The Clarendon County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday evening that a man three local female pastors received supposedly threatening letters from came into the Sheriff's Office earlier Wednesday and signed an apology letter.
Maj. Kipp Coker said Henry Felder of Sumter came in earlier today to dispel the idea that he was threatening local female pastors by sending letters a couple of weeks ago telling them they should not be leaders of churches or the home. The letters quoted scripture, saying the women and their children would die.
The pastors took offense and felt threatened, particularly in light of current events in South Carolina, including church burnings and the death of nine parishioners of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
"The letters I wrote was (sic) not a threat to the people of these churches," Felder wrote. "I was just doing what the Lord told me to do in sending letters to the churches like Paul done (sic) in the Bible to organize the Lord (sic) churches."
"The part about the letter when it say (sic) that you and your children will die, the Lord mean (sic) that the members of the church are like the Pastors' offspring. I meant that the Lord would put them to death, not me."
He apologized for anyone "taking it the wrong way, because (he) meant no harm to anyone."
