I asked the Boston Avenue Methodist Church in Tulsa, OK not to enable the United Daughters of the Confederacy

Shari Goodwin is the Communications Director of the Boston Avenue Methodist Church. I am going to be writing a letter to the national leadership this weekend and sometime later I will be mailing it. My next focus is going to be on churches enabling neo-Confederates whether the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) or the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). 

Dear Ms. Goodwin:

Visiting your website for the Boston Avenue Methodist Church it seems like the members are nice people. How surprising it is to find out that you aid and enable neo-Confederates. I am referring to the fact that you are lending your church for a United Daughters of the Confederacy function the afternoon of Sunday Nov. 10, 2013.

This group has a long record of racism.

Besides your members, do African American Methodists and churches in Tulsa know that you are enabling neo-Confederates?  

American churches need to stop enabling neo-Confederacy.

I would ask that you stop enabling neo-Confederacy.

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/

Maryland secessionists want a Western Maryland state

I mentioned in an earlier blog that this idea of forming new states from rural counties in existing states might spread. (Earlier blog posting.)  It seems now there is a movement to have some western counties in Maryland secede to form their own state. Here is an article form the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/western-maryland-secessionists-seek-to-sever-ties-with-the-liberal-free-state/2013/09/08/15e97aa8-1651-11e3-804b-d3a1a3a18f2c_story.html

The reason is basically, there was an election, we lost, so we can't get our way, and so we want an electoral district where are small group gets it way and gets two U.S. Senators where we can be way over represented.

I think soon we are likely to see this all over. A proponent of a new state just needs a map, a webpage, and a few supporters and the media will love the whole novelty of the thing.

How the Republican party will handle this is another thing. It should be noted that the Washington Post, a reliably Democratic newspaper, gave Scott Strzelczyk, self-declared leader of the Western Maryland state movement, coverage even though he hasn't gotten any counties to vote for his plan unlike the Northern Colorado or Northern California movement.

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. 

Lazy League of the South gets coverage in "La Voz Latina"

I have done some commentary on the anti-immigration campaign of the League of the South (LOS) and the Southern Nationalist Network (SNN) in an earlier blog.

http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/08/is-league-of-south-ashamed-of.html

The blog posting provides background on this topic. They are very pleased with their anti-Hispanic immigration campaign and their media coverage which so far has been some minor rural newspapers. I would hope that CNN would cover them or even the Atlanta TV channels. However, it is just two small papers. The link on the coverage is in the following link:

http://southernnationalist.com/blog/2013/08/31/local-newspapers-cover-uvaldavidalia-demonstrations/

They think they are activists, but an activist is someone who is active. Here they are proud that American Renaissance is covering them because of what the LOS calls its "activism."

http://www.lsrebellion.blogspot.com/2013/09/southern-nationalism-is-growing-up.html

This campaign so far has had one protest in August and then they will have a protest in October which is a fairly lethargic campaign for a group to call itself activist. At this rate they won't have one protest per former Confederate state until sometime in 2015.

However, "La Voz Latina" has covered the protest in an article here:

http://www.lavozlatinaonline.net/noticias-Silbando-Dixie-en-726.aspx

y en Espanol aqui:

http://www.lavozlatinaonline.net/noticias-Whistling-Dixie-es-726.aspx

So the protest got some attention. The SNN is very happy that La Voz Latina covered their protest which they report on at this link:

http://southernnationalist.com/blog/2013/09/06/hispanic-newspaper-attacks-uvalda-demonstration-justifies-replacing-southerners/

The primary result of the LOS and SNN protests is to bring to the attention of the Hispanic community the anti-Hispanic bias of the neo-Confederate movement.

So this is a great campaign against neo-Confederacy. The only problem is that it isn't very active. I think it shows how little strength the LOS has. A regional group with some membership in each state should be able to hold multiple protests across the region each month. Even if it is just a small group as it seems to be, Michael Hill should be able to do at least one protest per month. Lazy.

At this rate it will take years, decades maybe, before there is even a slight regional awareness of the SNN and the LOS and their anti-Hispanic campaign.

