"It's very difficult seeing the church decline as it has in recent years," Love said. "Not only the Episcopal Church, but the mainline denominations ... to see all the things going on, and to not be able to stop it."

According to Love, he began to have problems with the Episcopal Church in 2015, the year the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage with the Obergefell v. Hodges case.

The analysis of whether Holy Cross, Stateburg satisfied the second element discussed above--intent to create a trust--is the same as our analysis for St. Paul's, Bennettsville, but the outcome of the case for the two Parishes is different. This is because Holy Cross, Stateburg took affirmative present action in its 2011 Bylaws to "accede[] to the . . . Canons of the [National Church]," but St. Paul's, Bennettsville merely stated it was "organized under" and "subject to" the Canons.

The ruling raises many issues that will have to play out in the coming weeks before any actions are taken, so our first response must be to quiet our hearts before the Lord as we pray for grace to meet the days ahead. Some of our churches are relieved that the court ruled their property does indeed belong to them. Some are grieving deeply, as the courts ruling went the opposite direction.

One of the best primary sources for CRT is Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, eds., Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, 3rdedn. (New York: New York University Press, 2017). In this volume Delgado and Stefancic argue that racism is ordinary, pervasive, and systematic in America. It is "ordinary . . . . the usual way society does business, the common, everyday experience of most people of color in this country. . . .