Southerners! We have sinned against Almighty God.
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. We have not worshipped the one true God alone, but have trusted in false gods. We have raised up idols of self, entertainment, indulgence, sport, riches, and especially the state. We have not hallowed the name of God in the world or in ourselves, turning the name “Christian” into a by-word for hypocrisy. Trusting in our own powers and schemes to prosper us, we have cultivated a spirit of rebellion at home, in church, and in civil government. We have not protected life but have built a culture of death, even sacrificing our own children. We have abandoned purity, overthrown honourable marriage, and followed shameless lusts in heart and deed. We have not upheld truth but have cravenly succumbed to a culture of falsehood. We have embraced envy as a way of life and have used the coercive machinery of the state to despoil our neighbour. Even when we have not committed these sins ourselves, we have consented to them by cowardly silence.
There is no health in us. We have fallen away from the God who is our only refuge and strength, the God whose Providence made us into a separate and distinct People. We have spurned the covenant He made with our fathers and forgotten His mercies to us from time immemorial unto this day.
Our only hope in this day of growing distress and darkness is for God’s merciful interposition. That blessing must be preceded by a spirit of true repentance, whereby we cry out to Him to revive us by His Holy Spirit and to renew toward us His boundless mercies of old.
Therefore, in humble dependence and trust upon Almighty God,
we the Delegates of the Fourteen Southern States, in Congress assembled, 12 September 2009
in Delta, Alabama, do hereby proclaim 3 January 2010 as a Day of Repentance and Intercessory
Prayer for the Southern Nation, and subsequently, the Good Friday of each following year.
We call upon the Governors, Legislatures, and Congregations of the
Southern States to join us in proclaiming in their respective States and observing the appointed day
of repentance and prayer for the Southern Nation.
Mindful of the promises made unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord, we hereby urge
and invite the clergy and people of the Southern states to implore the blessing of Almighty God
upon our Southland, encouraging our fellow Southerners “to stand before the Lord on that day, with
public humiliation, fasting, and prayer, to deplore our many sins, to offer up our joint supplications
to God for forgiveness.”
Let us beseech the Holy Lord God, whose Law we have broken and whose wrath
we justly deserve, to convert the hearts of our enemies as well as our People. Let us together humbly
supplicate “the Supreme Ruler of the world that the rod of tyrants may be broken to pieces, and the
oppressed made free again.” Let us pray that He will hasten the time when all conflicts with their
sufferings and sorrows shall cease; that He will secure to us the restoration of peace and prosperity,
and having recovered us to obedience in His service, that He will give our beloved Southland once
again a name and place among the nations of the earth, to His honour and glory.
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Adopted 12 September 2009 by the Second Southern National Congress at Delta, Alabama and ordered to be transmitted to the Governors, County Sheriffs, State Police, and Adjutants General of the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia; and to the President of the United States; and to the Congressional delegations of the fourteen Southern States.
