The Confederacy was Racist Christian Nationalists

June 3 is a state holiday in Alabama to honor the birthday of traitor Jefferson Davis.

Davis said: “We recognized the Negro as God and God’s Book and God’s laws, in nature, tell us to recognize him: Our inferior, fitted expressly for servitude … You cannot transform the Negro into anything one-tenth as useful or as good as what slavery enables them to be.”

Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, “Stonewall” Jackson and all the hallowed heroes of the Confederacy were racist, white supremacist, Christian nationalists.

“Invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God” the Confederate Constitution was established to maintain and expand the racist system of slavery.

Racist Christian nationalists of 2024 are woven from the same cloth as racist Christian nationalists of 1864. They literally carry the same flag.

The Confederate “Stars and Bars” carried by Donald Trump supporters was used to oppress black Americans and waved over the deaths of hundreds of thousands of United States soldiers.

Americans who defend the treason that was the American Civil War usually defend the treason of Jan. 6, 2021.

After decades of lobbying by the Daughters of the Confederacy and a literal white-washing of American history, the historical narrative of the Civil War shifted from slavery to “states rights.” As a result, a racially segregated society built monuments and named public buildings after racist traitors – public buildings funded with the tax dollars of black Americans.

Today, as the U.S. works to rectify the mistake of venerating racists and traitors, supporters defend racism by calling it history and willfully ignoring the history of racism that came before.

Like many people, I have a deep interest in the Civil War. I’ve stood at the graves of Davis, Lee, and Jackson. I visited the room where Jackson died as well as his home in Lexington. I’ve gazed across the battlefields of Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor. On the anniversary of the surrender, I walked the historic paths of old Appomattox Court House.

I’ve read dozens of books about the Civil War and my great-great-grandfather served under Ulysses S. Grant out of Illinois.

If you truly understand the Civil War, then you know that the arguments in defense of the indefensible are only possible through willful blindness.

The Confederacy was established by and for racist Christian nationalists to support and maintain a racist system, while invoking the will of God.

The racist members of the Confederacy passed their racism from generation to generation like family recipes. As a result, their descendants rioted in Charlottesville and again on Jan. 6.

From the KKK to Nazis to Confederate defenders, racists support Trump.

As a white, southern, Christian male, I have a responsibility to confront my fellow whites who support racism.

Like my fellow southerner, Atticus Finch, I’d like to believe my southern neighbors are good people. They may be, but they are also racists. And they need to stop. There is no denying the indefensible.

In Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus says of the Civil War, “It was yesterday. It’s always yesterday.”

White Christians who deny racism must understand that the only way this country can move beyond yesterday is to acknowledge that racists did horrible, indefensible things.

In God’s name, stop defending it.

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Jim Meisner, Jr. is the author of the novel Faith, Hope, and Baseball, available on Amazon, or follow this link to order an autographed copy. He created the Facebook page Faith on the Fringe.