This video started it all. 1998. The most devastating moment in my theological training. Watching Steve Wilkins conflate Presbyterianism with the Southern Confederacy was earth shattering. This was the other Presbyterian Church in America hidden from me. c-span.org/video/?101481-…
I am fairly certain that most people in the denomination have never seen this nor remember the national discussions at that time. But I remember feeling like a total fool. I sat in silence. His conclusion. Ugh. My entry to the PCA was RUF & Intown Community Church in Atlanta...
... so when I ran into the pro-Confederacy, worshipers of Southern agrarian and Antebellum culture in the PCA, I didn't know what to do. As the credits rolled I thought, "what have I done?" Felt like being kicked in the stomach. Then, with more research it just got worse.
Millennials in the race discussion were children during this era & don't know these 1990s discussions. They have often @ me as if I was making things up. It wasn't until Peter Slade's book that I could finally show I'm not a liar, as many Boomers claimed. amazon.com/gp/product/B00…
Every time I see a person on color in the PCA all excited, and completely ignorant of this Pro-Southern culture and Presbyterian Southern history, I just sigh. I've stopped trying to warn people b/c I found out they been told not to listen to me & others.
So I watch them get M.Div. degrees, learn the truth, get really angry, get wounded when the questions start and eventually leave. Or others will stay thinking they're actually doing to change the culture & minister in constant frustration. And they there are the "House" ones:).
My solution to all of this? A book! [And, as I friend noted about his book covering much of this difficult history, it's rarely ever assigned at seminaries & rarely on the book table at the race event. Not sure why that is. But my solutions are here: amazon.com/Aliens-Promise…
