Episcopalian Teen Arrested For Racist Video and Threatening to Shoot Up His School

Last week we received the following message from Bishop Waldo of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina, 

Many of you may have already heard of violent, racist videos created by a Columbia, South Carolina 16-year-old threatening mass violence against African-Americans generally and a particular school community, which were shared, at first, among his peers. Two of the videos have since been widely distributed on the Internet and have attracted enormous media attention. The young man who created the videos is a parishioner in the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina. Law enforcement is investigating the videos and the young man’s motives. I have been in close and regular contact with the clergy of the congregation where the young man worships, both to discern facts pertinent to the Diocese and to support them in the midst of a supremely complex and difficult pastoral situation.

Why the need "to discern facts pertinent to the Diocese"? I doubt that the Diocese is teaching racism and violence. Could it be that the Bishop recognizes the failure of Episcopalians to teach the fear of the Lord as a possible cause for deviant behavior?

We are a community within which we worship, minister and break bread side-by-side with beloved brothers and sisters who were the subject of attack in the videos by virtue of the color of their skin. We stand with them in their fear and in their anger. In Holy Baptism, we promise to love our neighbors as ourselves, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. These foundational promises of the Christian life are of first importance in the life of the Episcopal Church. We welcome all persons. We re-commit to resisting and working to overcome the evils of racism and violence of any kind, and to aligning ourselves with God’s purposes of justice and love. Thus, as we sorrow whenever any child of God fails to live up to these commitments and pray for the renewal of life in Christ by the Holy Spirit, through the strength of purpose of that same Holy Spirit, we must and we do stand in unflinching solidarity with all those whose lives are under threat again, because of ethnicity and race.

I wonder if he is trying to pander to Presiding Bishop Curry?

This day, we struggle inwardly and outwardly with the destructive intentions and implications of this young man’s actions, especially in this moment when we reel from the devastation of countless lives by senseless and ongoing acts of gun violence across the land. Nonetheless, we express our fundamental love for him and for his family as brothers and sisters in Christ. Whatever the consequences for him of law enforcement’s investigation, this family has also had its world irretrievably turned upside down. Our work is to shine Christ’s own abundant love into the darkest corners of human life. We will persist in this. And we pray,

I hope the kid has learned a lesson.

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may somove every human heart, that barriers which divide us maycrumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that ourdivisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Faithfully in Christ, 

The Rt. Rev. Andrew WaldoThe Episcopal Church in Upper South Carolina

FitsNews broke the story. I have redacted the name of the boy.

********, a 16-year-old former student at Cardinal Newman high school in Columbia, South Carolina was arrested by local law enforcement officers last month after he appeared in a pair of racist “public service announcements” that were circulated among students at his school.
******** is further alleged to have threatened to “shoot up” the Catholic school following his forced withdrawal from the institution last month.
“Howdy, I’m ******** and I hate black people,” the teen begins in the first clip. “They’re the worst. They’re stinky and they just suck. They’re just bad people.”
********* proceeds to fire a weapon at what he claims are “a box of Jordans – the favorite pair of shoes for a black man.”
“I’m going to show you what I think of a black man,” ******** says, unloading his weapon at the box of shoes.
“F*ck all n*ggers,” he says after firing.
A second video is even more graphic, with ******* firing two weapons into the same shoe box.
“It seems that our n*gger hasn’t quite learned his lesson yet,” ******* said. “It seems like he needs twenty-five rounds to the dome.”
Other videos and text messages allegedly sent by ******* have yet to be published, but are reportedly in possession of law enforcement.


******* is the son of prominent Columbia, S.C. attorney *********....
The graphic videos were posted on social media over the weekend by Annabelle Robertson, a former Democratic candidate for South Carolina’s second congressional district. Robertson’s daughter is friends with several students who attend Cardinal Newman, and her “peer group” was reportedly sharing the threatening clips.
“This video landed on my daughter’s phone last night,” Robertson tweeted.
The videos were filmed back in May, according to reporter Sammy Fretwell of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper.
Sources close to *******s family tell us the young man is not a hateful person by nature, but was part of a group of boys who made videos purely for “shock value.”
“The idea was to see who could be the most outlandishly, ridiculously offensive,” the source told us. “They weren’t being serious.”
Law enforcement took the situation very seriously, however.
******** was arrested last month by officers of the Richland County sheriff’s department in connection with alleged threats made against the school.
According to deputies, ******** threatened to “shoot up the school’’ after he was expelled for his involvement in racist videos and text messages.
Cardinal Newman did not notify parents until 10:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, August 2, 2019 – when The State was publishing its first story on the matter.
In posting the videos, Robertson wrote that “people MUST understand the ramifications of teaching their child – or even allowing – racism to go unchecked.”
We cannot speak to Robertson’s claims regarding *******’s upbringing, but they will likely resonate with many in South Carolina given the neo-Confederate roots of *********’s empire, which was referred to in the Palmetto State as “The *********dom.”
Robertson also slammed U.S. president Donald Trump, referring to him as the “racist-in chief.”
Our view on this situation? We have any number of thoughts, which we will be addressing in a column on the matter very soon …
Stay tuned …
UPDATE: Some editorial thoughts on this story.
UPDATE II: More developments …
UPDATE III: Our founding editor Will Folks explains this news outlet’s decision to identify ******* …

 Being a minor, and being from a prominent family, and having an attorney as a parent, I suspect this kid will get a slap on the wrist and community service as punishment. I doubt the pastoral services from Episcopal clergy will be of any benefit to him or his family in the long run because Episcopal clergy are too timid to tell someone that we are all depraved human beings who desperately need a Savior. For without Jesus, we are all bound to fall into the trap of racism and hatred of our neighbors.