Baptist clergy helped draft the Confederacy’s religious constitution.

Evidence

When Alabama invited the other Southern states to attend a convention to form a new confederacy in February 1861, Manly was elected as the official chaplain of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. He offered the opening prayer, asking for divine protection and that the new Confederacy would last “as long as the sun and the moon.” He was in the room when the new government was organized and took credit for a preamble to the Confederate Constitution that invoked “the favor of Almighty God.” — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 109

Categorization

• XREF: Manly’s authorship of the ‘favor of Almighty God’ preamble shows how religion was engineered into the Confederate founding document, connecting to contemporary debates about public religion and America’s founding myth. — connects to: A Southern Baptist minister architecturally founded a denomination over slavery — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 104; A Baptist resolution helped precipitate Alabama’s secession from the Union. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 107; Clergy reframed Confederate defeat as a Christlike resurrection narrative promising eventual triumph — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 256 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Clergy reframed Confederate defeat as a Christlike resurrection narrative promising eventual triumph #expands (0.75) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 256
• A church-politics power web endured across the South for over a century #expands (0.72) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 113