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 21st
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 21st 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.
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.
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