[https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/883115867/white-supremacist-ideas-have-historical-roots-in-u-s-christianity?utm_term=nprnews&utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR2RB_7WJwR7A_q500D03jnuE6Io79jgt1LLP8WPNA46O1A7GXsx8mD4Mxc](https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/883115867/white-supremacist-ideas-have-historical-roots-in-u-s-christianity?utm_term=nprnews&utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR2RB_7WJwR7A_q500D03jnuE6Io79jgt1LLP8WPNA46O1A7GXsx8mD4Mxc) >"Beginning in the days of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, elements of racist ideology have long existed in white churches. How Christians could promote such views is a point that upsets many people."

Thornwell's reassurance was immensely important to all those who had a stake in the existing economic and political system in the South.