Confederacy.

This is a map of of churches that host neo-Confederate organizations.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/edit?mid=zfTqFzugXJv8.kpb21pK6SVwo Note that the table covers up the San Diego UDC church hosting.  I show a screen capture below. Click on it to see full map.

NOTE:  To look at the data more in detail you will have to go to the map on the link, not the screen capture. Look at the data table to see how many times an individual church hosted. Also, you may not see all the pins in cities that have had several churches host neo-Confederate organizations. You will have to expand the map to see them all, in particular Richmond, VA.

The following are bar graphs of neo-Confederate organization hosting by denomination from 1990 to 2013. Click on the bar graphs to see them full size.

The campaign against churches enabling neo-Confederacy is online at www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm.

Bar Graph of denominations of churches that host neo-Confederate organizations. Seems the Episcopal church is the Church of the Confederacy Update

These graphs were generated as part of the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church campaign. www.templeofdemocracy.com/bostonavenue.htm.

Histogram of the denomination of the churches that host United Daughters of the Confederacy national convention services 1990 to the present. Click on image to see whole graph if you are not seeing the whole graph. It seems the Episcopal church is the faith of the Confederacy. UPDATE: I was able to get the specific Baptist denominations.

The distribution is different for churches that host national convention services for the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). Again click on the picture if you can't see it all. For the SCV the Episcopal church is still frequent, but the Roman Catholic church is more frequent. For eight years either a church wasn't used for the SCV national convention service or it wasn't possible to determine which church was used. Even so the Episcopal church and Roman Catholic church turned out to be frequently used.

Well we can see who is dreaming of a plantation Christmas.

The campaign against churches enabling neo-Confederacy can be followed at this web page: www.templeofdemocracy.com/churchesoftheconfederacy.htm

Churches that enabled the Sons of Confederate Veterans and their neo-Confederacy in the 21st century. UPDATE. Update 2. Update 3

As many readers of the blog know an expose' of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) was published at Black Commentator at this link:

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

It was used in a successful campaign to convince corporations not to support the SCV as reported here:

http://www.blackcommentator2.com/527_cover_scv_donation_loss_sebesta_guest.html

Towards the end of the article I stated that I would start writing to churches that enable the SCV. So I have started the project. One way churches enable the SCV is by allowing their facilities to be used for the SCV Memorial Services at their national conventions. When churches do this they not just allow the SCV to carry out their activities, they lend their reputations and prestige of their organization and the building to the SCV.

Churches who enable the SCV in this way make a mockery of any pretense they make of not being racist.

So this is a list of churches who have done this so far for National Conventions:

2014 Charleston, SC upcoming convention (Church is yet unknown). If anyone has a guess let me know. St. Matthews Church hosted in 2000.

2013 Vicksburg, MS  -- Christ Episcopal Church, 1115 Main St., Vicksburg, MS 39183

2012 Murfreesboro, TN -- Sam Davis service was at Sam Davis home.

2011 Montgomery, AL -- St. John's Episcopal Church

2010 Anderson, SC -- Abbeville Memorial Service, Trinity Episcopal Church

2009 Hot Springs, AR -- First Presbyterian Church (Update2, was able to track down and verify that it was First Presbyterian Church).

2008 Mt. Pleasant, NC -- didn't see memorial service listed

2007 Mobile, AL -- Cathedral of Immaculate Conception

2006 New Orleans, LA -- St. Patrick's Catholic Church

2005  Nashville, TN  -- St. Mary's of the Seven Sorrows Catholic Church

2004 Dalton, GA -- service was held in a trade center

2003 Asheville, NC -- First Christian church, which is supposed to be a couple blocks from the Renaissance Church

2002 Memphis, TN -- Memorial service was held at what was formerly known as Forrest Park

2001 Lafayette, LA -- St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Grand Coteau, Louisiana.

And the last year of the 20th century

2000 Charleston, SC -- St. Matthews Church.

So it appears that excepting at least one and likely two occasions the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church are the chief enablers of the SCV for national conventions. People might have expected that the churches who would be open to the SCV would be fringe groups, but they aren't.

UPDATE:

An academic journal article on Confederate Christian nationalism published at the Canadian Review of American Studies at the Univ. of Toronto.

http://www.templeofdemocracy.com/ConfederateChristianNationalism.pdf

UPDATE 3: (Update 2 is in the body of the text): If you want to see what type of Christianity the SCV promotes and they do have a specific type of Christianity go to this web page and do some reading.

http://www.scv.org/about/chaplainsChronicle.php

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.