It does show also what the real strategy for the LOS is. They know they are not able to do much of anything and they really aren't going to do the work a real activist group would do. They are hoping some catastrophic and revolutionary series of events will occur in America and during the chaos people will swarm to their banner because they have published the right ideological ideas. That is why they are constantly focused on what they see are signs of the impending collapse of the American government which they like to refer to as the "empire."

However, should there be some sort of revolutionary chaos, I don't they the people active in the turmoil are going to be looking to be led by the sofa sitting brigade or even know they exist.

Barry Smitherman, head of the Texas Railroad Commission, says he is preparing Texas for secession.

World Net Daily has an article on Barry Smitherman, head of the Texas Railrod Commission, who says he is preparing Texas to be an independent nation. You can read it at this link:

http://www.wnd.com/2013/09/texas-official-preparing-for-independence/#c2uwVppcUPGRMbvT.01

The article quotes Smitherman saying.

“We are uniquely situated because we have energy resources, fossil and otherwise, and our own independent electrical grid. Generally speaking, we have made great progress in becoming an independent nation, an ‘island nation’ if you will, and I think we want to continue down that path so that if the rest of the country falls apart, Texas can operate as a stand-alone entity with energy, food, water and roads as if we were a closed-loop system.”

I guess secession is mainstreaming in the Texas Republican Party.

"Black Commentator" publishes cover story about the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and We Care campaign

Black Commentator published a story about the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and We Care campaign. You can read it online here:

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

They designated it as the cover story. Read it quick, since it is likely that the SCV will start pulling off line some of their webpages.

As stated in the article, the next step is to start getting other institutions to not enable the SCV by working with them.

Secession and conservatives, or we can't get our own way so we want our own state

Again a rural county wants their own state. The Siskiyou County Board in northern California voted 4 to 1 to secede and form a new state. You can read it here or here.

This follows some rural counties on the great plains in Colorado wanting their own state. You can read some articles here or here or here.

The complaint is that they can't get their way in legislative affairs and that their opinions aren't privileged over the opinions of other people in their state. So they want their own state.

It is not likely that they will get their way on this. The original state has to approve and Congress has to admit a new state. These rural areas have very few people and I doubt that congress is going to want to give them two senators to represent a very small group of people whose reason is that they don't have some special legislative privilege.

It seems that this secession idea for sparsely settled rural counties of a state might be spreading. If it does it poses a real risk to conservatives and Republicans.

For the conservative movement it makes them look crazy. The rest of the people in the state have participated in the elections and accepted the results and they certainly won't look favorably on secessionists who will come across as being spoiled and having a tantrum because they can't get their own way.

For Republicans it holds real risks. When a Republican pursues a statewide office the question will arise how to respond to the secessionists. If the secessionists are rejected they may not vote for the Republican candidate or vote for a third party candidate and so might some right wing individuals sympathizing with the secessionists thus helping to elect a Democrat to state wide office. If instead the Republican politician attempts to pander to the secessionists, he or she will seem silly, and against the state, and will bring the Republican party into ridicule as well as each Republican running for any office in the state who will be likely asked for their opinion on secession.

Since it would be congress that admits states, Republicans running for federal elected office could also be questioned and not just in the states with secessionists movements.

I don't think that this idea will be necessary confined to states with Democratic legislatures and somewhat isolated rural counties with very conservative populations. Perhaps there just needs to be a divide between a state majority that isn't as conservative as some rural county in that state.

Right now the media is covering this for laughs and novelty. However, the Republicans need to ask what the impact might be on the 2014 and 2016 elections.

Article on the Sons of Confederate Veterans and We Care to be published.

The article on We Care and the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is done and off to Black Commentator. I wrote it in more an internet style, no footnotes and lots of links. They are on summer break. I bring up other organizations that work with the SCV and to which I plan on mailing my SCV dossier.

