wfn.org | South Carolina bishop calls for removal of Confederate flag

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Jan. 24, 2000  News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-31-71B{024}

By Davie Burgdorf*

COLUMBIA, S.C. (UMNS) - United Methodist Bishop J. Lawrence McCleskey was
among more than 46,000 people gathered at the statehouse to urge legislators
to remove the Confederate flag from atop the building's dome.

Sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
and the Christian Action Council, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally on
Jan. 17 featured more than 35 religious and secular leaders calling for the
removal of the Confederate flag.

"This conflict cries out for resolution," said Bishop J. Lawrence McCleskey.

The South Carolina Annual Conference, which passed a resolution last year
calling for removal of the flag, recognizes the conflicting symbolism of the
Confederate banner, the bishop said. 

"For some persons, it is a symbol of courage, personal sacrifice, loyalty
and honor, while for other persons it is, a symbol of the spirit that
legitimated slavery, that engendered Jim Crow, and yet lives on today in
racism -- subtly disguised at some times, blatantly exposed at others," he
said.

The "one intent of the major religious traditions" is to help people live
together in unity with justice, McCleskey said.

"Since 1972, we have been a racially inclusive church, sharing across racial
lines, church membership and leadership, and joining together in worship and
ministry," the bishop said.

Moving the Confederate flag will "serve the greater common good, which is
always the goal of responsible political leadership," he said.

Removing the Confederate banner from the Statehouse would leave two flags -
the South Carolina state flag and the Stars and Stripes -- that "have the
right to fly there," he said.

"May the result of this unity rally be precisely that -- unity, with
justice!" he said.

McCleskey and other religious leaders have been criticized about the
church's involvement in the issue.

Contrary to some literature at the rally and public perception, the United
Methodist Church was not directly a sponsor of the event. Organizers
incorrectly singled out the United Methodist Church from the Christian
Action Council as a sponsor of the rally. Even though the church was
indirectly a sponsor through the council, it was not a
direct sponsor. Official sponsorship would have required action by the
annual conference.

The United Methodist Church has not endorsed the boycott established by the
NAACP nor has it allied itself with that organization.

However, Black Methodists for Church Renewal, an organization associated
with the church, is participating in the boycott.

The United Methodist Church's South Carolina Conference represents 245,000
people and 1,053 congregations.

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*Burgdorf is editor of The Advocate, the monthly publication of the United
Methodist Church's South Carolina Annual Conference.

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United Methodist News Service
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