The Christian South

As I believe I have said on this blog somewhere or other, I am a southerner, a Virginian to be exact (and Virginians are always exact on that point). I grew up in the 50s and 60s, when Jim Crow laws polluted my state and almost every Christian church I was familiar with collaborated. Here is an example of what I mean. It goes a long way towards explaining why I am nearly immune from Evangelicals or anyone else telling me they have the The Truth from God. It is from an obituary for Florence L. Mars, who died recently at the age of 83.

She repeatedly spoke out against the Ku Klux Klan and other forces oppressing the black population of east central Mississippi. A fourth-generation resident of the area and a member of its landed gentry, she was also a significant source of information for the F.B.I. agents investigating the killings, and she testified before a federal grand jury.

Miss Mars paid dearly for her efforts. The Klan organized a boycott against the stockyard where she sold cattle, forcing it to close, and she was compelled to resign from posts at the First United Methodist Church. [My emphais]