Update: Article is now online at:

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

Virginia Columnist says the Republican Party is the party of the Confederacy

R. Matthew Poteat of the Stanton News Leader in Stanton, Virginia has a column where he argues that the Republican Party is the party of the Confederacy, the following is a link to the article. 

http://www.newsleader.com/article/20130831/OPINION02/308310005/GOP-now-Party-Confederacy?nclick_check=1

He says:

Let’s be frank. The Republican Party is the Party of the Confederacy. It should just go ahead and change its name. At least they’d be honest with themselves and the American people.

It can no longer call itself the Party of Lincoln. It left that tradition a long time ago, a process that began with FDR’s New Deal, President Truman’s integration of the military and, finally, LBJ’s support of the Civil and Voting Rights acts.

This may be a new revelation to Poteat, however, former U.S. Senator Trent Lott said that the Republican Party was the party of Jefferson Davis in the Fall 1984 Vol. 4 No. 4 issue of Southern Partisan. That was nearly 30 years ago.

A lot of leading Republicans interviewed in the Southern Partisan.

The Southern Partisan sold this T-shirt which they thought was clever.

The front side had this logo:

The back side had this: 

The one thing though is that there isn't a Republican majority anymore. The Republicans control the House of Representatives through the drawing of congressional districts, but a majority of Americans voted for Democrats in the House. Otherwise "Lincoln's worst nightmare" may well have come to pass. 

Matt Heimbach, head of the White Student Union at Maryland gets distinguished service award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans at their national convention

Dead Confederate has this blog on the whole matter here:

http://deadconfederates.com/2013/08/31/what-was-matt-heimbachs-distinguished-service-to-the-scv/

Quoting from his blog.

Matt Heimbach — founder of the White Student Union at Towson University, dabbler in Nazi ideology, and current darling of white supremacy movement — even Glenn Beck thinks he’s a rancid loon — was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal (below, right) at the SCV annual meeting in Murfreesboro last year, along with “many of our own Va Flaggers.” This is according to this announcement, apparently from the Virginia Flaggers themselves, posted on several websites:

Is the League of the South ashamed of the Confederate flag? The League of the South campaign against Hispanics. UPDATE: Southern Nationalist Network responds to this blog posting UPDATE2:

The League of the South (LOS) has started a series of protests against what it calls "Demographic Displacement." What they mean is immigration which would actually be "demographic addition." However, logic isn't a strong feature of LOS thinking.

These are some LOS links about their campaign against immigration which they are doing in partnership with the Southern Nationalist News (SNN) group.

http://dixienet.org/rights/2013/southern_demographic_displacement_demonstration.php

http://dixienet.org/rights/2013/uvalda_demonstration.php/

This is the link to the flyer for the upcoming protest.
http://dixienet.org/rights/2013/images/Tenn_demonstration_Oct_2013.jpg

The photo coverage of the Uvalda event is shown at the following link, notice you don't see any type of Confederate flag. Not the Confederate battle flag or the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd National Confederate flag.

http://southernnationalist.com/blog/2013/08/24/uvalda-vidalia-ga-southern-nationalist-demonstration/

The LOS obviously hopes to capitalize on the issue of immigration to increase their membership. It is somewhat surprising since the LOS usually doesn't protest but writes papers, holds conferences, and writes some more papers, and hold another conference.

Occasionally they have tried joining other protest events, but they would get thrown out. Conservatives in the South don't want Confederate flags associated with their movement. Now it seems the LOS also doesn't want Confederate flags associated with their movement either.

The white flag with the cross is explained here.
http://southernnationalist.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/southern-nationalist-flag.jpg

On the flag the color white is supposed to be for European heritage and black is for nationalism. So the SNN is an openly white nationalist group.

This new direction of the LOS has great opportunities to defeat neo-Confederacy with little effort on my part.

First it is unlikely they will get many members. At some point most interested persons will realize that the LOS has something to do with the Confederacy and then something to do with secession and neo-Confederacy and they will feel like they were lured in and leave. Though with the LOS's small membership any new members will probably be significant.

Second the issue of immigration has passed its crest. Conservative religious groups have shifted on the issue of immigration. They see immigrants as being a new group from which to recruit. Also, Christianity is becoming centered outside the West in the non-Western world. The LOS anti-immigrant campaign puts them at odds with evangelical Christianity in the South.

