In 1913, Charles Steele Davidson dramatically burned his Episcopal vestments and prayer book at the gates of Monticello to protest the spiritual corruption of the church there -
"I charge that the Episcopal Church is the gentleman's church in general, and in Virginia in particular. It is powerful financially and socially, stupid intellectually, and spiritually dead. It needs a change of heart, repentance or utter obliteration. It favors the rich and the cultured and has no vital interest in the poor and the common. It either segregates the poor in missions on the back streets or relegates them in churches to the back pews. In Virginia, the Episcopal Church is a mere relic of the old social feudalism and stands for a dry-rotted conservatism that bars the progress of the kingdom. Virginia, after her long depression, is aroused and is marching on, but the church is slowly retreating to the citadel of tradition and materialism.
It is taking up the matter of physical uncleanness and is leaving vile the inner man. It is wasting time on eugenics and putting no time on soul development."
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