The South and Religious Tolerance?

I've had for many years, a jaded view of Southerners, their culture, and especially their intolerance of racial and religious differences. So I was very surprised in reading my "This Day in U.S. Military History" calender for November 21, 1861 about Judah Benjamin.

Judah was a Sephardic Jew from South Carolina.  As a young man he moved to a Jewish community in New Orleans.... and married the daughter of a wealthy Catholic family!

Benjamin practiced law, bought a sugar plantation near New Orleans, and became a representative in the Louisiana state legislature in 1842.  In 1852 he was elected to the U.S. Senate where he became a close friend to Jefferson Davis from Mississippi!

After the South's secession from the U.S., Davis selected Benjamin to be the Confederacy's first Attorney General and was Davis' most trusted adviser. After the disastrous battle at Bull Run the then Secretary of War, Leroy Walker resigned and Davis appointed Benjamin to that post despite his having no military experience! By so doing, President Davis was able to dominate the Confederate military.

In our present day of investigative reporting, the Internet, and TV news which is forced to keep on talking when there is nothing left to say, I'm not certain that such a relationship between Jew and Gentile could take place in the South considering that even a "Christian" and a Mormon can't find common ground.... but who knows?  Perhaps the South will bend once more in the style of Benjamin/Davis in view of their impending Armageddon which is just after the 2012 elections.