Finally, though these demonstrations will get little press, but they will be noted in the Hispanic community and they will be schooled in the meaning of the Confederacy and the Confederate flag. This will bring on board a whole new community against the Confederacy.  This is something that would take me years to accomplish, but it seems the LOS will do this for me with no effort on my part.

UPDATE:

The Southern Nationalist Network (SNN) responded to this blog post.

http://southernnationalist.com/blog/2013/08/30/ed-sebesta-the-uvalda-model/comment-page-1/

The fact is that in all the pictures that the SNN posted I don't see the Confederate battle flag or the 1st, 2nd or 3rd National Confederate flag or a flag that most people would recognize as Confederate. Most people wouldn't recognize the 1st National Confederate flag as being Confederate.

No doubt when people walked up to the protesters they realized that the SNN and LOS were neo-Confederate groups. They might have said nice things, and then thought to themselves, "smile then walk casually back to the car and leave!" The fact remains, based on viewing the photos, until people got closer they wouldn't realize that the SNN and LOS were at all connected to the Confederacy.

The SNN said they got a lot of coverage, but it seems that they just got local coverage in small town newspapers. I do hope that CNN or some other major media outlet with a significant audience does give them coverage. Unfortunately I think that given the significance of the LOS and the SNN they are not likely to get significant news coverage excepting if the media thinks it would have freak show novelty interest.

The SNN and LOS should try wearing Confederate uniforms and fly Confederate flags that are recognizable as being such by the general public. The "Bonnie" Blue flag doesn't count, the general public won't have a clue what it is. If you have any women at the event make sure they wear hoop skirts. If you are lucky enough to get a TV camera to show up, give a Rebel Yell.

Also, why can't the SNN and the LOS protest gay parades and events? There are a lot of stupid gay people in the South that swoon over "Gone With The Wind," and dote on Confederate ancestors and at social events blather defending the Confederacy. A SNN & LOS protest would help shut them up.

I think the reason the neo-Confederates haven't done any public protest of the gay movement or press releases attacking the gay movement is that they are afraid of antagonizing the gay and Lesbian movement. They might get squashed like bugs. Actually they would get squashed like bugs and the anti-gay movement in America would cringe seeing the SNN and LOS publicly attacking the gay movement.

SNN has committed to continue protesting immigration. Keep at it guys! I am sure the anti-immigration movement is cringing at the thought of you being the face of anti-immigration.

I suppose this blog posting isn't good strategy. I should have done a posting in which I was outraged, just outraged, outraged, outraged, outraged at the enormity of it. It would encourage them to do more protests. But I am laughing too hard.  Excuse me while I get some duct tape to keep my posterior from falling off.

UPDATE 2:

A more recent blog posting on this topic.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2013/09/lazy-league-of-south-gets-coverage-in.html

What are the Democrats up to with this "neo-Confederate" talk.

Recently I am starting to hear more references to factions of the Republican Party by Democrats as "neo-Confederate."

For example there is this article by Brent Budowsky in the publication, The Hill, Washington D.C. publication, referring to a civil war in the Republican Party between nationalists and neo-Confederates.

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/brent-budowsky/319465-bloody-gop-civil-war

He says:

The neo-confederates are spearheaded by GOP firebrands such as Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), former Wasilla Mayor and part-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the ubiquitous birther Donald Trump and a lengthy cast of smaller characters who increasingly resemble a political freak show more than a political party (what do you say about statewide candidates who cannot take a clear position against rape?).

Sarah Palin did speak to the Alaska Independence Party, and Rand Paul is the son of neo-Confederate Ron Paul of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, (www.mises.org). However, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump I haven't picked up any neo-Confederate connections. Perhaps Cruz has said something about nullification or interposition, and I missed it. 

Jesse Jackson recently referred to the Tea Party Republicans the resurrection of the Confederacy. 

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said in a Tuesday interview with a national news outlet that there’s no question about it — Republicans are constantly pushing the race button on all matters of policy and politics, and tea party activists are akin to redneck racist throwbacks from the Civil War era.

