The Radicalization of the League of the South

There is a kind of feud breaking out between white nationalists and what white nationalists call “rainbow Confederates” over the movement of the League of the South into the white nationalist camp.
In a Monday column on her blog, Connie Chastain, who describes herself as a “Southern nationalist,” lamented the “radicalization” of the League of the South. In the post, she complains:

In early summer of 2012, the League’s radical new direction was brought home to me personally when I was removed without notice from the League’s Facebook group following my initiating a discussion that, apparently, was not politically correct. Since then, I have watched from a distance as the League has continued to radicalize, to accept the influence of white nationalists masquerading as Southern nationalists and to slowly develop an indifference to Southern tradition and Christianity.

and…

Basically, what you have here [in the League] is people who claim to love the South and its people and want to see them free — or preserved, depending on who’s talkin’. But what they really love is whiteness, which includes a built-in aversion to non-whiteness …  and any Southerners who don’t share their dedication to whiteness are heaped with scorn and derision.

According to Chastain, she has been a defender of the League and sympathizes with their secessionist aims.  She does not, however, support the changes she sees.
Chastain’s lament does not sit well with white nationalist Hunter Wallace at Occidental Dissent. He agrees with Chastain but sees the League’s movement into white nationalism as a good thing. Wallace proclaims:

It’s true that we are dedicated to “whiteness.”
We are pro-Southern, pro-Christian, pro-White, and pro-independence. Your suggestion that blacks are our people would have been considered outrageous to previous generations. We are a proud European people.

Wallace calls Chastain a “Rainbow Confederate” which he defines as:

A “Rainbow Confederate” is someone who 1.) claims to venerate and wants to preserve Southern heritage, usually in the form of flags, symbols, and monuments 2.) while simultaneously rejecting and abhoring the racial beliefs of previous generations, particularly with regards to slavery and segregation, which are deemed illegitimate, and 3.) who subscribes to a utopian fantasy of an integrated, multiracial South, in spite of the disastrous results of that Yankee experiment, and 4.) who usually, but not necessarily, projects post-1980 racial attitudes back on the historical Confederacy.

In contrast to “Rainbow Confederates,” Hunter believes:

Experience has shown time and again that segregation and white supremacy are necessary to preserve White majorities in a multiracial environment. The people who denounced segregation and white supremacy as illegitimate undermined the cultural foundation that preserved the White majority.

According to League member Wallace, the segregationists are the ones now joining the League:

By “radicalizing,” Connie means that lots of young people are joining the League of the South who have little patience for the Rainbow Confederate nonsense of the Baby Boomer generation.

Those who continue to harbor the notion that today’s League of the South is just about cultural heritage should read these two articles by these neo-Confederate insiders.
While I don’t have data on this, I suspect most evangelicals reject white supremacy and segregation and would not want to be associated with these ideas. My suspicion is the basis for my puzzlement over the emergence of the Institute on the Constitution among evangelicals. As I have noted previously, the IOTC’s founder, director and teacher Michael Peroutka is a board member of the League and has pledged IOTC’s resources to the aims of the League. Senior teacher David Whitney is chaplain of the MD chapter of the League.
In addition to the course offered in many evangelical churches, the IOTC course is featured on the National Religious Broadcasters network, Liberty University’s television network, Bradlee Dean’s the Sons of Liberty offers the course, and several  mainstream evangelicals are speaking in September at a conference sponsored by IOTC and held at a major mega church in Texas.
It remains to be seen whether or not the IOTC will continue to emerge as a respected organization among evangelicals. Given the radicalization of the League that critics and supporters now acknowledge and the relationship of the League to IOTC, it seems to me that it is troubling for churches and evangelical groups to trust IOTC to teach them about the Constitution.