Update: Historic Beaufort church removes Confederate battle flags from grounds

The Parish Church of St. Helena will replace Confederate battle flags decorating soldiers' graves with a different Confederate flag in response to last week's massacre in Charleston, the church's pastor said in a parish newsletter.

The Rev. Jeffrey Miller wrote in a newsletter Wednesday that the battle flags in the historic Beaufort church's graveyard will be replaced by the first national Confederate flags. Battle flags have adorned the graves of Confederate soldiers buried in the churchyard to honor the Civil War veterans, but after the events in Charleston, that flag's purpose could be misunderstood, Miller said.

"As most of you know, it is this very flag that decorates the graves of Confederate soldiers in our historic churchyard, and I fear that our motivation for allowing its presence -- namely to honor the memory of the Confederate dead -- is going to be grossly misunderstood in the current climate," Miller wrote in the newsletter.

Miller said Thursday about 70 battle flags were removed from graves in the historic churchyard. Replacement flags for the gravestones still need to be purchased, he said.

The Confederate flags were only in the churchyard to mark the Confederate graves and were never placed there to praise the Confederacy or make a political statement, Miller said. The historic graveyard also has British flags to denote graves of soldiers who fought in the American Revolution and American flags for other war veterans.

Miller said he solely made the decision after seeing the debate over the Confederate battle flag's use in South Carolina reignite in the aftermath of the June 17 shooting deaths of nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

"It became apparent that we needed to make a change," Miller said. "I take responsibility for that, good or bad. The first national flag doesn't have any of the negative connotations to it that the battle flag does."

In the newsletter, Miller cited Gov. Nikki Haley's call for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the state capitol building and the protests in Columbia and Charleston to remove the flag from other public areas and monuments.

"As an avid student of the Civil War period, I have looked upon the Confederate battle flag as an historical artifact from a very important, though very tragic, period in this nation's history," Miller wrote, "but I can no longer ignore the fact that it has been co-opted by various hate groups and now represents for most people -- white and black -- oppression, racism, and prejudice.

"In the wake of last week's shootings, black South Carolinians in particular, view it as a dreaded symbol of violence and hate."

Miller also said in the newsletter he decided to take down the battle flags over concerns that the negative reaction to the Confederate battle flag could hinder the church's mission "to take the Gospel to every race and nation of men." By switching to the national flags, Miller wrote, he hoped the church could honor history and "respect the members of our community and parish, both white and black."

The responses to the flag change from parishioners and the greater community have been overwhelmingly positive, Miller said.

"It was the right thing to do," Miller said. "I was very concerned about what was happening, and I decided we needed to do something about it."

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This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Update: Historic Beaufort church removes Confederate battle flags from grounds."