“The tea party is the resurrection of the Confederacy,” he said, in an interview with Politico. “It’s the Fort Sumter tea party.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/27/jesse-jackson-tea-party-resurrection-confederacy/

This is another item on Jesse Jackson's comments. 

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/356851/jesse-jackson-tea-party-resurrection-confederacy-katherine-connell

Earlier a commentator used neo-Confederate in reference to the anti-gun control movement. 

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/356283/msnbcs-reid-opposition-gun-control-neo-confederate-andrew-johnson

What does all this mean. I am not sure. Perhaps neo-Confederate has just entered the political lexicon and it is bound to be used as a derogatory comment about a political opponent. 

However, it wasn't that long ago that the Democratic Party and liberals didn't want to say anything much about neo-Confederacy or Confederate anything. There were some electoral votes and congressional districts they hoped to shake loose out of the South for upcoming elections. 

Instead, I think the Democrats are hoping that if they use the term neo-Confederate or Confederacy enough they can get the Tea Party to embrace the Confederacy, perhaps fly some Confederate flags, in reaction. 

It isn't just the last couple weeks either, this campaign attempting to identify the Republicans with the Confederacy has been going on all year. 

Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) and the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV)

The SCV has been getting involved with the JROTC by handing out their Hunley Award. They award it irrespective of race. The SCV is not stupid. They realize giving the award to minority students gives them a public image contrary to their real selves which you can read about here at Black Commentator.

The purpose of this program was explained by the SCV as follows:

The SCV seeks to be involved in the Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (JROTC). In the Nov./Dec. 2009 issue ofConfederate Veterans the SCV announces in an article that it is going to expand the awarding of the South Carolina Division SCV’s H.L. Hunley JROTC award nation wide so as to reach, as Program Chairman Trip Wilson explains, “…500,000 cadets serving in 3,500 JROTC units…” The purpose of this award is to advance the goals of the SCV as Chairman Wilson explains:

"If each year we are able to recognize 500 to 1,000 cadets nationwide and get Sons of Confederate Veterans’ compatriots into high schools presenting the awards, then there is unlimited potential the good it can do in educating our young people and changing the perception of them and their parents have of our organization." [No author, “Junior ROTC H.L. Hunley Awards Program,Confederate Veteran, Vol. 67 No. 6, Nov./Dec. 2009, pp. 52-53.]

I am not sure what my strategy will be. I can't write all the school boards, but I might write state school boards instead. I might get some civil rights groups involved. I certainly will write the military. I am may write some African American veterans organizations. I think I will just start writing and just working with events as they develop.

Slavery apologist in the Oregon Republican Party.

I came across an interesting article about Arthur G. Robinson, now Chairman of the Oregon State Republican Party selling racist books which include defenses of slavery.

The link is:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/9/18/115343/926/Front_Page/Slavery_wasn_t_so_bad_says_book_published_by_OR_Republican_Party_Chair

Opposition to Gun Control is called "Neo-Confederate"

On NBC opposition to gun control is called "neo-Confederate."

Here is a link to a YouTube video of the commentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZl5lYrd1uw

I am not sure why the commentator refers to a "neo-Confederate thread." There is a brief reference to the Tenth Amendment movement and gun control.

It is interesting in that the terminology is being used in regular political discourse. When I started this research over 20 years old the term was known to just a few people.  I did not invent the term, it was first used by an editor of Southern Partisan magazine.

Cato Institute warns libertarians against neo-Confederacy in really interesting video.

Kevin Levin mentioned this video on his blog. His blog does have some interesting items and I do visit it. Though I find his "Road to Reunion" attitude a negative thing as well as his ad hominem attacks on myself when he has no real argument for his position, it doesn't mean that you can't learn some really interesting items at his blog. http://cwmemory.com/blog/

This blog posting of his is about a video by the Cato Institute warning Libertarians that the Confederacy isn't a model for Libertarians or represent Libertarian values. It is fairly good going over historical information that hasn't generally reached the public. The link is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tvKjRB7wg5k

It is worth watching for the how libertarians interpret the Civil War.

