I've been writing an on-again, off-again series regarding Bill Gothard's hydra of frontgroups--and in particular a little-known Gothard frontgroup called Police Dynamics Institute. Gothard's legacy of "Bible-based abuse" has gotten major funding from neopentecostal "Daddy Warbucks" of the dominionist movement as well as Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee--and there's links to the very highest levels of government even now.
PDI is particularly controversial because the group was designed for backdoor infiltration of public safety departments like police and fire, and also has connections not only to a number of scary "Joel's Army" groups but to the neo-confederate "Christian Exodus"...and it turns out that's not the only racist neo-Confederate group they have ties to.
The hijacking of the Sons of Confederate Veterans
First, to understand the full background here, we need to take a minor detour--namely, focusing on the rather aggressive takeover lately of a number of "Confederate memorial" groups by the same "steeplejacking" tactics that neopentecostal dominionists have used against mainstream churches.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans started out originally as a sort of Confederate-descendant version of such groups as Daughters of the Revolution and such--descendants of those who served on the side of the South during the Civil War who wanted to honour their ancestors.
This would be fine and good, at least as far as the memorial aspects go, except for the little fact that since the late 1990s or so almost every Southern heritage group--and even a few churches--have been targeted very aggressively for "takeover from within" by the racist neoconfederate group League Of The South.
Since 2000, two influential orgs LoS have effectively taken over are the Presbyterian Church of America (a conservative Presbyterian denomination separate from the mainstream PCUSA)...and by 2002, the SCV itself was so thoroughly steeplejacked by racists linked with the LoS that it may have been hopeless even then.
This was, of note, after the SCV had made an attempt at reform--especially during the Civil Rights era, racists had become active and established benchheads (including the former Mississippi State University's head William McCain--no relation to John McCain--who was an ardent segregationalist).
Almost no sooner than the reform efforts were taking root in the 80's, though, the LoS squarely targeted the Sons of Confederate Veterans; by 2002, no less than ten top officials for the Sons of Confederate Veterans were members of racist groups including League of the South and the SCV leaders had not only undone practically all of the reforms (including bans on membership in racist orgs and promotion of secessionism) but (from the point of the solidification of the "hijack" in 1999) the SCV started promoting such things as sympathetic histories of the Klan:
"The prospects of protecting and advancing Southern culture have just gotten a much needed boost," League President Michael Hill wrote in late 1998. The SCV's new policy, he enthused, allowed it "to cooperate with the League in non-political matters. Gauging from the actions of the latest SCV national convention in early August, the old guard there is on the way out."
The change was almost immediately apparent.
The very next issue of the SCV's Confederate Veteran magazine included a web address for the League. Later issues carried ads for a sympathetic book on the Klan entitled Authentic History of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1999, the publication featured a photo of Gordon Baum, the leader of the racist CCC, helping found an SCV camp in Missouri.
In 2002, things finally came to a head--even as more moderate SCV leaders were warning of a hijack in progress by people who had "cross-pollinated" racist ideals from groups like LoS (in an eerily similar manner to the "steeplejacking" of mainstream Christian churches by dominionist groups like FGBMFI or IRD), the racists solidified their control over the group.
By 2004, a purge was well underway as 25% of the members left the now-hijacked SCV; this included several US senators and the entire European division of the organisation.
The purge also included practically all of the moderate leaders who opposed racism and/or the increasingly "Christian Nationalist" bent of the SCV:
Since Denne Sweeney took over as SCV commander in chief in August 2004, the group's executive council has been stripped of moderate former commanders. A purge of some 300 members, accused of disloyalty for criticizing racism in the SCV, was completed. An ancient alliance with the Military Order of Stars & Bars, a sister organization for descendants of Confederate officers, was scuttled, and a bitter war with another old ally, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, erupted. Sweeney suspended an entire state division of the SCV and replaced its leaders. He diverted money originally intended for the upkeep of a cemetery and building a museum to a brand-new political arm. He promoted followers with documented racist histories to key national leadership positions. Through it all, Sweeney presided over an exodus of fully 25% of the SCV's membership, which fell from 36,000 to 27,000.
Moderates--who'd not been kicked out--left the group, and a breakaway organisation (the United Sons of Confederate Veterans) was formed; meanwhile, the SCV threatened groups that refused to toe the racist line (threatening state divisions that wished to leave with SLAPPs that would bankrupt them, suspending the entire state of Oklahoma's SCV division, and so forth).
By 2006, control had solidified to the point that practically all parties running for offices in the SCV were racist hijackers as opposed to moderates. (Sadly, this is the typical course of a steeplejack unless it is nipped in the bud before they can get into positions of power.)
The links to not only racist neo-Confederate groups but also the "Christian Patriot" militia groups showed themselves in 2006 as well, when the SCV's legal chief--and one of the major parties behind the hijacking of the SCV--was indicted for promoting tax fraud schemes; specifically, he was promoting the sorts of "tax protester" schemes popular in "Christian Patriot" and racist groups (claiming the 16th Amendment had never been ratified, that white men were apparently "Sovereign Citizens" and thus exempt from taxation whilst the rest of us are essentially mere US subjects and have to pay taxes, etc.).
By 2007, the SCV had driven out the solitary African-American man receiving support from the org.
By fall of 2007, the radicalisation of the SCV had reached such heights that a secondary purge was in progress--this time, against some of the original hijackers who weren't seen as being radical enough.
It's important to keep this in mind with the following info.
More links between Gothardism and racism
As I had reported earlier in this series, Ray Nash of Police Dynamics Institute has some known links to secessionist groups; specifically, Christian Exodus' leader not only solicited funds for Nash but explicitly gave instructions on how to donate funds where they wouldn't be recorded in reporting guidelines. Christian Exodus is a dominionist secessionist org that has been described as not just Christian Reconstructionist but neo-Confederate and which also has documented links to League of the South including cross-promotion of secessionist conferences.
And it would appear that not only Nash but the hand-groomed protege of Nash, Terry Boatwright, may both be connected to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
A site run by the South Carolina Order of the Confederate Rose--a group that is essentially an "auxillary" of the SCV along with the Southern Confederate Ladies' Association (now that the Daughters of the Confederacy have condemned the SCV as racist)--has a photoshoot available of the opening of the H.L Hunley camp of the SCV (a "camp" is roughly akin to a Legion-hall in SCV terminology).
And who appears in this photoshoot?
P1010056e.JPG (57102 bytes)
Commander Terry Boatwright receives charter with Clay Martin representing the SC Division.
Yes, this would be the same Terry Boatwright linked to the Gothardisation of Summersville, SC. Yes, this would be the same person running for the post Ray Nash was running for until he decided to focus on the running for PDI (Dorchester Co. Sheriff). Yes, this would be the same Terry Boatwright who assisted Ray Nash in giving Romanian recruits an up close and personal view of justice a la Gothard.
And something tells me this won't be the end of such discoveries.