Confederate Lost Cause mythology fused with Christian theology to oppose civil rights

Evidence

In the aftermath of the Civil War, the Lost Cause of the Confederate South had blended with Christian theology to produce a distinctly southern variation of civil religion, one that upheld Robert E. Lee as its patron saint. In this tradition, fundamentalist pastors like W. A. Criswell of First Baptist Dallas (Robert Jeffress’s future home) crusaded against integration as “a denial of all that we believe in.” To such opponents, civil rights activism was a sign of disruption and disorder; many denounced Martin Luther King Jr. as a communist agitator. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 88

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the broader literature on the Lost Cause as civil religion; also resonates with the centrality of Robert E. Lee image-making to the ‘rugged masculinity’ thesis of this book. — connects to: Lost Cause art mapped Confederate generals onto Christian literary heroes. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 377; The Lost Cause religion repurposed white supremacy after military defeat — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 254; Clergy reframed Confederate defeat as a Christlike resurrection narrative promising eventual triumph — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 256