However, it seems that the video also incorporates some neo-Confederate views of the Civil War and is to some extent self-defeating. He even quotes Murray Rothbard which is truly self-defeating. If this is the anti-Neo-Confederacy of the libertarian movement their cause is already lost.

Let me suggest a shorter message to conservatives and Libertarians. If your movement embraces white supremacy in our multipolar and multiracial world you are truly lost.

As everyone should know, my effort is non-partisan and I don't do this research for the advance of any partisan cause. My website www.templeofdemocracy.com is named after a 19th century metaphor for the American republic and my goal is to defend that republic against its neo-Confederate enemies.

Yes, I am able to figure out that sometimes others use my research for partisan goals. I suggest that those who have embraced an element of neo-Confederacy give up neo-Confederacy and thus not be susceptible to partisan attacks over it.

As Kevin Levin points out and I pointed out in an earlier blog posting it is interesting that conservative leaders are having to start warning their followers and readers against neo-Confederacy. I think that though these warnings are good and necessary and a good start against neo-Confederacy entering the conservative mainstream, they are not enough to prevent neo-Confederacy entering the mainstream of conservatism. I think the conservative movement needs to have a good look at itself and how it processes the issues of race. In particular its practice of exploiting race resentments. I don't say all conservatives do this, but I do think many do and the conservatives that don't remain silent.

A conservative movement that to some extent at some level is a white racial movement will embrace the rationalizations of neo-Confederacy despite all the historical facts, despite reason, despite logic, despite common sense.

This rejection of the Confederacy is a good first step, but it isn't adequate.

As for Kevin Levin I think that his opposition to neo-Confederacy, a word which he has gone on record as not liking, is based on the fact that neo-Confederates are upsetting a historical discussion of the Civil War which regarded it as a sort of a toy soldiers game. He is largely if not entirely uninformed by critical theory in his thinking.

Again, that doesn't mean you can't learn something from his site.

Walgreens rejects the Sons of Confederate Veterans

I got an email Friday, 8/16/2013, from Walgreens telling me that they didn't knowingly have any association with the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and they sent me a screen capture showing that there was no SCV page anymore at the We Care website.

Specifically Walgreens informed me that they were going to talk to We Care because this affiliation with the SCV  didn't reflect Walgreens' values.

Mainstream America rejects neo-Confederacy.

One of the positive benefits of this project is that managers of affinity groups are going to be more careful who they sign up with.

Update:

Article on whole campaign is online at:

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

In the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" column by Bud Kennedy, "Founding Faith Didn't Include a Secession Movement." Maybe Grassroots American needs to change their name to Grassroots Confederacy, Maybe Tea party 911 should change their name to Secession 911.

In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram there is a column by Bud Kennedy titled, "Founding Faith Didn't Include a Secession Movement." It is about a conference at an Arlington church in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area of which Arlington is a part.

The link is:

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/08/17/5087747/founding-faith-didnt-include-founding.html

What is interesting is that Lt. General Boykin, President of the Family Research Council has pulled out because he doesn't want to be associated with the League of the South and neo-Confederacy, but two black conservative groups still wish to attend, one which calls itself the Frederick Douglass Foundation and the other which calls itself the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee.

Two Tea Party groups are involved with this.  One is www.teaparty911.com and the other is http://gawtp.com .

This is their link to the conference. Perhaps Grassroots America needs to change their name to Grassroots Confederacy.

http://gawtp.com/founding-faith-conference

This is the Tea Party 911 link to promote the Conference

http://www.teaparty911.com/info/pdf/founding-faith-conference-2013-impact-your-nation.pdf

However www.impactyournation.com which is the website for the conference just has a password entry box.

The controversy is about Pastor David Whitney who is billed on the flyer as being with the Institute on the Constitution but the web page doesn't mention that the head of the Institute on the Constitution is Michael Peroutka, a board member of the League of the South and that Whitney is a pastor of the League of the South.

The High Point Church in Arlington has cancelled the event.

