Image Credit: Historic Downtown Cookeville / Facebook & City of Cookeville-Government / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Backlash to new organizers of Cookeville’s Christmas parade this year spurred “inclusive” residents to start working on a rival event that one community member dubbed the “Holiday Gay Pride Parade of Cookeville.”
In years past, the annual parade has been hosted by the Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce, but the group backed out this year due to a controversy surrounding a Pride float that was disallowed in 2023.
Last year’s parade committee took a last minute vote on whether to include Upper Cumberland Pride in the parade over concerns that the group’s appearance might not be family friendly, a decision that President and CEO Amy New said that the chamber disagreed with.
This year, the chamber handed off the event’s organization to local churches – River Community Church of Cookeville and Life Church.
In an effort to have a parade with Jesus as the focus for 2024, the two churches and Bluewaters Rentals formed the Cookeville Christian Christmas Parade, LLC, and announced the theme as “Celebrating the Light of CHRISTmas.” Because the group was underwriting the parade, their application included a Statement of Faith which sparked backlash from progressive members of the community.
The Statement of Faith, that parade participants were asked to initial after reading, included the core tenants of Christianity and addressed topics such as God’s design for families, sexuality, and the sanctity of life.
In response, Cookeville Inclusive began raising funds for their own parade with small business owner Montana Chambers, who owns a “witchy shop” called The Tiny Cloak, organizing donations through GoFundMe.
WCTE, the PBS station for Central Tennessee, also balked at the Christ-centered parade, and refused to broadcast it.
The City of Cookeville has previously had no input regarding the parade, other than granting permit applications but after the controversy, the city council decided to take on the responsibility of the parade “for the greater benefit of the community” with the council and Cookeville Mayor Laurin Wheaton nominating committee members to organize the annual event, at least for this year.
Cookeville Inclusive President Sam Raper was invited to be on the organizing committee and the group has since chosen not to move forward with their own parade now that the city has stepped up.
Pastor Steve Tiebout of River Community Church later apologized for the document that gave rise to the outcry saying that the rules listed in the application were asking participants to only honor Christian beliefs, not force them to sign a Statement of Faith with which they may not have agreed.
Tiebout admitted he was not fully informed about what transpired the previous year and was regretful that his efforts had caused division instead of unity. It was never the intention of the new organizers, he said, to exclude anyone that disagreed with them, despite claims to the contrary.
While the truly Christ-centered parade was not restricted by the city, and the organizers could have pressed on with their plans, they chose to step aside so that the City of Cookeville, in conjunction with the mayor’s office, could plan a parade for the original date of December 14th.
Since the announcement, WCTE PBS has said they will broadcast the parade now that the city is in charge.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
5 Responses
Christians keep folding to avoid hurting others and Christians keeps losing people.
No one wants to hang out with losers.
I am a Christians but this insanity drives me crazy..
Lucifer’s dimmercrap’s war against God.
So if I have this right, the chamber of commerce decided not to put on the parade. The Christian churches stepped up. The pride community got offended. The city stepped in. And patched it up and is now hosting it. smh
Do those in the “inclusivity” crowd know how exclusive they really are? They demand to be part of everything, including things they disagree with. How the heck??? These leftist are like little children. Their thinking and reasoning
skills suck.
If the Christmas parade was such a big deal, then why didn’t the city ask for a vote from the community? Let the people decide who hosts it, and what values they include.
As far as pbs not wanting to show it when it was a church production, well they are so biased, it doesn’t surprise me. I stopped watching them years ago. I stopped donating to them as well.
“Last year’s parade committee took a last minute vote on whether to include Upper Cumberland Pride in the parade over concerns that the group’s appearance might not be family friendly, a decision that President and CEO Amy New said that the chamber disagreed with.”
This is the same group that held a drag queen show on TTU campus with children present and had allegedly misrepresented the intended use of the facility. TTU was lambasted for allowing the show to take place, and removed the online evidence of the event from their calendar while claiming they had no knowledge of what UC Pride was doing. So they shouldn’t have been surprised their sodomite float wasn’t allowed.
Hopefully all participation will be good…sad that agendas get in the way.