PENSACOLA CHRISTIAN COLLEGE KICKS STUDENT OUT OVER CONFEDERATE DISPLAY IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
in Charlottesville continued Tuesday morning as a North Carolina man
carrying a Confederate flag and with a semi-automatic rifle slung over
his shoulder stood vigil at the foot of the Robert E. Lee statue at
Emancipation Park, drawing an angry crowd.
The statue — and the
effort to remove it — has been the focal point of increasing unrest that
came to a head Saturday when a car crashed into a crowd and killed a
woman following clashes between white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups
and protesters. Allen Armentrout said he came to Charlottesville to
honor and defend the Confederate general, but said he completely
disagrees with the views expressed at the weekend’s Unite the Right
rally and condemned the events that resulted in the death of 32-year-old
Charlottesville resident Heather Heyer.
Once word got out that
Armentrout was standing in Emancipation Park with a Confederate flag and
a gun just two days after Heyer’s death, several people rushed to
confront him.
As the crowd grew, so did the anger and frustration.
Signs with Heyer’s name rested at the foot of the statue as residents shouted at Armentrout, standing just feet away.
“I
couldn’t believe he was here,” said Kate Fraliegh, a city resident who
showed up at the park on Tuesday. “After all that’s gone on in the city,
how insulting, how rude, how dangerous, how incompetent, how foolish
for him to come here and show a flag that was treasonous in its time
supporting slavery. People in those days may have thought it was
patriotic, but it certainly isn’t patriotic anymore.”
Several
people stood in front of Armentrout chanting “Racist go home,”
“terrorist go home,” and “tear it down” in reference to the statue.
Charlottesville
City Council approved removing the statue from Emancipation Park, then
known as Lee Park, with a 3-2 vote in April. A lawsuit was filed the
next month to prevent the removal of the Lee statue.
Some
confronted Armentrout directly, giving him the finger as he occasionally
saluted the statue and looked straight ahead. Some told him Heyer’s
blood is on his hands for supporting the Confederate symbols, and that
his presence was unwanted as they tried to mourn her loss.
A few
Charlottesville police officers responded as the crowd continued to
grow, monitoring the situation until they asked Armentrout if he would
like leave. He agreed and was escorted back to his vehicle, Lt. Steve
Upman said in an email.
Before the crowd arrived, Armentrout said
he came to Charlottesville to let people know there are people who are
not white supremacists who support the Confederacy and Lee. Many
Confederate flags were visible Saturday in Emancipation Park before an
unlawful assembly was declared, as well as during the July 8 Ku Klux
Klan rally.
“It hurts my heart that people come out here and
misappropriate Robert E. Lee and the Confederate flag for their personal
agendas,” he said. “I’m out here to honor my ancestors and honor the
men who died under the command of Robert E. Lee, and I think me being
out here shows that I hope to accomplish the fact that the world can see
that there’s non-racist pro-Confederate people out there that love
freedom and independence.” Armentrout said he was ashamed of what he saw
unfold in Charlottesville on Saturday, and hopes James Alex Fields Jr.,
the man charged with ramming his car into a crowd of people that killed
Heyer and injured 19 others, serves time.
One of the very first
people to directly confront Armentrout was city resident Peter Norton,
who for several minutes talked with him.
“I don’t like people
walking around in parks in my town with automatic weapons,” he said.
“I’m also, though, a person who doesn’t think we solve problems with
angry attacks, so I thought I’d begin by listening at least.”
After
the two finished talking and Norton walked away, he said he believes
it’s worth talking to those with whom you disagree in order to
understand them.
“[Martin Luther] King [Jr.] demonstrated the
power of nonviolence, the possibility of reconciliation, the possibility
of redemption, and I think deep underneath the warped, mentally
afflicted perverted views that we’ve seen expressed here this weekend,
somewhere under that mud there’s a decent human being, and I don’t think
we’ll reach them unless we try listening,” he said.
“Now, to be
fair, if this had been one of those more outrageously Nazi, hate Jews
type thing, I wouldn’t have bothered because I know you can’t reach such
a person. But this guy seemed like he was willing to listen and be
listened to.”
No one was arrested or detained.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Pensacola Christian College will not allow a student who went to Charlottesville, Virginia carrying a Confederate Flag to complete his Senior year.
Allen Armentrout, a native of North Carolina, drove to
Charlottesville the week after the “Unite the Right” and related
counter-protests turned violent. Counter-protester Heather Heyer died
from her injuries after a car plowed into a crowd of pedestrians on a
Charlottesville street.