Up till now the Tea Party movement made sure it wasn't associated with neo-Confederacy. However with these comments by a Texas Tea Party leader you can see that secession has made inroads. Note the comment, "I don't think [secession] would be necessary at this time," by Sharon Kay Russell in the following interview by Kennedy with Russell.

The institute is co-sponsoring the faith conference with the local Tea Parties of Texas PAC.

The PAC was formed by leaders of 10 Tea Party groups including Bob and Donna Smith of the Grapevine-based NE Tarrant Tea Party and Barry Schlech of the Burleson-based Texas Patriots Tea Party.

PAC board chairwoman Sharon Kay Russell of Rowlett said the cancellations by Boykin and other speakers are “alarming.”

“I wonder if they were pressured,” she said.

Asked about the PAC co-sponsoring an event with pro-secession leaders, she called that a rumor.

“I don’t think that [secession] would be necessary at this time,” she said.

She said secessionists “have a right to speak out.”

Of course secessionists have a right to speak out. Russell is resorting to misrepresenting the issue. The question is whether your group wants to aid this position by enabling the organization. Since she doesn't reject secession she isn't concerned with enabling secessionists.

With this event we see the Tea Party is beginning to publicly include neo-Confederates. I have always suspect that the Tea Party groups in the former Confederate states must include many who have a Lost Cause mentality towards the Confederacy.

Also, Bud Kennedy raises the issue of the patriotism of the Tea Party groups when they enable neo-Confederates.  Kennedy closes his column stating:

They all say they want to restore the nation.

They just don’t say which one.

There is political competition across the political spectrum. Groups do compete for members, funding, influence. In this competition among Tea Party groups is support of secession and the Confederacy going to be a litmus test for being truly conservative? Interposition and nullification has already been take up by conservatives, is secession far behind? Counter to this trend is that Evangelical Christianity is currently concerned to be part of the world wide Christian movement which is multiracial with whites in a minority. The High Point Church has cancelled the event.

Notice: Warren Throckmorton is also covering events and reports at http://wthrockmorton.com/2013/08/texas-church-says-secessionist-speaker-doesnt-reflect-their-values/
 that the event has been cancelled.

Mr. Throckmorton has been tracking fairly ably the Institute on the Constitution and its mainstreaming neo-Confederacy into the conservative religious world.

National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) broadcasting neo-Confederate Constitution course. Which nation is the National in NRB for, American or Confederate?

As you can see at this link:

http://nrbnetwork.tv/Pages/Primetimevideo.aspx?ItemID=335 the National Religious Broadcasters are having a Prime Time Program on the American constitution by the Institute on the Constitution (IOTC) which has an "American View" website, though really the IOTC doesn't have an American view at all, but a Confederate one.

The IOTC is run by Michael Anthony Peroutka who is a board member of the League of the South.

http://dixienet.org/rights/2013/michael_peroutka.php

The IOTC website is at:

http://www.theamericanview.com/

Knowingly promoting racism negates any moral standing the members of the NRB might have.

The details of this whole matter are ably reported on by Warren Throckmorton at:

http://wthrockmorton.com/

It is not too surprising that the NRB isn't too concerned about advancing neo-Confederacy. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell both interviewed in the Southern Partisan as well as Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association.  I once bought a book, "More Than Conquerors, Believes From All Walks of Life," by the Moody Press and in it Robert E. Lee was praised as a Christian hero even though he was a white supremacist fighting for slavery.

I think there are a lot of Christian organizations that need to realize that the Civil Rights Era has occurred, it isn't 1910 anymore.

Churches which host services by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy UPDATED

I am currently working on compiling a list of the churches that host services and events by the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC.) The purpose will be to ask them not to support neo-Confederates.

I don't think the Roman Catholic Church or the Episcopal Church can claim any legitimate moral position when they aid neo-Confederates. (Note, I wanted to confirm that the Roman Catholic churches have been involved.) They don't need to be posing as moral guides when they aid neo-Confederacy.

I am not sure how this campaign will unfold. First I need to compile the list. Then there needs to be a cover article. Finally an online publisher. I think I can find an online publisher.

I might have to write up something on the United Daughters of the Confederacy also. I have an online article on the SCV already.