Armentrout donned a replica 19th-century uniform,
strapped a rifle over his shoulder, and held a Confederate flag while
he saluted the statue of Robert E Lee that stands at the center of the
controversy in the college town. His actions quickly drew a crowd who
protested his actions. The crowd can be heard chanting “Terrorist go
home” and “Racist go home” while he stands at attention while saluting
the statue. One angry Charlottesville resident stood in front of him
with both middle fingers raised for half an hour.
Armentrout says that he is not a racist and made the trip because he
wanted people to know the “true history” of the Civil War. He said that
the men who fought for the confederacy were not racists and were not
fighting to preserve slavery.
He told a local news station of his removal from Pensacola Christian.
“I have been released from my school and will be unable to return to
college to finish my senior year. I’m processing this and making
adjustments to my life to compensate for this scrutiny.”
Pensacola Christian said they do not comment on cases involving
individual students, but did release a general statement. “Pensacola
Christian College recognizes the dignity and value of all people, and we
respect the history of America. We encourage individuals to exercise
discernment and seek to build reconciliation, especially during a time
of mourning like Charlottesville is experiencing.”
Armentrout disagrees with the school’s decision and believes they
should have stood up for him instead. “I believe a Christian institution
should support patriotic individuals who want to stand for American
tradition and beliefs. It really hurts me a lot when you try to do
what’s right and you get attacked.”
Publisher’s note: We should not be surprised as to what we see
coming out of this, so called, “Christian College”, that is more of the
“Puritanical” brand of Christianity, than the Fundamentalist brand that
they purport to be. How tragic that some of the finest of our Baptist
families, even Baptist pastors send their children there, thinking that they are keeping them separate from the world, when in reality they are making them, as Jesus said of the Pharisees, Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and
land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold
more the child of hell than yourselves.
We got a glimpse of this pharisaical spirit when the University
turned Kent Hovind and his wife in for tax evasion when they hadn’t even
been charged with tax evasion. Then Margaret Horton went in and
testified against him on the basis that she was being true to her religion. As the Pensacola News of Oct. 20, 2006 reported, “But Horton said whether Hovind works for God is irrelevant and the Bible does not exempt anyone from paying taxes.
“We know the Scriptures do not promote (tax evasion),” she said. “It’s against Scripture teaching.”
Horton believed it was the college’s duty to report the
misleading doctrine. Administration called the Internal Revenue Service
and gave the tape to officials, she said.”
This is exactly the same spirit that the Puritan Elders of
Salem exhibited when they banished Roger Williams to the wilderness.
Except they banished Allen Armentrout from his senior year. By the way this isn’t the first time they have
done this. Now in our opinion, if the College had given a
directive that no students were to have gone to Charlottesville, then
they would have been justified, but to arbitrarily dismiss Allen
afterwards when he had no knowledge of what was going to happen there is
criminal. But listen to what the Lord Jesus said at Mat 10:36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Should not Allen expect better of this from the “household of
faith?” Especially those that he has spent multiplied thousands of
dollars with.”
_______________________________________________________
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
NOTE: GRAPHIC GESTURES A crowd of protesters in Charlottesville
confronted a man holding a confederate flag on Tuesday at the site of
the Robert E. Lee statue where white supremacists rallied last weekend. AP
controversy Tuesday by wearing a Confederate uniform to the site of a
violent clash between white nationalists and counter protesters has been
kicked out of Pensacola Christian College, according to a North Carolina
media outlet.
Allen Armentrout, who reportedly splits time living in Pensacola and
North Carolina, learned Thursday that PCC staff had decided to terminate
his enrollment.
school and will be unable to return to college to finish my senior
year,” Armentrout told the TV station. “I’m processing this and making
adjustments to my life to compensate for this scrutiny.”
a statement to the News Journal on Friday, Pensacola Christian College
wrote that to protect student privacy, the institution would not provide
any specific information related to any student’s enrollment or history
at the college.
“Pensacola Christian College recognizes the dignity and value of all
people, and we respect the history of America. We encourage individuals
to exercise discernment and seek to build reconciliation, especially
during a time of mourning like Charlottesville is experiencing.”
Allen Armentrout
from Tuesday showed Armentrout — wearing a Confederate uniform and
carrying a Confederate flag — standing and saluting a statue of Gen.
Robert E. Lee at Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park. He was surrounded
by a crowd that chanted “terrorist go home.” Armentrout stood in a
motionless salute until he was peaceably escorted away from the scene by
police.
made the trip to Virginia because the KKK, Neo-Nazis and other groups
are destroying the history of his ancestors and he wants to share “the
true history” of the American South. He said Neo-Nazis have wrongly
“latched on” to Confederate history.
of white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville over the weekend to
protest the removal of Lee’s statue and were met by counterprotesters
who condemned their cause. Heather Heyer, a Charlottesville paralegal,
was killed when James Alex Fields Jr. allegedly drove a car into a crowd
of counter protesters.